Plan for Question 1a i.

1a. 

i. To what extent have digital technologies helped develop your research and planning skills during your Media 'A' Level?

introduction: introduce how you used digital technology in research and planning eg using youtube for finding inspiration from similar genre videos

paragraph one: say how digital techonologies did help. The use of the internet helped majorly during the research stage of the A level. We used websites such as youtube to research videos which are of the same genre as ours. We also used the internet to find out about digipacks and magazine adverts. Cameras were used to film our products in HD. Editing programs on the computer were used to add better effects to our products.

paragraph two: say how they werent the only source that helped. We also used our own knowledge to find out about the genre of our product, we also used paper and other resources to plan our products, such as storyboards and filming scripts.

conclusion: say how over all digital technologies were very helpful. generally sum up.                                            

Section A 1a for our music video

After researching whose Beyonce's target audience is, we realised that our target audience should be extremely similar if not the same because the song is sung by Beyonce, there for meaning that the song it's self is already targeted at that audience. When listening to the lyrics of the song it is obvious that the song is about how women like to be "loved" and there for obviously targeted at women; taking this into acount we wanted to target our video at women. We want to do this by using some of the methods Beyonce uses to target women in her own videos such as showing her vulnerability and making her self not appear threatening to other women. We thought that we could do this by showing the female in the video to be very vulnerable to her feelings, using close up shots to show her emotion. We also thought that by using minimal makeup and natural looking hair the female used in the video would not appear threatening to any females but actually relatable.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product represents certain types of real media products as we conducted lots of information from other top video's from beyonce and other high profile artists such as nicole shwerzinger. For example we used the house as a the setting in which beyonce does to create a very normal feel to the video as like an everyday life situation. Doing this meant we could also reflect the genre as 'slow love' we emphasised this by using black and white as our background setting which is more a slow intimate colour just to focus on the meaning of the song. Also, we challenged the conventions of a real media product by introducing a few fading techniques to attract one shot to another which is most commonly used in the R&B genre industry. 

I believe that using genre and conventions has helped us with our final media product as we have been able to conform with a particular genre to match our music video with and also we have been able to fit our music video around different conventions, we were thus able to challenge conventions and conform to them. 

Our understanding of genre has developed greatly over the past two years as we are now able to understand why different products are totally different and fit into a seperate category to one another when they may seem similar to the normal eye.  

Post-production

For our music video, we wanted to edit our music video to make it more appealing and interesting to our audience.  We first decided to implement a black and white theme throughout the music video, where some of the scenes are in black and white. This added an effect which would keep the audience involved with the product and also give it a more intimate feel. We decided to conform to the genre conventions to have similar fading techniques such as other music videos e.g. Beyonce. 

Post-production is the function of editing the picture, adding visual special effects and to add sound effects to ultimately make the final product a lot better than just cramming all the filming together without any effects. 

Our post-production skills have developed greatly over the past 2 years, we have been unable to edit our products without even thinking and we are able to judge if a particular effect would suit our product or not.

(plan) how can the study of MEDIA LANGUAGE unlock meanings in your work?

(previous analysis of our media music video)


Our media product is fairly influenced by other real media products as the artist is portrayed in glamorous way and is the main focus of the video. lIke Beyonce, Cheryl Cole, Alexandra Burke e.t.c.


We were influenced by several similar artists and managed to use intertextuality with our video and Girls Aloud's 'Biology' music video, by using the same hand movement. - a clock hands or ferris wheel, alan key/rope pulling winding up device for water in unfortunate countries. 


By using one of Goodwins points we were able to create a more in depth video and it also relates the lyrics and visuals together, 
along with the "damsel in distress" written on the car 
and the "Mr Mechanic" calling on the phone. 


The lighting we have used is very typical of this genre of music.


 It emphasises the artist and looks very appealing and sophisticated. We originally found the idea on a Mcfly acoustic set from The Sun Biz Sessions and used the effect that appeared on this video of the bright light behind the artist performing. We then developed this idea and used the car headlights for extra lighting.

