EXAM

1(A) Theoretical Evaluation of productio- describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production.
Creativity
Research and Planning
Real media conventions
Digital technology - Online surveys- instagram- Facebook messenger
Post production

Half an hour for each question

1(B) Analysing your text against theory
Audience
Genre
Narrative
Representation
Media Language- Editing camera work page layouts, fonts,
                     Tempo- music drives the editing, genre might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene
Illustrate: images used to represent the meanings of the lyrics and genre
Disjuncture: when the meaning of the song is completely ignore
Amplify: meaning and effects are manipulated and constantly shown throughout the video shown

In question 1(b) you must write about one of your media productions.
(b) Apply the concept of representation to one of your coursework productions [25]

The issue of representation refers to the portrayal of people, actions and events through the medium’ of the media’. The issue often surrounds itself with topics involving; Race, Age and gender.
The main task set out to us through the A2 period of my course was the production of a music video, to accompany a song of our choice. The song I chose was ‘Evening/Morning’ by ‘Bomay Cycle Club’, with the chosen genre being Indie. Following the conventions of my genre, I chose to portray a narrative based music video with the narrative basing itself around the story of a boy and a girl going on a date. The narrative centres itself on how the pair prepare themselves, and the issue of gender representation is clear throughout.
One theorist that can be applied to my music video is Laura Mulvey and her theory of the Male Gaze. This theory surrounds itself with the voyeuristic nature of the media, with regards to the objectification of females, and the pleasure that a male viewer may get when watching the video.
This theory can be applied to my video in a number of different ways. Firstly, the inclusion of the female character
in itself immediately applies that the Male Gaze may be relevant. The very presence of a female character is likely
to lead some males into watching the video purely to see the female presence. Furthermore, the idea that the
camera has been placed by the director in her house suggests that the society is quite intimate. The camera trails
the female around her house, which impedes on her personal space are suggests the idea of voyeurism, to watch for pleasure, within the video. Furthermore, the practice of cutting back and forth between her as she changes clothes
is very invasive of her privacy. This stage is considered quite a personal aspect of a girls life, and the fact that the
male audience is able to see this firmly suggests that the female character is being represented as a visual object. Comparatively, the male temari in the sake outfit as the temari still. The camera remains stationary and as a result personal space is not really intruded on with regards to the male. The constant presentation of long shots onto the male, compared to close ups on the female highlights this further, suggesting a much more provocative and involving view of the female, representing her clearly as a sexual object.
A second theory that can be applied to my music video was suggested by Antonio Gramsci. His theory is centred around the lack of dominant ideololgies within society, and the presence of hegemonic norms.+
This theory is relevent to my video in a number of ways. Firstly with regards to the male character, he is represented as an uncaring and as a result, quite macho manly figure. He remains stationary and playing video games, making little effort to prepare for the date. Comparatively, the female character spends the majority of the video rushing around preparing for the date, clearly with a look of stress and excitement. This represents a dominant ideology heartfelt, loving caring figures, whereas male characters are often much less romantically involved and are much more focused on other things. As mentioned, the representation of women as voyeuristic sex objects is also considered a dominant ideology within society, a trait often played on by the media.
In conclusion, as suggested, my video included a number of features which can be discussed in terms of representational issues, perhaps note more so then the representation of women as an object of men’s sexual pleasure.

Examples:- 5/10

Explanations:4.5/10

Terminology: 2.5/5

Make sharp and to the point examples! link it to theory 

Real media texts essay 1(A)

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

During AS media, the coursework set was to create a film opening; my group decided to create a horror genre film opening. Using several different analysis's and techniques such as questionnaires and focus groups we were able to create "what made a good horror opening" and what conventions were needed. Our task for the second year however was to create a music video which my group chose a indie genre music video.

The research into textual analysis' was a main influence into what we decided to include within both sets of coursework. In the first year, my group divided the task of analysis up where we each looked at one example and analysed it in our own way. One of the films used with Anabelle which was a good example in the connection of our idea of including "creepy dolls". It was this film which gave use ideas on the props and music style to use. Even though the film wasn't directly linked, the horror genre was still conveyed in the film opening. Another film that my group analysis was Child's play which helped us gain ideas of different camera shots to include, for example fast jump shots in order to build up the tension until the end of the opening when the audience are jumped as if a cliff hanger drawing them into the rest of the film. However this year for the music video, we each looked at 3 different music videos which was much more useful in showing us what conventions we were to used in our final production. For example, I looked at videos such as Troye Sivan's "Youth"

