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Section 1b of the exam question:. How was media language used in your production? Again question 1b is asking you to only talk about one of the things you have made from AS to A2 I would suggest analysing your trailer. What is media language?.
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Section 1b of the exam question: • How was media language used in your production? • Again question 1b is asking you to only talk about one of the things you have made from AS to A2 I would suggest analysing your trailer.
What is media language? • Media language is one of the Key terms that might be used in the exam. • Media language is an umbrella term to describe the way media audiences read media texts through understanding formal and conventions structures. • Media literacy describes our ability to read and write in this extended language
Key concepts: Media Language • You may be asked to write about one of your production pieces in relation to the concept of Media Language. This could be seen as the trickiest concept to define as it is not immediately obvious from the name what you are being asked to discuss – you therefore need to be careful when reading the question to make sure you know what is expected of you. However it can also be seen as a broader category than the others, giving you the opportunity to write about a number of different elements and to discuss any of the other key concepts.Media Language means the way that meaning is made, using the conventions of the particular medium and type of media product. It is about considering how media texts communicate. One way to look at it is in relation to written language: if writing uses words, nouns, adjectives, sentences, paragraphs, rhymes, rhythms and chapters to convey meaning, how does a media text do it? If a written text uses short sentences, adverbs and similes to convey a sense of danger, a film title sequence might use fast editing, signs such as shadows falling across a wall, carefully composed mise en scene to suggest imprisonment and a specific choice of font and transition for the titles to convey a sense of unease.You could write about elements of semiotics, genre, narrative, design, structure, codes and conventions, time and space, aesthetics, spoken, written and visual language to name just a few examples.
What is media literacy • If you read the A2 book you will see the importance of media literacy enough to have an A-level in it, but you will also be able to create media products based on conventions, from your research you will produce a mode of address suitable for your audience. And be able to theorise your own creativity and support this will academic theorise such as postmodernism, representation etc. • So deconstructing i.e. taking apart how you have created your product using • to the examiners. That they want to see at A2 you • Media literacy then is linked to media language because you can
Media Language • Is one of the key concepts they might ask you to write about for question 1b, where they ask you to pick and write about one of your productions. In this case I have selected for you to write about your trailer, as this will help you to also create your trailer as you are considering how you are going to make it. • Other concepts they might ask you about are: Genre , Narrative , Representation, Audience • Media language is a big concept as it covers a bit of all of these
Any media text is made up of GRANITE. Confused? • Okay, Every media text belongs to a Genre or group (a horror film, dance track, teen magazine) • Within that text, a person, place or object is being Represented in some way, shape or form. • The Audience for that media text will make sense of it using their personal and shared experiences • The text also contains a Narrative, be it a photograph of war or some bad gangsta lyrics about pimping your uncle • The text didn't evolve from bacteria, it was constructed by a media Institution for financial purposes and has elements of their Ideology embedded within the text. • It was produced using some Technology, be it DTP (Desk Top Publishing software) or hardware • The Evidence is the product itself which you can then reference against other Experiences you've had with similar Media • Get it?!
Semiotics • Is form of media language it is the studying of signs and meaning. There are different types of signs Semiotics is a way of explaining how we make meaning. Semiotics recognises that all meaning is encoded in things that create meaning. When we see objects and images or hear / read words we cannot perceive more than an idea. This idea is what we call “meaning”. We have learned to decode this meaning as we grow up and are educated. The important realisation is that such meaning is not our own idea but someone else’s. For example, if you read the word “coward” you decode it by referring to values that our culture relates both to cowardice and its binary opposite term, heroism. In semiotics, a sign is the smallest single unit of meaning we can decode and which contributes to overall meaning, e.g. your clothes are a group of ‘fashion signs’ and might have been ‘encoded’ by you – consciously or otherwise – to create the meaning of ‘coolness’; the ‘FCUK’ on your T-shirt, for example, is a group of signs that create a code of, perhaps, youthful rebelliousness. Simplistically speaking, meaning exists at two “levels”: a sign always acts at a basic level – called its denotation; this is a literal meaning; but, when it occurs in certain contexts, a group of signs – a code – can also suggest or connote extra meaning, e.g. a rose denotes a kind of flower; but when handed to a girl by a boy, it also acts to connote romance (and, importantly, in a media text, this would also act to reinforce ways of thinking about how romance ‘should’ ideally be conducted – one of our society’s • dominant ideologies)
Semiotic signs • In semiotics, a code is any group of signs that seem to “fit” together ‘naturally’ to create an overall unit of meaning (e.g. the rose is a sign which when added to the signs of a girl and a boy creates the ‘romance cultural code’. • Filmic codes are a form of technical code because filmic equipment is needed to create them, e.g. cameras, microphones, lighting, etc. In semiotics there are three basic types of sign and code need to know about: Iconic signs and codes are created to appear exactly like the thing itself, e.g. an image of a cowboy looks like – signifies – a cowboy. But… importantly, iconic codes always act to represent more than the thing itself, e.g. when we see an image of a cowboy, our culture associates ideas of toughness and action with this particular iconic code (which also acts to reinforce what masculinity ‘means’ in our culture – an ideological meaning). • Indexical signs show a connection between things they are a pointer rather than representing what they act as ‘cues’ to existing knowledge, e.g. smoke signifies fire, sweating suggests hotness or exercise. These codes are a kind of media shorthand. They are very common and useful to media producers. • Symbolic codes act as signifiers of meaning totally disconnected from what they denote, e.g. a red heart shape acts only to symbolise love; a white dove symbolises peace; red symbolises danger, power or sexuality, white symbolises innocence, etc.
