A closer look at the Tide advert

 The following, high resolution images will allow you to take a closer look at the Tide advert, and crucially allow you to read and to analyse the advert's significant amount of copy!

Make sure to click on the below images to view in full resolution:

Twenty minute written analysis task

You can click this image to see it in full resolution 

Analyse this print advert, which is promoting Gucci's A/W 2019 collection

You may wish to make reference to:

• Mise-en-scene
• Anchorage
• Composition
• Hermenutic codes
• Proairetic codes
• Symbolic codes
• Colour
• Setting

Twenty minutes. Please publish your work to your blog as a separate blog post entitled  'twenty minute written analysis task'

A blind analysis of the Tide print advert

The following analysis was provided by Q block students, on their first ever viewing of the Tide advert. Clearly, there's lots to discuss here!

You'd better get used to this advert, because you need to know it front and back!

• Heavy use of sans serif font, creates an inclusive mode of address for working class audiences 
• Informal use of lexis, for example "Tide's got what women wants", drawing in and engaging the female target audience
• Heavy use of the colour red, which creates associations of love, romance and stereotypical female target audiences
• Mode of address: the female character is looking up to the box, emphasising the importance of the product.
• Intradiegetic gaze: where one character looks at another character in a media product
• Mise en scene of clothing and hairstyle is strongly reminiscent of 1950's fashion
• Clear use of the rule of thirds, to make make clear to the audience exactly what this advert is trying to sell
• The mise en scene of the model's bright, happy face is a symbolic code, indicating that the product has the potential to create a bright and happy lifestyle
• MES of pink love hearts floating above the models head further anchors the message that this product should be associated with love and romance
• Furthermore, the use of red anchors the idea that this product should be associated with love and even passion
• The MES of red lipstick is symbolic of love, passion and sexuality
• The main character is a stereotypical housewife, who engages in stereotypical behaviour such as putting away clothes and wearing an apron, allowing the audience to both associate and relate to the lifestyle of the main character
• The use of the Z line allows the target audience to quickly analyse and study the advert
• Extensive use of snappy slogans 
• Gesture of hugging box of tide is a symbolic code, suggesting themes of love
• MES of red lipstick is also symbolic of love, and is a proairetic code, suggesting that she is about to kiss the box of soap

High end fashion print adverts

Link to Google Drive for Naamah's classes

 Hi everyone

In order to access the presentations that I will be using in class please use this link - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZQYgkKmcjQ-3yDNCH6_ZB9u3ZDn068tI?usp=sharing

If possible I would save/ bookmark this link as you will need it most lessons!

 Welcome!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the course. You've had a strange two years, and unlike almost every student in history, you're coming to sixth form without having completed GCSE exams. We hope you're ready for the challenges ahead, and ready to push yourself harder than you ever have before (in a good way!)

Expectations

We have the following expectation of A-level media studies students:

• To have a genuine passion for media. You should be watching TV, listening to music and using the internet in various ways each and every day!
• To email your media teacher if you are going to be late. Obviously try not to be late though.
• Try your best at everything, regardless of whether you think you’ll do well. One thing you will discover quite quickly is that A-level is MUCH harder than GCSE. However, we do not expect you to succeed at everything. Remember that failure is an essential part of getting good at something. 

What you need 

Every subject requires you to get a few things, and media is no different. You must get the following, please:

A memory stick. 

About 32gb would be perfect. I recommend getting one from a supermarket, as there are loads of pirate copies online. Good brands include Sandisk and Seagate. Aim to spend about a tenner. You can get cheaper memory sticks, but they're more likely to fail

You'll be using a memory stick to back up your work and transfer files. It's a good investment for all of your subjects!

Headphones, with a 1/8" jack. 

They don't need to be good. You've probably got a pair of these hanging around your house

You'll be using headphones for some video editing projects. Bluetooth is blocked on college computers for security reasons

Starting your blog

As an A-level media student, you will be completing all of your work, taking all of your notes and submitting all of your coursework  through a blog. In A-level media, we'll be using Blogger. 

Making a blog is a bit of a faff first time, but you only need to do it once. You can find instructions by clicking here. Please skip step five and six. It'll save time.

Suspense sequence

All of the above may be completed in your first lesson. In your second week (the week starting 13th September), you will plan, film and edit a short film sequence. It's likely to be absolutely awful, but you will learn so much about how and why media products are made. 