Thriller Media Language Analysis

1. Roland Barthes theory in our video:
Dark clothes of the antagonist suggest a meaning in our mise-en-scene of suspicious activity which is in fact true as in the triller he murders a protagonist.
The bright lights of the building standing out in the dark symbolise that there is a positive message during the dark story.



2. How camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing and sound create meaning:
Long shots are used in the bike chase which creates a meaning that the antagonist wants to escape his crimes and leave his past behind.
Through the use of transitions during editing a jump shot was created to create a meaning that the chase was prolonged therefore suggesting to the audience that the protagonist strongly believed in justice and identifying him as the protagonist.
The low angle shot of the antagonist once they've killed one of the protagonists shows them as powerful and dominant and superior to many characters.
At the beginning of the thriller video a dark and gloomy soundtrack is used to create a feeling of suspense, this is done as it meets the conventions of a typical thriller video.

Media Language

Roland Barthes Theory - Semiotics is the study of signification. Symbols have different meanings. Images in media can be interpreted in many different ways by various consumers. The creator may mean something but whoever watches it may see it as something else - Pluralism. E.g. A rose can be seen as romantic but are also used by mobs on dead bodies.

Applying Roland Barthes Theory to our Media Product- This image can be seen as vandalism, or a creative expression of emotion.















Essay Question- to what extent did you conform to or challenge narrative conventions in your product??
Typical Narrative Conventions:
- Meaning is constructed in order to promote audience understanding.
- Groups events into cause and effects

Essay plan

To what extent did you aim to meet target audiences expectations?




Plan:


Introduction


I aimed to meet target audience expectations by....
describe product and desired target audience


1st paragraph


how we tried to meet expectation (camerawork, mise en scene)


2nd paragraph


Did we accomplish what we tried to do?


3rd paragraph


make reference to a theory, and apply it to our work


4th paragraph/conclusion


decide on personal viewpoint, make own thesis and answer the initial question.

Essay plan - Section A 1B

Question: What meanings can be generated through studying genre elements in your work?

Introduction

Talk about the discussion of whether genre theory really exists
Say how you're going to discuss the different arguments associated with the genre

Point:
Micro elements such as mise-en-scene can create meaning by studying genre, as the characters can be recognised by audiences.

Point: Thriller genres have themes of identity - how have we created identity? - through mise-en-scene - forms meaning of the types of characters in our thriller


Theorist -

Robert stam believes that it could be argued that genres don't really exist and they are only a construction of analysts.
David Bordwell 

Conclusion

Genre has an influential impact on the audience and is needed to help audience choose their film.

Genre helps define audience choice and gives film makers a focus

Genres aren't as strict as they used to be, more modernly there are hybrid genres. 

Representation and Audience - Section A 1B

Representation

We have tried to represent freedom and ways of life in our music video. We displayed the contrast in different types of lifestyles through the use of jump cuts, which showed how different the types of people are. The mise-en-scene, such as costume also indicated the types of people, with lots of everyday, business-type people wearing suits and basic clothing, and out main character Porridge wearing jeans.

The use of colour in our music video also represents rebellion.

Our music video goes against Laura Mulvey's theory as we do not use objectification of women and we do not conform to the usual hip hop conventions of lots of girls on screen being shown purely for male's entertainment.

Audience

Our target audience is teenage males. It is also aimed at people interested in skateboarding, bmxing etc.

Our certificate would be 12 as there is no violence, strong language or sexual content. The only aspect of

our music video that would need some parental guidance or restriction is the lyrics.

We are attempting to generate a preferred response as are music video is purely for entertainment.

Our target group would expect to see a typical skating atmosphere, we have have embraced this stereotypical view of skating by the mise-en-scene and surrounding backgrounds. The audience we aimed the video at will be happy with our video because we followed the stereotype.

Representation and Audience - Section A 1B

Representation

We have tried to represent freedom and ways of life in our music video. We displayed the contrast in different types of lifestyles through the use of jump cuts, which showed how different the types of people are. The mise-en-scene, such as costume also indicated the types of people, with lots of everyday, business-type people wearing suits and basic clothing, and out main character Porridge wearing jeans.