OCR Revision exam question 1(a)

• The focus group
• Questionnaires
• Timed Analysis
• Textual Analysis
• Timelines
• Test Shoots
• Editing treatment
• Using indesign for the creation of my digipaks 
• questionnaires of digipak

Creativity-

 Film treatment 

 Location Adaptions

 Vignette

 Colour treatment 

Camera techniques

 Lighting

Costumes/ makeup 

Research and planning-

 Time Analysis

 Textual Analysis

 Timeline

 Focus group

 Target audience research- Four Cs model 

 Questionnaires

 Storyboards/ shot lists

Real media conventions (different types of media) 

Digital technology-

 indesign

 photoshop

 Questionnaires 

 Premiere Pro

 Camera

 Lighting 

 Youtube

 Social Media 

Post production 

1a)

Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a
school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror
teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to
advertise our trailer.
In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so
that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need
to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning
allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and
therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the
contents page and double page spread which we also had to create. Personally I
researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen
after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media
texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – wripped
sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate
within Photoshop CS4. In year one we were limited to what we could research
because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to
develop my ability to  research real life media texts much further because we had a
range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able
to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me
to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous
horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production
of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted
narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which
inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film
 documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which
reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting.
Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was
realistic and is now like my own distributed on on youtube as a real life media text of
its own.
Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my
Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’
filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and
text which I found really fun.
Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much
further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this
year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my
skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts
for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red
which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers
allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock
could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as
unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and
analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when
editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my
trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the
trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations
to be able use a female psycho killer.
Research also allowed me to produce text and intertitles that shook in order to capture
my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense.
Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me
to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I
noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed
and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate
including the final girl representations.
EAA 8
EG 8
T 4
(20)

• Showing how the improvement has taken place
• Use of correct terminology 
• References of films and mediums which helped influence their work
• Their research has helped their final piece.

Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to your media production outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer.

During the first year of the media coursework, I was required to produce a film opening for my media portfolio, whereas my second year task was to create a music video of any type. The genre we had chosen for our film opening was a horror because as we found out from our focus group and questionnaires, this was the most popular genre and therefore we thought it was fitting to include this genre. The music video genre was of an indie theme because when looking for different songs, the ones that we were able to picture a video alongside was mainly of the indie genre. 

In the creation of the task in the first year, I was enabled to research different aspects of previous films already made- for example my timed analysis. The examples I used for my timed analysis included Annabelle, Insidious and Child's play. However, unlike this year, the way I gained all three of my timed analysis' was through different people in the group- we each did one timed analysis. Now looking back at my timed analysis from last year, I do not think I went into nearly enough detail in order to help the production of my work. For example there was a lack of key terminology such as camera settings- establishing shot, pull focus, panning shot etc. However, for the music video, myself and the other person in my group each individually completed 3 timed analysis’. I thought this was much more successful as it gave me more diverse examples of what I should be including in my final music video piece. The second year also differed from the first year research because this time every time there was a new shot, I recorded it down which subsequently has helped my progression in the creation of a media piece because I have been able to pull lots of ideas together to form a final production.

Another way I planned the creation of my film opening last year through the use of focus groups and questionnaires. I found these successful in the production of my media piece last year because it showed me what my target audience would like and expected to see within a horror video, through the use of open questions, I gained lots of data in order to help sort out the main ideas. For example; “What do you think of our idea?” which I personally do not think is a useful question because it shows the audience didn’t have any input of the idea which was chosen. However, this differs from my use of focus groups and questionnaires from this year because I relied a lot more on my answers I received in order to create a music video my target audience would appreciate and therefore watch. An example of this was through the use of closed ended questions, I was able to gain fixed quantitative data which has been much more useful that the qualitative data in which was received last year. For example- what idea is your favorite? What digipak is your favorite? Furthermore, questions in my online surveys included my audience to choose their favorite idea and the idea that was more favorable was the idea that was chosen; unlike last year how I picked the idea that I had wanted because I thought that was the best one, without any audience ideas.

Furthermore my research and planning has developed overtime because I believe the use of textual analysis were included much more in the creation of my work in the second year of a music video than they were in the first year for my film opening. Much like the timed analysis, last year my group spilt the number of textual analysis between us so we each individually looked only at one film in deeper detail. Although through the research of the music videos in the second year, I gained a wider use of examples of mise-en-scene, lighting props and camera angles to include. For example, the detailed textual analysis I done on Wolf Alice “Fluffy” I looked at aspects such as the key selling points and the target audience; The audience for this music video would have been the fans of those who were shown across the video- the band.

