Learning objectives:
Key terms:
Symbiotic-
A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.
Sub genre -
this is where a large 'umbrella genre is sub divided into smaller genres each of which has their own set of conventions. For example, horror genre can be sub divided into slasher horror, zombie horror, horror comedy etc.
François Truffaut - Auteur theorist
Hybrid genre -
These are media texts that incorporate elements of more than one genre and are therefore more difficult to classify. Dr Who is a science fiction/fantasy television genre text.
It is important that you transfer the skills you have learned at AS level into your A2 year.
The final exam is synoptic and you are expected to bring to it all the knowledge and skills you have learned over the whole course.
Audience pleasures -
This is a way of categorising media texts through a set of easily recognisable conventions or repertoire of elements. These genre conventions are repeated over time and are therefore familiar to audiences. categorising media texts in this way is not always straightforward - some media texts belong to sub genres and some are hybrid genres.
Genre conventions can be divided into key areas: Narrative, characters, settings, codes.
Narrative - this is the structure of a particular genre, how its story is told.
Some narratives have a straightforward linear structure, some are more complex incorporating
multi-strand narratives that challenge and hold an audiences interest.
In discussing and analysing narrative it is important to be aware of how that narrative is constructed through a range of techniques.
Task 1: Write out and answer the question below:
How has narrative been constructed in the print based ad below?
Characters - specific genres tend to have recognisable characters that help to establish the genre. Audiences become more familiar with these 'stock' characters and can predict their role within the narrative and how they will behave. Stars may become associated with a specific genre through playing the same or a particular type of role. This can help with the promotion of the text.
Task 2:
List 2/3 characters that are usually associated with three of the following film genres, state the texts they are associated with:
Task 3:
Identify 3 iconic landmarks and write the connotations associated with them.
For example: Buckingham Palace.
The picture is of Buckingham Palace in London England, the official home of the Monarch. suggests that England is a stable country with a well respected ruling king or Queen, who comes from a tradition of established monarchy but is not dominated by the monarch – compare this quite discrete palace to any one of Saddam Hussein’s many enormous palaces.
Technical and audio codes - some genres employ a particular style of filming that makes them recognisable, for example slow editing and tense none diegetic music of a thriller.
Signature tunes for television programmes, for example Dr Who, may have been modernised but have remained constant over a period of time because they are recognisable to audiences.
Particular shots are associated with specific genres, for example the use of a close up in tense, emotional situations in a soap opera or teen drama.
Homework:
Answer the question within an illustrated Ppt presentation of between 2-4 slides.
Look at the magazine front covers shown below and choose two to analyse for genre conventions.
How do the front covers of the magazines below (Instyle, Fangoria and MixMag) establish the genre?
Consider:
Characters,
Setting and iconography,
Technical and Visual codes,
Target audience,
Mode of address.
How codes and conventions apply in media studies
Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.
For example, the technical code of lighting is used in some way in all film genres.
Establishing shot - will establish the setting for the audience
Aerial shot - A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter, restricted to exterior locations.
The trailer for Psycho starts with an aerial shot of Hitchcock outside The Bates Motel.
Dramatic, moody - can be used to convey sorrow
High Key
Bright and exciting - can be used to convey happiness
Low contrast
Not many different colours, everyday
High contrast
Dramatic, volatile
Look at everything
Selective
Looks at most important subject
Soft
When edges blur together
Remember to keep the actual image separate from the interpretation of it.
Denotation
What is literally in the picture
Connotation
Different interpretations which might be associated
- To identify genre conventions on magazine covers.
- To discuss auteur theory through a film director of choice.
Key terms:
Symbiotic-
A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.
Sub genre -
this is where a large 'umbrella genre is sub divided into smaller genres each of which has their own set of conventions. For example, horror genre can be sub divided into slasher horror, zombie horror, horror comedy etc.
François Truffaut - Auteur theorist
Hybrid genre -
These are media texts that incorporate elements of more than one genre and are therefore more difficult to classify. Dr Who is a science fiction/fantasy television genre text.
It is important that you transfer the skills you have learned at AS level into your A2 year.