The use of colour in our music video also represents rebellion.

Our music video goes against Laura Mulvey's theory as we do not use objectification of women and we do not conform to the usual hip hop conventions of lots of girls on screen being shown purely for male's entertainment.

Audience

Our target audience is teenage males. It is also aimed at people interested in skateboarding, bmxing etc.

Our certificate would be 12 as there is no violence, strong language or sexual content. The only aspect of

our music video that would need some parental guidance or restriction is the lyrics.

We are attempting to generate a preferred response as are music video is purely for entertainment.

Our target group would expect to see a typical skating atmosphere, we have have embraced this stereotypical view of skating by the mise-en-scene and surrounding backgrounds. The audience we aimed the video at will be happy with our video because we followed the stereotype.

Audience

Our audience is young males who are interested in similar music to the track in our music video. These youths would be in their teens as they can relate to the band featured in our video the most, this is due to similarities in age, background, props and clothing featured in our mise en scene. We meet the expectations of our audience through meeting the conventions of a music video with music similar to ours. We do this by featuring the band to the audience, by seeing them performing, intertextuality with other bands and music related companies such as the NME magazine we showed in our music video therefore making music fans relate to our video more therefore increasing the likability of our video.

We believe our music video would receive a PG because our music video meets the criteria for tis certificate. In our disequilibriam we feature horror scenes which are not prolonged, these are fantasy scenes which are also accepted in a PG film. Also we feature no drug, sex, foul language or disrimination therefore making our music video suitable for all children above 8 years old.

We are trying to acieve a active reponse from our viewers, we would like them to discuss how we challenged traditional conventions of indierock videos such as how we placed our band in a daytime setting rather than a dark and gloomy one. This would result in our viewers discussing the music video and challenging it resulting in more people watching it through word of mouth advertisment. This would therefore sell our artist meeting our music video convnetions to a better degree. We also challenged Laura Mulveys theory of voyerusiem, we did not feature women in our video to provide visual pleasure to our male audience. Our reasons for this links with how we wanted an active response from viewers, viewers of the video would have a passive response if they were provided with female voyerism.

Representation & Audience analysis

Representation:
In the thriller product we made, the antagonist had a mask on which could be seen as a stereotype of criminals. Also, the clothing that the antagonist is wearing may also be a stereotype of a criminal as he is wearing a 'hoodie' and baggy clothes. Race is not really shown in this product as the antagonist is masked and therefore you don't know his race and the protagonist is white. Laura Mulvey may look at this product in a way that the characters are all male which she would argue shows some conforming to stereotypes of males for example violence. There are no women in this product which means that Mulvey wouldn't be able to show any stereotypes of women which is a positive. The stereotypical violence shown by the characters also conforms to the genre of the product (thriller).

Audience:
The target audience of Jainy would probably be a female audience in early teen years. It would be female more than male because of the story line as it is a little bit like a fairytale. The product probably wouldn't have any age restriction certificates either as there is no violence or swearing. There should be a positive response from this product as there is no violence and it is quite a gentle sounding song and video. My target audience would like to see a lot of colour and brightness/happiness and the product delivers this. I think that this product conforms to the conventions that the target audience expects. Laura Mulvey may ague that the song is aimed at Jainy, however, she is not objectified in the product which means she isn't included in the 'Male Gaze' argument.

representation and audience

Representation 


In our music video we used an unfortunate negative stereotype to our music video about the objectification of women in RnB music videos. Laura mulvey has a theory called Male Gaze, and this strongly applies to the stereotype of women in RnB videos being voyeuristically exploited for the male populations pleasure. our clothing was a feature in making us appealing to men- showing more skin than necessary and high heels. this is very stereotypical to RnB artists music videos such as Beyonce, Shontelle and Rhianna. we used long shots during the performance section to show the entire body including legs made longer by heels. this helps people to appreciate the ''talent'' if you will.

Audience 

our characters to the (not the performance the other sections) didnt appear to have specific identities for a specific audience to relate to. looking at david gauntletts identity theory this media may prompt young adults to not identify themselves in a specific way to be open to interpretation/ or to be just as many people as they feel like being and express themselves in whatever way.

