Section A Q1b: Level 3 Answer - Genre

1b)
Genre is often used as a way of distinguishing one style from another; it categorises works so that the audience can more easily choose what they want to experience. For my music video, the genre of our music was a hybrid of electropop/rock/dance, which come mostly from the original song and from our personal tastes. Since our genre is modern and not common, we drew conventions from artists that had similar styles to ours. The conventions we found for music video for our genre are; editing often cuts to the beat; for female artists – costumes are bold, they wear high heels, ands the performances are strong and full of attitude. Examples of artists’ videos that do this are Beyonce (through her powerful dance routines and sexy costumes) and Lady GaGa (who wears extreme hair, costume and makeup).
My music video consisted of my group members (4 girls) giving powerful performances with sections of dance routine. We stuck to these conventions because we wanted the audience to recognise it as belonging to a genre and looking back at it now I think we succeeded. The genre has postmodern influences as does our video. It starts with a short narrative to no music, where a girl looks at a picture in a locket of her and a guy, slams it shut and looks in a mirror – which transports her into ‘subconscious mind’. We filmed the bulk of our video in an all-white studio and with our powerful costumes that intertextually referenced the deadly sins and Marie Antoinette the audience can quite clearly see that it is not reality.
You can see that our video promotes strong women by their feisty performance and this is emphasised by the use of a male, white headless, mannequin with a ‘perfect’ torso. In the video the sins are corrupting the girl (but they are all just facets of her personality) and they dominate the mannequin. This is in contrast with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ whereby media is predominantly made with a male or masculine audience in mind. Our target audience is 14-25 year old women, and this is obvious because the audience immediately identify with the main girl since she is the focus of the narrative and on the mannequin’s torso is a kiss mark, showing the women ‘marking their territory’ on him. If we were targeting men we would’ve used a real man, but by our production decisions the target audience and genre is clear.
We followed the convention of cutting shots to the beat, however we challenged the convention of keeping lines of the song in one shot. We cut midway through words and phrases in order to quicken the pace, which is often fast for this genre. An aspect of the genre which we developed is comedy. In some of the music videos artists take themselves very seriously, however we combined the sexy performances with the comic editing and cut aways to five the characters a ‘human feel’ in the make believe
world. For example we used what was originally going to be an outtake, where one girl shakes her bum from side to side, and we matched it to the beat, giving it a comic edge.
You can apply Lyotard’s theory of mete-narratives to our video since it blurs the lines between reality and fantasy using the key signifier of a mirror in the opening narrative.
I think the my music video successfully conveys its genre while still maintaining enigma. The Reception Theory can be applied, since from feedback, many people had different interpretations, which is what this genre is all about. Looking at it objectively I would say that it is a fun, interesting video that invites playability and successfully promotes the song, which is the aim of a music video.



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Section A: Level 1 Answer - Q1a; Research and Planning. Q1b; Representation

1a
Throughout my foundation and advanced portfolio I have developed my skills of research and planning. Before starting AS Media Studies I had only done Basic research.
For my foundation portfolio I chose to do DTP. This was to create a music magazine. I did textual analysis of similar music magazines and music magazines with different genres to compare typical conventions. These included magazines such as: Empire (Film), Kerrang (Rock), GQ (Mens) etc. I then evaluated my work to conclude the typical conventions used to attract the reader. These included themes and conventions such as: Main Photograph, Headline, pull Quotes, pugs etc. I used these to apply in my own production for my music magazine.
I also carried out Qualitative and quantitative research. This helped me find my Genre to fit my aimed target audience of teenagers. I carried out Questionnaires with open, specific questions to my aimed audience. These included Questions such as favourite hobby, What you get up to at weekend’s etc. I created pie charts for the results of some of my questions of multiple choice. I could not carry this out for my open questions as there may be lots of answers. I carried out 20 questionnaires to a number of different people. The answers made me choose my Genre (RnB) because of the popularity and gave me a wider understanding of the interests to include in my double page spread.
I then carried out some research & consumed Media texts around the Genre of RnB & their artists. I took Chris Brown and watched an Interview with him for a music channel. I picked out some of the language and slang they used to fit into my text for my double page spread and Quotes for my Chosen Artist.
In my foundation practical, all of these techniques and skills of Research and planning effected my creative decision making. I needed to create a professional magazine that would be able to fit into the market. This is why I chose RnB because I discovered there aren’t hardly any RnB magazines, and the ones that are mostly sold in the US! There was definitely a niche in the market for my magazine.
In my advanced portfolio I am In the middle of carrying out my research and planning. This is for creating a neo-noir film teaser trailer. I have carried out textual analysis of different film Websites as I am going to create my own. I have textually analiyesed different noir and neo-noir films to compare their conventions. However, I am going to go deeper into analysing nero-noir films & trailers aimed at my target audience. This Is because I found myself in my foundation portfolio being to general around genres and types of magazine. This made me carry over conventions and styles different to my genre. I am also carrying out 50 questionairres rather than 20 because it is simply not enough and some of the results could be biased.
I am also going to give each questionnaire to my specific target audience. My evaluated are: Brick, Double indemnity and Blade runner to compare contemporary neo noir and classic. These will help and create my typical conventions and themes to my trailer.