Horror and semiotics • Horror as a genre has a very close connection with semiotics. Considering that horror as a genre is all about making various cultural references it easy to see that most films could not function on a deeper level without semiotics. A common theme among horror films is the victimization of women which relates back to feminim. Without semiotics in a film would a teenage girl running away from a serial killer be anything more than a random victim?
Indexical • In your own horror film identifying what signs you have used to create the horror code • indexical • symbolic • iconic
Semiotics creating meaning • An important realisation is that the meaning a code communicates is always culturally determined, i.e. We learn the meaning as we grow up in a particular group, society or culture, e.g. the national flag means much more than its denotation of a piece of coloured cloth; it also acts to connote patriotism and pride. An important filmic and media code is the enigma code which work by creating an intriguing ‘question’ that the media text will go on to answer. Cinema trailers and posters use enigma codes to tempt the viewers. The term convention is important; it refers to an established way of doing something; we are so used to conventional ways that fail to account for their effect and often see them as somehow ‘natural’ – yet are anything but. So: women in Westerns are conventionally either ‘very good’ (the ‘Madonna’) or ‘very bad’ (the ‘whore’), and this seems entirely ‘normal’ within this film genre; equally, the wheels of a car always screech; a guns always kills outright; a punch always knocks a person out cold. Genre and narrative are important media conventions (see later), as are editing techniques and the use of certain shot types (such as an establishing shot sequence or montage – see below).
Extended learning • View semiotics Powerpoint available on mediahubteacher
Theorists you may use • GENRE • Daniel Chandler (2001) – genre is a French work meaning ‘type’, ‘kind’ or ‘class’. • Barry Keith Grant (1995) – all genres have sub-genres that have familiar and recognisable • characteristics. • David Buckingham (1993), Steve Neale (1995) – genres evolve and change over time; they are • dynamic. They are a process of ‘systemisation’ and therefore naturally change over time. • Christian Metz (1974) – genres go through a life cycle over time – experimental, classic, parody, • deconstruction. • Jason Mittell (2001) genres surpass cultural boundaries; they are used by institutions to sell products • as they as they include familiar codes and conventions and cultural references. • Rick Altman (1999) – genre offers audiences a set of pleasures; visceral, emotional, intellectual. • David Bordwell (1989) – any theme may appear in any genre.
What Is Genre? • ‘Genre’ is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements. • Daniel Chandler (2001) - the word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘type'. The term is widely used in literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’.
Genre • The Main Genres Action / Adventure What defines a film's genre? Comedy Characters Crime/gangster Mise-en-scene Drama NarrativeFamily Music Historical / Epic EditingHorror • Musical • Science Fiction • War • WesternsBut remember: Genre is not 'set' - it is fluid, as it is defined by the audience. Genres have changed over time they have become parodied, hybrid and subverted
All genres have sub genres (genre within a genre). •This means that they are divided up into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and what become recognisable characteristics (Barry Keith Grant, 1995) Contrasting view held by Neal •However, Steve Neale (1995) stresses that “genres are not ‘systems’ they are processes of systematization” – i.e. They are dynamic and evolve over time How is your trailer identifiable, which supports Grant’s view or do you agree with Neale or both?
Genre • When a range of media texts, whether in print, film , music, or Tv they share similar forms and conventions the audience have certain expectations this is called genre. Genre is the kind of narrative being told, e.g. detective, Western. It defines a text by its similarities to other texts. Watching a film, we have many pre-existing memories and expectations regarding characters, settings and events: it is this that helps us enjoy predicting what might happen next and working out where events will lead. Genre allows a director to create seeming realism because we fail to see that what we see is not reality but a media convention. So… in the gangster genre, we don’t mind the owner of a casino being horribly killed because we see him, within this genre, as belonging to the side of the ‘villain’. • .