For our music video our target audience was aimed at teenage males and older. 14+. the expectations of our audience i'd expect would to see objectified women dancing maybe even singing if it were a real life music production. our video wasn't especially explicit no raunchy dance moves so we'd only rate this at a 15. 

How our Media Products use the technique of representation

Representations within our Music Video:

- Youth & Relationships 

- Gender 

Youth and Relationships:

The storyline within our music video centres around the topic of youthful relationships and methods of expressing emotions. We represented youth by using different aspects such as mise en scene and location. The costumes that the characters wore and the props that they used represented them as youthful. For example, both the actors in our video used spray paint, this would be something typically used by youths. However, it is normally known as a way of vandalism, we didn't want to represent our characters in this way, but instead show that they were trying to express themselves. With our storyline focusing around a love story, we were showing that relationships take a large part in the lives of youths. So our video gives the viewers an insight into the lives of teenagers today, as well as relating to the youths of today. Our video is opposition to the views of the theorist Laura Mulvey- as she goes against the stereotypical hollywood technique of objectifying women, however- we are not trying to identify women as objects- but wanting to show the female character within our video as the character of desire, as we express the story of love between two teens. 

Audience:

As previously discussed, we selected to represent youth within our music video. Because of this, our video mainly appeals to the target audience of teens and young adults, as our video relates to them, and they feel more involved in the video. 

The audience and our music video

The audience and our music video

Our target audience for our music video is late teens to early 30s and is aimed at both males and females as they can both idealise themselves in this video. The expectations of the target audience is to see the characters in a normal situation yet they can still achieve the same situation themselves.
We would have a 15 certificate for our music video as we don't believe that some of the scenes are appropriate for a younger audience. We also hope to have an active response from our audience as we believe that many will try and conform with the ideologies in our music video.

Section 1A

Thriller,

Representation, youth

In our thriller our representation is that there are 2 sides to youths, the side of the 'dangerous' and the side of the 'humble'. We have an antagonist who pushed the fella down the stairs, and he is a representation of all the horrible yobs out there, the idea you get is that 'he's just pushed him down the stairs' which in a way says he did it for no reason, which in modern society is generally how it seems to be. Usually not a motive for the incident,

Our Music Video Representation

Representations within our Music Video:

Youth comes into our music video through relashionships. For example when the couple argue, you are unable to hear what they are saying however this is shown through their actions. We made sure we made the pace of our shots faster at this point. We also represented their emotions through graphics, such as graffiti heart on the wall.

There is no significant representation of gender in this video, however the story of this relationship is told through the boy and girl separately. The song is sung by the boy and so this shows that the boy is showing emotion and giving a more emotional outpour. Laura Mulvey would argue that this makes the girl an object of desire but not in a sexist way and this is alright.-*

Music Video Representation

Youth representation:
The props and colours that make up our mise-en-scene represents youth quite strongly.
Making it more relatable to the audience and so easier to relate to the band, increasing the like ability factor of our video.
We use high angle shots and showing our character in peril to represent youth as weak and helpless whilst due to their lack of experience in life.
Theorist (David Gauntlett) his theory of how identity isn't fixed and change due to the environment around them supports our video, as we see our character as a stereotypical youth just relaxing and not expressing much emotion, but once the band appear he becomes scared and in panic which is not how youth are generally represented in films.

Gender (male) representation:
Males are represented in two different views, protagonist and antagonist in our video.
Protagonist is shown in peril through emotion shots and their panicked movement and emotions.
Antagonist represented as the dominant set of characters through editing techniques which show them as supernatural and uncontrollable, e.g. when they repeatedly appear and then disappear in front of the character.
This shows males are represented as good and evil and are not typically on one side.
We challenge Laura Mulveys theory that women are used as objects to help strengthen the male gaze and increase the appeal of our video to viewers, as we don't use any females at all during our video even though we are appealing to a male audience.