Real Media Conventions: 
Horror conventions...
Slow zoom
creepy music
creepy props
Quick jump shots 
creepy locations

Youth conventions...
Smoking
"Dirty" locations- parks
fast paced shots 
hand held shots
drinking 

How can research help the project?

• The focus group
• The questionnaires
• Timed analysis- showing different camera angles/ frames
• Textual analysis- showing different aspects to include. 

question 1a: 

• Creativity
• Research and Planning
• Real Media Conventions
• Digital Technology
• Post Productive- Editing, Noise, vignette

Descirbe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production over time. 

The DUFF

• The impression that you have to be good looking to be noticeable by others 
• Need to have a date to go to these things
• Female gaze- "No he has small hands"
• Youth as fun/trouble
• Male gaze
• GEARS
• Butler; its socially constructed.
• 
  

Disabliity representation and collective identity

"A Brief History of Tim"
After seeing a 15 minutes Short Film, we as the audience have gained an insight of "Tim". This is a really interesting piece with good insight because the producer and creator of the film was the main character himself; Tim. This is important because it tells the life of cerebral palsy through the experience of someone who has the disability himself- it isn't the perspective of an "outsider" looking at how they think it would be. Throughout the short film, Tim creates different jokes- such as pouring alcohol down himself through seeing someone "able" using the disabled toilet- as a way to effect that person. This can suggest Tim created this short film in order to show people, yes he has Cerebral Palsy but that subsequently makes him no different- people shouldn't be patronising him. Furthermore, this short film is a play on the stereotypes of disability because it includes someone who is disable and also including humour, although it isn't humour at him it was humour with him. The idea of "Tiny Tim" (from the film A Christmas Carol) use of disability is seen as something to be pitied, for sympathy, although Tim in this short film has fought against this.

Media Texts including disability:

Life's too short...

Me Before You...

Glee...

A Christmas Carol...

Fault In Our Stars...

Hush...

Disability defined... A physical or mental condition that limits a persons movements, sense or actives.

Common Stereotypes...
Super Cripple
Villain
Burden
Humour/ Ridicule

Branston and Stafford- Soaps rely on archetypal characters and stereotypes- ensure ready accessibility because stories have universal appeal about families and communities.

Stereotypes: depend on shared cultural knowledge- some part of the stereotype must ring true.

Paul Hunt(1966) "We are tired of being statistics, cases, wonderful lying courageous examples to the world, pitiable objects to stimulate funding"

Anne Karpf- Argues that there is a need for charities, but that telethons act to keep the audience in the position of givers, and to keep recipients in their place as grateful and dependent.

The disable personas pitiable and pathetic: Children In Need- "Begging bowls"- a spirt of pity and looking down on them.

• How are the disabled mediated?

Through the example of BBC Children In Need, the audience are shown the perspective of the presenters of the show as a form of gaining sympathy in order to raise money for the given children shown in these programmes. However, the main perspective if formed from those "looking down at them" and isn't through the perspective of them themselves. 

• Is this representation useful or detrimental?

This representation in useful in the fact that it shows a small insight into the disability although we only see that person on that one day when they are filming, we don't see the whole insight of day to day life.

Through the argument of Anne Karpf, The BBCs Children In Need shows the millions of money which can be raised through the showing of these events- presenting the disabilities of these children in order for money to be raised. Karpf suggests there is a need for charities such as this one because otherwise the income for people presented would be very low, however, they keep the position of the givers and keep the recipients in their place as grateful and therefore dependent on these shows. 

Disabled person as an Object of Violence;

Charles Darwin and "Survival of the fittest"- is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population.

Disabled people are helpless,

Pitiable

Unable to function without protection

Sinister and evil portrayal...

Larry Harvey; American Horror Story...

"Using facial disfigurement to provoke revulsion and promote the stereotype that disfigurement makes a person morally abnormal. It's lazy Film-making and particularly within the Bond Franchise itself".

Morris (1991)- Cultural portrayals of disability are usually about the feelings of non-disabled people and their reactions to disability, rather than about disability itself. 

Hunchback of Notre Dame.

- Daredevil- off set the disability and now more capable than the most able person.

- Not realistic insight. 

-Him standing on his shoulders to be able to see- humour. 

- being a burden, Ricky Javas having to have him on his shoulders.

Hot Pursuit VS Legally Blonde

HOMEWORK- WRITE HALF PAGE ESSAY