Some useful resources:
Aspects of Narrative ANSWERS
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26515921/Narrative-Theory-OCR-A2-G325
http://sismedia.wetpaint.com/page/Narrative+theory?t=anon
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HKPsnoMgZloC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=narrative+theory+media+studies&source=bl&ots=Obg_RWh3wb&sig=k1PERq9MOeuxLWqgi4S9q8Se4Pk&hl=en&ei=bw3USvqtEYL64AbXzoXFDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCUQ6AEwCDgU#v=onepage&q=narrative%20theory%20media%20studies&f=false
http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2007/11/todorovs-theory-of-narrative.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8332523/Narrative-theory-notes
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_4_36/ai_98167923/
http://www.rssmediastudies.co.uk/main/narrative/
http://sismedia.wetpaint.com/page/Narrative+theory?t=anon
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellibst/NarrativeTheory/chapt11.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Sunday, 5 June 2011
TT3D as eg of A2-level filmmaking in real world
There's another thing these three new films have in common, beyond heroism, though: their DIYish use of new technology, including the easy-editing facilities and bedroom-DJ accessibility that allowed TT3D to be distilled from over 500 hours of initial footage. Christian says: "For us, it was all about using the technology. Digitalising the screens in recent years means we can make a film like this very cheaply. For the first time in my career we've not used film at all." Riley agrees: "With the technology now you can shoot high-end footage in HD that looks great. It's a lot more accessible. You can edit it at home on a Mac. It's easier and cheaper than it would have been before."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/12/documentary-fire-babylon-ashes-tt3dRead more on similar themes at http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.com/2011/05/digitisation.html
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Chief Examiner's Q1a/1b overview
[taken directly from http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-to-do-exam-answer.html]
See also pdf at http://mediabeauchamp.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/theoretical_evaluation_guide.pdf
See also pdf at http://mediabeauchamp.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/theoretical_evaluation_guide.pdf
[Pete has written on this more than once; I've gathered all of these texts into this one post]
With three weeks to go to the G325 exam, it's time to see how the material you have gathered might be used in answering the questions. First we will look at questions 1a and 1b, then at the questions on Media in the online age.
These were the questions in January, so obviously the June exam will not feature the same ones (!) but the general principles which I shall explain here will still apply.
The first steps for these two questions is to read the instructions! You also need to consider the number of marks available relative to the time for the exam as a whole. It's two hours long and worth 100 marks, so a 25 mark question should be completed in a quarter of that time (30 minutes). that's how long you should devote to each of these questions. If you prefer to do Section B (the 50 mark question) first, that's fine- you can answer questions in any order. Just make sure you do answer all three and you devote the right amount of time to each.
So in terms of instruction, the main things to note here are that for 1a you write about ALL of your work across the course (and you can write about anything else you might have made on other courses or in your spare time too!) and for 1b you just write about ONE of your productions. Try not to overlap too much, so that each answer is different.
1a is entirely concerned about skills development, but the area that comes up will be quite specific. So as you can see, in January, it was about development of skills in research and planning; the other areas which can come up are skills in:
digital technology use
post-production
use of real media conventions
creativity
It is possible that a question might refer to two of these categories, so be prepared to talk about any/all of them!
a few tips on what they mean:
digital technology refers to hardware, software and online technology, so the cameras, the computers, the packages you used and the programs online that you have worked with. It is worth considering how all this inter-links.
post-production would actually fall under digital technology as well, so if that comes up it would probably represent an expansion of points you'd make in one section of digital technology. It is really about everything you do after constructing the raw materials for your production; so once you have taken photos and written text, how do you manipulate it all in photoshop or desktop publishing for a print product or once you have shot your video, what do you do to it in editing.
research refers to looking at real media and audiences to inform your thinking about a media production and also how you record all that research; planning refers to all the creative and logistical thinking and all the organisation that goes on in putting the production together so that everything works and again gives you the chance to write about how you kept records of it.
Creativity is the hardest one in many ways because it involves thinking about what the creative process might mean. Wikipedia describes it as "a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight." For your projects it might involve considering where ideas came from, how you worked collaboratively to share ideas, how you changed things or even how you used tools like the programs to achieve something imaginative.
Use of real media conventions involves consideration of other texts that you looked at and how skilfully you were able to weave their conventions into your work or ways in which you might have challenged them.
You will notice that most of the above were areas that you covered in the evaluation task at the end of each of your productions. This time, you are putting together ideas from evaluations and standing a bit further back to look across your production work and reflecting on how you developed across the course. You should feel free to acknowledge weaknesses and to reflect upon how you learned from them and how you overcame problems. It is not a place to be defensive about your work but to really reflect on it!
so how would you organise an answer?
paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.
paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. again there should be examples to support all that you say.
paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
paragraph 5 short conclusion
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
Question 1b
I like to think of this question as being about moving a couple of steps away from your production work and imagining you are someone else looking at it for the first time. How would you analyse this music video, this magazine or whatever? Imagine you didn't make it but that it is a real media production.
Again the question will specify an area/concept for you to apply. The areas that could come up are:
Audience
Narrative
Genre
Representation
Media Language
For each area there are theories or ideas which your teachers will have introduced you to which you need to know a bit about and then you have to apply those ideas to ONE of your productions and analyse it accordingly. Decide in advance which piece you will write about and make sure that whatever the concept, you can actually do it. Again, here is a bit of a breakdown of what the five concepts might involve.
Audience can refer to how media products target audiences, which audiences actually consume media products, but most interestingly how media audiences actually read or make sense of media products and what they might do with them. There is a lot of interesting material on all this and you should certainly be familiar with some of it.
Genre is all about the ways in which we categorise media texts. Whatever you have made will in some way relate to other examples of the same genre, whether it be in print, audio, video or online. Again a lot of different media critics have written their own 'take' on genre and this would be useful to apply to your work.
Narrative is about how stories are told. Applying different models of narrative structure to your work may reveal unconscious things that you did in the way you have constructed it. Again a familiarity with some of these models or theories will be helpful in the exam.