Representation of our music video

The Representation of youth and gender in our music video






Gender


Laura Mulvey believes that many films are based around the 'patriarchal' theme, however this is not the case in our music video. Jazz is represented more as the main character in our film instead of the male as she is the lead singer and the attention is focused more on her. However, one can argue that Jazz is being shown as an object as Laura Mulvey would see it, as she is on the bed wearing a shirt and underwear. Furthermore, during the pool scenes, Jazz is seen wearing a bikini which can also be understood as her being an object. The camera angles used throughout the music video are ones in which the audience would feel that they are actually there with the characters.

Youth


Youth is represented in a kind of perfectionist way, that the audience can idealise to. Yet they are so perfect that whoever watches it can not achieve it, thus making it an achievable perfection.

Music video narrative analysis

Meaning is constructed to promote audience understanding:
In our video the main message from the lyrics was shown across in our video, making it easier for the audience to understand the meaning of the song and the message the band is trying to promote.
Our narrative is also very continous with no break aways from the action for performances of the band, therefore making it easier for the audience to follow and understand.

Narrative groups events into cause and effect, action and effect:
In our video we intentionally show emotion shots of the character due to the appearance and then disappearances of the band in certain areas,  which is used to build up suspense and keep the audience interested so they can understand what effect the presence of the band can cause.
In our narrative the character actually does react in general way that most people would by trying to run away and escape from the band as ghosts, therefore making it easier for the audience to relate to the video and be more drawn into it.

Narrative organises time and space into compressed form:
Our video is not shot in real time however it does give the audience the audience that it is occuring over one small time period as we see the character running and being followed all within the same day without conditions changing, and so making it seem more realistic to the viewer and therefore making it look less like that space and time have been compressed.

Narrative story - refers to all events, explicitly presented or inferred:

Narrative plot - refers to everything audibly or visually present:

The voice of the narrative can vary. From whose perspective is the story being told? Whose story is being told?:
In our music video the narrative follows Tom the protagonist. We show this by featuring Tom as the only character in the equilibriam, in the disequilibriam the antagonists arrive and the narrative continues forward, however in this disequilibriam the narrative varies between each character in our music video, this relates to the music video conventions of selling the artist to the viewer. As it is Toms story being told once the new equilibriam arrives in the music video the band disappear leaving Tom once again on his own. This suggests to the audience that it was Toms story being told throughout the narrative. This is an example of how our music video met Tzvetan Todorovs narrative theory because we featured the three stages of his narrative theory.

Narrative is constructed through camerawork, lighting and mise-en-scene:

Music Video Genre Analysis

Genre is a set of characteristics recognised by the audience:

In our case this involved meeting and developing conventions of music videos, with similar or completely different music styles. 

We believed that genres exist and that conventions are in place to define a certain genre, therefore we disagree with Robert Stams theory about genre. 

A relationship between audience and producer minimises risk of financial failure:

We placed in intertextual references to other successful bands e.g. Led Zepellin and Foo Fighters, this allowed us to appeal to our audience, increasing the like ability of our product and so reduces the risk of not making enough money from our video.

There are set are a set of rules and vocabulary:

Lead singer has more screen time  compared to rest of the band which makes him identifiable to fans. Band are seen performing the song to give audience an idea of their live performance. Band wear clothes similar to that of other bands of the same musical genre making them more relatable to the audience. 

There is familiar and unexpected as well:

There is a basic narrative featured in our music video which challenges the existing conventions of the music video genre, as most music videos of a similar music genre do not contain any narrative at all. 

We used intertextuality in the bands clothing which challenges other conventions as most artists are more focused on promoting their own clothing and style instead. 

Meeting expectations of the audience:

During our video the message from the lyrics of is shown during the action of our music video, which meets the audience expectations as they expect to see a clear message and understanding from the artist.

You can also clearly see the band performing which  meets the audience expectations as they expect to be visually entertained as well as auditory.

Genre offers comforting reassurance and closing down of complexities of life:
Our music video does not offer this at all, mostly thanks to the narrative which makes it relatable to a large amount of the audience and so therefore makes it think that it could happen to them, although this may potentially make it better as it would be more long lasting in memory of the viewer and so making it harder to forget.

