Question 1B - Genre

Discuss how you used genre in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience

For our A2 media production we had to create a music video. We decided to do the genre of Indie. Indie is defined as music that is produced independently from major commercial record labels or subsidiaries. 

We looked at Steve Neale, who said that the genre of media products is portrayed by the use of repetition.

Question 1B - Narrative Essay - Done

Discuss how you used narrative in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience

For our AS coursework we created a film opening for a drama film. We used a linear narrative whilst the film questions does money bring happiness? As it follows a rich man who is depressed and a working class man who is loving his life. We got inspiration for this film as we morphed main characters from British films as we took out the rich and poor and put them into one film. 

We have portrayed our narrative through the use of camera, editing, mise en scene and sound. For camera we used Barthes narrative codes. We used Barthes code here as there are shots of Ian walking towards his office in the middle of Canary Wharf, showing is a businessman. This shows the contrast in characters as we used Barthes codes again when showing Will walking into the pub, which is a thriving enjoyable environment. This makes the narrative obvious to the audience as they can clearly see the contrast in the two characters jobs. 

The mise en scene played a vital role in helping show the narrative as it simply means what is shown in the shot. We have used Levi Strauss's theory of opposites as the two characters are completely opposite to one another due to Ian being rich and Will being poor. Ian is dressed in an expensive suit whilst Will is dressed in his own casual clothes. This is helpful in showing the difference in the demand of the job. Showing that Ian's job is much more intense and rewarding than Will's in terms of money. As Will is dressed in his own clothes this means that the environment he is in is much more stress free, meaning he is likely to be a much more enjoyable character to Ian. The actors expressions on their face's show their feelings as there is no dialogue in the opening. You will notice throughout the opening Ian's face is constantly emotionless, showing that he is hating his job. Also Ian is always on his own in his working environment and when he comes home, asking the question of whether or not you would chose work over socialising. Will however is the opposite to this, although he doesn't earn nearly as much as Ian does he constantly has a smile on his face whilst he socialises with his friends and his family.

We used a song over the footage throughout the whole video without using any dialogue. The reason behind this was because we wanted the viewers to have an in look on their lives however we didn't want to give too much away, allowing the audience to make up their minds as to who is enjoying their life more.

In the editing process we used a lot of time laps's and opacity fades. The main time laps we used was when Will was working in the pub. This was to contrast the two different environments their both in. the time laps helps to show that Will's day flies by as he is enjoying whilst Ian's day is shown to monotonous and repetitive as it is played at real time. The opacity fades used to change the shots on Ian and Will helps to remind the audience the differences in each character, enhancing the narrative. Another effect used was a reverse shot of Ian walking to his work. This puts across the message of Ian's day being so repetitive and dull, further expanding the narrative.

In conclusion our audience thought that the narrative in our film opening wasn't obvious enough to understand what was going on however they could tell the two differences in both characters in terms of their wealth. 

Question 1B - Audience Essay - Done

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relations to the concept of audience

Our A2 production required us to make a music video. Our target audience for this production was aimed at 16 to 25 year old male and females. The reason behind this because Indie is a genre that has only been around for 20 years so it attracts people in their young teens and mid 20's therefore it allows them to relate to the artists as they are of similar age. The reason it relates both male and female is because you have stars from both genres like 'The XX' for males and Lorde for females. We would target the A B's and C1's as Indie attracts arty, outgoing people who usually work as teachers or students, as well as young people who just got jobs in the city. In order to research what sort of things Indie people like in a music video, we created a survey monkey which asked what type of music video do you like best and the options were conceptual, narrative or performance. The majority of the feedback we got said showed that the favorites were conceptual and performance. Therefore we based our video around this style. However this feedback may be influenced by the Hypodermic needle theory as the audience may be influenced by media products so the may just be saying what they see in other Indie videos, so its not a personal view.

