Critical Perspectives in Media Q1(b) - Concepts and Theorists

 Representation - Richard Dyer

Dyer says that when considering the representation of a media product (i.e. your media production), we should ask the following questions:

1. What sense of the world is it making?  (In other words, what representation of the world is the product making?)
2. What does it imply?  Is it typical of the world or deviant?  (In other words, what messages are the representations creating?  Are these representations and messages familiar or unusual?)
3. Who is it speaking to?  For whom?  To whom?  (In other words, who is the intended audience for this product and how do the representations attract and address them?)
4. What does it represent to us and why?  How do we respond to the representation?  (In other words, what meanings and interpretations are created by the product?  How do you and other people interpret the product?).

Remember that representation is very complex.  For people it can involve gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ethnicity, regional identity, age, age and social class and status.  These can be constructed through characteristics like appearance (e.g. hair, clothing, make-up, jewellery) , relationships, possessions, behaviour and actions, voice (e.g. tone, accent, dialect, sociolect), job, hobbies, values etc.

Representation is not just about people.  For example, you may be able to analyse the representation of places, time periods and themes (such as betrayal or love).

Also see Stuart Hall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY

See here for exemplars for representation: http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/179236-example-candidate-answers-from-june-2013.pdf

Genre - Daniel Chandler, Steve Neale, John Hartley, David Buckingham, Deborah Knight, Gunther Kress, Nicholas Abercrombie, Tom Ryall, John Fiske, Rick Altman, Jonathan Culler, David Bordwell

Watch the following slideshow http://www.slideshare.net/HeworthMedia/genre-theory-6920670
Which of the theorists says something about genre that connects with your own product and the points you want to make about it?

Here are some of the key points:

Chandler 

• Conventions of content and/or form
• Assumption of the 'ideal reader'
• 'Interpretive community' can share a genre

Neale

• Repetition and difference
• Guarantee of meanings and pleasure (for audience)
• Audience expectations of what a genre will provide

Hartley

• Films often have the conventions of more than one genre

Knight

• We enjoy genres because we anticipate what is going to happen

Ryall

• Genre is a structural framework for producer and viewer

Altman

• Media language (meaning) and iconography defines genres

Culler

• Genre conventions establish a 'contract' of shared understanding between creator and reader

Use these framework for analysing your own product in terms of genre: http://social.ocr.org.uk/files/ocr/Generic%20Markers.pdf

Media Language - Michael Wohl

Michael Wohl is a film maker, author and software designer.  Read his explanation of the 'language of film' and see if his examples relate to your production.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/language_of_film.html

His explanation of how camerawork creates meaning is very useful.  He breaks it down as follows:

• Who - the CU of a character
• What (is going on) - the MS showing a character performing actions
• Where - the LS showing the location
• When - shots that tell the viewer the overall point in the story that has been reached or the time of day or the time period
• Why - the ECU or BCU that suggests what a character is thinking
• How - MCUs of a character perorming an action or a series of CUs or ECUs of actions
• With whom - relationships and interaction (two shot, OTS shot, wide shot etc.)

He also makes some very good points about editing but he does not write so much about sound or mise-en-scene.  

Audience - Stuart Hall

Read about Hall's three interpretative codes here: http://www.slideshare.net/dphillips4363/reception-theory-presentation-833299  How did you intend audiences to interpret your product?  How did they interpret it?

Narrative - Todorov and Levi-Strauss

See here http://howardschoolmedia.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Narrative

A2 Examination - Q1b: What is Media Language?

Media language is how you create meaning, using technical skills such as sound, camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene.  You need to explain, using examples (one from each technical area at least), how you created meaning and how successfully this was accomplished (use feedback to evaluate your success).  See the 'key terms' tab on this blog for technical terminology that you can use.