The great debate In film theory, genre refers to the method of film categorization based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed. Most theories of film genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism. As with genre in literary context, there is a great deal of debate over how to define or categorize genre. Besides the basic distinction in genre between fiction and documentary, film genres can be categorized in several ways. Fictional films are usually categorized according to their setting, theme topic mood, or format. The setting is the milieu or the environment where the story and action takes place. The theme or topic refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around. The mood is the emotional tone of the film. Format refers to the way the film was shot, eg widescreen or the manner of presentation eg 35mm 16mm or 8mm. An additional way of categorizing film genres is by the target audience. Some film theorists argue that neither format nor target audience are film genres. Film genres often branch out in subgenres, as in the case of the courtroom and trial focused subgenre of drama known as legal drama. They can be combined to form hybrid genres, such as the melding of horror and science fiction in the Aliens films.
Generic features • Genre share the same elements of paradigms with others in the same category, this makes them recognisable to the producers who create them and the audience. Audiences recognise these patterns and things brings about a certain expectations i.e. horror films the isolated house, the final girl etc. • (Analyse what paradigms your trailer contains see next slide?)
Generic Characteristics across all texts share similar elements and can be identified by these elements. These elements can be referred to as paradigms meaning patters, and audience have certain expectations, what they expect to see. As Neale (1980) suggests “Genre is a set of expectations”. Think about it from an institutions context why is it certain genres get made more than others, why are certain actors association with certain genres? Think about the success of Twilight, or the bond franchise? Paradigms: 1. Typical Mise-en-scène/Visual style (iconography, props, set design, lighting, temporal and geographic location, costume, shot types, camera angles, special effects). 2. Typical types of Narrative (plots, historical setting, set pieces). (For section B of the exam notice although genre is a concept it is also linked to narrative) 3. Generic Types, i.e. typical characters (do typical male/female roles exist, archetypes?).
Typical studios/production companies… 4. Typical Personnel (directors, producers, actors, stars, auteurs etc.). 5. Typical Sound Design (sound design, dialogue, music, sound effects). 6. Typical Editing Style. How does this apply to your film trailer’s genre, how have you created it based on these elements in this paradigm?
Key words Iconography and Star system ICONOGRAPHY is an important aspect of genre. We expect to see certain objects on screen when we see a particular genre, for example, in a Western, dusty lonely roads, saloon bars, cowboy hats and horses, jails, sheriffs badges, guns, etc.; in a modern horror film, we expect young girls, ‘normal’ objects, use of dark and light, etc. These ‘genre indicators’ are called the iconography of the mise-en-scene or genre. These again are linked to semiotic interpretiatons ‘THE STAR SYSTEM’ Certain film stars can be an important part of a film’s iconography and become signifiers of meaning; they create expectations of character and action, genre, and powerful iconic representations of such as masculinity and femininity. In the past, stars were contracted to stop them moving studios and genres.
Steve Campsall’s definition of iconography is useful. – ‘Iconography is an important aspect of genre. We expect to see certain objects on screen when we see a particular genre, In a modern horror film, we expect young girls, ‘normal’ objects, use of dark and light, etc. These ‘genre indicators’ are called the iconography of the mise-en-scene or genre.’ So iconography can be defined as those particular signs we associate with particular genres. Film producers use images that belong to the iconography of the genre to excite audience expectations, and to show that the film is within a certain genre. Another way of putting it is to say genre can be identified by the look of the images in the text – this is the iconography, or the signs, that are associated with a genre. Iconography includes a wide range of ‘signs To become part of the iconography of a genre a pattern of visual signs remain constant in that genre over a period of time. Some of the things that make up genre iconography include:
All Genres have Subgenres • Genre is a type, but these types can be divided and sub divided into specific categories that allow audiences to identify allow the audience to recognised the, specifically by their familiar and what become recognisable characteristics. •Steve Neale (1995) stresses that “genres are not systems they are processes” – they are dynamic and evolve over time.
Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well. This means that genres change over time, i.e from horror we now have subgenres like slasher, zombie etc. In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that often make cultural references to their audience’s knowledge of society + other texts. Genre allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.
Pleasure of genre for audiences • Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’. Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response. Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses and are defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’. Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thriller or the ‘whodunit’ offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.
