Category Archives: Textual Analysis
Folder Management – for revision
Make sure you create the following folders and spend some time moving your previous tasks, resources, worksheets, slideshares essays from classroom and from the blog and from your drive to these folders.
The time spent doing this in advance will make your revision so much easier.
Here is a revision document for Component 1 and another one for Component 4, that you should print out and start to use. It breaks everything up into bitesize chunks of 1/2 hr to 1 hr.
Exam Paper 1 (Component 2)
- TV DRAMA– Glossary of terms, TV drama slideshare, Essays, exemplars
- MUSIC INDUSTRY – Case Study slideshares, Music Industry slideshare, Essays, Glossary of Terms, exemplars
Exam Paper 2 (Component 4)
- SKILLS – Essays, RP, DT, Conventions templates, exemplars, Skills slideshare
- CONCEPTS – Essays, Theory booklet, essays, exemplars, Concepts slideshare
- POSTMODERN MEDIA – Slideshare, essays, exemplars, theory booklets, case study templates
Mock feedback – TV Drama, Marketing, Digital Technologies
Class notes for:
TV Drama
- Terms – use them wherever you can.
- Try and keep to 4 x sections with a line in between so that the examiner can see you have moved on.
- Don’t overload the opening paragraph with themes and issues – keep it general and add the caveat – some of the themes and issues represented are XXX.Don’t explain how the feature works in general – the examiner will know you know this – focus on how it works in this clip.
- Don’t make over tenuous links – the grey tracksuit bottoms represent his mood – perhaps the slouchy style does but I think the colour is too tenuous – most mens’ joggers are grey.
- Add in as many synonyms as you can and vary the adjectives – it can be repetitive to keep saying, this represents his helplessness etc
- No need to waste time on over arching intros. Just get stuck in.
Music Industry
- Fab case studies
- Most lacking the over arching arguments, debates about the importance of marketing and how the case study evidences an issue about it – busy marketplace, noisy, crowded market place – you have to be loud, different to stand out.
- Allows even less well funded indie labels and DIY artists the ability to make their claim as DT is relatively cheap (democratisation) therefore if they have an idea = success.
- Try and mention labels as there is a difference in terms of funding for marketing campaigns and even well known artists need to market themselves.
- More terms – synergy, CMC, digitalisation, democratisation, viral marketing, guerilla marketing, word of mouth, Web 2.0, public relations, profile, reputation.
- Digital technologies – only focused on streaming – but so much to do with marketing, distribution, exchange, production and needed broadening out.
MEDIA MOCK ADVICE – FEBRUARY 2020
There are two paper in the Media mock exam next week:
Paper 1 – Key Media Concepts (2 hours) – TV DRAMA AND MUSIC INDUSTRY
- 30 min screening sequence from TV Drama. Then…
- 45 mins essay, which analyses how meaning is constructed through:
- camera
- editing
- sound
- mise-en-scene.
- 45 min essay on Audiences and Institutions (The Music Industry)
The question will be on either one of these or perhaps there will be a choice?
Marketing in the Music Industry and/or Digital Technologies in the Music Industry.
TV Drama:
- Revise key terms for Sound, Editing, Camera and MES.
- Revise structure.
- Revise note taking template.
Music Industry:
- Revise Terms
- Revise essay structure
- Complete the Case Study index
- Choose @ 12 case studies that could ‘shoe horn’/evidence/illustrate into marketing and digital technologies so that you can use @ 6 in the essay.
Plus your own Class case studies for Music Industry.
TV Drama – a recap – MES, Camera and Editing
Component 2
Recap on the format and structure.
Task 1
- Musical micro features – note as many terms that can be used when analysing the micro features (excl. Sound) – Camera, MES and Editing.
Task 2
- Check against the Terminology Sheet and add in any missing ones.
Task 3
- Articulate as many to your group as possible, marking off the ones you can articulate when complete.
Task 4
- Go through any terms that are not understood.
Task 5
- Key to success: what is represented, connoted, inferred, implied, shown, meant, suggested, outlined, highlighted etc. So how is meaning created in the clip by the use of the Microfeatures and that includes how are the characters represented that contribute to that meaning.
