Analyse media representations question

Analyse media representations in one of your coursework productions.

In my horror film opening the term 'Mediation' was used as the three key points that expand from mediation are: selection, organisation and focusing. The idea of selection is where in the media industry for example a photo shoot the selected photographs published in a magazine were chosen for a reason and the others weren't chosen fro a reason. In my horror film opening the specific clips that were chosen were chosen because they highlighted the representations and stereotypes more and allowed the audience to see these clearer. For example a medium close up shot of the teenage male and female looking into each others eyes in love was chosen. This is because teenagers are represented to be obsessed with the opposite gender and making this a priority over other more important things. Therefore the representation of this was shown in the clip to show the stereotype being conformed to. Another example would be a close up of the female character 'Riley' screaming in fear. This shot was chosen through mediation because the shot best enhanced and exaggerated the representation of women being very vulnerable and weak as one of the conventions of the genre horror is the women to play the character of the victim to show them being overpowered. Furthermore several shots weren't used because they were either blurry or they didn't best show the representation that I wanted to put across to the audience.

Secondly the whole of the horror film opening was organised in a way that would create a very unsettled atmosphere and would make the audience want to carry on watching. This was shown through the mise-en-scene and the narrative. Firstly the mise-en-scene of the lighting being very natural and calming to begin with and to end with however during the flash back in the middle was very dark and sinister shows how the clips were organised following the narrative theorist 'Todorov'. This was to represent his equilibrium theory through out. The disruption of the equilibrium is highlighted through the change of lighting and this enhances the audiences attention in many ways as it changes the atmosphere completely. In addition this was also chosen to be done as it allowed the audience to focus on the 'Villain' in this film opening as the zooming in and close up shots of her were shown in the flash back making her the main focus of the clip. This also highlighted the representation of the theme of evil that is one of horror's main conventions.

In my film opening I used the reflective view of representation this is because in previous research and planning I had focused mine on previous horror film openings that already exist. By doing this I had found the representations used in horror and how they are used. Therefore reflecting this in my own planning and construction to show to my audience the most accurate horror film opening that is following codes and conventions of horror very well. For example the media represent teenagers as very low class, smoking, drinking, wearing hoodies and very rebellious. This is because of the media is made by adults and they have this representation on teenagers therefore showing it in a lot of films made. This shows how they have made an opinion on them to be very out of control and as an individual (part of the audience) watching this it is then your decision whether to believe this or not. Therefore a conclusion is made on your position for example I am a teenager therefore I would not agree with this representation.

Narrative question

Apply theorists of narrative into your coursework.

For my coursework that I constructed in my first year me and my group created a film opening. We as a production group decided to choose the genre horror. This is because the genre horror has a lot of sub genres which made our film opening easier to create as the ideas are endless. We also chose this genre as we had a clear narrative that we could use to fit in with the horror film openings that already exist. The narrative behind our horror film opening was a flash back to a nightmare.
Furthermore to make sure that I engage my target audience and make the film opening very interesting we decided to follow the narrative theorist 'Todorov'.We done this by showing the three stages which are: equilibrium, a disruption and a new equilibrium however if we would of made the rest of the film this narrative would have been shown much clearer and easier. To begin with we showed the equilibrium through a number of long shots and medium shots of the teenagers 'hanging out' in the park drinking and smoking which is conforming to the teenage stereotype this was a very chilled atmosphere which allowed the disruption to be exaggerated and made clearer to the audience. This was because the disruption was shown in the flash back. This was filmed in the late evening therefore having to use the night vision option on the digital video camera this made the effect of the clips very sinister and highlighted the fact that the disruption was being shown. The disruption included the audio of screaming and the nursery rhyme sang by Scarlet the doll. The aim of the disruption was to take away the innocence of the park and create an atmosphere that is showing the doll haunting the vulnerable teenager. Lastly the new equilibrium was a flash forward back to the teenagers hanging out in the park comforting each other that the park was not haunted. These clips were very unsettled showing the situation not yet fixed.

To make sure that the narrative was correctly followed we as a production group followed specific conventions they were: fade to blacks, a innocent location surrounded by woods, vulnerable children/females, dark lighting, fast cuts and an unsettled atmosphere.

Furthermore expanding on the point above about using the characters of 'teenagers' to conform to their stereotype allowed the narrative to be shown even clearer. However we also challenged stereotypes as we made a female woman the main character this is not following the conventions of the characters in horror films. This is because women are normally the victims as they are seen to be vulnerable and weak. By challenging the stereotype allowed our narrative to stand out and show a twist in the story line.We also developed the narrative by using a flash back. This made the narrative very tense and exciting as it gave short flash backs on the evil in the doll 'Scarlett' and showing reaction shots of the teenagers which make the audience want to carry on watching which was our aim.