1a - 12
1a – only talks about outcomes of one project, some narrow discussion, basic use of terminology.


1b
I found the media represents people in a number of different ways. Representation means the way in which the media chooses through a selection and ordering process the way to represent a certain group of people in society. There are 2 different types of representation from 2 different models. The Hegemonic model represents people in a fixed, backward looking representation and feeds the audience the stereotype to be correct. However, the pluralistic model shows how the media can represent people in a debateable way (usually negative) and more realistic view upon society. In my foundation practical, I found that certain people were represented in different ways using conventions. This meant that using media language: cinematography, Mise-en-scene, editing and sound determined the representation of people within the genre of music. I found that the use of camera angles, lighting props, costumes, make up etc on the model determined a number of factors such as: Social Class, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. For example: In a Issue of GQ magazine there was a main photograph of Russell Brand and an unknown person. The photo was taken at a high angle with Russell standing on something to make him taller. He was also wearing expensive clothing. This gave of a representation and comparision between the two people showing Russells power over the unknown model. I then applied this to my practical. My chosen star was a working class hero who had just left the urbanised of a small town near London and became a superstar. I showed this by: Big expensive watch to show money, Hoody and flat peak to show personality and background. I then also applied this to my double page spread, discussing how he had left his old life behind of crime, violence and nothing to Riches and celebrity. Also the language I used represented him as working class.

1b - 7
1b – very narrow range of examples described.



Look at these answers. What do they do wrong? How could they be improved?

Section A Q1b: Media Language Theories

This Prezi should give you a breakdown of the theorists you can reference when answering Question 1b. You don't have to use all these theories but you should use a selection of them when answering a question on Media Language. 

You should not limit your response to only these theories, include theories from other areas we have studied on the course. This section is about how your piece creates meaning for an audience so the majority of the theories will be relevant to this. 

Remember you only need to apply these theories to ONE of your coursework productions


Start planning out how you would answer this question:

Analyse one of your coursework productions in terms of media language.  

Think about all the theories we have covered in the last 2 weeks and how you would apply these theories to your production. 
How do these theories and techniques allow you to communicate messages to your audience?

Section A Q1b: Audience Theories

Audience Demographics/Psychographics:


 


Stuart Hall - Preferred, Oppositional and Negotiated Readings:

Use the link to access a 'wall'.

Use this wall to post the Preferred, Oppositional and Negotiated readings for the listed texts.

Thursday 9/05/2013 Click here to go to the wall!

Friday 10/05/2013 Click here to go to the wall!


When you respond to a question on audience do no limit your response to the theories we discuss here. Use a range of theories we have discussed in other areas of the course. This section wants you to look at the responses the audience can have to your text as well as how meaning has been created for them. The majority of theories you have studied will be relevant to this question.

Section A Q1b: Representation Theories

This Prezi should give you a breakdown of the theorists you can reference when answering Question 1b. You don't have to use all these theories but you should use a selection of them when answering a question on representation. 

Remember you only need to apply these theories to ONE of your coursework productions.


 

Section A Q1b: Narrative Theories

This is an interactive mind-map that should give you a breakdown of the theorists you can reference when answering Question 1b. You don't have to use all these theories but you should use a selection of them when answering a question on Narrative.

Remember you only need to apply these theories to ONE of your coursework productions.





A larger version of the mind map can be found here:

Large version


Below is a link to the previous exam answers you have looked at. 

Example Answer

Read this answer then plan out your own answer to this question:

Analyse one of your coursework productions in terms of the concept of Narrative.

Section A Q1b: Genre Theories

This Prezi should give you a breakdown of the theorists you can reference when answering Question 1b. You don't have to use all these theories but you should use a selection of them when answering a question on genre. 

Remember you only need to apply these theories to ONE of your coursework productions.