Media Language is probably the most open one if it comes up, because it allows you to talk about the other areas as well (genre, narrative, audience) as it is about the techniques and conventions of different forms of media (how shots are organised in film, how text is laid out on a page).
Finally, representation particularly focuses on the ways in which particular social groups are presented back to us by the media. So in your case how have you portrayed young people or females or males in your work? what messages are implied in what you have constructed and what would particular types of criticism (e.g. feminism) make of it?
so again, how do we write about this in half an hour?
para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? briefly describe it
para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline some of the theories briefly
para 3; start to apply the concept, making close reference to your production
para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged
para 5; conclusion
[this is copied in directly from a blog maintained by the chief examiner of our exam board, Pete Fraser, which I highly recommend you become a follower of and use!!! See http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/]
As you saw in yesterday's post, these are the previous questions which came up for this part of the exam:
Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
You will notice that each of these begins by asking you to 'describe' and then goes on to ask you to reflect in some way: "evaluate", "how you used" "how your skills developed". herein lies the key to this part of the exam! You only have half an hour for the question and you really need to make the most of that time by quickly moving from description (so the reader knows what you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she starts to understand what you learnt from it.
there are five possible areas which can come up
Digital technology
Research and Planning
Conventions of Real Media
Post-Production
Creativity.
If you look through those questions above, you will see that they all contain at least two of the five- creativity is mentioned (as 'creative decision making') in two of them alongside the main area (digital technology on one, research and planning skills in the other). In the third of those past questions , research is combined with conventions of real media. So as you can see, the question is likely to mix and match the five, so you HAVE to be able to think on your feet and answer the question that is there.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions:
What production activities have you done?
This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.
What digital technology have you used?
This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc
In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?
This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.
What different forms of research did you do?
Again you will need to include a variety of examples- institutional research (such as on how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc
What conventions of real media did you need to know about?
For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don’t repeat yourself
What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work?
This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.
For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example. You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced your work.
This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!
Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task!
Tomorrow- question 1b and how to approach it, including how different it is from 1a!
[taken directly from the chief examiner's blog: http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-prepare-for-question-1b.html]
In Sunday’s post, I listed all questions which have been set in previous sessions:
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula. You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer. You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions. This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
If you look through those questions above, you will see that the first three have all already come up, but don’t be fooled into thinking that means that it must be one of the other two this time- exams don’t always work that predictably! It would be far too risky just to bank on that happening and not prepare for the others! In any case, preparing for them all will help you understand things better and there are areas of overlap which you can use across the concepts.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? First of all, you need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam. I believe that any of the five can be applied to moving image work, so if you did a film opening at AS, a music video, short film or trailer at A2, that would be the safest choice. Print work is more tricky to write about in relation to narrative, but the other four areas would all work well for it, so it is up to you, but to be honest, I’d prepare in advance of the exam as you don’t want to be deciding what to use during your precious half hour! What you certainly need is a copy of the project itself to look at as part of your revision, to remind yourself in detail of how it works.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. The chances are you have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
A lot of people have assumed this is going to be the most difficult concept to apply, but I don’t think it need be. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwell and Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
1b: Chief Examiner's guide!
[taken directly from the chief examiner's blog: http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-prepare-for-question-1b.html]
In Sunday’s post, I listed all questions which have been set in previous sessions:
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula. You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer. You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions. This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
If you look through those questions above, you will see that the first three have all already come up, but don’t be fooled into thinking that means that it must be one of the other two this time- exams don’t always work that predictably! It would be far too risky just to bank on that happening and not prepare for the others! In any case, preparing for them all will help you understand things better and there are areas of overlap which you can use across the concepts.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? First of all, you need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam. I believe that any of the five can be applied to moving image work, so if you did a film opening at AS, a music video, short film or trailer at A2, that would be the safest choice. Print work is more tricky to write about in relation to narrative, but the other four areas would all work well for it, so it is up to you, but to be honest, I’d prepare in advance of the exam as you don’t want to be deciding what to use during your precious half hour! What you certainly need is a copy of the project itself to look at as part of your revision, to remind yourself in detail of how it works.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. The chances are you have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
A lot of people have assumed this is going to be the most difficult concept to apply, but I don’t think it need be. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwell and Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
In Sunday’s post, I listed all questions which have been set in previous sessions:
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula. You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer. You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions. This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
If you look through those questions above, you will see that the first three have all already come up, but don’t be fooled into thinking that means that it must be one of the other two this time- exams don’t always work that predictably! It would be far too risky just to bank on that happening and not prepare for the others! In any case, preparing for them all will help you understand things better and there are areas of overlap which you can use across the concepts.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? First of all, you need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam. I believe that any of the five can be applied to moving image work, so if you did a film opening at AS, a music video, short film or trailer at A2, that would be the safest choice. Print work is more tricky to write about in relation to narrative, but the other four areas would all work well for it, so it is up to you, but to be honest, I’d prepare in advance of the exam as you don’t want to be deciding what to use during your precious half hour! What you certainly need is a copy of the project itself to look at as part of your revision, to remind yourself in detail of how it works.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. The chances are you have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
A lot of people have assumed this is going to be the most difficult concept to apply, but I don’t think it need be. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwell and Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Approaching Question 1a
[this is copied in directly from a blog maintained by the chief examiner of our exam board, Pete Fraser, which I highly recommend you become a follower of and use!!! See http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/]
As you saw in yesterday's post, these are the previous questions which came up for this part of the exam:
Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
You will notice that each of these begins by asking you to 'describe' and then goes on to ask you to reflect in some way: "evaluate", "how you used" "how your skills developed". herein lies the key to this part of the exam! You only have half an hour for the question and you really need to make the most of that time by quickly moving from description (so the reader knows what you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she starts to understand what you learnt from it.
there are five possible areas which can come up
Digital technology
Research and Planning
Conventions of Real Media
Post-Production
Creativity.
