Year Two Monday 1st November - Introduction to Humans

 Case Study One Humans

The details of our first set text for television are below:

• Humans

• Series 1, Episode 1

• Written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley

• Channel 4 (UK) and ABC (US)

• First aired on 14th June 2015 (UK) and 28th June 2015 (US)

• Viewing figures for our episode: 5.47 million (UK) and 1.73 million (US)

The series was announced in April 2014 as part of a partnership between Channel 4 and Xbox Entertainment Studios. However, after Microsoft closed Xbox Entertainment Studios, AMC came aboard as partners to Channel 4. 

During rehearsals, Gemma Chan and her fellow robot actors were sent to a 'synth school' run by the show's choreographer, Dan O'Neill, in a bid to rid themselves of any human physical gestures and become convincing synths. "It was about stripping back any physical tics you naturally incorporate into performance", explains Chan, who adds that it was a "relief to go home and slouch" after a day on set.

The series explores a number of science fiction themes, including artificial intelligence, consciousness, human-robot interaction, superintelligence, mind uploading and the laws of robotics.

You will need to watch the set text, episode 1 of series 1 very carefully. You can watch it here: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/humans/on-demand/56459-001. If you don't have an All4 account them you will need to sign up for one!

Using this sheet make notes as you watch the episode. You will need to make a copy of the document. Once you have completed it take screen shots of your work and add them to your blog.

First year 'interim week' tasks - WaterAid and Kiss Of The Vampire

These tasks have been designed to be as student lead as possible for your final week before half term, and are based around research and analysis. 

For this week, you will build case studies for the remaining two adverts. 

Please remember, that these adverts are two out of the three that may be explicitly referenced in the final exam! So make sure your notes are as robust as possible.

Lesson 1 - WaterAid - compiling a detailed analysis

For this lesson, you will be creating a detailed analysis of the WaterAid advert for your notes. Remember the conclusion from the last session: the WaterAid advert is an atypical advert. It subverts the conventions of charity advertising. But how? And why?

Task 1 - Analysis

1. Rewatch the WaterAid advert. 
2. You can watch the advert by clicking here.
3. Using cmd+shift+4 to make screenshots. 
4. Make six of them, from different parts of the video

For each screenshot, identify the:

• Genre conventions (what makes it a charity advert?)
• Shot type
• Camera angle
• Camera movement
• Type of edit (for example pace)
• Sound and diegesis 
• Mise-en-scene: Colour
• Mise-en-scene: Lighting
• Mise-en-scene: Costume
• Mise-en-scene: Setting

Remember, in the exam, you never make reference to an entire media product, even if it's only 90 seconds long! ALWAYS make reference to explicit and specific examples!!

Task 2 - Representation 

• What messages about young women are constructed in this advert? 
• Is Claudia a stereotypical young woman? 
• In what ways is she relatable to the target audience? 
• How is this representation constructed, through costume, lexis, performance?

• What messages about Africa are constructed in this advert? 
• How are we as an audience certain that the advert is set in Africa and not somewhere else? 
• Where is the WaterAid Claudia advert actually filmed? Find the country where Claudia is from, and do a little research in to it. What is its capital city, its official language, its major landmarks? 

And after you've finished, consider:

Why does this advert present such a simple and straightforward representation of 'Africa'?

Task 3 - Extension 

Select a print charity advert for a charity we have not looked at yet (try googling 'Barnados print advert' if you have a strong stomach), and analyze the advert based on genre conventions, representation, narrative and persuasive techniques

Lesson 2 & 3 - Kiss of the Vampire: research and analysis

Good news! With Kiss Of The Vampire, the only questions you will really be asked about it are based around audience. However, it's still really important to understand the poster based on its use of genre conventions, and its representations, as these are things which are used to market a media product to an audience!

Basically, nothing in media studies can ever be truly separated from one another. When you discuss representation, you will also discuss media language, and how this affects audience. It's all connected!

Genre conventions  

Genre conventions are the elements of a media product that show the audience what genre the product is. For example the conventions of the comedy genre include bright colours, exaggerated faces, and humorous situations. Obviously, not all comedies are like this, but enough are that we can see that these elements are conventional for comedy. 

I'm going to give you a freebie: Kiss Of The Vampire is a horror film, and its subgenre is vampire. I really, really hope this is obvious when you see the poster. There's even a clue in the title. 

Task 1 - Genre analysis 

The following music video is absolutely packed with conventions of the vampire subgenre. Perhaps you've seen a lot of vampire films, perhaps you haven't, but this video has everything you need.

