Concepts

Representation – 1b – Concepts

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Representation Essay

‘With examples, discuss the central figures in one of your media products and consider how they are represented in the text.’

Use must use the essay template and use the theory booklet.

Remember you are A2 students so need to reflect, analyse and argue, not just regurgitate theories; apply them to specific examples in your media product.

Some help with the theorists for this essay:
Barthes Summary by Mr G

Dyer summary by Mrs C

Hall Summary by Mr G

Some More Help

What is representation and what general approach should I take?

Here is some example extracts from previous students’ essays

 

Creative Critical Reflection 2

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How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

Task:

  • Video directors commentary on all three products with particular reference to star image & brand values.

You are working in your production group to prepare the video for this but you must contribute equally to the voice over and introduce yourself when speaking. You make some bullet point prompts together, but you must be able to verbalise and explain these concepts & how they apply yourself!

Preparing the video for the commentary.

  1. Create a new Premiere project and import the .mp4 file you exported as your final draft for your music video.
  2. Drop the video into ‘sequence one’ timeline, ‘Unlink’ the sound (A1) from the  video (V1)
    1. You will either delete the sound channel completely or…
    2. …fade the music in and out over the commentary.
  3. Record a commentary explaining the brand image you have communicated in your video, digipack and website.
    1. The emphasis in this voiceover should be how the three products are…visually, thematically, aesthetically, generically, institutionally & ideologically linked into your BRAND or STAR IMAGE!
  4. You must use media terminology to describe production techniques and you used and should also use some terms relevant theory / concepts that you have learnt during the course; e.g:
    • Theory of the Active Audience: preferred / negotiated / oppositional reading (Hall)
    • Stars Image, Ideology & the Metanarrative (Dyer)
    • Semiotics & Structuralism (Barthes)
    • Narrative: Structure, themes, chronology, positioning: (Propp / Todorov, Strauss)
    • Genre: conventions (blueprint), predictable pleasure (contract) & marketing (label) (Altman)
  5. Drop in a jpeg of each pane of your digipack and screen grabs from your web site in place of, (or over) the existing footage.
    1. This means you might have a full screen image or you might layer up the images over the video in V2. This is will be where you are discussing those the specific links between the products and what you were trying to achieve.

Guidance

Please answer the following questions in your voice-over:

  1. How do the products reflect the star image & ideology of the artist?
    • Theorist – Dyer
    • Terms: Star image, Brand, Meta-narrative.
  2. How are the products designed to create a coherent brand identity?
    • Theorist – Blumler & Katz
      • Terms: Social Interaction, Information, Personal Identity & Entertainment
    • Theorist – Hall 
      • Terms: Active audience, preferred reading, ideology
  3. How does design of the digipack and website fit with the video?
    • Theorist Barthes
      • Terms: Signifies, encode, decode, cultural, symbolic, semic…code
  4. What are the institutional/business purposes behind the 3 products?
    • Theorist – Altman
      • Terms: Predictable pleasure, contract. Similar different. Marketing. Fans. Call to Action.

You may, of course, discuss other links and relationships; you should however try to show how there is a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship between the three products and how this is achieved. 

Whilst your DP and Advert will not be directly linked to the actual song in the music video, you must focus on the links between them regarding visual style, genre, star image, representation, ideology and brand packaging of the performer, which will be the same.

Notes for Directors Commentary

Structure of the commentary: Timeline Map

Essential theories – recap:

You will need to plan some bullet points for a script of this voiceover, but you must not read it out word for word! It feel like a well informed discussion between you and your partner/s.  Plan the script first and then divide it up between the group – ensuring you have covered the main theorists and links to be discussed (see above). Once you have the script, you can think about the visuals that you need.

Examples:

 

Examiners hints from the last few years:

Creative Critical Reflection 3 – The Vlog

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How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?