If you look through those questions above, you will see that they all contain at least two of the five- creativity is mentioned (as 'creative decision making') in two of them alongside the main area (digital technology on one, research and planning skills in the other). In the third of those past questions , research is combined with conventions of real media. So as you can see, the question is likely to mix and match the five, so you HAVE to be able to think on your feet and answer the question that is there.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions:
What production activities have you done?
This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.
What digital technology have you used?
This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc
In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?
This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.
What different forms of research did you do?
Again you will need to include a variety of examples- institutional research (such as on how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc
What conventions of real media did you need to know about?
For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don’t repeat yourself
What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work?
This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.
For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example. You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced your work.
This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!
Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task!
Tomorrow- question 1b and how to approach it, including how different it is from 1a!
As you saw in yesterday's post, these are the previous questions which came up for this part of the exam:
Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
You will notice that each of these begins by asking you to 'describe' and then goes on to ask you to reflect in some way: "evaluate", "how you used" "how your skills developed". herein lies the key to this part of the exam! You only have half an hour for the question and you really need to make the most of that time by quickly moving from description (so the reader knows what you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she starts to understand what you learnt from it.
there are five possible areas which can come up
Digital technology
Research and Planning
Conventions of Real Media
Post-Production
Creativity.
If you look through those questions above, you will see that they all contain at least two of the five- creativity is mentioned (as 'creative decision making') in two of them alongside the main area (digital technology on one, research and planning skills in the other). In the third of those past questions , research is combined with conventions of real media. So as you can see, the question is likely to mix and match the five, so you HAVE to be able to think on your feet and answer the question that is there.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions:
What production activities have you done?
This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.
What digital technology have you used?
This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc
In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?
This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.
What different forms of research did you do?
Again you will need to include a variety of examples- institutional research (such as on how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc
What conventions of real media did you need to know about?
For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don’t repeat yourself
What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work?
This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.
For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example. You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced your work.
This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!
Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task!
Tomorrow- question 1b and how to approach it, including how different it is from 1a!
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Creativity, Narrative: Coens
Particularly worthwhile to spark some ideas on how to explore the abstract 'creativity' (casting issues for example), but also aspects of MANGeR not least narrative, if you can get beyond the amateurish setup (sharing 1 mike) and harsh Israeli accents, this is a quite incredible free resource - a 90min interview with perhaps the most distinctively creative filmmakers working in the mainstream today, the Coen brothers:
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Creativity and R+P: Monsters
The following is written primarily with the A2 exam in mind, but also has obvious application for the AS, given the example of digitisation explored. What follows is a bit of info on and analysis of Monsters, an $800k UK Indie produced in a manner genuinely very similar to that of IGS Media students' work... I'll look to get the DVD into thje Lib so you can watch the extras for yourselves.
With thanks to Simon Walpole (IGS Helpdesk technician) for the suggestion, one nice example of how the relationship between planning and creatively shooting can be very fluid: Monsters, Gareth Edwards' feature debut, shot for $800k through Vertigo Films but achieving a real gloss, CGI-heavy look nonetheless.
The DVD extras include an extensive behind-the-scenes doc on the shoot (and additional docs on the editing and creation of VFX [ie SFX]) which reveal the highly guerrilla-style approach. I've often used the examples of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh as low/micro-budget Indie filmmakers who usually rely heavily on actors' improvisation; the lack of advance scripts is one reason they've struggled to get funding in the UK despite hoovering up awards over the past three deacdes across Europe.
Edwards here works in a similar fashion. The aesthetic effect is not unlike social realism, although of course he's highly dependent on post-production CGI (with the titular monsters seeking to cross the US border from Mexico there is clearly an allegory of a contemporary social issue too: immigration, with the US spending billions on a security wall to keep immigrants out). His initial treatment lacked some detail, but the central concept (and his showreel of a short with impressive SFX on micro-budget and a BBC feature) was strong enough to win the backing of an Indier production company, Vertigo. The manner the film was shot exemplifies the potential impact of digitisation: Edwards acted as the sole cinematographer, with a boom operator/sound recordist, editor to check through each day's rushes and producer forming in essence a 4-man crew. Thats a FOUR MAN CREW. Check it out here ... and compare this with the listing for Cloverfield (which had the working title of Monstrous!), big 6 member's $25m JJ Abrams' produced but highly comparable 2008 release (Matt Reeves directed). This had a much bigger crew ... though again was shot with a single cinematographer (in both cases credited as DoP - Director of Photography).
The Monsters shoot was researched and planned: the cast and crew would speed through various locations in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the USA in just over a month's shooting, which required thorough advance planning. Nonetheless, Edwards continually improvised the narrative, and other then the two co-leads (a couple in real life, which he had insisted upon for a convincing chemistry - and tested this by sleeping on their couch for a week prior to finalising the casting!), used non-actors throughout, such as the police escorts that local authorities offered up for most of the shoot. The leads themselves generally improvised the script - as did the locals conscripted into the film (indeed, many shots were shot documentary style, Edwards taking advantage of the language barrier and inobtrusive portable single camera set-up to film genuine interaction with various locals). Furthermore, and I've seen many great examples of this across AS and A2 work, kept a constant eye out for locations that might work within the overall framework of the film, often coming up with new material to utilise what looked like interesting locations as the small crew travelled around. Cloverfield had a huge set-design team, not to mention extensive make-up personnel, but Monsters really was comparable to the way you yourselves produced your work.
One final observation: there is a great irony here; Monsters successfully set out to make a glossy, convincing sci-fi flick that would sit comfortably alongside Hollywood multiplex fare ... while Cloverfield, a genuine production of a Hollywood major, set out to attain an Indie look and credibility, almost mimicking the archetypal Indie breakthrough hit, slasher Blair Witch (Abrams explicitly cites this as his inspiration in the interview below). Of course, the film with genuine Indie sensibility has no announced plans for a sequel, but Hollywood loves nothing more than a franchise and Cloverfield 2 looks a good bet. (Its also a good example of how digitisation and new media are more than just a threat, through piracy, to the film industry: there are already several fan-made Cloverfield 2 trailers on YouTube, helping to generate pre-release - even pre-production! - hype and anticipation):
With thanks to Simon Walpole (IGS Helpdesk technician) for the suggestion, one nice example of how the relationship between planning and creatively shooting can be very fluid: Monsters, Gareth Edwards' feature debut, shot for $800k through Vertigo Films but achieving a real gloss, CGI-heavy look nonetheless.
