MIGRAIN: Narrative

Narrative is a vital concept for A Level Media Studies and underpins the success or failure of most media texts.

We look for narratives - stories - to make sense of media products. Everything from film and television to news and adverts relies on narrative to help audiences understand the message. 

There are narrative patterns and three key narrative theories we need to learn as part of our introduction to A Level Media. The notes as a reminder:

Narrative patterns

Linear Pattern: progresses forward towards a resolution - Beginning, Middle and End.

Multi-strand Narrative: popular in broadcast TV (e.g. soaps) and film. Involves more than one narrative running parallel involving different characters and locations.

Documentary narrative: this may revolve round a central theme (e.g. troublesome neighbours) or group of people.

Long-running TV series such as Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad have one major overarching narrative and lots of mini-narratives. The overarching narrative runs over the series, the mini narrative may be resolved within an episode.

Narrative theories

When studying narrative in Media, we need to be able to identify what the story is and how it is being told. There are three key theories we need to learn and apply:

Enigma and Action Codes - Roland Barthes

Barthes suggested that stories have certain codes that audiences understand and respond to.

ENIGMA codes: control how much we know and help hold our interest. It creates mystery during the narrative.

ACTION codes: events or actions in the story that are important in developing the narrative, e.g. a gun being cocked signifies that a violent scene will follow.

Todorov: equilibrium

Tzvetan Todorov proposed a theory of equilibrium:

Equilibrium: An existing state of harmony

Disequilibrium: Equilibrium is disrupted by an unfortunate event or evil character which leads to a chain of events involving conflict

New Equilibrium: The evil forces are defeated, the conflict is resolved and harmony exists once more

Character theory: Propp

Vladimir Propp came up with a list of stock characters in narratives by examining Russian fairytales. He called them the seven spheres of action:

The Villain: Creates a complication in the narrative

The Donor: Gives the hero something that will help in the resolution

The Helper: Helps the hero in restoring the resolution

The Princess: Has to be saved by the hero

The Dispatcher: Sends the hero on a task

The Hero: Central protagonist, saves the day and restores equilibrium

The False Hero: Rare character that appears to be good but is revealed to have been bad all along.

Narrative: blog task

Complete the following questions using the Media Factsheet resource available on the Media Shared drive. 

You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

Read Media Factsheet 14 - Telling Stories: The Media's Use of Narrative and answer the following questions:

1) Give an example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. 

2) Complete the activity on page 1 of the Factsheet: find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season 1, episode 1). Embed the clip in your blog and write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot.

3) Provide three different examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.

4) Give an example of a binary opposition.

5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for the way narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?

6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?

7) Write a one-sentence summary of the four different types of TV narrative:

• Episodic narrative (the series)
• Overarching narrative (the serial)
• Mixed narrative
• Multi-strand overlapping narrative (soap narrative)

8) How does the Factsheet suggest adverts use narrative?  


You will be given lesson time to work on this but will need to complete for homework - due date specified by your exam class teacher.

Film & TV Language: Sound

Our next aspect of film language is crucial: Sound.

A reminder of our notes on Sound:

Sound is incredibly important to our understanding of a film. The music, dialogue and sound effects (SFX) all contribute to the way we appreciate what we are watching on the screen.    

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound

Diegetic sound comes from the world of the film we are watching.  This could include dialogue by characters in the scene or music or other sound that comes from a source we would naturally expect that sound to come from, e.g. a radio or TV.

Non-diegetic sound is added during post production, e.g. voice over or music sound track.

Parallel and contrapuntal sound

Parallel sound is music we would normally expect to hear accompanying a scene, e.g. soft romantic music might be played over a love scene.

Contrapuntal sound is music that we don’t normally associate with the scene we are watching, e.g. classical music played over a bloody fight scene.

Sound bridge

Sometimes you will notice that sound from a scene continues even though the visual image has moved to the next scene. Alternatively, the sound of the following scene may begin before the image changes. This is a called a sound bridge and helps create a smooth transition from one scene to the next.