Lastly even though the narrative theorist's 'Todorov' was our main influence in our film opening we also applied the theorist 'Propp' to the film opening. This is because the theorist Propp created the idea of having character types when he was analyzing a fairy tale. Therefore in our film opening we followed the structure of a Hero and  Villain shown in the flash back between Scarlet the doll and the teenager Riley.

Digital technology question (1a)

Describe the ways in which your project work was aided by your use of digital technology and how your ability to use digital technology developed over time.

What they mean is to cover both your AS year and A2 year. Include research and planning as well as construction in  our answer, and do not forget to state what products you are talking about.

Digital technology has become a very important part of film making and the way it has advanced has allowed the three stages of research, planning and construction to be easier and more accessible. 
By studying media studies with my own practical productions I have developed my skills using different digital technologies which has given me more creative decisions.

The first digital technology that I have developed my skills through is the        video camera. This has been the first technology that allowed my skills to advance. This is because the camera held hours of footage that I had shot to give me several times to make sure each individual shot i was filming was as accurate and framed correctly to get the best film opening/ advertisements which I done in as and a2. The size of the camera was also very compacted and by using a stable tripod allowed me to get sleek tilt shots for example in my advert for sportswear. This shows the audience the whole outfit to give them a feel of the outfit in motion. 
In the planning stage of my film opening in AS by going to similar locations and practicing the different shots using the digital camera allowed myself to get more familiar with using the zoom button to get an even speed and to keep on working on the pan and tilt movements to get them as precise as possible. After this still in the planning stage I edited these clips on premiere pro. This allowed me to get a feel of the site and to watch on web 2.0 on the well known site 'YouTube' to gain editing skills and short cuts that could increase my creativity for my film opening. Premiere pro was the main technology that I edited both my horror film opening and sportswear adverts on. From a lot of research from the web 2.0 I had gained the knowledge also of different technologies fro example 'Live type' which as a class we watched several you tube clips to know exactly how to create titles that would best fit for our genre which was horror for me. 
As my production group all decided on a horror film opening as part of the construction we had filmed parts of the film opening in the dark. This meant that we had to research how to make sure the lighting on the digital camera was allowing the actors/actresses and the location to be visible. Without the research of the night vision button it wouldn't of gave us more control on the effects we wanted in our film opening.
From using the digital camera to researching on the web 2.0 and YouTube to gain more skills for the editing process allowed the technology sites premiere pro and live type to be much easier to use. These all aided my skills to be much better for my A2 work.
Editing in my opinion was the most enjoyable out of all the stages of filming this was because it allowed me to use technology that advanced my creative thinking. This is because by doing a level media allowed my teacher to introduce me to premiere pro. By using the technology premiere pro in both a level years I feel massively developed as it made me more of a flexible editor. One part of the editing that I found very challenging was the sound. The sound was produced from the digital technology the microphone. To make sure the sound was equal to the actors/actresses lip movements was very hard. However by focusing on each individual one and increasing/decreasing the pace and volume on premiere pro made this process easier. Furthermore by also applying an echo to the sound made the sound much more creepier to fit the genre of horror.
When critiquing my own work I would have to say that sound was a downfall in our film opening this is because of using the digital microphone for the first time without as much research into as the actual digital camera. However from my teachers help and online tutorials on the web 2.0 made this down fall not as unsuccessful as I thought it would be. From this experience in my first year when filming my sponsorship in the second year which needed sound I made sure that the sound was produced in a studio to avoid any distracted noises. Also from the first year I had already known the best way to dub the sound which made my sponsorship sound a lot easier to edit. 

Analyse your film opening with regards to genre.

From section 1b) Analyse your film opening with regards to genre.