After you have completed your reading and research and compiled some good ideas about audience engagement and distribution, respond directly to the following questions in your vlog:

Part 1 – Target Audience

  • Who are your target audience?
    • What are their ideologies? (demographics, psychographics, audience segmentation eg tribe wired etc)
  • What is your brand identity / missions statement? (genre, star image)
  • How does the design / content of your three products fulfil your audience’s uses and gratification (Blumler and Katz but you don’t need to reference them directly – just use the terms)?
  • How do the products speak to the audience and try to create a relationship with them? (AIDA, B + K, genre, star image, Hall)

Theory / terminology:

  • Hall (audience – encode, decode, ideology, demographics, psychographics, preferred reading, negotiated reading, oppositional reading)
  • Dyer (star image – metanarrative, ordinary, paradox of the star, extraordinary, present, absent)
  • Blumler + Katz (personal identity, social interaction, information, entertainment)
  • Lacey (predictable pleasure, repertoire of elements, contract, blueprint, label, conventions)

Distribution and Marketing

  • Which record label would suit your star / brand?
  • What marketing strategies would you use to create buzz around your album launch?
  • How would you reach your target audience?
  • How are you likely to make your star / album profitable?

Theory / terminology:

  • target audience, budget, distribution, marketing, social media, download, streaming, guerilla marketing, personal appearances, live performance, festivals, press releases, advertising, online, viral marketing, profile, independent, major record label. Read the blog posts to get some ideas.

USE THE FOLLOWING CLIPS TO INTRODUCE YOUR VLOG and EDIT ON WEVIDEO

  • APPRENTICE INTRO AT THE START AND CUT TO YOUR VLOG.
  • APPRENTICE OUTRO AT THE END OF YOUR VLOG.

Creative Critical Reflection 1

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How do your products use or challenge conventions and how do they represent social groups or issues?

Task: Prezi (Individual Task)

You should describe and analyse your three products with reference to specific examples and use terminology to describe how those conventional features have been used, developed, challenged (designed) by you to construct/represent a specific set of ideas, which is: your brand or mission statement! 

You must then go on to say how your representation (ideology) of your star and issues raised in video were shaped by you.

  • The conventional design features in your video, include examples such as lighting, framing & composition, camera movement  mise-en-scene, editing styles, filters, effects and rhythmic editing…
  • Conventional print design in your digipack: images, filters, adjustments, graphics, colour palette, typeface, stroke, fill, gradients, arrangement (Bring Forward, Back)…
  • Conventional web design: call to action, hero shot, social media tours, interactivity, merch links…

 

Example Prezi

Select images from professional examples and your own texts. Remember you should be able to compare or contrast the examples.

There should be five examples from your music video and three each for digipack and website.

In the video you should consider…

  • images that shows a link between themes in the music and how they are amplified / illustrated in the narrative
  • generically (un)conventional star image
  • images that demonstrates conventional use of camera
  • images that demonstrates conventional use of lighting / colour
  • images that demonstrates (un)conventional mise-en-scene
  • images that show an (un)conventional use of narrative
  • images that show you’ve drawn  inspiration from other music videos & media texts
  • FORMS (technical conventions) of lip syncing, editing to the beat, repeatability, narrative/performance ratio/ type of narrative

In the digipack you should consider…

  • how do the images scheme reflect the genre of music?
    • conventions of photo composition
    • filters / images adjustment
    • colour scheme
    • design of mise-en-scene / art work
  • how is the layout / DTP conventional for digipacks and adverts?
    • typeface selection & size
    • graphics
    • typeface size and selection
    • spacing
    • relationship between image and copy
    • FORMS (technical conventions) i.e. tracks, publisher, copy, album name, performer name, image, advert image from DP.

In the website you should consider…

  • Pages
  • Content (videos, music, album art, merchandise…)
  • Social media links
  • Design & brand
  • Fonts & colours
  • Backgrounds
  • Images

 Examples from previous students:

SASHA BELFORD

HOLLY BROWN

TERMS

Some of the concept / micro terms you should include…remember to use the terms related to Genre:

…conventional, generic, typical, usual, frequent, unusual, subvert, unconventional, challenged, used, applied, developed, manipulated, exaggerated, amplified, increased, augmented,  + repertoire of elements, genre, blueprint, contract, ingredients, star image, audience expectations, paradox of the star, ordinary, extraordinary, semic codes, cultural codes, symbolic codes, mise-en-scene, camera, lighting, font, integration of copy and images, shot distances, composition, editing, camera movement, narrative structure, disjunctive/amplified narratives, character types…

You should also regularly use ‘analysis words’ such as: represents, implies, suggests, connotes, reflects, signifies, emphasises, highlights, underlines, illustrates, shows, contributes to.

