1B Genre Essay

 Question - Analyse one of your productions in terms of Genre.

Genre is a style, especially within art and media that involves using a particular set of characteristics to portray an overall theme such as horror. Genre was a key concept in our AS coursework film opening, our film was called 'Untamed' fitting into the genre of Teen Drama. The film opening followed the life of Aubrey an 18-year-old girl who opposed her mother Carol portraying drama and conflict within the family.

Throughout the production, we portrayed Genre using characters, editing, dialogue and Mise-en-scene. We also used the work of theorists such as Daniel Chandler and Steve Neale to analyse and display the concept of genre.

To make our film opening recognisable to the genre of Teen Drama we used our editing skills to show quick cuts and blurry effects over the opening footage of Aubrey walking home dunk after a party, the use of this editing allows the audience to connect with the character of Aubrey as it represents her drunkenness which the audience can relate too using the clever editing techniques. We also used props such as a bottle of Vodka to make it clear that Aubrey was not in a good state. The use of this opening scene with teenage Aubrey helps to portray the genre of Teen drama as it comes across that Aubrey is vulnerable and indicates that drama is to follow. 

The screen time throughout the film opening is mainly on Aubrey this shows teenage empowerment and reinforces the genre of Teen Drama. She is also on the cover of the film poster and the background of the website which shows Aurbrey by herslef at night looking away from the camea this creates imagery that perhaps Aubrey is in danger and is being watched indicating that the genre is Teen Drama.

We also used the concept of sound through the use of dialogue to portray the drama and conflict at home, this is seen when Aubrey gets home to be told off by her mother who has been up all night waiting for her. The mother and daughter both raise their voices at one another which exaggerates the concept of drama. Aubrey then decides to run away, we again used quick editing and the background music to the song 'I kissed A Girl' by Katy Perry to highlight how Aubrey was rebelling against her mother. To show the rebellion and drama from Aubrey we used a hand-held camera which was unstable and shaky reflecting the relationship Aubrey has with her mother.

As well as using editing and camera work skills to enforce our genre we also used theorists. Daniel Chandler states that conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content. We used this theory that Genre is conventional it can be seen through the differences between our two characters used for instance Aubrey is young and free spirited, Carol is older and strict and expects her daughter to listen to her. This basic representation of conflict shows the obvious genre of teen drama which the audience would be able to relate too. We also looked at theorist Steve Neale whose theory is repetition and differences, which states that all genres contain instances of repetition and differences of stereotypical genres. We used this theory as we displayed elements of this in our film opening as its stereotypical for Teen Dramas to show family conflict or some sort of troubled/ rebellious teenager. This can be seen in the shot where Aubrey is running away late at night after the argument with her mum, this conforms to the stereotypical rebellious teenage character in most Teen Drama genre films.

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1A - Research and planning

Explain how you research and planning skills have developed over time, and how this has contributed to your media production outcomes.

My research and planning skills have developed significantly over the two-year course which has involved the planning and research behind my AS film opening and A2 music video. When starting the course my skills were very limited, over time i learnt the importance of research and planning and how it impacted my work which improved in A2 because of my developed skills.

The research and planning in AS for our film opening was mainly focused upon the genre of film which was teen drama, we looked at similar genre films to analyse what makes a good teen drama film and how it captures its target audience, we looked at perks of being a wallflower. We also done research into the titles this involved researching the length and style of titles. To develop our skills we carried out practise tasks such as creating a short sequence of titles which helped when it came to the film opening. We also carried out research into genre and how elements such as mise en sense were used to create a teen drama we looked at costumes and took inspiration from other films into our own. However when reflecting on this the overall research and planning was quite basic, therefore when it came to the A2 music video we carried out intensive more developed research. We done lots of research into the genre of our music which was pop/R&B. We looked at music videos from artists such as SZA and Rhianna which we found had narrative based videos, we wanted to create a performance style so we began looking at other pop artists such as Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus. We took inspiration from their videos such as the idea of 'Star image' in Dua Lipa's video New Rules, she is made the centre of attention through the use of low angle shoots looking up at her and zoomed in shots, we then mirrored this in our own music video to create our artist Nova as the star image to the audience. 