The Strengths Of Genre Theory The main strength of genre theory is that everybody uses it and understands it – media experts use it to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop and market texts and audiences use it to decide what texts to consume. The potential for the same concept to be understood by producers, audiences and scholars makes genre a useful critical tool. Its accessibility as a concept also means that it can be applied across a wide range of texts.
Genre Development and Transformation • Over the years genres develop and change as the wider society that produce them also changes, a process that is known as generic transformation. • Metz (1974) argued that genres go through a cycle of changes during their lifetime. • Experimental Stage- • Classic Stage • Parody Stage • Deconstruction Stage
Nicholas Abercrombie (1996) suggests that 'the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable' Abercrombie is concerned with modern television, which he suggests seems to be engaged in 'a steady dismantling of genre’
Genres are not fixed. They constantly change and evolve over time. David Buckingham (1993) argues that 'genre is not... Simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’. As postmodern theorist Jacques Derrida reminds us – ‘the law of the law of genre is a principle of contamination, a law of impurity’.
In terms of your coursework... • How we define a genre depends on our purposes (Chandler, 2001). • What was your purpose and the medium? • Your audience and the industry sector you were working within will have defined what you understood as the genre and sub-genre of the texts you created.
Genre point 1: • Film companies use genre both to sell and help make successful films: a popular genre creates a greater chance of commercial success, so genre is a cost efficient way of planning a film, making it cheaper to write new stories and reducing the need for entirely new sets; a negative aspect is that it being ‘safe’, it can also act to reduce choice and creativity.
Point 2 • There are three types of genres : Major, sub genre and hybrid. • Major genre: the main one i.e. horror, western, action etc • Sub genres i.eSlasher, Zombie,Vampires etc • (Which genre is your trailer, how does it fit with the paradigm analysis, is it unconventional) Consider feminist theory and what they say about your genre?
Genre point 3 • Genre is embedded into cultural it is what people expect. Genres also change over time, until the 1990s reality did not exist. Christian Metz (1974) said – genres go through a life cycle over time – • experimental • classic • parody • deconstruction
Analysing your horror trailer using genre theory For instance does your horror trailer challenge or following genre conventions? Use the writing frame below to focus your thought>.
Metz • Metz believed that genre develops through four stages: Experimental - Bulding blocks for future horrors to go by. Early stages of horror setting up the general codes and conventions of the horror genre. • Classic/Classical - Movies that have followed the general guidelines set out in the experimental stage. • Parody - Movies that mock the genre, usually turned into comedy. • Deconstruction - Movies that pick that take codes and conventions from the Horror and Thriller genre and combine them into one movie
Using Metz formula with films • Applying it to these horror films: • Seven • Frankenstein • Dracula • The Blair Witch Project • The Sixth Sense • Carry On Screaming • Nosferatu • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari • Scary Movie • Abbot + Costello Meet Frankenstein • Scream
Using Metz formual • Experimental: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari • Classical: Dracula, Frankenstein • Parody:Carry On Screaming, Abbot + Costello, Meet Frankenstein • Deconstruction : Se7en, Scream, The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project
Homework “Media texts rely on audience knowledge of generic codes and conventions in order for them to create meaning”. Explain how you used or subverted generic conventions in one of your trailer. Remember Explanation, Analysis, Argument, Examples and terminology. Use Quotes and a structure format on the following pages:
Using genre theory and theorists • The following uses examples of theorists and what you might say to support your work. Remember if they ask you to talk about Genre this has to be interlinked with narrative. You must talk about both as they are inseparable.
Nicholas Abercrombie • Nicholas Abercrombie identifies the use of genre for media producers when he writes “Television producers set out to exploit genre conventions”. His argument is that media producers can re-use conventions, creating formulaic and conventional products that are familiar and appeal to the audience, but that are also likely to succeed and therefore are less risky for the producer. Think about what your audience expects to see have you followed this or have you challenged this?
David Buckingham • Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change.” David Buckingham • It is important to recognise that genres shift and change over time, and Buckingham’s statement above acknowledges this. I would argue that this is vital to understanding music videos, where in order to appeal to the audience and seem cutting-edge and new, the producers have to reinvent and revise generic conventions to create a fresh and appealing but recognisably packageable product.
Genre - Repertoire of Elements • Generic Feature Explanation Link to other Key Concepts Characterisation This is when stock characters are present in a media text (we sometimes call them stereotypes), this can also refer to stars/actors who play a particular type of role (ie, Bruce Willis - action/thriller), personal qualities of main characters (this can include motivations, goals and behaviours) Representation and Narrative Setting (Diegesis) The geographical (place) and historical (context) of the text might help identify genre. Representation (cultural ref)