Homework: parallel and contrapuntal sound video

Complete this video task in pairs - you only need to create ONE video between the two of you but it must be uploaded to YouTube and posted to BOTH of your blogs.

1) Choose a 60 second piece of music - ideally from YouTube and not something that is likely to be blocked on copyright grounds.

2) Using editing software (Windows Moviemaker is fine but Adobe Premiere is available on Media PCs) produce a one-minute montage of images and video. Half the images need to be parallel to the music and half need to be contrapuntal. Think carefully about how you can best select images and video to have a significant impact on the audience.

3) Upload the finished video to YouTube and embed it in your own blog with a brief description of what you've created. Note: due to videos being blocked on copyright grounds, please also save the exported video file (e.g. MP4) into your student folder on the M: Media Shared drive.

4) Present your video to the class next lesson, explaining the thinking behind your work.

Deadline: next Wednesday

Here's an example from a previous year to give you an idea of what to produce:





Sound analysis: blog tasks

1) Watch any of the sound clips in the Film Language booklet that we didn't get to in class and write answers to the questions to go with each clip on your blog. E.g. A Clockwork Orange, Life On Mars, Once Upon A Time In The West, Once Upon A Time In America. The clips are all available on the Media Shared drive M: > Resources > A Level > Film Language.

2) Find a film clip on YouTube that uses sound in an interesting way. Analyse the use of sound, making sure you use the key language we have learned about sound in film:

• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound
• Parallel and contrapuntal sound
• Sound bridges

Remember to discuss/analyse all the different types of sound present in the clip:

• Music
• Dialogue
• Voiceover
• Sound effects

You also need to highlight or put in bold any use of media language.

Complete for homework - due date confirmed by your Film Language teacher.

Film & TV Language: Mise-en-scene video feedback and learner response

Your star persona mise-en-scene makeovers were a brilliant introduction to the challenges and creativity demanded by A Level Media.

Video projects take time - as well as comprehensive planning, organisation and execution. The more projects you complete the better prepared you will be for the practical coursework when we come to it in the summer. As a first assignment, it's fantastic to see how many of you have created superbly innovative and technically proficient videos that meet the brief you were given.

Mise-en-scene makeover: Learner response

Create a new blogpost called 'Star persona video feedback and learner response'. Make sure your completed star persona video is embedded in the blogpost.

1) Type up your feedback from your teacher in full.

2) Type up the comments you received from other students in the class. You may wish to do this in bullet point and you do not need to repeat comments if more than one student wrote the same thing about your work.

3) Use the feedback you've been given to write your own self-assessment of your video using WWW (What Went Well) and EBI (Even Better If...)

4) Now reflect on your own work in more detail. How did your star persona mood board planning help clarify and develop your ideas?

5) Thinking technically, how could you improve your work for future videos? (E.g. filming, editing, sound etc.)

6) Finally, what have you learned regarding the importance of mise-en-scene to character, narrative and the creation of star personas in film and television?

You may have some lesson time to do this but will need to finish for homework - due date confirmed by your exam teacher.

October update: Textbooks and more

It's been an action-packed start to the year in Media and now is a good time to take stock and go through some key messages and updates.

Media Awards

As we have mentioned in class, this year’s Media Awards has been moved to March as a result of the new specifications in GCSE and A Level Media. The good news is that the March show looks likely to be jam-packed with amazing work including:

• Last year’s GCSE music videos 
• This year’s GCSE science fiction TV drama extracts 
• This year’s A Level film trailers 

We’ll have more information about the Media Awards nearer the time but it’s looking likely to be our best event yet!

Twitter

Don’t forget the Greenford Media department runs a Twitter account that tweets and retweets useful articles, links and questions that A Level Media students should be keeping up with. You don’t need to join Twitter or tweet yourself but follow us @blogmacguffin or simply visit twitter.com/blogmacguffin to look at the account from any web browser.

A Level Media Textbooks

After long delays, there are now two textbooks available for the new specification AQA A Level Media Studies course. We would strongly recommend you buy both textbooks as collectively they cover the whole course in terms of subject content and also feature many of the CSPs that will come up in the exams.