When it came to planning our film opening we used a storyboard this helped us to plan the sequence, the storyboard was quite basic which meant we only included the characters and what we wanted to happen in the scene. However this meant went it came to filming we still had to decide what shots and angles and how long we wanted them to last. Therefore when it came to planning our music video in A2 we used a voiceover on the storyboard so we could go into specific detail, we included the specific angles of shots and how long they would last, we also included the locations and the outfits our artist. This was a significant improvement from AS as when we came to filming we were more productive and efficient as we knew exactly what we were filming, therefore our time management improved  meaning we had more time to edit and focus on our other media products such as the Digipak. Overall improving the outcomes of our production. 

For our ancillary tasks in AS which involved the making of a website and film poster we carried out very little research this made our outcomes basic and look unprofessional. We did not do any research into the elements of synergy therefore the media products to go with the film did not carry the same synergy meaning that each product looked different and carried no correlation to the actual film opening. As a result of this in year 2 we made sure we done more in depth research into synergy in order to make our products flow and fit the style of the music video. We carried out research into the synergy of Miley Cyrus analysing how her music video linked the website, album cover and merchandise and then used this to help us develop the synergy of Nova. As a result our media products in A2 showed clear synergy in contrast to those in AS, portraying how our research and planning skills had developed and improved our productions.

In conclusion throughout my 2 year media course i have learnt how important the research and planning stages are and how they have an impact on the work i produce. 

Genre 1B Notes

GENRE - DISTINCT
D escribe
I  n detail
S ettings
T hemes
I cons
N arrative
C haracters
T extual analysis

- Daniel Chandler - type of film, audience expect certain things to come up
- Steve Neale - Repetition & Difference

Film opening 
Setting - Family home
Theme - Conflict, sexuality and family relationship
Icons -  bottle of vodka, backpack
Narrative -
Characters - Aurbery and her mum Carol
Textual analysis - Mise en scene

Subverted
confirmed

Audience 1B Notes

Notes from Class:
1B (30 Mins)
Prelims, Digipak, and Website
Choose one production + Theory
Why the concepts were important and significant, lots of REFLECTION.
Targeting the audience how did they respond.
Apply the models.
How you got feedback how you communicated with the audience .

N arrative - TODOROV, LEVI   (Film Opening)

G enre - DISTINCT.    (Film Opening)

R epresentation - DR. CAGES

A udience - Uses + Grates, effects, editing, decoding ( Music Video Audience) 

M edia Language - Any theorist  (Music Video)
-Camera
- Editing
-Mise en scene

Basic Essay Structure 
1) Define the concept you have been given in the question e.g "Genre is a type of ...."
2) Outline the Production you have chosen to evaluate
3)Tell the examiner what you're going to discuss, use theories

Para 2: Using theorists describe key concepts. Outline 2/3 ideas of theorists and how it relates to your production

Para 3: Apply the concept

Para 4: Show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production

para 5: Conclusion - Sum up by returning to the question and, having discussed key issues, say how your product follows or challenges the conventions of that issue

AUDIENCE

Discuss how audiences are represented and how your product applies - mention the effects theory and audience consumption habits. Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply. Here are some links to some starting points for theories:

Three theories of Audience.

1) The effects Model or the Hypodermic model

2) The uses and Gratifications 

3) Reception Theory 

The effects Model -  The power lies with the message 

- Audience are passive and powerless to prevent the influence 

- The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence on the audience

The Hypodermic Model

- The message in media texts are injected into the audience by the powerful 

- Audience becomes addicted e.g adverts promoting cigarettes to be good for you make the audience convinced 

Gratifications 

P ersonal Indentifiaction 

I nformation/ Newspaper/Documentaries/Question Time 

E ntertainment 

S ocial interaction (Watching a film and then telling your friend about it)

 Reception Theory 

Prefered Reading/coding (Agree with the reading)

Negotiated (Sensible reading)

Oppositional (Does not accept the media text)

Conventions plan

DISTINCT

In your experience how has your understanding of conventions developed through creating your productions?

Intro- The tasks you have done across the two years

-       Write about concept of genre and why it’s important (Institutions, audience)

-       What research you have done similar productions (Real media texts) what you learnt

-       What Influence

-       Enigma codes

-       How have you used these conventions?

-       Have you challenged the conventions of the genre?

-       Consider the music video- what research did you undertake into the genre? What conventions are in the genre?

-       How have you used the conventions in the digipak, did you challenge it

-       Performance, narrative and concept – how have you made it this style of music video

-       How, why – give REFLECTION – high marks

-       What have you earnt about using conventions from real media texts?