And always explain how your have…applied, developed, challenged convention. Also synonyms such as extend, subvert, amplify, exaggerate, increase, improve, extend, copy, contrast, contradict are useful alternatives.  MAKE SURE YOU HIGHLIGHT THESE KEY TERMS/WORDS AND THEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE ADDRESSED THE QUESTION.

Your Media Exams

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Your Exams

Component 2 – Key Media Concepts (Exam)

  • Textual analysis of an unseen TV Drama Sequence (50%)
  • Essay on the Music Industry (50%)

Component 4 – Critical Perspectives in Media (Exam)

  • Evaluate your media production skills development
  • Analyse your own media products using key concepts.
  • Explore postmodern media.

“Hang on we haven’t finished, or indeed started, the evaluation questions yet! Just forget the exam for now Mr G & Mrs C,” I hear you implore!

“Ah ha!” we reply. “We had a plan all along!”

We have chosen all the briefs you have done this year to focus you on the music industry. Which is the topic in the second half of question 2 in Component 2 (Key Media Concepts).

Furthermore, we have already taught you everything you need to know to complete the first half of the final media exam, also known as Component 4 (Critical Perspectives). 

So, when you are doing the Critical Creative Reflections you are also preparing for your exam! To prepare you for all this, throughout Year 12 & 13, we made you complete blog posts on:

  • Media Language
  • Representation / Star Image
  • Genre
  • Audience
  • Narrative

…because, these concepts all appear in the exams!

We have made you do a range of  tasks geared to help you understand and learn about media skills:

  •  use of digital technology
    •    creativity
    •    research and planning
    •    using conventions from real media texts.

All of these are skills that will come up in the exam

50% of Component 4 is about your ability to tell stories about your skill development and analyse your own production work as if it were a professional text!

‘Wax on, Wax off. Daniel-son’

…and when Mr Miaki says, “Look eye! Always look I.” He means, “IDEOLOGY” – YEAH BABY!

Coz that’s what Media Studies is about!

Go on, explain if you can…

Media Language

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DON’T PANIC! You have been studying media language from the beginning of Year 12. As soon as we started talking about what colors ‘meant’, what particular font you choose and what it says about you, how copy (words) can have layers of meaning and how camera angles can create power or vulnerability, we were studying media language.

The important thing for you to remember it: THIS IS NOT NEW! We are simply putting these ideas into a more academic framework. So, you should remember that when you analyse a professional music video for this next essay, you are doing an analysis of, camera, editing & mise-en-scene; you are just using a slightly more complex vocabulary to describe the codes in the text and how they communicate meaning.

Here is an excellent video which explains what media language is about:

To develop our understanding of Media Language we are going to be looking at Barthes’ theories on the way in which texts make meaning through semiotics and structuralism.

We have already looked at some of Barthes ideas and he is a key theorist to all of your analysis and will be extremely useful to your final exam for any of the Concepts that comes up on the paper.

Here is the handout should use to remind yourselves about Barthes key ideas.

This is a presentation on  Semiotics:

And here is a presentation on Media Language:

Now with your group, consider the key media language codes used in the music video to convey, communicate meaning. Go to classroom and use the template to record your ideas. Always have examples of how you have used camera, editing, MES to convey meaning:

Google classroom has everything for your essay with resources, exemplars, template, theory booklet and submission date.

Good luck.

Narrative (Media Concepts)

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TASK 1

  • Using Lego characters and props, craft and film a stop motion story using no more than 100 frames.
  • Share the movie with your teacher.
  • Using the sheet Lego Legend, outline in your group the key moments, characters, themes in the movie.
  • Then share the video and narrate it to the class – pointing out key moments etc.