Note: the 20% discount doesn't seem to be working on the A Level texts at present. We'll investigate this but the books are available on Amazon for around £23 in the meantime.

The details:

AQA MEDIA STUDIES FOR A LEVEL YR 1 & AS: STUDENT BOOK

• NEW SPEC: AQA Media Studies for A Level Yr 1 & AS: Student Book 
• AUTHOR(S): Stephanie Hendry, Elspeth Stevenson 
• AWARDING BODY: AQA 
• LEVEL: A Level Year 1 & AS 
• ISBN: 978-1-911208-03-7 
• SUBJECT: Media Studies 
• PAGES: 272pp 

AQA MEDIA STUDIES FOR A LEVEL YEAR 2: STUDENT BOOK

• AQA Media Studies for A Level Year 2: Student Book 
• AUTHOR(S): Stephanie Hendry, Elspeth Stevenson 
• AWARDING BODY: AQA 
• LEVEL: A Level Year 2 
• ISBN: 978-1-911208-09-9 
• SUBJECT: Media Studies 

Creative Mentor Network

The Creative Mentor Network is an incredible opportunity for post-16 students to make connections in the creative and media industries by shadowing a professional for several weeks. We’ve had a number of students complete the project and develop a fantastic range of contacts and experiences that will help them to get a job in the creative industries in future.

You can find more details on the CMN website or watch the video below (featuring our very own Hussein!)

Bank of England film competition

The Bank of England is once again running a film competition for A Level students. Bank, Camera, Action asks students to make a short film in response to a brief and there are Amazon prizes (plus cash to the school!) for winners. Any medium is acceptable – fiction, documentary, news report, music video… it’s up to you. The brief is simple:

What will money be like in the future?

You can find more details and how to apply here.

MIGRAIN: Genre

Genre is a crucial key concept and underpins our understanding of all media texts. 

If you missed the lesson on genre the key notes are here:

Genre: notes

Genres may be identified by the following:

Narrative structures
Plot
Typical situations, characters and relationships

Visual iconography
Mise-en-scene: props, costumes, locations etc.
Cinematography

Ideology and themes
Representations, values and ideologies

Daniel Chandler suggests definitions of genre tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings - iconography) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them.


Genre: institution and audience

Tolson (1996) suggests that genre “mediates between industry and audience”.

Abercrombie suggests that “television producers set out to exploit genre conventions... It... makes sound economic sense.” 


Abercromie adds: “Genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre.”

Genres of order and integration

Some theorists (including Schatz) have suggested there are only two genres:

Genres of order: western, gangster, action, sci-fi etc. Identified by hero (dominant; male), setting (contested, unstable), conflict (external; fighting), resolution (death). 

Genres of integration: comedies, musicals, rom-coms etc. 
Identified by heroes (couple or collective); setting (civilised space); conflict (internal; emotional); resolution (love).


Neale: “Repetition and difference”

Steve Neale declares that “genres are instances of repetition and difference” (Neale 1980). He adds:  “Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” - mere repetition would not attract an audience.


Buckingham (1993) agrees, suggesting contemporary theory sees genre as dynamic: “Genre is not... simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change”.

Schatz develops this idea that genres are dynamic and suggests they go through a cycle:

Innovation: genre codes are established
Classical: conventions are repeated
Parody: codes become clichéd and are mocked
Deconstruction: the genre is experimented with to establish new or different conventions

Genre: blog tasks

Complete the following tasks using the Media Factsheets available on the Media Shared drive. 

You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

Read Media Factsheet 03 - Genre: Categorising texts and answer the following questions:

1) What example is provided of why visual iconographies are so important?

2) What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

3) What is the difference between character representation in action movies and disaster movies?

4) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

5) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

6) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

7) What film genre is used as an example of how genres evolve? What films and conventions are mentioned?


Read Media Factsheet 126 - Superheroes: A Genre Case Study and answer the following questions:

1) List five films the factsheet discusses with regards to the Superhero genre.

2) What examples are provided of how the Superhero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world events of the last 70 years?

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?