The DVD extras include an extensive behind-the-scenes doc on the shoot (and additional docs on the editing and creation of VFX [ie SFX]) which reveal the highly guerrilla-style approach. I've often used the examples of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh as low/micro-budget Indie filmmakers who usually rely heavily on actors' improvisation; the lack of advance scripts is one reason they've struggled to get funding in the UK despite hoovering up awards over the past three deacdes across Europe.
Edwards here works in a similar fashion. The aesthetic effect is not unlike social realism, although of course he's highly dependent on post-production CGI (with the titular monsters seeking to cross the US border from Mexico there is clearly an allegory of a contemporary social issue too: immigration, with the US spending billions on a security wall to keep immigrants out). His initial treatment lacked some detail, but the central concept (and his showreel of a short with impressive SFX on micro-budget and a BBC feature) was strong enough to win the backing of an Indier production company, Vertigo. The manner the film was shot exemplifies the potential impact of digitisation: Edwards acted as the sole cinematographer, with a boom operator/sound recordist, editor to check through each day's rushes and producer forming in essence a 4-man crew. Thats a FOUR MAN CREW. Check it out here ... and compare this with the listing for Cloverfield (which had the working title of Monstrous!), big 6 member's $25m JJ Abrams' produced but highly comparable 2008 release (Matt Reeves directed). This had a much bigger crew ... though again was shot with a single cinematographer (in both cases credited as DoP - Director of Photography).
The Monsters shoot was researched and planned: the cast and crew would speed through various locations in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the USA in just over a month's shooting, which required thorough advance planning. Nonetheless, Edwards continually improvised the narrative, and other then the two co-leads (a couple in real life, which he had insisted upon for a convincing chemistry - and tested this by sleeping on their couch for a week prior to finalising the casting!), used non-actors throughout, such as the police escorts that local authorities offered up for most of the shoot. The leads themselves generally improvised the script - as did the locals conscripted into the film (indeed, many shots were shot documentary style, Edwards taking advantage of the language barrier and inobtrusive portable single camera set-up to film genuine interaction with various locals). Furthermore, and I've seen many great examples of this across AS and A2 work, kept a constant eye out for locations that might work within the overall framework of the film, often coming up with new material to utilise what looked like interesting locations as the small crew travelled around. Cloverfield had a huge set-design team, not to mention extensive make-up personnel, but Monsters really was comparable to the way you yourselves produced your work.
One final observation: there is a great irony here; Monsters successfully set out to make a glossy, convincing sci-fi flick that would sit comfortably alongside Hollywood multiplex fare ... while Cloverfield, a genuine production of a Hollywood major, set out to attain an Indie look and credibility, almost mimicking the archetypal Indie breakthrough hit, slasher Blair Witch (Abrams explicitly cites this as his inspiration in the interview below). Of course, the film with genuine Indie sensibility has no announced plans for a sequel, but Hollywood loves nothing more than a franchise and Cloverfield 2 looks a good bet. (Its also a good example of how digitisation and new media are more than just a threat, through piracy, to the film industry: there are already several fan-made Cloverfield 2 trailers on YouTube, helping to generate pre-release - even pre-production! - hype and anticipation):
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Q1b: Genre
More to follow
This is a useful starting point [source]:
Most of you are opting to examine your AS work which was mainly slasher, so a few quick pointers...
Although there were earlier antecedents, Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) is the genre's archetype, laying down the basic template of sexually confused male killer, with the choice of weapon giving the genre its name. The knife also functions, according to psychoanalytic approaches to film theory, as a phallic object - rendering the attack with a knife as a symbolic rape.
Alongside Psycho, which attracted considerable controversy and an X-rating, even though shot in B+W, Micheal Powell's Peeping Tom is often neglected. Released in the same year, and arguably the superior film, Martin Scorsese has seen it recently re-released and remastered; such was the disgust
This is a useful starting point [source]:
Most of you are opting to examine your AS work which was mainly slasher, so a few quick pointers...
Although there were earlier antecedents, Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) is the genre's archetype, laying down the basic template of sexually confused male killer, with the choice of weapon giving the genre its name. The knife also functions, according to psychoanalytic approaches to film theory, as a phallic object - rendering the attack with a knife as a symbolic rape.
Alongside Psycho, which attracted considerable controversy and an X-rating, even though shot in B+W, Micheal Powell's Peeping Tom is often neglected. Released in the same year, and arguably the superior film, Martin Scorsese has seen it recently re-released and remastered; such was the disgust
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
POMO/MEDIA 2.0: Get giddy over Giddens
[cross-posted]
This is difficult, abstract stuff but I'd like you to have a go at reading up on the work of Anthony Giddens and summarising the main features.
We will discuss what these are, and how you might apply these ideas to the question on Media and Collective Identity. His ideas on globalisation and localism are useful, but its especially his theories on identity, and his use of the concept of narrative, which we will focus on.
You can choose from a number of resources on this (or try googling anthony giddens + additional terms):
This is difficult, abstract stuff but I'd like you to have a go at reading up on the work of Anthony Giddens and summarising the main features.
We will discuss what these are, and how you might apply these ideas to the question on Media and Collective Identity. His ideas on globalisation and localism are useful, but its especially his theories on identity, and his use of the concept of narrative, which we will focus on.
You can choose from a number of resources on this (or try googling anthony giddens + additional terms):
- http://www.sociosite.net/topics/sociologists.php#GIDDENS A further set of links on Giddens
- http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/giddens.html Brief summary
- http://www.newinfluencer.com/mediapedia/anthony-giddens/ Another brief summary!
- http://www.theory.org.uk/giddens.htm Its challenging reading but split into clear sections
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_giddens Still a challenging read! Use the topic index to go to the more relevant sections
- http://old.lse.ac.uk/collections/meetthedirector.20031001/faqs.htm Giddens' own FAQ page might be a good starting point!