Your teacher will go through instructions for this task, but click here to find a brief rundown of the guidelines you have to follow

Judith Butler on gender, trans identity and performativity

Judith Butler is one of our key theorists, and her work on gender performativity is essential to understanding current debates around gender and sexuality. Unlike many of the theorist we study, Butler is alive and well and is in the process of publishing a new book! 

This article in the Guardian gives a nice a straightforward primer on her theoretical perspectives. In particular, this quote really clarifies what can be a complex and difficult to understand concept:

“Performative” speech acts are the kind that make something happen or seek to create a new reality. When a judge declares a sentence, for instance, they produce a new reality, and they usually have the authority to make that happen. But do we say that the judge is all-powerful? Or is the judge citing a set of conventions, following a set of procedures?

Gender performativity is NOT, therefore, simply how we 'act' our gender, though this is an important concept in itself. The ways in which we act, walk, talk, dress, and how these may be seen as masculine, feminine, or more fluid have an active affect on the world around us. This can challenge conventions and expectations, but due to the complex nature of gender performativity, can also serve to reinforce certain hegemonic expectations of gender. Yet,

At the same time, none of us are totally determined by cultural norms. Gender then becomes a negotiation, a struggle, a way of dealing with historical constraints and making new realities.

This idea of a negotiation is completely essential to all aspects of media studies, from the negotiation we have with our gender identity, to the negotiations we have with the director every time we watch a film and must choose which aspects of the ideology to accept or reject.  

You can read the interview here.

The magazine project: dates, instructions and tips

Welcome back, second year media students! We hope you had a restful summer (and frankly extremely long), and that you're ready to hit the ground running with the magazine project and Aims and intentions mini essay.

In this post you will find all the information you need to take you through the first half-term. You may wish to bookmark it, so you can use it as a checklist and get the highest possible grade with the least amount of stress...

The secret to success

There's pretty much one thing and one thing only that your teacher will consider when marking your magazine: does it actually look like a magazine?

If you tick off all the minimum requirements, you will get a high mark for the magazine project. 

If you don't, you will not.

ALWAYS have at least two or three examples of mainstream magazines in front of you at all times throughout this project. If you are doing anything significantly different from these magazines, then your magazine is simply not generically appropriate, and will lose marks as a result.

Additionally, ALWAYS have this post open in front of you, particularly the MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS list as seen below. 

Dates and deadlines

How to get an ‘A’ in component three - there are LOTS of ways of achieving these!

• Use media language to demonstrate intertextuality and/or generic hybridity
• Convey a complex representation of a social group using media language
• Subvert and challenge typical representational stereotypes
• Present an ideological context typical to an independent music label
• Create a magazine that demonstrates clear stylistic, thematic and ideological links to your music video 

The project brief

• A cross-media production for a new artist or band in a genre (or sub-genre/ hybrid) of your choice.
• Create an original music video and associated print material to promote the same artist or band.
• You should create a cross-media production for a major record label (such as Atlantic Records or Capitol Records) targeting a wide, mainstream audience of 16-25 year-olds.
• The song you select for your music video cannot have an official music video already
• You will create a new and exciting artist/singer/band/DJ with a clear brand identity

The magazine project

Task  - Create a front cover and double page feature article for a new mainstream magazine to promote your artist or band to the target audience

• Length: 3 pages

Minimum requirements

• Your print production must be 3 pages in length, including at least 4 original images in total

Front cover

• Original title and masthead for the magazine; strapline
• Cover price and barcode
• Main cover image of the band or artist to establish their identity
• Main cover line relating to the artist or band plus at least 2 further cover lines

Double page spread

• An interview with the artist or band (or extract), approximately 300 words, to promote the new artist or band
• Headline and stand-first, sub-headings, columns
• One main image and at least 2 smaller/ minor images (all original and different from the images on the cover)
• Representations of at least one specific social group
• Pull quotes and/ or sidebar
• Failure to meet any of the minimum requirements will result in a significantly lower mark...

FAQs

"But this example online doesn't have a barcode/doesn't have a strapline/has a masthead in a different place!"

This could be for a number of reasons, but digital versions posted online often are missing a barcode for whatever reason. Yours has to have everything on the list. Sorry!

"What does 'mainstream' mean in this context?"

Could you find this magazine in Tesco? Then it's mainstream. There may be a few exceptions to this, but in general the Tesco rule should work out fine. 

Examples of mainstream magazine covers

Creating a flatplan (click here!)