Watch the following music video and list the genre conventions/paradigmatic features/generic elements (all these terms mean the same thing lol) that make up the vampire subgenre

Ed Sheeran - Bad Habits

Task 2 - trailer analysis

You are not, I repeat NOT going to be asked to discuss the actual film, but you're going to watch the trailer for Kiss of the Vampire anyway. Why? It's an excellent example of generic fluidity

Generic fluidity - how a genre changes over time

Remember in media studies, generic usually means 'related to genre' rather that 'in general'.

Watch the following trailer, and 

• List the genre conventions evident in it, and
• List the ways in which the vampire genre has evolved since the 1960's

Kiss of the Vampire trailer

Task 3 - poster analysis

Click image to see in full resolution

This is what you're actually studying, so take some time now to analyse the poster. 

Analyse this poster, making notes under the following headings:

• Generic paradigms (genre conventions)
• Layout and design
• Composition
• Cinematography - camera shot type, angle, focus
• Font size, type of font (e.g. serif/sans serif), colour etc
• Mise-en-scène – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 
• Graphics, logos etc.
• Language – slogan/tagline and copy 
• Anchorage of images and text
• Elements of narrative
• Representation of men and women

Task 4 -research

Kiss of the Vampire was released at the height of the British horror boom, by a production studio called Hammer, who were famous for their adaptations of classic horror tales. You're going to spend some time now researching Hammer, how they briefly cornered the market, and how they fell from popularity.

Research Hammer Film Productions, and make notes under the following headings:

History

Notable films

Most successful films

Reasons for financial decline

Task 5 - modern remake

This is a practical task and involves using Photoshop. However, if you'd rather use pen and paper, simply ask your teacher for some A3 paper, and sketch out the task to the best of your abilities...

For this task, you will create a theatrical poster for a modern remake of Kiss of the Vampire, using Photoshop and images that you find online (we're not publishing these, so no need to worry about copywrite law).

The film must be called Kiss of the Vampire, and the film must be about vampires... but you must try as hard as possible to make your remake appeal to a modern audience.

You may wish to consider the following:

• Changes in culture, politics and society
• Changes in taste (think about colours and fonts that will appeal to a modern audience)
• Actors
• Setting
• Costume
• Etc

***BIG TIP*** - check out some theatrical posters to recent horror films to find out what appeals to modern audiences. But remember, some of the biggest horror films of the last few decades have been hybrids like Twilight. What did these films do to get so successful..?

Second year 'interim week' task - cult TV case study

 For component two section A, you will explore two very different TV shows which broadly exist in the same genre. Humans is in many ways a conventional science fiction TV show featuring androids, which focusses on family life, sex, society, and what it means to be human. Les Revenants is a French horror TV show which is pretty much unconventional in every way, taking a decidedly different approach to the zombie subgenre. 

Both of these shows can be categorised as cult TV

Cult - a media product that specifically appeals to a smaller, yet extremely enthusiastic audience

Cult TV shows are often based round horror, sci-fi , or other more niche subgenres, though not always. The important thing is that a devoted fanbase should be able to interact with the show. When you pick your own example, think: does this show have a big online following? Are there plenty of memes about it? Have there been books written about it? Can you buy merchandise related to this show? If the answer is yes, then it is likely that it is a cult show. 

Please choose a show which doesn't have mass market appeal. Love Island does have a cult following of sorts... but it's too mainstream to be truly cult... Basically don't pick Eastenders or Cash In The Attic or The One Show or The News At Ten or something

Task - pick a cult TV show, preferably one that fits in to the science fiction and/or horror genre, and answer the following questions.

Present your work as a single long blog post, and make sure it's illustrated throughout. Lots and lots of pictures. Make it look really good!

Media language - Scene analysis

Find a scene, or a trailer from your show, and conduct a detailed analysis using the toolkit for textual analysis. Remember to discuss how shot types, camera angles, colour, mise-en-scene and so on construct meaning for the audience. What does this show accomplish aesthetically that sets it apart from every other show?

Use this list to structure your response:

• Genre codes and conventions 
• Genre theory 
• Genre fluidity
• Camera work - framing and composition shot types, angle, position, movement 
• Lighting and colour
• Editing – pace, type of edits, continuity
• Narrative construction, related to narrative theory
• Sound – dialogue, music
• Mise-en-scene – setting and location, props, costume/dress, hair/make-up 

Representation - character analysis

Select three characters from your show. Find images of each one of them. What groups do these characters represent? What elements of media language construct these characters? To what extent are these characters stereotypes? Are they a positive representation of the group they represent?

