Concepts

Genre analysis

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TASK (this is collaborative so you can submit the same document but you all have to equally contribute).

Victoria Sponge! One way of remember what ‘genre’ is all about.

Create a Slideshow with a voice-over or a Voicethread focusing on the Repertoire of Elements necessary for your particular band /artist to be generically conventional.   You could also use Screencastify to record your voice over. You can then embed it in your blog. You could  also mention print design.  You can probably already use a lot of your ideas from your song pitch but be careful not to just copy this but instead use it as a foundation for exploring the genre of your song and how this will impact on the video, web pages and  digipak.

Some of the suggested areas of music videos to cover are on this sheet but you should consider:

  • Website of similar artists
  • Album art from similar artists
  • Videos of similar artists

Find generically similar artists.

  • Discuss who they are, what do they wear, how do they style themselves, where do they perform, who are their fans, how are their digipaks / videos similar, what common features are there in their music videos (fast paced editing, hand held camera, filters, locations, authentic/live performances, produced performances etc). Use your performer too in among the analysis.

Use this document to structure your slideshow

Ensure you get the following terms in to your presentation and also your introduction and reflect on the value of the task in the blog:  

  • Repertoire of elements
  • Conventions
  • Blueprint
  • Predictable pleasure
  • Contract
  • Label
  • Target audience

Consider ‘genre’ as you produce your video and it will be so much easier to talk about if it comes up in the exam in Section 1b. 

Here is an example from last year

Genre – introduction to the concepts of Genre

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Genre is simultaneously an act of similarity and difference.

Two of the theorists you should understand and be able to quote, apply and analyse for the Concepts 1b section of the exam are Lacey and Altman (Page 13/14 of the Theory Booklet). You may get a question on genre and how one of the products was ‘generic’ i.e. it followed set patterns, conventions and ideas to fit the genre of music in order to appease its fans.

Lacey’s ‘Repertoire of Elements’ (recipe of ingredients) contribute towards the following ideas of how genre is classified according to Altman.

  • Blueprint
  • Label
  • Contract
  • Structure

Remember, it’s all about the Victoria Sponge and the consumer’s expectations in relation to the Chef’s recipe.

Later in the week you will be specifically researching the conventional cinematography associated with your particular genre and making a visual shot list based on your findings. This will help you ensure that your music video fits its genre.  That said, remember, genre is all about similarity and difference.  Your music video needs to satisfy audience expectations but it needs to be imaganitive, unique and creative so you will have to develop and challenge the conventions too.

Music Video – forms and conventions

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Study, reflect, consider, enjoy, be inspired:

This week we’re going to be watching some of the videos from this playlist. They were carefully chosen because as they illustrate many of the conventions typical of this media form.

You need to study these videos carefully so that you understand the following:

  • The media form
  • Technical conventions
  • Features typical to the genre of music.
  • Narrative conventions and structures.

You must be understand these things in order to be able the develop and devise videos of your own video and knowingly use, challenge or subvert conventional features.

Complete this form and make a copy yourself and then save as a PDF and upload to your blog.

It is your first piece of coursework so do it well!

Narrative presentation.

Here are some other suggestions but try and get a range of genres and different narrative/performance ratios.

Narrative Only

Performance Only

Performance and Narrative (disjunctive)

Narrative Only

Narrative and Performance

Performance and Narrative

Editing in TV Drama

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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 (Mr Gregson’s make a copy) or is in classroom (Mrs Cobb).

Mise-en-Scene & Camera Analysis

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Task 1

Review these two slide shows on

1. Mise-en-Scene

2. Camera

Practice Textual Analysis

Analyse the following TV Drama clip in class and discussing how the mise-en-scene & camera communicates meaning. First of all after watching it, summarise what the clip is mainly focused on in terms of what themes, issues, social groups are represented.

In pairs, you should aim to find 3 moments when camera is used to represent a theme, issue, social group and 3 moments when MES is used to represent a theme, issue, social group.

Here are links to useful resources

Camera terms

MES terms

Synonyms for Represent

Representation and The Star

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A key concept in Media Studies is Representation and Ideology.

TASK 1 – WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! 

  • The Star Image game.

TASK 2 – The Theory. 

  • This slideshow below tries to explain what representation means and how we can use music star image to illustrate the concept. Also this will act as research into the design of your own star, which you will be photographing in the weeks beginning 13th & 20th November.

TASK 3

Explore the Representation of a given music star as it is constructed in their  META-NARRATIVE

  • Choose ONE music star who would feature in your genre of magazine.
  • Create a slideshow
  • Find examples from a range of texts surrounding your star (their meta-narrative). See the slide show for ideas on evidence meta narrative
  • For each of your images include a description of how they are represented through the image or the tweet or the article.  You should have around 10 images and examples.
  • Summarise in 50 words the representation of the star – what are the ideologies surrounding your star?
  • On the final slide, include images of costume, hair and make up (Mise En Scene) that you will try and style your front cover model in next week.  Include adjectives for how you want them to be represented, portrayed etc.