- http://www.ldb.org/giddens.htm A variety of quotes from his work
- Understanding Media Cultures - google books sample (espec from p.133)
- Modernity + Self-Identity - google books sample
- Media, Gender and Identity [by David Gauntlett] - google books sample; Giddens chapter starts p.99
- Media Studies: Media History, Media and Society - google books sample;useful on globalisation
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/ Giddens on globalisation
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/anthonygiddens Various Guardian articles - Giddens is associated with the 'third way' political philosophy that saw Tony Blair try to merge right- and left-wing thinking in New Labour
- http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=34 Very useful blog post on the question of national identity, discussing reasons why it might be increasingly fragmented and declining in Britain
Representation theory
Some useful resources on the general concept, of which the first text is the most useful
Representation
A more basic rundown:
Media Representation - David Chandler
This next one is university-level, but may be of particular interest to those of you also studying English/Lit., as it focusses on the possible links between narrative and representation:
The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality
You can also look to find some useful materials on YouTube, such as this piece by Stuart Hall (who developed the idea of there being 3 levels of reading, and is a key thinker of the world of Cultural Studies):
SOME FURTHER READING:
http://ww2poster.co.uk/2010/04/lucy-noakes-gender-and-british-national-identity-in-wartime-a-study-of-the-links-between-gender-and-national-identity-in-britain-in-the-second-world-war-the-falklands-war-and-the-gulf-war/
http://www.edwardashbee.com/USERIMAGES/beingamerican.pdf
http://www.media4xav.org.uk/National%20identity%202010.docx (or as HTML)
http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/ACT-DiscoursesEssay.html
http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/sacs/vol2/issue1/BritishSouth-AsianCinemaAndIdentity_1.pdf
http://dro.dur.ac.uk/2342/
Representation
A more basic rundown:
Media Representation - David Chandler
This next one is university-level, but may be of particular interest to those of you also studying English/Lit., as it focusses on the possible links between narrative and representation:
The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality
You can also look to find some useful materials on YouTube, such as this piece by Stuart Hall (who developed the idea of there being 3 levels of reading, and is a key thinker of the world of Cultural Studies):
SOME FURTHER READING:
http://ww2poster.co.uk/2010/04/lucy-noakes-gender-and-british-national-identity-in-wartime-a-study-of-the-links-between-gender-and-national-identity-in-britain-in-the-second-world-war-the-falklands-war-and-the-gulf-war/
http://www.edwardashbee.com/USERIMAGES/beingamerican.pdf
http://www.media4xav.org.uk/National%20identity%202010.docx (or as HTML)
http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/ACT-DiscoursesEssay.html
http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/sacs/vol2/issue1/BritishSouth-AsianCinemaAndIdentity_1.pdf
http://dro.dur.ac.uk/2342/
Applying U+G theory
(to be adapted)
A very useful theory not just to discuss in terms of the general active v passive audience debate, but also to apply...
Take any text we have looked at, or that you have personally studied, for this exam. Consider the four uses Blumler and Brown, building on Lasswell's (1925) work suggested audiences apply to the media:
How would different audiences respond to a given text? Consider Scots and English audiences for Braveheart; Northern Irish and English audiences for Mickybo and Me; Scottish and English audiences for the Scottish Sun's "cocky English" cover story; Unionist and Nationalist N.Irish for Hidden Agenda - you can apply this to any text.
When doing so you could also make reference to Stuart Hall's theory of readings, in which he argues that meaning resides as much in the audience as the text itself, reversing traditional 'passive' audience theories for a more 'active' conception of the audience.
There are many audience theories you can consider... [slideshare Ppt should appear below]
I might embed an A2 pack on audience theory later
Here's an excerpt from a detailed overview of the theory, breaking down Dennis McQuail's original categories, with examples of how specifically they might be applied when engaged in semiotic, especially audience (including 'mode of address'), analysis;
See the links lists for links to resources on Uses + Gratifications theory. You'll also find many Googlebooks references if you google this! (eg)
Here's the Wikibooks link.
A very useful theory not just to discuss in terms of the general active v passive audience debate, but also to apply...
Take any text we have looked at, or that you have personally studied, for this exam. Consider the four uses Blumler and Brown, building on Lasswell's (1925) work suggested audiences apply to the media:
Diversion—Escape from routine and problems; an emotional release.
Personal Relationships—Social utility of information in conversation; substitution of media for companionship.
Personal Identity or Individual Psychology—Value reinforcement or reassurance; self-understanding, reality exploration.
Surveillance—Information about factors which might affect one or will help one do or accomplish something (Severin and Tankard, 1997) [from wiki]
How would different audiences respond to a given text? Consider Scots and English audiences for Braveheart; Northern Irish and English audiences for Mickybo and Me; Scottish and English audiences for the Scottish Sun's "cocky English" cover story; Unionist and Nationalist N.Irish for Hidden Agenda - you can apply this to any text.
When doing so you could also make reference to Stuart Hall's theory of readings, in which he argues that meaning resides as much in the audience as the text itself, reversing traditional 'passive' audience theories for a more 'active' conception of the audience.
There are many audience theories you can consider... [slideshare Ppt should appear below]
I might embed an A2 pack on audience theory later
 |
| Here's a clear U+G summary from the BBC. |
Here's an excerpt from a detailed overview of the theory, breaking down Dennis McQuail's original categories, with examples of how specifically they might be applied when engaged in semiotic, especially audience (including 'mode of address'), analysis;
- An empirical study in the U & G tradition might typically involve audience members completing a questionnaire about why they watch a TV programme. Denis McQuail offers (McQuail 1987: 73) the following typology of common reasons for media use:
- finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
- seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
- satisfying curiosity and general interest
- learning; self-education
- gaining a sense of security through knowledge
- finding reinforcement for personal values
- finding models of behaviour
- identifying with valued other (in the media)
- gaining insight into one's self
- gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
- identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging
- finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
- having a substitute for real-life companionship
- helping to carry out social roles
- enabling one to connect with family, friends and society
- escaping, or being diverted, from problems
- relaxing
- getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
- filling time
- emotional release
- sexual arousal
Cultural imperialism
(to be adapted)
I would assume you'll all look here for help with the homework task...