The camera shots were vital in engaging our audience so we therefore made sure that we covered all ranges of shots so we didn't lose the attention of the viewer. We made sure we followed Andrew Goodwin's theory that close ups are important to help the audience appreciate the the 'star persona' of the lead singer. Therefore our music video is filled with close ups of our lead singer, who is James, which enables the audience to distinguish the lead role. We also have a shot where the 3 of the band members are dressed only in their boxers. This is opposite to Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory and is instead a 'female gaze' theory, helping attract the female audience to watch our video. To match the Indie image, we repeat quite a lot of the same shots, for example the performance shots of the band performing in the river. This sends a message across to the audience of life being repetitive as Indie bands usually hide messages in either their lyrics or their videos.

Editing was the next vital part to attract our audience. One of the main things I did was listen to Andrew Goodwin's theory of 'Thought beats'. This meant that you can see the sound. I accomplished this by cutting each shot on the beat of the music. This attracts the audience as it is aesthetically pleasing to witness. It also enables each shot to be of similar length as the beat initiates when the shot changes. Another thing I did whilst editing was slow the shots down and add reverse shots where possible. This is because the song 'Falling For You' is a very slow paced song about love and therefore I felt it was appealing to match the pace of the shots to the pace of the music. Love is a thing that builds up over time and so the slow pace of the images match well with the ever growing idea of love. I also used cross dissolves to integrate shots together to make it much more pleasing for the viewer to see rather than witnessing sharp cuts as not every shot cuts to the beat of the song.

Finally the mise en scene helped us attract our Indie audience as we made it interesting whilst including many enigma codes. Each band member was dressed in a boiler suit, coming in three different colours - red, white and blue. This appealed to our English Indie audience as it shows that we are an up and coming British Indie band, whilst our performance element is set in a river, matching the indie image of being filled with nature and naturalism. We made sure that the bands musical props were shown in the video to portray the element of being a band rather that produce our own music, rather than giving the image of being purely vocalists.

Question 1B - Representation

Introduction:
Explain what media product of yours you will be analysing and which social groups you will be analysing the representation of...

Main:

• AGES - How does your video construct a representation of different ages? Consider costumes, props, location, body language, facial expression, camera, sound, editing
• ETHNICITY - Consider costumes, props, location, body laguage, facial expressions, camera, sound, editing 

Question 1B - Audience

Introduction:
Why is it important/essential for a media product like a film or a music video to appeal to an audience?

Who was your target audience for your production? Gender, age, class, hobbies and media interests. To get A and B grades, try and describe their social demographic groups

What did you do to research what your audience wanted? What did you find out about what they wanted? To get A and B grades, don't just describe what they wanted, try and comment on why they might want these things - use an appropriate theory here.

Main: How did you use the following things to attract/engage an audience?

• Camera
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise en scene

What feedback did you seek AFTER your production and what was it like? How did a 'real audience' react to your product? Did they react in a way you thought they would? Why?

Conclusion:

How important it is to consider your audience in depth and how this changed/affected your production overall

A and B grades

To get an A or B grade you really need to try and incorporate theories into the above points. 

Question 1B - Genre

Introduction:

• What was your genre? 
• What are the conventions of the genre e.g. Horror/rock etc
• How did you find out the conventions?
• Give examples of real films/music videos you watched to find this out

Main: How have you signified the genre using:

• Colour
• Camera shots/angles/movements
• Editing techniques
• Sound/dialogue/music
• Mise en scene such as costumes/props/location

Conclusion:

Do you think you made the genre of your piece clear to an audience? How did you do this?

A and B grades

To ensure that you get A and B grades you need to apply film and music video theories where appropriate. What do the theorists say about the genre? Explain how your production either agrees to the theorists ideas or goes against them.

Question 1B

This question will require students to select EITHER their AS production OR A2 production. (whichever makes more sense for the question) and evaluate it in terms of one of the following concepts:

• Genre - A2
• Narrative - AS
• Representation - AS
• Audience - A2
• Media Language - A2