The final exam is synoptic and you are expected to bring to it all the knowledge and skills you have learned over the whole course.
Audience pleasures -
The pleasures offered by genres can be very immediate and non-intellectual. We often go to receive sensation, an immediate emotional response. The adrenalin of adventure, the anxiety of a thriller or the release of tension through comedy. In the two most extreme genres, horror and erotica, critics argue (Clover 1987) that we want to watch our deepest desires and fears being played out.
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Genre - revisited
This is a way of categorising media texts through a set of easily recognisable conventions or repertoire of elements. These genre conventions are repeated over time and are therefore familiar to audiences. categorising media texts in this way is not always straightforward - some media texts belong to sub genres and some are hybrid genres.
Genre conventions can be divided into key areas: Narrative, characters, settings, codes.
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Narrative - this is the structure of a particular genre, how its story is told.
Some narratives have a straightforward linear structure, some are more complex incorporating
multi-strand narratives that challenge and hold an audiences interest.
In discussing and analysing narrative it is important to be aware of how that narrative is constructed through a range of techniques.
Task 1: Write out and answer the question below:
How has narrative been constructed in the print based ad below?
Characters - specific genres tend to have recognisable characters that help to establish the genre. Audiences become more familiar with these 'stock' characters and can predict their role within the narrative and how they will behave. Stars may become associated with a specific genre through playing the same or a particular type of role. This can help with the promotion of the text.
Task 2:
List 2/3 characters that are usually associated with three of the following film genres, state the texts they are associated with:
- Action
- Horror
- Sci-Fi
- Sport
Task 3:
Identify 3 iconic landmarks and write the connotations associated with them.
For example: Buckingham Palace.
The picture is of Buckingham Palace in London England, the official home of the Monarch. suggests that England is a stable country with a well respected ruling king or Queen, who comes from a tradition of established monarchy but is not dominated by the monarch – compare this quite discrete palace to any one of Saddam Hussein’s many enormous palaces.
Somehow this picture represents aspects of Great Britain that are attractive to people from abroad. It also connotes patriotism and pride to many English people. Many well known buildings work hard to express a variety of connotations – can you think of any other famous buildings that symbolise more than just the use of building.
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Technical and audio codes - some genres employ a particular style of filming that makes them recognisable, for example slow editing and tense none diegetic music of a thriller.
Signature tunes for television programmes, for example Dr Who, may have been modernised but have remained constant over a period of time because they are recognisable to audiences.
Particular shots are associated with specific genres, for example the use of a close up in tense, emotional situations in a soap opera or teen drama.
Homework:
Answer the question within an illustrated Ppt presentation of between 2-4 slides.
Look at the magazine front covers shown below and choose two to analyse for genre conventions.
How do the front covers of the magazines below (Instyle, Fangoria and MixMag) establish the genre?
Consider:
Characters,
Setting and iconography,
Technical and Visual codes,
Target audience,
Mode of address.
Instyle has a masthead that is recognisable to its established target audience.
It always employs the same font style which is an essential part of the branding of the magazine.
Cameron Diaz is known through her star persona as a girl next door type in addition to being a pinup celebrity through films like Sex Tape and Something About Mary.
Through the use of this main image, Instyle are implying that by buying the magazine the reader can learn the secrets of looking like a natural woman yet retaining the sense of fun and sexiness that Cameron Diaz is known for.
The mid shot shows Diaz in a 'chocolate box' pose in a blue embroidered dress without cleavage showing. This can appeal to a target audience of sophisticated, young, adult women who would buy the magazine in order to construct their personal identity. The image uses a direct mode of address and a smiling facial expression which connotes that the magazine is a friend.
The cover lines tell the reader that they can find additional information about Diaz inside in the form of her personal life and love.
From a feminist perspective the magazine has used an airbrushed image to create an unattainable image with content that limits the interest in women to their personal affairs and physical appearance.
the fonts used on the front of the magazine are a combination of serif and sans serif within a limited palette of feminine, pastel colours.
The facts and figures used on the cover suggest that the information provided inside the magazine is factual and therefore the truth. This connotes that the mag contains informative articles based on fact rather than opinion.