EDITING – TV DRAMA
The four areas which you need to understand to complete a textual analysis of a sequence from TV or Film are:
Collectively called ‘micro features’ and are
- Camera
- Mise-en-Scene
- Editing
- Sound
You are also going to making a music video soon and editing is an important skill to learn to communicate meaning and help represent narrative and characters.
Here is a handout on editing terms and definitions.
Slideshow on Editing:
Practice Sequence
Identify and analyse the editing techniques in this sequence.
A template for completion is attached here or in classroom.
Assessment of Textual Analysis
Assessment
You need to understand very clearly how to get the marks in your textual analysis essays.
There are four areas where you can improve on your performance:
- Terms – Using media specific language to describe micro features (camera, editing, sound & mise-en-scene).
- Examples – Your ability to pick out examples of micro features from the sequence and describe them clearly.
- Analysis – Your ability to explain how the micro features you’ve seen communicate ideas about the nature/feel of the characters, places or events in the sequence.
- Significance – How the example & analysis illustrate wider values, attitudes, opinions & beliefs around particular social groups. In other words how those groups are represented.
Always have lots of synonyms for the term represent: signify, portray, infers, implies, connotes…etc
Your targets for improvement should always refer to one of these areas and your revision and practice should always focus on one of these areas.
Dr Who – Textual analysis
Here is a clip for your next analysis:
Describe how Camera and MES are used to represent themes and characters in Dr Who?
You should include @ 4 examples of MES and @ 4 of camera (angles, framing and movement).
Remember: T (terms), E (examples – descriptions), A (analysis – meaning communicated) and S (significance to the representation of themes and characters in the sequence).
- 10/50 – Terms
- 20/50 – Examples
- 20/50 – Analysis & Significance
Use this sheet for taking notes.
Grade Boundaries
- 20 -24 = E
- 25 – 29 = D
- 30 – 34 = C
- 35 – 39 = B
- 40+ = A
Turn/hand in your essay to Classroom where there is also an exemplar.
Camera – framing, angle and distance all make meaning
In groups of @ 3, you must gather 9 photographs using some of the techniques we have been experimenting this week. You should use a DSLR and will probably have @ 50 photos in total for your contact sheet.
For example:
- an extreme close up of a tear stained eyes could underline a character’s sadness and vulnerability.
- an extreme long shot of a man standing alone on a deserted beach might portray his isolation and solitude.
- a two shot of a two people, with one in the foreground looking away from the camera and the other slightly out of focus in the background could add an enigmatic, mysterious feel to the scene as well.
Remember to consider:
- Angle – high, low, canted x 3, aerial
- Distance – ECU, MS, LS, ELS x 3
- Composition – rule of thirds, lead space and Depth of Field x 3
Each photo should then be uploaded to a moodboard of your choice (see suggestions below). You will then
- #the technical term (#longshot#lowangle)
- #the example/denotation (#manalone#teacherlookingcross)
- #the analysis/connotation (#lonely#excited#leaving)
Remember to bring in facial expression, body language, proxemics and gesture to add weight to the narrative story your picture is trying to tell. Try and get some special FX in too i.e. motion speed blur?
Use locations around the school (but be respectful and safe) i.e. from a high angle at the top of the stairs looking down at your subjects or a low angle looking up at your subject/frames/point of views, lead space looking wistfully out of a window at the sky?
MOODBOARD SUGGESTIONS:
- google slide but this is a bit over used now so why not branch out?
- gomoodboard.co (snip tool the board and save as jpeg, save and publish and copy the URL, link this URL to the jpeg in the post and ask the examiner to click on the image to see the analysis/hashtags).
- canva.com
- spark.adobe.com
- goboard.com
DISTANCE
ANGLE
COMPOSITION
Please click on the moodboard below to go a moodboard site to see how the comments on the meaning and composition of the shots have been compiled. Good luck. HAVE FUN!
Essential Rules of Composition
Good shots do not just rely on using the focal length and shutter speed well or even just getting something in focus. You must always try and work out how and where to place the objects/subjects in your frame so as to draw attention to the main focus of your ‘story’ (picture).
Remember, this is all about story telling so make sure the signs, symbols and messages you want to convey are placed and highlighted correctly in the frame.
There are a number of rules relating to formal composition:
- The Rule of Thirds
- Depth of Field
- Contrast & Texture
- Lead Room
These are rules which can be followed or subverted to effect in film making.