Texts to study over the Summer break

This post will be updated on a regular basis, you are advised to revisit the page regularly over the Summer break.

MS4  requires us to take three industries and study three texts from each industry.
The industries must be selected from the following:

Television

Radio

Film

Music (Must be an artist or band)

Newspaper

Magazine (including comics)

Advertising (Must be ad campaigns)

Computer Games

In the written exam there will be one question for each of the three industries studied. The questions are based on TEXT, INDUSTRY and AUDIENCE.

For each text selected, candidates should consider the following as appropriate:

Text

 genre

 narrative

 representation

Industry

 

 production

 distribution (and exhibition where relevant)

 marketing and promotion

 regulation issues

 global implications

 relevant historical background

Audience

 

 audience/user targeting

 audience/user positioning

 audience responses and user interaction

 debates about the relationship between audiences/users and text.


Based on your feedback and with consideration given to the WJEC criteria
These are the texts we'll be studying for MS4:

Ad Industry - Paddy Power, Dove, Chanel

TV Industry - Life on Mars, Common, Ideal

Music Industry - Madness, Miley Cyrus, Nirvana

Genre, Narrative, Representation

Have a look at these as you consider the key concept of your research investigation.

Genre

A2 Media Studies Genre 

Narrative



Representation

Some suggestions for Research Investigations and linked Productions:

SECTION 1: INDIVIDUAL INVESTIGATIONS AND PRODUCTIONS 

 An exploration of the representation of teenagers in (two or three) British films.
 Campaign material for a low budget UK ‘teenage-rights-of-passage’ film

 An analysis of the representation of two stars from mainstream and alternative music.
 The official fan site for a new artist (this could utilise MySpace or YouTube)

 An analysis of news photographs: their structure and narrative appeal
 A series of anchored news photographs for a specific newspaper

 Do film promotional websites follow the same conventions? A close analysis of (two or three)
contrasting sites
 A web site promoting a new film (this could become a group production with the insertion of
film footage shot by the students)

 How far are Soap Operas a representation of real life? (A close analysis of two contrasting
programmes) ‘
 Three to four page magazine spread launching a gritty new soap opera.

 Exploring the representation of gender in men’s magazines.
 Three magazine pages for a new men’s magazines which challenges stereotypical
representations.

 Analysing representations in teen magazines
 A photo story for a new teen magazine

 How do cause adverts represent issues?
 Three print cause adverts aimed at teenagers (e.g. anti drugs)

SECTION 2: GROUP INVESTIGATIONS AND PRODUCTIONS 

Research Titles (individually produced):
 An investigation into how genre conventions are used to raise audience expectations in
film trailers.
 An analysis of the narrative structure of three contrasting trailers.
 A study of the representation of heroes and villains in three trailers

Production:
 A trailer for a new film.

Research Titles (individually produced):
 Exploration of the narrative structure of two narrative-driven music videos
 A study of gender representations in two (or three) music videos
 Explore the genre conventions of two music videos

Production:
 A music video for a new band

Research Titles  (individually produced):
 Investigating the styles of two radio presenters.
 Deconstructing reality: how are issues represented in radio programmes?
 A comparison between two radio news bulletins from contrasting channels

Here are some example sof productions from A2 Media Studies students:

1st July Andrew Goodwin Theory

We will be looking at this theory for music video, you should research this today and complete the task at the bottom of the post. Post your answers to your own blogs and send me a link.

Andrew Goodwin’s Music Video Theory/How to analyse a music video

Key Points;

1 - Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

- Themes, mise-en-scene and events of the video match with lyrics of the song, to help to portray the message of the song.

2 - Relationship between the music and the visuals.

- The cuts and edits of the video are in sync with the rhythm and beat of the song matching cuts or effects to specific drum beats or notes.

3 - Music videos have genre characteristics

- Certain features are expected out of a video depending on the genre of the music, for example a girl bands/artists are expected to have dancers and close ups of the singers, whilst a Indi band are expected to have performance shots ofthe band and cut to a fast beat.

4 - Often due to the demands of the record label, artists' videos will include many close ups of the artist and will often develop motifs that recur across multiple videos

Music Video Motif 

- This allows the record label to promote a set image for the band, which will help target audiences empathise with the band.

5 - Emphasis on 'looking'

- The 'male gaze' is often used to attract a male audience. The male gaze is a focus on presenting things that appeal to men. This often means a voyeuristic view of, and an objectification, of women. The emphasis on looking also includes the artist looking directly into the camera helping the audience connect with the artist.

6 - Intertexual references.

- Music videos reference other forms of media, most commonly film, but can also be television and other music videos.

How to analyse music videos;

Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we, the audience, should look out for;

- Thought beats – Where you ‘see’ in the sound

- Narrative and Performance

- The Star Image

- Relation of visuals to song

- Technical aspects of a music video

‘Thought Beats – ‘Seeing’ the soundStep 1. To look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song.

Step 2. The voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form indentification or trademarks that work well with the star image. 

Step 3. Goodwin points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artist the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device – them telling us a story and we listening.

Narrative & Performance
Songs fail to give us the complete narrative.

We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told – A negotiated view of a text. (Stuart Hall theory).

Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. 
It is important in their role of advertising.

Music videos should include coherent repeatability. 
Narrative and performance work hand in hand its make it easier for the audience to watch over and over without loosing interest.

The artist acting as both narrator & participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. 
The audience need to believe this is real.

‘Star Image’The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process.

• Andrew Goodwin stated that there were three different ways in which the music video can connect back to the song itself . These are: 
• Illustration - Amplification - Disjuncture

•  Illustration- 
• Commonly used. 
• Images illustrate the lyrics.
• • Illustration is the simplest and easiest concept to base amusic video around as it is just a literal meaning to the song’s lyrics in visual form. Owl City have used illustrative ideas in their videos before, for example inFireflies’ when the artist is singing and as he says‘fireflies’ the word fireflies comes up on the screen to alittle toy gadget.
• Amplification-
• Amplification is second. The conventions demonstrated by the music video creative director. They may use both performance and narrative, connotations of the meanings. An example of this is Kanye Wests Homecoming where it does clearly show his home but the audience can work out that the song is homecoming and it is him walking around a city that he knows.
• Disjuncture - Intentionally ignores the content of the song and genre of the music and tries to create a whole new set of meanings. These music videos dont tend to make a lot of sense and can often use abstract imagery. In fat boy slims “praise you” there is no relation from the video to the lyrics.
• 
  

Task 1: Analyse Lady Gaga's music video Judas using Andrew Goodwin's Music Theory.