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Fangoria is a niche magazine specifically for horror fans, meaning that the advertisements of the films that feature have to be extremely persuasive in order for the audience to be lured into watching the film.
The main image for this magazine issue dominates the page and attracts the reader's attention instantly due to the iconic prop of a mask being used. The main image is seen as the protagonist due to antagonist wearing a pale blue mask, pale blue connotes nature which correlates with the title as it is set in the woods. This is slightly strange as red is the main theme or horror yet the blue has been used, indicating that the film may be of a strange nature and not be as we as an audience presumed.
Due to it dominating the whole page, this portrays the idea that the narrative is again the main feature of this film, that there is no need for any sell line or persuasive text as the narrative itself speaks for itself. The image displays an irregular antagonist who is wearing an unusual mask, which takes the form of a childlike face, perhaps showing that the protagonists of this horror may be of a younger age. The antagonist is wearing a suit, which the readers would normally associate with for formal events or even a job, signifying to the audience that the antagonist's main job or ambition is life is to be the antagonist.
There is no stock location shown on this front cover, meaning that the readership are not supposed to know too much about the film, as they would expect the location to the in the woods. Keeping it up to their imagination. The film poster for The Cabin in the Woods does not share a correlation with the magazine front cover, as the poster portrays a cabin that has been in fact victimized and fallen protagonist to an antagonist within the woods. The colours are or a cold pale nature, to sense normality which will later be ruined within this slasher. The only links between the two are the use of pale colours, showing no such symbiotic link.
This may be due to the magazine front cover too frightening for everyday marketing, that can be placed anywhere in public whereas the readership of this magazine have signed up for the sole purpose of horror and are available for any graphic or scary imagery. No part of the storyline is revealed, persuading the readership to go ahead and watch the film to find out if their thoughts match to the narrative. A medium shot is used to gain a greater physical view of the antagonist, direct address is also carried out in a way that the antagonist is staring straight at the readership, but we as the readers are unable to look into the characters eyes due to the mask. The mask itself is the only way the readership are able to understand which genre this horror belongs to, as masks are mainly commonly used by an antagonist within slashers.
The masthead is the largest text of the page signifying this is what should catch the reader's attention immediately. This is also the main amount of text on the page other than a sell line placed above the masthead which gives the readers a slight snippet into the world of the movie. Pale blue is colour that is used as the masthead, which is the same pale blue as the villains mask. The name also fits in well with the genre, as the fan enjoy gore, thrilling, and violence which will directly appeal to this readership as the film featured belongs to the slasher sub genre.
The brand identity of the magazine is not reinforced within this issue, as there are no sell lines, but however the smaller images that are shown as small snapshots in a slideshow form is placed along the left hand side of the page instead of the bottom but still there. The red and white is still used in some way on the front of the issue showing what film genre it belongs to whilst outlining its brand identity. The masthead colour has been adjusted purely because of the film it features, proving that it is a promotional tool and will help the audience be persuaded into watching the film.
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Genre and technical codes
Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.How codes and conventions apply in media studies
Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.
For example, the technical code of lighting is used in some way in all film genres.
It is a convention of the horror genre that side and back lighting is used to create mystery and suspense – an integral part of any horror movie.
Shot size
It is important that you can recognise the different shot types and know why they are being used. Here are some examples and why they are used:
Establishing shot - will establish the setting for the audience
Aerial shot - A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter, restricted to exterior locations.
The trailer for Psycho starts with an aerial shot of Hitchcock outside The Bates Motel.
Long shot - A type of long shot that includes the human body in full, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.It makes for a relatively stable shot that can accommodate movement without reframing. Marlon Brando in 'On the waterfront'.
Mid Shot (M/S): The mid shot is the most popular shot in movie-making, and includes the subject and a little bit of the environment around it. Included in the mid shot is the two-shot, which includes two actors facing the same direction in the shot, as well as the 0ver-the-shoulder shot, which is used to show a conversation with the actors standing opposite each other. This shot shows the actor who is speaking, and usually a little bit of the shoulder of the actor to whom he is speaking in order to establish spacial awareness for the viewer. Kate and Leo in Titanic.