TASK 2

  • Using the sheet The Music Video, analyse your music video narrative and start to deconstruct, analyse the text from a critical perspective. All the notes you make on this sheet will help you with your essay – in fact it is your essay.
  • See Classroom post for resources – exemplars, theory booklet, essay template.
  • Submit for 1 week’s time so that we have time to mark it and get it back to you.

Narrative Theory

Narrative definition:  The contents (events, action) and the way these are structured together form the basis of any narrative. A story can be relayed using any combination of communication i.e. visuals, words, drama etc.

Narrative is the ‘study of stories’. It includes the following:

  1. The order in which the story is told (structure)
  2. How the audience is positioned in relation to the narrative.
  3. The character’s journey. What epiphany do they have?
  4. The conflict & themes explored and how they are resolved.
  5. The codes in the text which help the audience understand the story and its messages.

Here is a Slideshow which runs through narrative with specific reference to music videos. You should be able to use some of the ideas in the video below, although you will find that because music videos don’t tend to follow conventional narrative structures and you should take account of that.

The same presentation with professional examples

Theorists – The Formalists (Propp & Todorov)

A lot of the ideas were are going to explore can be described as ‘formalist’. That means they explore the form, shape & order of a story, it’s structure, both Todorov and Propp are formalists. Here is a formalist description of a common narrative ‘The Hero’s Journey’:

Theorists –  Cultural Anthropologist (Levi-Strauss)

Levi Strauss is an anthropologist. He is more interested in cultural ideas beneath the story (its themes).  He was interested in how a cultures messages and values are communicated in the conflict within a narrative.

You will need to refer to theorists and use their terminology in a narrative essay, please use the concepts booklet:

  • Propp – Page 8
  • Todorov – Page 9
  • Levi-Strauss – Page 10
  • Barthes – Page 2

Shaping the narrative in your music video.

Even if your video is thematically based you should consider it as a narrative. This means, however abstract and thematic your video might be, you should show narrative development and characters progression.

You will have developed a simple narrative structure to your video in three parts:

  1. The Beginning – How do you establish the story / theme in the video/ characters?
  2. The Middle – What is the development of the story or the conflict within the theme?
  3. The End – How does the theme/story resolve or does it? What end message do you wish to communicate?

 

Audience Ideologies – who is your target audience?

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In order to understand audience you should understand what makes them tick, especially what reasons they have for consuming media at all. A couple of theorists who considered this were Blumler & Katz, who suggested that there were four reasons collectively known as Uses and Gratification. Their theory describes an active audience and suggested four reasons for people to actively seek out and consume media:

USES AND GRATIFICATION

Information Self education to suit personal needs; advice on practical matters; information on events or issues of personal interest; curiosity or general interest
Personal Identity Media reinforces personal values; models of behavior; content explored to challenge, adjust or affirm sense of self
Social Interaction Identify with others to gain a sense of belonging; find basis for real life interactions; substitute for real life relationships
Entertainment Escape; diversion; emotional release; filling time; aesthetic enjoyment

Here is a powerpoint on Stuart Hall and his ‘Reception Theory’. Consider what he says about audience.  He argues that an audience decodes what the producer encodes in a text. However, how they read the text will depend on their demographics and psychographics and general cultural competence.  Here is the Theory Booklet with all of Hall’s ideas on Pages 11 and 12.

RECEPTION THEORY

TASK

So…what am i supposed to do with all this theory?

Task – Design your perfect audience member (individual task)

As a pair/group agree the following features of your audience:

  • Which other bands/artists your audience would be into?
  • What other media they would consume, fashion tastes, musical genre preferences,
  • What are their values, attitudes and beliefs they hold about what’s important in their lives and the world around them.
  • What broad groups your audience fall into (gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, cultural background)?
  • What ‘communities’ do they belong to?
    • Where do they live, work and play?

HELP

Here is a handout we gave you earlier this year which describes different audience groups / communities which is helpful in reaching some conclusions about their values, attitudes and beliefs, and how to describe their communities and social groups.

Use Indesign, or Google slides to design a profile for your target audience which they might upload to a dating site.