A simple definition of this concept:
You can find some much more in-depth discussions (though the wiki does have further detail too) at the following, including some writers who scorn this theory:
Some chapters from John Tomlinson's Cultural Imperialism book
Phil Taylor (writing for the British Council) rejects the theory
David Rothkopf, "In Praise of Cultural Imperialism?" Foreign Policy, Number 107, Summer 1997, pp. 38-53
Reconsidering cultural imperialism theory By Livingston A. White
Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition by Julia Galeota
Cultural imperialism: essays on the political economy of cultural domination By Bernd Hamm, Russell Charles Smandych
A breakdown of the theory and further useful links
I would assume you'll all look here for help with the homework task...
A simple definition of this concept:
Cultural imperialism is the practice of promoting, distinguishing, separating, or artificially injecting the culture of one society into another. It is usually the case that the former belongs to a large, economically or militarily powerful nation and the latter belongs to a smaller, less important one. Cultural imperialism can take the form of an active, formal policy or a general attitude. A metaphor of colonialism is employed: the cultural products of the first world "invade" the third-world and "conquer" local culture.[1] In the stronger variants of the term, world domination (in a cultural sense) is the explicit goal of the nation-states or corporations that export the culture.[1] The term is usually used in a pejorative sense, usually in conjunction with a call to reject foreign influence. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_imperialism]
You can find some much more in-depth discussions (though the wiki does have further detail too) at the following, including some writers who scorn this theory:Some chapters from John Tomlinson's Cultural Imperialism book
Phil Taylor (writing for the British Council) rejects the theory
David Rothkopf, "In Praise of Cultural Imperialism?" Foreign Policy, Number 107, Summer 1997, pp. 38-53
Reconsidering cultural imperialism theory By Livingston A. White
Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition by Julia Galeota
Cultural imperialism: essays on the political economy of cultural domination By Bernd Hamm, Russell Charles Smandych
A breakdown of the theory and further useful links
Should we be concerned about the ubiquity of (typically US-owned) companies such as MTV? Does it matter that the likes of Starbucks and McDonalds can be found in towns and cities all over the world? Is this evidence of a process of globalisation, homogeonisation...or, indeed, cultural imperialism?
Postmodernism
This is a key topic, and a gift really as far as exam prep AND coursework blogging/Eval is concerned: a complex but digestible idea which invites consideration of conflicting views + arguments. Not surprisingly, I've blogged on this many times; I'll gather links to these below then you can carry on to what has been the main post on this key topic.
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/11/gta5-postmodern-theory-baudrillard.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/06/your-sample-q1a-answers.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2011/05/1a-1b-guides.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/06/dictionary-of-pomo-terms-alterity.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2010/05/you-simply-must-read-this.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/05/q1a-guide.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/04/pomo-by-louderthanwar-blog.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/04/slasher-sitcom-holliston-fearnetcom.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/03/q1b-audience.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/03/digitisation-self-published-short-film.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2011/04/postmodernism.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2010/04/some-prompts-for-q1a.html;
UPDATE 11TH JUNE 2012: single paragraphs on famous postmodern theorists added to the end of this post. Pick one or more + think of how you can apply such ideas to your own work - you don't have to agree; the point you might wish to make can validly be a rejection of the theory (of any theory) ALSO: dictionary of pomo terms added to bottom of post
A PowerPoint on pomo theory: for all your A2 vids, and most of your AS openings, you should be able to apply the concepts of bricolage or pastiche...
http://alleynsmedia.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Postmodern%20Media is useful.
The concept of postmodernism denies definition to some extent, but Dominic Strinati outlined 5 key characteristics in 1995 that are often cited:
A more detailed breakdown (source: http://www.sociology.org.uk/pcpmod.doc) follows:
Www.sociology.org.Uk Pcpmod
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/11/gta5-postmodern-theory-baudrillard.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/06/your-sample-q1a-answers.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2011/05/1a-1b-guides.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/06/dictionary-of-pomo-terms-alterity.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2010/05/you-simply-must-read-this.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/05/q1a-guide.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/04/pomo-by-louderthanwar-blog.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/04/slasher-sitcom-holliston-fearnetcom.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/03/q1b-audience.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2012/03/digitisation-self-published-short-film.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2011/04/postmodernism.html;
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2010/04/some-prompts-for-q1a.html;
UPDATE 11TH JUNE 2012: single paragraphs on famous postmodern theorists added to the end of this post. Pick one or more + think of how you can apply such ideas to your own work - you don't have to agree; the point you might wish to make can validly be a rejection of the theory (of any theory) ALSO: dictionary of pomo terms added to bottom of post
A PowerPoint on pomo theory: for all your A2 vids, and most of your AS openings, you should be able to apply the concepts of bricolage or pastiche...
http://alleynsmedia.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Postmodern%20Media is useful.
Strinati's (1995) 5 Key Features of Postmodernism
The following notes are based on the relevant chapter in Dan Laughey's Key Themes in Media Theory, a very useful book as regards the exam...The concept of postmodernism denies definition to some extent, but Dominic Strinati outlined 5 key characteristics in 1995 that are often cited:
- Breakdown of the distinction between culture and society
- An emphasis on style over substance
- Breakdown of the distinction between high art and popular culture
- Confusions over time and space
- Decline of metanarratives ['grand theories such as Marxism, Christianity and ... modernism have lost their currency for modern societies']*
Jean Baudrillard and Simulacra
Baudrillard is famed for the notorious argument that the Gulf War did not happen, labelling coverage of it an example of hyperreality, or a simulacra:The Gulf War did not take place, according to Baudrillard, because it was won by the mighty US Air Force before it had begun. The lasting memories of this war for most people were screened images - transmitted via military operations to CNN and other western media - showing how US pilots pinpointed and then bombed Iraqi targets (...) from thousands of miles above land. As such, 'This war is conducted according to the media model: war as a technological relationship ... founded on the abolition of symbolic exchange and the simulation of real communication' (Merrin 2005: 84). This is not a war in the sense of prolonged combat and conflict (the first two world wars, by contrast, really did take place); instead, we experience a virtual war, much like a video game simulates real warfare, and therefore this real-time, media-saturated spectacle is nothing other than what Baudrillard calls a 'non-event'. Subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq amount to 'a rehash of the past, with the same deluge of military forces, bogus information, senseless bombardment, emotive and deceitful language, technological deployment and brainwashing. Like the Gulf War: a non-event, an event that does take place' (Baudrillard 2002: 34). [Laughey, 2007: 151]
A more detailed breakdown (source: http://www.sociology.org.uk/pcpmod.doc) follows:
Www.sociology.org.Uk Pcpmod
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Intro paragraph
What to include?