Close Up (C/U): A close up shot, usually of an actor’s face, is used to add variety, and will often be cut to from a mid shot, at the same angle, to add dramatic effect. The subject will take up most of the frame, so care must be taken so that the subject does not move around too much.
Close Up (C/U): A close up shot, usually of an actor’s face, is used to add variety, and will often be cut to from a mid shot, at the same angle, to add dramatic effect. The subject will take up most of the frame, so care must be taken so that the subject does not move around too much.
Extreme Close Up (EC/U): This shot is often an effect shot used to draw attention to important details such as a shot of just the actor’s eyes with tears welling up in them or to show a text message on the subject’s cell phone.
CAMERA ANGLES
Bird’s Eye: This angle is gives a direct overhead view and can be used similar to an extreme wide shot to show the entire environment from straight overhead.
Eye Level: If the cameraman were talking to someone face-to-face, and he were looking through the camera, he would have an eye-level angle. Viewers expect this angle to create a parallel between the bottom edge of the frame and the horizon, otherwise it will seem off, and will make the audience uncomfortable.
High Angle/Low Angle: These angles show the subject from above or below (around 45 degrees from eye level). This is often used for dramatic effect. For example, a low angle could be used to imply greater dominance of a physically imposing character by looking up at him. However, the high or low angle require greater planning, as a high angle could throw off the lighting or show unwanted parts of the scenery.
Dutch Angle: The Dutch angle is what you get when the camera isn’t level. The horizon will not be parallel to the lower edge of the shot, which can be used to create an unsettling or anxious effect on the viewers.
Lighting
Low KeyDramatic, moody - can be used to convey sorrow
High Key
Bright and exciting - can be used to convey happiness
Low contrast
Not many different colours, everyday
High contrast
Dramatic, volatile
Coloured lighting
can convey excitement
Focus
DeepLook at everything
Selective
Looks at most important subject
Soft
When edges blur together
Denotation and connotation
Remember to keep the actual image separate from the interpretation of it.
Denotation
What is literally in the picture
Connotation
Different interpretations which might be associated
Auteur theory
In his 1954 essay "Une certaine tendance du cinéma français" ("A certain tendency in French cinema"), François Truffaut coined the phrase "la politique des Auteurs"
At first glance, auteur theory is deceptively simple; its basic premise is that a movie director, in certain circumstances, can be assigned the title of 'author'. Sadly, it is far more complex than that. It can perhaps be best explained by US film critic and leading proponent of the theory, Andrew Sarris:
The strong director imposes his own personality on a film; the weak director allows the personalities of others to run rampant.
So who is an auteur, and how might they be recognised from a 'normal' film director?
Case Study: Tim Burton
One example of a director that could be considered an auteur, Tim Burton's films have a very distinct style, and he often deals with similar themes in his work.
In general, the lead character is separated from the norm of society in some way - a misfit. In the character of Edward Scissorhands, this idea is taken to the very extreme: the main character cannot even touch another person.
Other examples of this character type include Batman, Beetlejuice, and to a certain extent, Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Burton's movies also have a distinct style, generally sporting a very Gothic feel. In addition, Burton is known for using stop-motion animation in his films, the prime examples being The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.
He is also known for reusing actors and actresses, in particular Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Danny Elfman regularly provides the right music for the soundtrack.
Tim Burton has directed many movies, each of which can be examined and compared for similar styles and recurring themes.
Task 1:
Apply Auteur Theory to a film director of your own choice.
In general, the lead character is separated from the norm of society in some way - a misfit. In the character of Edward Scissorhands, this idea is taken to the very extreme: the main character cannot even touch another person.
Other examples of this character type include Batman, Beetlejuice, and to a certain extent, Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Burton's movies also have a distinct style, generally sporting a very Gothic feel. In addition, Burton is known for using stop-motion animation in his films, the prime examples being The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.
He is also known for reusing actors and actresses, in particular Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Danny Elfman regularly provides the right music for the soundtrack.
Tim Burton has directed many movies, each of which can be examined and compared for similar styles and recurring themes.
Task 1:
Apply Auteur Theory to a film director of your own choice.
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