Give your ideal audience an image, name, gender, relationship status, groups, status, likes, dislikes…all of this should be through the filter of music and should help describe your audience profile. Make it as detailed as possible – why not consider someone you know (do not actually use them) who likes the music, is a fan of that music/band and use them as inspiration.

Note: Each group member should complete their own ideal fan.

Here are a template that you might want to follow for categories etc:

YOU MUST ALSO USE THIS WEBSITE: yougov.co.uk and mention it in your introduction or even better, take a snipping tool screen shot of the profile target audience for your performer. Scroll down to yougovprofiles when you can put the name of your artist or a similar one to find out lots of data about your target audience.  For example this link gives information about fans of Beyonce.

REMEMBER TO USE TERMINOLOGY IN YOUR BLOG POSTS INTRODUCTIONS! – preferred reading, encode, decode, oppositional reading, demographics, psychographics, cultural experience, uses and gratification, target audience, producer, target audience, entertainment, education, social interaction and personal identity etc.

Narrative Shoot – arrangements – IMPORTANT

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The advice is exactly the same as the Performance Shoot – you are careful, sensible and mindful of risks and behaviour.  You will return to school for P5 if you are filming in the morning and leave school after P3 if you are filming in the afternoon.

As this is remote supervision and your teachers will be checking in on you, we will need regular text or phone calls to update us on your whereabouts and progress. We will also need to swap cameras at lunchtime so need regular updates on where you are with a definite hand over point agree at a set time.

Please consult this form below and check it is correct. Please then add in your phone numbers so that we can contact you as and when necessary.

You must make sure you have the following:

  • Costumes, make-up, shoes and Props – the devil is in the detail – do not leave it to chance.
  • Cameras, tripods, SD cards and batteries
  • Bus timetable and sort this out before tomorrow morning so that you don’t arrive late
  • Sensible clothes (you were all cold last week!)
  • Photographs of your PMA, RA and your Storyboard (remember close ups and reaction shots are vital).

Star Image – Representation

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STAR IMAGE!

How the star/band/performer is represented in your video and on the digipak and website is crucial in constructing the values, attitudes and beliefs of the artist in the mind of the target audience.

REPRESENTATION, AUDIENCE AND OWNERSHIP ARE COMPLETELY INTERTWINED CONCEPTS!

WHAT IS THE INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE OF A MUSIC VIDEO?

Music videos are made primarily to promote the star, in order to sell their music, in order to make money…well mostly!

They are also constructed to construct a set of desires in the target audience to be like them, think like them, love what they love, be involved in their lives & buy what they suggest.

There are huge synergies between marketing and star image! We don’t just buy a product we also buy into the values of the star image and in purchasing their product emulate them. Media representations of the star image is crucial in terms of raising an audience awareness.

STARS SHOULD BE STUDIED AND ANALYSED LIKE ANY OTHER TEXT!

They are essentially walking talking brands, who use their branding to advertise, publicise and sell to fans. Stars have to remain constantly interesting to keep the fans intrigued – the star image evolves and is constantly reinvented by media companies! In fact Stars could be seen as its own special kind of ‘species’.

RICHARD DYER

Richard Dyer Handout

Richard Dyer is a theorist you need to learn about. He came up with some concepts about how ‘star image’ works in the media. The link to the concepts booklet is in the menu at the top of the blog. Find it, add it to your drive, print it, LEARN IT!

TASK

CREATE A ONLINE CONCEPT BOARD IN PINTEREST/GOMOODBOARD STAR IMAGE (you can use any other collage app of your choice but you must be able to annotate the images you upload to it).

Your task is to take the ‘star’ (performer, duet, band, group…) you analysed when you did the genre analysis and create a ‘concept board’ on how they are ‘represented‘.

Find examples of news stories, incidents, events, digipak covers, music videos, articles, blogs, tweets that all contribute to their ‘star image’. The way they are represented is called their ‘metanarrative‘ (over arching story about them).

Image result for pinterest

And remember, just as you do in your TV drama analysis – you must add ADJECTIVES to how they appear through that particular event, story, picture etc. You can do this task as a group but must all equally contribute to the page.

This is a link to an excellent example. You should have at least 15 – 20 images and comments.