Genres work through important cultural myths and fears by repetition, innovation and resolution:
In our music video the cultural fear of ghosts and haunting and during our video we see the character being haunted many times throughout, however our video challenges this to some degree as there is no actual threatening or scary movements that you would normally associate these fears with. For the resolution the band as ghosts simply dissapear as if on a cliffhanger leaving the audience wanting to know more.

Genre is defined by the effect it has or by its content:
I think it would be more suitable to class our music video by its content rather than its effect, because in a music video I believe the music is more important than visuals and so the viewer may be more effected by that than the visuals. Also the content of music videos can vary even between music of the same genre and so defining it content and make it much easier to identify individual songs and artists. For our video the content was kind of like a thriller, however the bright light and colours and  the fact that their wasno actual deaths or conflict involved, meant that  the video did not really meet the conventions of a typical thriller.    

  

Genre and narrative analysis of our media production.

Task
1. Analyse your thriller or music video for genre.


The audience can recognise various characteristics within our music video which represent the genre of the piece. Our narrative follows the love story- with a breakdown and resolution of the main character. There is also a tempo to the storyline that again reflects the genre. Our use of mise-en-scene was mainly reflected through our use of location and scenery. The opening shot of a lonely, breezy field instantly allows for interpretation of genre.

Recent music successes within the pre production of our music video focus mainly around the artists of Jack Johnson, James Blunt, Paolo Nutini, Jason Mraz- so the alternative acoustic genre was going through a popular phase within the music industry- reducing the extortionate financial risk we took with our video.

Genre functions as a language, and through using our music video we wanted to get a message across to the audience.

Theorists Analysis

Music Video:
*Laura Mulvey - 'the male gaze' is relevant here as Jazz is in minimal clothing which objectifies her to the audience.


Thriller Video:
*Tzetan Todorov - 'Equilibrium' at the beginning. This is because at the start nothing has happened or gone wrong and Jazz is still calm. 'Disequilibrium' when she realises that there's blood running down her face. However, 'new equilibrium' does not occur as she finds more blood on the towel at the end of the film.
   Our thriller is 'fantastic uncanny' as what she see's is an illusion and doesn't really exist in reality.

*Laura Mulvey - I am made to look vulnerable and victimised. This relates to Laura Mulvey's theory.  I am also shown slightly as an object of desire as i am in the shower and shown taking off my clothes.

*David Gauntlett - The 'effects' theory may also relate to our thriller as people may believe that they're hallucinating or may be mentally ill.

Theorists and theories analysis of music video and thriller

 Music Video Theorist Analysis:

Roland Barthes - Semiotics
Our music video uses Roland Barthes of semiotics, the props involved e.g. Led Zeppellin poster, digital radio, NME magazine have pluralistic meanings in the sense that they represent examples good music trying to give the audience an impression that our music was of the same level. Also this relates to the genre of our media project which is a music video.

Vladimir Propp - Character Theory
Our video challenged Vladimir Propp's theories as it only featured one hero and multiple villains, this was done to achieve a simple narrative to the viewers so that more attention to the music and the conventions featured in our music video e.g. featuring the whole band sharing an equal amount of screen time giving the audience a clear view of each member.
We also decided not to feature any other characters from his character theory due to the length of our media product as we felt it would get confusing with the limited amount of time that the viewer had to relate to the amount of characters.
Our narrative supports his narrative theory to a large extent, we follow six of his seven narrative in order, but there was no recognition stage at the end of our video because due to the narrative of our video this is not needed, as narrative only affects one character and no one else knows about it.  

Tzetan Todorov - Narrative Theory
We support Todorov's narrative theory as our media project features an equilibrium (before the band arrive, character reading), dis-equilibrium (Band arrive and chase character), new equilibrium (band disappear leaving character alone).

David Gauntlett - Collective Identity + Media Effect
A variety of products feature in our product which represent a variety of collective identities which the audience could easily identify with e.g. Led Zepellin, Foo Fighters, therefore our video could different collective identities together.