The genre that my film opening was chosen to be by myself and my production group was horror and the sub genre was chosen to be a slasher. The codes and conventions that horror contains to allow the audience to know exactly what type of film they are watching are the narrative of the theorist todorov who created the equilibrium and dis-equilibrium theory, a main character of a female who is the victim or a vulnerable child, blood, screaming and suspense which is built up by the pathetic fallacy of storms. 
In my film opening 'Scarlett' I made sure that these conventions were included however I also challenged some of these to make my film opening have a twist to fascinate the consumers more. 
The first convention I used was having the main character as a female. The character called Riley was played by Harmony knight and the reason we as a production group called this character Riley is because it means strong and powerful which is challenging the obvious stereotype of a female character in a horror film. However near the end of the film opening the protagonist 'Scarlett' the doll became very haunting and broke the strength of Riley as she began to show her weaknesses through the diegetic sound of her screaming and telling her to stop harassing her. This then shows the character of Riley conforming to the obvious stereotype of the female being very weak and vulnerable. Furthermore another convention that I followed in my film opening was following todorovs theory. This is because at the beginning of my film opening it was very settled and the group of teenagers were in a park drinking and smoking which was chosen as the target audience of our film opening was mainly aimed at teenagers therefore by having similar aged characters will help our intended audience to understand the horror film opening better. This was the equilibrium following this was the disequilibrium as the film opening immediately changed to 'Scarlett' the doll haunting and disturbing the teenager 'Riley' showing all of the teenagers gone which is inferring that they have been murdered., Lastly the new equilibrium had been made by the flash back transforming back to normal where the teenagers were relaxing and acting the same way as they were from the beginning of the film opening. The genre horror relies a lot on the convention of this narrative because as an audience it allows suspense to be built and is a storyline that the audience understand before watching the actual film. By also having a disequilibrium is what makes the horror film opening intense and exciting as this is when the horror is at its best.
In addition another convention that myself and my production group used was the pathetic fallacy of the weather this is because we purposely filmed the horror opening on a very duel and rainy day this adds to the ghostly and haunting effect we was aiming for this is because it adds more fright to the audiences reaction. Furthermore we also used darkness to show where the disequilibrium was occurring this made the actress who played 'Scarlett' look more evil and petrifying to scare the audience.This convention is very important as it keeps the audience eyes drawn to the film opening as it adds more intensity to it. However our location that we chose to film our horror film opening at was challenging the genre of horror in my opinion this is because the main influences we looked at was 'Cabin in the woods' 'Chucky' and 'Sinister' these horror films that are out in the film industry were either filmed in a woods or a haunted house which are the obvious locations for the genre of horror. However we as a production group chose to film our horror film opening 'Scarlett' in a park. The reasons behind this are that because the cast were young teenagers the park reflects their innocents as a park is where young children play and share positive and fun memories. However by using a park in a horror film opening contradicts this and makes the film opening very disturbing as its ruining the childhood memories of this location. Furthermore the swings and roundabouts moving in the wind create a very spooky effect which again will spook the audience out.
Lastly one of the main characters 'Scarlett' the doll is conforming to the convention of the genre horror this is because from previous research this character was inspired and developed by the horror film 'Chucky' and the chosen costume for 'Scarlett' the doll was a cute and adorable chequered puffy sleeved dress. This is also used in the horror film 'Women in black' as its a very disturbing outfit as the personality doesn't match the innocents of the costume. Furthermore the make-up that we as a production group applied to the actress playing 'Scarlett' was very bold and by following a make-up tutorial made the appearance of the doll meet the requirements of the genre horror. The appearance and costume choice for 'Scarlett' was very important as without her being scary would of made the whole of the horror film opening very pointless and disappointing for our audience. 
In addition the theorist 'Laceys' considers that 'repertolre is elements' that work together to suggest genre and that these are a useful framework to use for analyse. These features are setting, character, narrative, style and iconography. All these features are used in my film opening which is the genre of horror and are analysed above. Also showing that the genre of horror isn't fixed set of conventions but slightly changes over time I realised this through looking back at the history of horror in previous research before my construction of my film opening.
In conclusion the film opening we filmed and edited followed the main conventions of the genre horror very well however by challenging a few of these conventions made our film opening more intriguing and different for our audience even though it didn't effect the understanding of the film opening as we still followed the narrative correctly. Overall I feel that our film opening 'Scarlett' met the requirements of the genre horror very well and by having actual influences in the horror genre that are released in the film industry gave us solid inspiration to create our own.

Discuss the way that women are represented in the media- Health Check

Discuss the way that women are represented in the media. Use the work we have done so far to include a historical example and at least two contemporary ones to cover at least two different media types.

Women in the media have a narrow set of stereotypes that they are represented by. The three main representation's in the media are a domestic role that will show them in situation's of being a mother or a house wife. The second representation is a a sex object which will objectify them to appeal and entertain the male audience. And the last main representation is in the non-fictional media women's role's tend to be much smaller and less important than than the men actors. Furthermore in the media of magazine and advertising women are seen as young,slim and confirming to the ideal definition of beauty. They are seen to be perfect and alluring the glaze theory as this is when middle age men create the media to attract the target audience of the male gender. In addition the maternal, house wife representation is shown in the media in the past in cooking/food, washing and cleaning roles in particular in adverts. An explanation to consider with this representation is that is this representation a stereotype that is disagreeable or is a stereotype that is shaping society and something that society are becoming so used to that they naturally expect women to take up these roles in daily life routines.

The historical example that represent women as very feminine in different personalities of characters is the film 'Brief Encounter'. In this film the dominant ideology for the representation of women is that they are seen to be emotional, weak and very sensitive. A very obvious example of all of these ideologies was when the lady in the cafe was being harassed by the intimidating male workers. Her natural response was to get very emotional and call for help. This action taken immediately shows that women are represented to be weak as they have to call for help from a much more stronger and dominant male figure to protect them. This is also a domestic situation as the women are working at a cafe this is an obvious stereotype given that women should be in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. Another example of representations of women in this historical film is when the main protagonist woman played by 'Celia Johnson' broke down in tears because she was beginning to feel very guilty that she was having an affair on her husband as her friends were beginning to see her out with him. The representation shown in this scene was that the producer has shown women to be very sensitive and this was shown through her tears. Furthermore by her having an affair could convey that her husband is not giving her any affection or love as he could just expect her to cook and clean for him instead of being a part of his life.