(just so you're in no doubt, when I say groups, this could refer to ethnicity, age, sexuality, gender, location, physical appearance, superpower... it really depends on the show you have selected!)

Audience

Who is the exact target audience for your TV show? How do you know? Pick a key scene (which you can hopefully find easily enough on YouTube), and write a short bullet point analysis of how the product appeals to its audience.

Then, after you've analysed the scene, make a pen portrait of the exact 'perfect' audience who is targeted by your show.

Check out this site for a description of what a pen portrait is. It's a proper marketing technique, and it's strangely fun too!

Industry

For this, you're going to focus on advertising and marketing. This includes official marketing, and fan made products. Here's a list you should/could tick off:

• Posters
• Trailers (put in a screenshot!)
• Print adverts
• Publicity stunts
• Soundtrack CD
• Live events 
• Magazine front covers
• Merchandise including clothing
• Fan produced material including parodies, fan art, and so on
• Social media posts, both official and fan made

What show should I do?

Below are some examples of cult TV.

So just pick one of these if in doubt! Some genres, for example horror, science fiction and anime are basically automatically cult!

• Attack on Titan
• Breaking Bad
• DEVS
• Discworld
• Dr Who
• It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia 
• Empire
• The Expanse
• Good Omens
• Hanibal 
• Jujutsu Kaisan
• Kaiji
• Lost
• The Mandalorian
• Maniac
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Riverdale
• Scream
• Sherlock
• Squid Game
• Star Trek (any series)
• Stranger Things
• Teen Titans
• Thirteen Reasons Why
• The Walking Dead
• Wandavision
• The Wire

Exploring how diametric oppositions encode narrative in print adverts

 Binary oppositions, or diametric oppositions are a way of structuring the world around us. Put simply, we cannot recognise what something IS, unless we also realise what it is NOT.

Binary oppositions are often used by media producers to quickly and easily encode meaning within a media product. Certain character archetypes will occur in narratives over and over again. Why? Because not only do we understand this, we also see the world we understand being reinforced before our eyes.

Sitcoms are an excellent example of how producers use binary oppositions to create exciting and amusing situations for the target audience.

The 90's US sitcom Friends makes almost aggressive use of diametric oppositions in order to construct meaning for it's audience, and in order to make things as funny as possible in only 22 minutes of air time/ Friends focusses on six main, very different characters:

Rachel Green - Blonde, poplar, pretty, airhead

Monica Geller - OCD, clean uptight

Ross Geller - smart, whiny, clingy, nerdy

Joey Tribiani - funny, flighty, sex addict, 

Chandler Bing - funny, sarcastic, lame

Phoebe Bouffet - hippie, musician, spacey

Most of these characters conflict with each other on an episode by episode basis! Phoebe's messy lifestyle might upset prissy Monica. Chandler's uncool way of living rubs up against Joey's carefree existence. And Ross, the worst person in the world, is the binary opposition of Rachel... which is why they end up going out!

The following print advert makes extensive use of binary oppositions in order to construct a cool, confusing and edgy narrative. But how does it do it?

• The casual nature of the shop keeper's outfit forms a binary opposition between the exotic and colourful mise-en-scene of the costumes of the male models
• A binary opposition is formed between the skin colour of the models: one model is black, and every other model is white. This constructs an atmosphere of diversity
• Colour palette is warm and inviting, which contrasts with the grey, wet, rained on floor
• Costumes are wildly varied: the smart, sophisticated suit forms a binary opposition with the preppy sports jacket
• All the models are sitting on the wagon, creating a diametric opposition between the sophisticated hight status models and the lower status shop keeper

All these elements combine to construct an edgy, sophisticated, and even arrogant mode of address, which is fairly typical of high end fashion adverts. After all, if you spent this much money on a garment, perhaps you'd want the world to look at you in jealousy and contempt...?

Second year mock exam: aims and intentions

Time allowed: up to three hours

Conditions: Please complete the assessment in silence. All students are encouraged to use headphones to drown out the noises of other classes. You may NOT ask questions after the examination has started. Please ask all questions prior to commencing the exam

Submission: please submit your completed aims and intentions essay to the Google Drive

Word limit: the aims and intentions essay must be around 500 words. Please use techniques such as bullet points to actively limit your word use

Disclosure: this essay contributes to your overall grade, as part of component 3, even if exams are cancelled again. Please take it seriously

Aims and intentions

Explore how you will address the criteria of the brief, and how you will make an effective and generically appropriate cross media production (music video and double page spread)

Use evidence from your research into similar products; the industry context; your target audience, as well as theoretical perspectives, to explain your creative decisions.

