Wednesday 28 April 2010

Warp Records

Media Studies AS Level: Institutions and Audiences – Music Industry


Section B: Institutions and Audiences


What we have to do in the exam: Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary media institutions, as well as the nature of audience consumption and the relationships between audiences and institutions. In addition, candidates should be familiar with:
-the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;

- the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;

- the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;

- the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;

-the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;

- the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;

- the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Evaluation Tasks

Useful websites to help you can be found in the link bar on the right hand side.

For the final 20 marks of the project, you must complete seven tasks on your blog, posting them in this order, with the question heading at the top of each task. You may do them as a pair/group, but must post individual copies on each blog. Make sure you answer each question as well as producing the visual elements. Try not to write more that 1500 words in total.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Remember when we looked at 9 frames from Art of the title sequence? Well now it's your turn to do the same with nine of your frames.

You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.

Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.

The aspects we would like you to consider across your nine frames are:

The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the opening sets it up
Genre and how the opening suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.

So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening

You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:

discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies

What does a production company do? start here
the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why. start here
where the money might have come from for a film such as yours here
why the various people are named in the titles
which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research

When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?

You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.

make sure you have taken a phot of it, post it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
You will use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710

These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.

Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook but there may be other things you want in the shot.

Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop,vimeo garageband, etc.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Concentrate on editing and camerawork.

Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.

Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot

Monday 8 March 2010

Grizzly Bear, Warp Records

This is mine and Vicky's presentation on the band Grizzly Bear!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Favourite Music

I have chosen 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles as one of my favourite songs, purely because it never fails in cheering me up and it’s a classic song that I will never get tired of. Throughout this song we get a tour of Paul's McCartney’s spectacular vocal range: from the graceful inviting tones of the opening verse, through the mounting excitement of the song itself, to the climax of the coda at the end. This is complimented with powerful lyrics and the simple accompaniment of a tambourine, piano and guitar; all these elements contribute in creating, in my opinion, the greatest song of all time!







Hey Jude don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
Hey Jude don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better
And any time you feel the pain,
Hey Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulder
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
Na na na na nana na na na
Hey Jude don't let me down
You have found her now go and get her
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
So let it out and let it in
Hey Jude begin
You're waiting for someone to perform with
And don't you know that it's just you
Hey Jude you'll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder
Na na na na nana na na na Yeah
Hey Jude don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her under your skin
Then you'll begin to make it better
Better, better, better, better, better,
Yeah,Yeah,Yeah
Na Na Na Na Na Na NaNa Na Na Na
Hey Jude!( 16 times till fade out)

I asked my family to tell me there favourite 5 songs of all time, and listed below is a little about them and their choices, I thought this would prove useful when selecting music for my practical as, as you can see from the music chosen there is a vast contrast in era, genre and style and the music will play a pivotal part in my film opening. Thus I want to ensure that I pick music that compliments my genre and target audience.


Name: Nicholas Kimberley
Age: 45
Relation: Dad
Occupation: Owns some companies
Enjoys: Watching the arsenal and travelling

*My dad insisted on writing a comment as to why he picked these song's… sincere apologies!

1. The Clash- White Riot
Because it is so much better that the pretentious rock that came before it.

2. Artic Monkeys- I Bet That you Look Good on The Dance Floor
Great beat and I love that they used the power of the internet to sell their records.

3. Blur-Parklife
Simply because Blur are so much better than Oasis.

4. The Smiths- How Soon is Now
Great lyrics that shouldn’t really work but they just do.

5. Blue Monday- New Order
This is just a classic.


Name: Tracy Kimberley
Age: 40
Relation: Mum
Occupation: Lady of Leisure
Enjoys: Shopping and having lunch with her friends

1.Cheryl Cole- Fight For This Love
2. James Taylor- You’ve Got a Friend
3. Simon and Garfunkel- Bridge Over Trouble Water
4. Elton John- Candle in the Wind
5. Michael Jackson- Rock With You

Name: Eden Hope Kimberley
Age: 11
Relation: Sister
Occupation: Student
Enjoys: Dancing and High School Musical

1. Miley Cyrus- Party in the USA
2. Jonas Brother- Burnin’ Up
3. Taylor Swift- Love Story

4. JLS- Everybody in Love
5. High School Musical- I Want It All

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Objectified or Sexually Empowered?

Analyse the image below using Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory as well as Trevor Millum's and Marjorie Furguson's analysis of facial expression. Now answer this question - How does Calvin Klein represent females in the above advert? Are the objectified or sexually empowered?






CK Media Essay

The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey "visual pleasure and narrative cinema"

What is the gaze?

  • How men look at women
  • How women look at themselves
  • How women look at other women

Gaze and feminist theory.

The gaze is a Feminist theory developed to highlight the power imbalance between men and women analysing the way men see women, the way women view themselves and other women. The theory suggests that an audience are forced to view the text from the perspective of a heterosexual male, films constantly focus on women’s curves and events that happen to them are portrayed at a male angle. The male gaze denies women human agency, relegating them to the status of objects. Therefore the female viewers experience the text narrative secondarily, by identifying with a man’s perspective (male gaze). In addition Mulvey argues that sexism can also occur in the way the text is presented. Moreover, people are encouraged to gaze at women in advertising that sexualizes a woman's body even when the woman's body is unrelated to the advertised product.



This clip of Cameron Diaz in the mask featured above has a variety of elements that demonstrate Mulvey’s male gaze, firstly the camera travels up her body, focusing in on her long legs and chest, by making the camera linger on her curves it emphasizes the idea that women have no choice but to view her from the perspective of a heterosexual male as these aspects of a women are what men typically find most attractive. Also the classical, almost heavenly sounding music which plays while she flicks her hair in slow motion demonstrates the objectification of women as these males are clueless of the inside values she may or may not hold and therefore are judging her on her exterior appearance thus she is being reduced to the status of an object.


Criticisms of the male gaze

Some women enjoy being looked at by males in this way.
The gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender, for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body language or clothing.

Marjorie Ferguson (1980's)

Ferguson identified four types of facial expressions on the front cover of British magazines that are read by women, I will now explain these and give examples:

Chocolate Box

Half/full smile

Lips together/Slightly parted

Teeth barely visible

Full/Three quarters of the face to the camera

Effects: blandly pleasing, uniformity of beauty however devoid of uniqueness




Invitational

Emphasis on the eyes


Mouth shut with a hint of a smile


Head to one side or looking back to the camera


Effects: Suggestive of mischief, hint of contact but not sexual promise




Super smiler

Full face

Wide open toothy smile

Head thrust forward or chin thrown back

Hair often wind blown

Effects: Aggressive with a hint of a look at me attitude.




Romantic or Sexual

Includes a male and female "two some"
Dreamy

Heavy Lidded

Over Sensual/ Sexual

Effects: A possible/definite romantic/sexual element.