Start with the brief - opening 2 mins of a new feature film including titles
(sub-)genre (hybrid?)
Title
Synopsis: keep info on narrative brief [what] - bin opps, n'ive enigma; dis-equilibrium?
Setting: where, when
Start with the brief - opening 2 mins of a new feature film including titles
(sub-)genre (hybrid?)
Title
Synopsis: keep info on narrative brief [what] - bin opps, n'ive enigma; dis-equilibrium?
Setting: where, when
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Coens on using Final Cut for Oscar-nommed True Grit
Useful not only to put into context the work you undertake here (with A2 moving up to Final Cut from iMovie at AS), but also as a detailed example and analysis of how even at the very top level, digital technology of the sort you are using in Media Studies in a West Yorkshire school is being used by legendary, critically acclaimed auteurs at the top of the Hollywood ladder!
This comes from Apple's site, so of course is part-designed as a plug for their software and kit, but still very insightful:
This comes from Apple's site, so of course is part-designed as a plug for their software and kit, but still very insightful:
Straightforward storytelling is the last thing anyone expected from the Coen brothers, more famous for tight filmic twists and dark comic turns. But in their new feature film, True Grit, based on the classic novel of the same name by Charles Portis, the Coens deliver precisely that. The movie’s narrative line is as unwavering as its precocious hero, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), whose determined pursuit of her father’s killer in the post-Civil War Indian territories drives and directs the plot.
Making the film was anything but straightforward. The Coens, in their fashion, co-produced, co-wrote, and co-directed True Grit. They also co-edited the picture in Final Cut Pro, which ultimately gave them frame-by-frame control of its pace and direction. But before they got to the cutting room, the brothers chased the project far and wide with a trusted posse of veteran production talent.
Talk This Way
In writing the script, the Coens stayed very close to the novel. “It’s such a good story, a very simple and compelling story, about a young
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Creativity + MANGeR: Everything is a Remix?
From: http://neilperkin.typepad.com/only_dead_fish/2011/02/everything-is-a-remix-.html
Everything Is A Remix
Part 1:
Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
...and Part 2:
Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
(HT to Rubbishcorp for the find)
Everything Is A Remix
"the remix is the very nature of the digital" William Gibson
As Faris (from whom I remixed the Gibson quote above) has said eloquently for a few years now, culture is inherently recombinant. Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker, is producing a web series on the subject. The first couple of short films are quite absorbing, and make the point very well with some fascinating examples. Worth a watch.Part 1:
Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
...and Part 2:
Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
(HT to Rubbishcorp for the find)
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Creativity sans la femme + Bechdel Test
I'll add the full article below (and see the longer post on fem dirs.), but first, an extract and then a video containing a rather useful but also intriguing bit of theory (v. useful for hoovering up a few marks...):
Birds Eye View started out as a positive response to the fact that women make up only 7% of film directors (a statistic that remains accurate for Hollywood, and that has fluctuated between 6-15% in the UK over the last few years), and around 10-18% of screenwriters (depending on which year, and which side of the Atlantic). That's 6-18% of the creative vision in the world's most powerful medium. We live in a visual culture, and what we see on screen profoundly affects the way we see ourselves and each other. Film offers us an incredible thing – an immersive trip into someone else's universe, someone else's vision of the world. But if that vision is dominated by men then we are missing out on so much complexity, richness, diversity and creativity.Here's the theory, wrapped up in a short but entertaining vid for you...
Friday, 21 January 2011
Exam board guidance
OCR have given a brief summary of their suggested approach on a Media Studies blog:
This was requested from the e-community; there are other versions elsewhere, but this is probably the simplest!
paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.
paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be examples to support all that you say.
paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
paragraph 5 short conclusion
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work! And a minimalist summary of what to cover...
para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? briefly describe it
para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline two of the theories/ideas of particular writers briefly
para 3; start to apply the concept, making close reference to your production to show how the concept is evident in it
para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged
para 5; conclusion
Again remember you only have 30 minutes and that you really need to analyse the finished production, rather than tell the marker how you made it
Structure for A2 exam q.1a
paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.
paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be examples to support all that you say.
paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
paragraph 5 short conclusion
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
A2 exam question 1b
para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? briefly describe it
para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline two of the theories/ideas of particular writers briefly
para 3; start to apply the concept, making close reference to your production to show how the concept is evident in it
para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged
para 5; conclusion
Again remember you only have 30 minutes and that you really need to analyse the finished production, rather than tell the marker how you made it
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Sheffield Doc/Fest Youth Jury 2010 – Call for Entries
I'll post this here as the most likely blog you'll be looking at:
Sheffield Doc/Fest Youth Jury 2010 – Call for Entries
4 June 2010
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Micro-budget films +DCRUP
Have a look at the post (and others on this blog!) at http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.com/2010/06/25k-kitchen-table-auteurship.html which is particularly useful for the topics of creativity and digital technology
Another very useful article from the Guardian... (skip ahead and read the article if you wish!)
As with the $10k US Indie detailed in a separate post, this article (and accompanying video, with clips and interviews) centres on the growing phenomenon of micro-budget film-making, made possible by digitization, new media, web 2.0; call it what you will.
