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..?