Similarly in the music video Blurred lines the women are shown to be the expected stereotype of being represented as a sexual object. This is shown through the women walking around in very little clothing and very sexual dancing to the music being played. Furthermore to confirm the representation of being a sexual object the producer as chose to have the women all wearing red lipstick. The denotion of this is that they are wearing red lipstick and the con-nation of this is that the red lipstick makes them look very seductive. The men are staring at their bodies and dominating them by leading them where to walk. This shows the representation of women being weak and easily controlled by the opposite sex. The hyper reality theory by Jean Baudrillard says that there is blur between what is real and what is not. For example celebrity image. In this music video the female models are shown to have a perfect figure, perfect hair and flawless faces this isn't real as in real life they don't look like this. This has been done through Photoshop and other photography sites and can cause females in society to have high expectations for their appearances which could lead to them feeling very negative about their look and figure.

Lastly in the film 'Sket' women are represented to challenge the obvious stereotypes of women. This is because the women in the gang are represented to be very manly through the tracksuits they have been clothed in, their violent actions of them fighting this is shown when the group of females are beating up the woman on the ground. This shows a contrast of representations as the woman on the floor is represented to be very weak and vulnerable however the females beating her up are represented to be very dominant and intimidating which is the opposite of the dominant ideology of women being weak and emotional. Furthermore the theorist Acland claims that media representations of young people out of control allows the state to have more control of them. In the film Sket the representation of the youth are shown to be very violent and rebellious this is a negative representation and they have contrasted this with a 'Normal' adult for example the mum to construct a bad view on the youth. 

In conclusion the media is a very powerful industry that constructs different representation of women shown above which are sexual objects, domestic house wives and less important characters. These representations are excepted in society because what they see they believe and naturally see these representations in their every day life. However some media's can challenge these representations which can be very successful through the representation in 'Sket' however its not challenged often because otherwise audiences may get confused with the change in codes and conventions and not enjoy the program, advert or magazine advertisement as much.

How have you used representation to create meaning in the film opening you made this year?

In the film opening I created and made last year there was many representations with in it. The first one was that the main character 'Riley' was a girl. The representation of being feminine and masculine was shown both in this character. This is because the character was smoking and drinking in the film opening this is something stereotypically masculine. As well as the character 'Riley' acting as a very strong and dominant figure as she lead the group of teenagers into the park. However when 'Scarlett' the doll began to become very intimidating and possessive 'Riley' became very scared the denotation was that she was screaming which showed her fear and innocents as this is a stereotypical feminine action and the connotation is that she is feeling very weak. Another character who shows the representation of being feminine is the character 'Fleur'. We as a group decided to dress her in a pink girly dress and her actions were showing love and passion towards the opposite gender these are all main stereotypes of being feminine and in society pink is a stereotypical colour girls like and wear. This character shows a dominant ideology as most people who watch this film opening would believe that the colour pink is loved by teenage girls.

Secondly the character of 'Scarlett' the doll was a female this is challenging the representation of status this is because in horror films in the film industry the male is more dominant and a powerful character that manipulates the vulnerable female. However the female playing the scary and powerful character shows a change in horror films and makes this film more interesting and different to consume as even though it could confuse consumers it could also make them more interested as its something they Haven't seen before. The character 'Scarlett' is wearing a cute chequered dress and wearing her hair in bunches this is to make the consumers think that Scarlett confirms the stereotype of being feminine as she looks very cute and vulnerable and is always by the swing to show her innocents in a park. However when she becomes frightening it would create a shock factor for the audience which would make them want to watch more.

The regional identity of this film opening was that it was set in a park in Epping this is a normal town where teenagers regularly hang around in. The film opening was filmed in the dark and in a park which confirmed the stereotype of the genre horror as it made the film creepier and more intense for the consumers. The taboo language and interpretation of 'street ratting' represents the working class as these are teenage working class stereotypes. Also by one of the characters played by a boy 'Jack' wore a hoodie this is a main stereotype associated with teenagers as it symbioses being rebellious which the teenage characters were being.

The camera angles that we used were very tight and allowed the representation's of class and status and gender to be shown very well. For example when the character fleur was staring in her boyfriend's eyes the medium close up allowed her feminine trates to be seen very well. Overall I feel that my horror film opening represented gender and class and status very well and both challenged and confirmed stereotypes to bring a twist to the genre horror and keep the audience connected with the film opening.