The cost of film itself, whether 8mm or 35mm reels, used to be an effective barrier to low-cost film-making. Digital media reduces this to effectively zero, and means, certainly as increasing numbers of cinemas install digital projectors, distribution and exhibition is made possible at a similar near-zero cost. Self-distribution through the web is also possible: this movie has racked up 810,036 views at YouTube by 1.6.10 - and thats just the full-length posting; its also split into 12.
The article's author, Tom Lamont, uses a superb phrase to describe director Kate Madison's status: 'kitchen-table auteurship'. He refers to another, well-established, concept seen as a key characteristic of creativity in the online age: 'crowd sourcing'. Read more on this concept: wiki; wired on rise of this; twitter feed; a slightly bizarre blog, crowdsourcing.com; and, of course, The Guardian's articles on this!
It may seem a hell of a stretch, but the sort of features this article discusses aren't a million miles from you do at AS and A2 Media Studies, and the particular exam board we use, OCR, are especially keen for students to take this on board. The concept of web 2.0 was coined to describe the radical change from the early days of the web (web 1.0 in effect): users, the passive audience, went on the web to search and use media; in web 2.0 the audience and 'the media' effectively merge, as so many users are also now media creators. If you've exhibited your coursework on YouTube, well done, for you are now a distributor (the blog to drum up attention and feed potential fans inside info!) who has found an exhibitor (YouTube)!
Even just 5 years ago, Media coursework would remain largely within the confines of the school it was created within, with the possibility of exhibition at a handful of festivals including the Co-Op's. Now, you all have the power to put your work out there and attract an audience (from which you can make money if you attract a large audience: you can join YouTube's advertising programme, and take a cut of the advertising revenue they rake in from people who click through to your channel!).
I've detailed several examples of micro-budget films in this blog, all very useful to consider for your AS exam and coursework blog, not to mention both sections of the A2 exam. If any of you do watch (or have already seen) Born of Hope, Colin or any other feature-length micro-budget movie, post a comment below.
[Read more on Colin, reportedly a £45 movie that got a cinema release: Guardian article; BritMovie.co.uk forum thread; is the true budget much higher/is it all hype?]
Born of Hope – and a lot of charity
Tom Lamont The Observer, 7 March 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/07/born-of-hope-lord-rings
Another very useful article from the Guardian... (skip ahead and read the article if you wish!)
As with the $10k US Indie detailed in a separate post, this article (and accompanying video, with clips and interviews) centres on the growing phenomenon of micro-budget film-making, made possible by digitization, new media, web 2.0; call it what you will.
The cost of film itself, whether 8mm or 35mm reels, used to be an effective barrier to low-cost film-making. Digital media reduces this to effectively zero, and means, certainly as increasing numbers of cinemas install digital projectors, distribution and exhibition is made possible at a similar near-zero cost. Self-distribution through the web is also possible: this movie has racked up 810,036 views at YouTube by 1.6.10 - and thats just the full-length posting; its also split into 12.
The article's author, Tom Lamont, uses a superb phrase to describe director Kate Madison's status: 'kitchen-table auteurship'. He refers to another, well-established, concept seen as a key characteristic of creativity in the online age: 'crowd sourcing'. Read more on this concept: wiki; wired on rise of this; twitter feed; a slightly bizarre blog, crowdsourcing.com; and, of course, The Guardian's articles on this!
It may seem a hell of a stretch, but the sort of features this article discusses aren't a million miles from you do at AS and A2 Media Studies, and the particular exam board we use, OCR, are especially keen for students to take this on board. The concept of web 2.0 was coined to describe the radical change from the early days of the web (web 1.0 in effect): users, the passive audience, went on the web to search and use media; in web 2.0 the audience and 'the media' effectively merge, as so many users are also now media creators. If you've exhibited your coursework on YouTube, well done, for you are now a distributor (the blog to drum up attention and feed potential fans inside info!) who has found an exhibitor (YouTube)!
Even just 5 years ago, Media coursework would remain largely within the confines of the school it was created within, with the possibility of exhibition at a handful of festivals including the Co-Op's. Now, you all have the power to put your work out there and attract an audience (from which you can make money if you attract a large audience: you can join YouTube's advertising programme, and take a cut of the advertising revenue they rake in from people who click through to your channel!).
I've detailed several examples of micro-budget films in this blog, all very useful to consider for your AS exam and coursework blog, not to mention both sections of the A2 exam. If any of you do watch (or have already seen) Born of Hope, Colin or any other feature-length micro-budget movie, post a comment below.
[Read more on Colin, reportedly a £45 movie that got a cinema release: Guardian article; BritMovie.co.uk forum thread; is the true budget much higher/is it all hype?]
Born of Hope – and a lot of charity
A budget Lord of the Rings prequel put together by hundreds of people working for nothing has recorded nearly a million hits on video streaming sites
On the eastern flank of Epping Forest, a short walk in from the town of Debden, there is a huge tree, lying on its side, upended by a storm. It was in this clearing that independent film-maker Kate Madison, along with dozens of game volunteers, filmed Born of Hope, a homemade prequel to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy that has caused a great stir since its release in December. A production pulled together over four years with a budget of a mere £25,000 – about a tenth of one per cent of the cost of Jackson's epic – it has impressed critics and recorded close to a million views on video streaming sites.
Friday, 28 May 2010
Providing a synopsis
AS I've said in the general guidelines for Q1a/1b, you should start by providing a brief summary of what you did at AS + A2. This needs to include a synopsis a very brief outline of your narrative, which say something along the lines of
The opening two minutes of a new feature film, including titles, based around...
- a period drama set in WW2, featuring the female protagonist receiving a letter from a uniformed soldier informing her of her lover's death
- a rom-com showing a young office worker rushing to get out for work, and tripping himself up just as he spots what will be the love interest
- a slasher featuring two friends making the deadly mistake of taking a shortcut through some woods, where one disappears, leaving his friend to try and make it back to safety
- a horror movie inspired by The Ring in which our protagonist is seen confused and panicked, running out of a building; he appears to hallucinate an ominous female character
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