• How and why will you use media language in your cross-media production?
• How and why will you construct representations of individuals, groups and issues/events?
• How will you target your intended audience?
• How will your production conform to its industry context?
• How will your cross-media production demonstrate digital convergence?

The brief

As you answer the above questions, please remind yourself of the brief you were set:

You must produce:

• 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

Considering the implications of social media usage

For this three hour long 'collapsed' session, we've decided to do something completely different, and basically skip ahead in terms of course content to discuss the issues and ethics surrounding social media usage.

The theatrical release poster for Te Social Dilemma proairetically encodes many of the themes that are explored in the film itself. It also nicely establishes the central ideology of the film

Starter - Keeping up to date with issues in the media

This is a vital part of the course, and essential for students who wish to get an 'A' in the exam. Luckily, it's simple. Watch loads of films, TV shows, music videos, read loads of newspapers, online media, magazines, play lots of games. Keep up to date with what's going on!

Task: read this story, published in left-leaning broadsheet The Guardian. What issues does this story raise?

Media language as a powerful and manipulative force 

In your A-level media lessons so far, through your analysis of semiotic theory, you have leanred that language is power. When we use the term 'language' in media, we are not simply talking about words, but everything you can find on the textual analysis toolkit. And the use of symbols, images, lexis and so on can not only shape an advertisement, but can also influence and potentially manipulate an audience. As we have seen from our analysis of the Tide advert, such techniques were readily used in the 1950's. Modern, digitally convergent media platforms have allowed producers to disseminate ideologies more effectively that ever before.

Ideology - the system of values and beliefs held by the producer of a media product

Language is power. Language shapes the world around us. And language can be used by those in power to reinforce certain societal hierarchies and to reinforce certain societal ideologies. In short, media can shape what we believe to be right and wrong.

This is clearly pretty scary stuff. So let's watch a scary film and have a chat about it.

Structure

This session shall be split in to two sections:

1 - The Social Dilemma screening
2 - Discussion

Initial discussion

• What genre of film is this? How do you know?
• Who is the target audience for this film? Again, how do you know?
• What is the primary ideological perspective of the film? What messages is it trying to impart to the target audience? What is its agenda?
• The film describes social media as having a "disinformation-for-profit business model". But how do social media platforms actually make money? ("advertising" isn't going to cut it here...)

Why don't we delete our social media accounts?

If social media is so undoubtably and undeniably bad, then why don't we all just delete our accounts? 

• Social interaction
• Can plan responses
• Addiction
• Investment in technology
• FOMO (fear of missing out)
• Anxiety
• Worldwide practical communication
• Supporting indie businesses 
• Exposure for business
• Transport
• News
• Global conversations, and engaging in culture

Textual analysis

Doing textual analysis of a social media platform might seem a bit weird, but frankly, online media uses the same trick and techniques that print adverts do to engage their audiences. You're still new to media, but let's break down exactly how these platforms work!

Open a social media platform, for example Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc. 

• How does the UI encourage audience engagement? Conduct a full textual analysis of your chosen platform

UI: User interface. How an online platform looks, and how it communicates how to use it

Engagement: primarily used with regards to online media, engagement refers to how and for how long audiences interact with an online platform

You can use the following prompts to help you with your analysis:

• Homepage and other pages
• Codes and conventions
• Layout and design
• Composition
• Font size, type of font (e.g. serif/sans serif), colour 
• Images/photographs - camera shot type, angle, focus
• Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 
• Graphics, logos
• Language - formal/informal mode of address?
• Anchorage of images and text
• Elements of narrative/structure around the site
• Interactive features
• Menu bar and navigation – structure and design of the site

Your own experiences and opinions

Media studies is an opinionated subject, and in order to hit an 'A' grade, you need to present an opinionated argument. This is very different from other subjects such as sociology, where your answer must be balanced. In media, you will argue that your point is more valid than any other!

The following questions will raise some issues:

• If you push the red button on front of you, all social media platforms will cease to exist. Do you push it? Why?
• What forms of regulation or other measures could be implemented to avoid the issues raised in the film?

Regulation: the rules and restrictions a media organisation must follow. For example, every film released in UK cinemas must be awarded a BBFC age certificate

• What are some issues with the film you watched earlier? How could these issues be rectified?