Laura Mulvey - Over exposure of women
Our music video completely challenges laura mulvey's theory as our music video is aimed at males but contains no females, and also contains no sexual reference so there was no reference of women and men being used for visual pleasure.
However our feature does contain a male protagonist which laura mulvey says it quite common in media projects, we used a male protagonist for similar reasons to what mulvey says the majority use their protagonist for, these reasons were that our male audience can relate to the character's feeling, actions and emotions during our video.    

Applying theorists to our work

Music video


David Gauntlett - his anti-effects theory doesn't apply.

Roland Barthes - N/A

Vladmir Propp - a narrative was crossed with performance. but there are no 'characters'

Tzetan Todorov - no specific equilibrium.
                            dis-equilibrium is when the car breaks down
                            no specific new equilibrium

Laura Mulvey - male gaze theory  the objectification of women. there are no men in our video except for references in the lyrics. women in peril. however we are in control because we had the car. and we were the dominant characters not prancing after the men/male singers(which don't actually exist.)


Thriller Video

David Gauntlett -

Roland Barthes -

Vladamir Propp -
the villian- rabbit mask man(lewis)
in the opening we've only met the villian and the 'princess' whos the girl in peril.

Tzetan Todorov - Contains only an equilibrium as its the opening sequence. dis-equilibirum is when

Laura Mulvey - objectification of the women. in peril. voyeristic to men what will the masked man do to her? whatever happens its fairly clear she'll lose the coat/cat outfit.

Theories and theorists in relation to our Thriller opening

Narrative structure -

Our thriller opening shows an equilibrium as it is an opening, as it sets the scene and the beginning displays the location. As it is the beginning there is no dis-equilibrium as

Vladimir Propp -

Narrative theory - characters have specific roles
Our thriller has a protagonist and antagonist, we see the binary opposite being displayed through camera angles such as high and low angle

Roland Barthes -

Semotics - Rabbit mask could have different interpretations and represent different things
intertexuality - reference to Donnie Darko - multiple meanings

Laura Mulvey -

Voyeuristic - girls dressed up that appeals to Lewis's character

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett graduated from the University of York in 1992. He then went on to teach at the University of Leeds from 1993-2003. He was then appointed as professor of media and audiences at the University of Bournemouth. In 2006 he joined the school of media, arts and design at the University of Westminster as professor of media and communications.
  His critique of media 'effects' studies sparked controversy in 1995 and since then he has published a number of books and research on the role of popular media in peoples lives. He focused on the way in which digital media is changing the experience of media in general.


Media and collective identity.

Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they've got one. Magazines and talk show hosts urge us to explore our 'identity'. Religions and national identities are at the heart of international conflicts. Artists play with the idea of 'identity' in modern society. Blockbuster movie superheroes have emotional conflicts about there 'true' identity. And the average teenager can create three online 'identities' before breakfast.

David Gauntlett 2007.

Ten Things Wrong with the 'Media Effects' Model: (http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm)
- Tackles social problems 'backwards'
- Treats children as inadequate
- Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology
- Inadequately defines its own objects of study
- Often based on artificial studies
- Often based on studies with misapplied methodology

- Is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence

- Assumes superiority to the masses

- Makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media

- The effects model is not grounded in theory

Roland Barthes Theorist

Born 12th November 1915 in Cherbourg, France into a middle-class, Protestant family.

he later died 25th March 1980 (Died aged 64)

Studied French, Latin and Greek at the Sorbonne in 1935.

Taught for many years in France, Romania and Egypt.

Suffered from a relapse of tuberculosis in 1941 and spent the most of the next six years of his life in a sanitarium.

His essays were collected together into his first book Le degre zero de l'ecriture (writing degree zero) in 1953.

Taught at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique while continuing to write and publish his most famous book Mythologies in 1957.

Served as the director of the Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes from 1962 to 1977.

He was elected to the Chair of Literary Srmiology at the College de France.

He was considered France's leading intellectual.

Barthes began to study the subject of semiotics (the study of signification), not as a process, but as an attitude. He believed that the importance of semiology resides in its functionality. This means Semiology therefore aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these which form the content on films. Used for, convention or public entertainment.

