Theoretical Evaluation of Production
- section A 1b = 25 marks
- have to choose to evaluate one of coursework pieces in relation to to a media concept:
Genre -
- are categories or types of media text. Recognisable through repeated use of generic codes and conventions - iconography, narrative, representations, ideologies.
- Talk about macro AND micro features and conventions used.
- Theorists - Neale; (1980) all genres are instances of repetition and difference,
Pye; films have to conform to audience expectations about narrative,
Ryall; conventions = narrative, themes, characters/stereotypes, iconography.
- Meeting audience's expectations, audiences gain enjoyment when spotting conventions and makiing comparisons with other films of that genre.
- If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken.
- Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for the predictable features.
Narrative -
- talk about A2
- Theorists - Propp; 8 character roles
Todorov; equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium
Barthes; 5 codes (action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, semic)
Levi-Strauss; binary opposites
- all media texts tell stroies. The sturcture of these stories is called the narrative
- a story have verisimiltude (appear to be real) in order to engage us - how does your c/w have verisimilitude?
Representation -
- everything in the media is a representation - everything we see is being represented
- Who or what is being represented?
- How is the rep created?
- Who has created the rep?
- Why is the rep created in that way? what is the intention?
- What is the effect of the rep?
- Need to look ar Micro features - props, costume, mode of address, camera angles, colours, lighting, music, editing etc.
- Have there been stereotypes? Have you challenged conventions of stereotypes?
- Talk about genre, audience and media language
- Intertextuality - reference to another media text
Audience -
- consider: age, gender, demographic profile, socio-economic group, existing/new, lifeatyle, values, attitudes
- is your audience mass or niche?
- Hall: a preferred reading, an oppositional reading, a negotiated reading
- Talk about genre, reps, narrative
- How did you try to please your audience? Were you successful? (Audience feedback)
Media Language -
- denotations
- connotations
- anchorage
- all the Micro elements used to communicate meanings of the media texts - camera, editing, lighitng, sound, mise-en-scene