"Media language refers to the ways in which media producers make meaning in ways that are specific to the medium in which they are working and how audiences come to be literate in ‘reading’ such meaning within the medium. For example, the ‘language of film’, print layout conventions, web design and navigation conventions in gaming.  These medium specific languages will often be closely connected to other media concepts such as genre or narrative and candidates are at liberty to make such connections to a greater or lesser extent in their answers." (OCR)

If you are writing about film language in a trailer then the following links will be useful:

http://howardschoolmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/analysing-trailer.html
http://howardschoolmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/synergy-a2-evaluations.html
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/language_of_film.html

A2 Examination - Q1b: Audience (useful reading)

Audience theory:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/pph9701.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

Audience profiling:

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity and cultural background
• Education
• Religious and political affiliations
• Economic status
• Employment
• Sexual orientation
• Family background
• Marital status
• Group membership
• Interests 

Also use your audience feedback, focus groups and evaluations of your productions.

A2 Examination Q1(b) - Narrative: Applying Propp's character types to your film

• The hero - defeats the villain(s); rescues the heroine; restores equilibrium
• The villain - causes disruption; is a threat to the heroine; fights the hero
• The dispatcher - sends the hero on his mission
• The donor - provides the hero with something valuable to help him/her: e.g. advice, a skill or an object
• The helper - assists the hero, e.g. a sidekick
• The heroine - is passive and vulnerable. (The heroine does not have to be a woman.  It can be a child, a group of people or even a man.  The "heroine" is really the victim of the villain(s) wrongdoing.)
• The false hero - seems to be on the side of the hero but eventually deceives or betrays him.
• The father of the heroine - this can be the family, or any loved ones, of the victim.

Your sequence, short film or trailer may have some (or even all) of these character types.  How can they be identified and what happens in your narrative that is similar to the descriptions above? (Once again, you may need to think about the whole film, even if you have only made a sequence or trailer.)


Remember that the application of this theory might be limited by the form (i.e. short film, trailer, sequence) of your product.  It is fine for you to write about the limitations of applying a theory too.

A2 Examination Q1(b) - Narrative: applying Levi-Strauss's Paradigmatic Structures to your film

Todorov deals with the order of events in a narrative.  Levi-Strauss argued that narratives are structured around conflict and oppositions e.g. hero versus villain.

A horror film might contain some of the following oppositions:

Good                Bad 
day                    night
innocence         corruption    
love                   hate
white                 black

What oppositions does your film/trailer contain and where can they be seen?  What meanings do they create?  How does the film language create these oppositions?

You may write about the oppositions that you would find if you completed the whole film but make sure that you write about actual conflicts and oppositions within your sequence or trailer that can be seen (and/or heard).

Remember that the application of this theory might be limited by the form (i.e. short film, trailer, sequence) of your product.  It is fine for you to write about the limitations of applying a theory too.

A2 Examination Q1(b) - Narrative: Applying Todorov to your film/trailer

According to Todorov, stories go through five stages:

1. Equilibrium (or normality)
2. Disruption to the equilibrium
3. Recognition of the disruption
4. An attempt is made to repair the disruption
5. Return to equilibrium

You need to explain how your media product is structured in terms of the above.  If you were writing about a two minute opening, it may only be that equilibrium and (possibly) some disruption is seen.  However, you can explain how you would intend the rest of the film to develop and describe stages 3-5.


 A short film would go through all five stages. 


 A trailer might well show elements of stages 1-3 and probably 4 too, but 5 would almost certainly be left to the film itself.

A2 Examination - Q1(b): Genre - useful reading

http://www.screenplayology.com/content-sections/paths-problems-in-screenplay-studies/2-4/
This essay is useful for considering the relationship between plot and genre and gives some examples drawn from Westerns.

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html
This essay gives a very useful overview of genre theories and provides links to further reading.

http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevel.php?pageID=filmgenre
Sub-genres and hybrids are simply explained in this one.

What is representation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.godnose.co.uk/downloads/alevel/key%20concepts/media%20representation.pdf
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=represent