An example of semiotics and having pluralistic meanings such as the Swastika

In Buddism it stands for peace and has done for a few thousand years. Hitler reversed it for his own use to symbolise strength and unity amongst the Nazi's.

Vladimir Propp Theories

Propps Character Theory:
The Villain (struggles against the hero)
The Donor (prepares hero or gives hero some magical component)
The (magical) helper (helps hero in quest)
The princess (marries hero, often sought for in narrative)
Her father
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack know and sends hero off)
The hero or villain, reacts to donor weds princess.
The False Hero (disrupts hero's success by making false claims)

Star wars character theory:
The Hero: Luke Skywalker
The Villain: Darth Vader
The Donor: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Magical Helper: Yoda
The Princess: Princess Leia
The Dispatcher: Obi-Wan
The Helper: Han Solo
Princess Father: Darth Vader
The False Hero: (Lando Calrissian)

Star Wars follows propps theory in many ways, however tit does challenge it in some areas e.g. princess's father doesn't really exist.

Lando as false hero -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8tGOjW10ls&feature=BF&list=PL4C0078DC433DFFB6&index=21

Play at 5:00

Harry Potter character theory:
Villian: Voldemort
Donor: Dumbledore
Dispatcher: Hagrid
False Villain: Snape (challenges false hero theory)
The Helper: Ron + Hermione (Gender stereotypes as they help in different ways)
The Princess: Ginney Weasley
Princess Father: Author Weasley

Propps Narrative Theory:

Preparation

A community/kingdom/family is in an ordered state of being

A member of the community/kingdom/family leaves home

A warning is given to the leaders of the community or a rule is imposed on the hero

The warning is discounted/ the rule is broken

The villain attempts to discover something about the victim of the broken rule

The villain tries to deceive the victim to gain advantage

The victim unwittingly helps the villain

Complication

A state of disorder

The villain harms a member of the community/kingdom/family

One of the members of the community/kingdom/family desires something

The hero is sent to get what is desired

The hero plans action against the villain

Transference

The hero leaves home

The hero is tested or attacked/ he meets the test and is given a magical gift or helper

The hero reacts to the donor

The hero arrives at the place he can fulfil his quest

Struggle

There is a struggle between the hero and the villain

|The hero is branded

The villain is overcome

The state of disorder is settled

Return

The hero returns

The hero is pursued

The hero escapes or is rescued

The hero arrives home and is not recognised

A false hero claims rewards

A task is set for the hero

The task is accomplished

Recognition

The hero is recognised

The false hero or villain is unmasked

The false hero is punished

The hero attains the reward (princess/ kingdom)

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp - (17 April 1895- 22 August 1970) was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

Biography

Vladimir Propp was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. He attended St. Petersburg University (1913–1918) majoring in Russian and German philosophy. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.

His Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928. Although it represented a breakthrough in both folkloristics and morphology and influenced Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes, it was generally unnoticed in the West until it was translated in the 1950s. His character types are used in media education and can be applied to almost any story, be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games, etc.

In 1932, Propp became a member of Leningrad University faculty. After 1938, he shifted the focus of his research from linguistics to folklore. He chaired the Department of Folklore until it became part of the Department of Russian Literature. Propp remained a faculty member until his death in 1970.

Theory

Vladimir Propp extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach, sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales. By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures. After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions.

He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The dispatcher —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
6. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Applying the theory to a contemporary blockbuster hit

Harry Potter character types-

1. The villain — Lord Voldemort 

2. The dispatcher — Rubeus Hagrid 

3. The (magical) helper — Ron Weasley

4. The princess or prize — Ginny Weasley

5. Her father — 

6. The donor — Dumbledore 

7. The hero or victim / seeker hero — Harry Potter

8. False hero — Draco Malfoy

Shrek character types- 

1. The villain — Lord Farquaad

2. The dispatcher —

3. The (magical) helper — Donkey

4. The princess or prize — Princess Fiona

5. Her father — King Harold

6. The Donor —

7. The hero or victim/ seeker hero — Shrek
8. False hero —