Finally, carry out your own genre analysis using the model provided by media theorist Daniel Chandler. Choose a film or TV text and answer the following questions:

General
1) Why did you choose the text you are analysing?
2) In what context did you encounter it?
3) What influence do you think this context might have had on your interpretation of the text?
4) To what genre did you initially assign the text?
5) What is your experience of this genre?
6) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?
7) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?
8) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?
9) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where)?
10) What generic labels have others given the same text?
11) Which conventions of the genre do you recognize in the text?
12) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?
13) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?
14) Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?
15) What familiar motifs or images are used?

Mode of address
1) What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed at (and how typical was this of the genre)?
2) How does the text address you?
3) What sort of person does it assume you are?
4) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?
5) What interests does it assume you have?

Relationship to other texts
1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)?
2) Generically, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
3) What key features are shared by these texts?
4) What major differences do you notice between them?


This is a lot of work - but you will have plenty of lesson time to complete it (including Friday's lesson). Anything you don't finish this week complete for homework - due next week. In total, we think this work will take around 2-3 hours so plan accordingly.

Film & TV Language: Lighting

One aspect of mise-en-scène that is particularly important in film and TV is Lighting.

Lighting notes


Traditional studio lighting usually comes from three sources:

• The key light is the brightest and most influential.
• The back light helps to counteract the effects of the key light making the subject appear more ‘rounded’.
• The filler light helps to soften any shadows created by the other lights.  There may be more then one filler light.

The key light can be directed from a variety of angles to create different effects.

Underlighting comes from below the subject leading to a distorted effect.  This is often used in horror or science-fiction films.

Top lighting comes from above and can be used to accentuate the features of a character.  It is often used to make film stars look more glamorous.

Back lighting is when the source comes from behind the object to create a silhouette.    

High-Key and Low-Key Lighting

Low-key lighting is created by using only the key and back lights.  This effect produces strong contrasts of light and dark and creates dramatic shadows.  The effect is known as chiaroscuro, which comes from the Italian words for light (chiaro) and dark (oscuro).


High-key lighting means that more filler lights are used.  The effect appears more realistic and might depict either a sunny day or a more dimly lit scene.  The major difference is that, although shadows are still created, the contrast between light and dark is much less pronounced.  

Lighting blog tasks

You'll need to use the Film Language Powerpoint to work through the Lighting tasks. These will require two separate blog posts:

1) Create a blogpost called 'Lighting: still image analysis'

Look at the still images on slides 33-37 of the Film Language Powerpoint linked above. Copy the images into your blog and answer the following questions for each image:

1. Identify examples of high and low-key lighting.
2. Say which depict top, back or under lighting.
3. What effects are created by the lighting in each image?     

2) Create a new blogpost called 'Film noir research'. 

Research film noir - focusing on the genre’s distinctive lighting style. Make notes on the genre and particularly the use of lighting - bullet points are fine. Finally, find a YouTube clip that fits the film noir genre and embed it alongside your research (this can be classic noir from the 1950s or something more recent - neo-noir). How does the clip fit the noir genre?

Anything you don't complete in the lesson will be homework, due next week.

MIGRAIN: Semiotics - Icon, Index, Symbol

One key aspect of our introduction to A Level Media Studies is developing the language to analyse media products.

This is a key aspect of Semiotics: the study of signs. We've already explored denotation, connotation and myth. Now we need to learn some more semiotic terminology to help identify how meanings are created in media texts.

Semiotics: icon, index, symbol notes


These terms were coined by the American philosopher and scientist Charles Sanders Peirce in the 1800s.

An Icon has a physical resemblance to the signified, the thing being represented. A photograph is a good example as it certainly resembles whatever it depicts.

An Index shows evidence of what’s being represented. A good example is using an image of smoke to indicate fire.

A Symbol has no resemblance between the signifier and the signified. The connection between them must be culturally learned. Numbers and alphabets are good examples.

Source of these definitions: Vanseo Design Blog 

A brief introduction to icons, indexes and symbols:



Icon, index, symbol: blog task

Create a new blogpost called 'Semiotics: icon, index, symbol blog task'

1) Find three examples for each: icon, index and symbol. Provide images or links.

Icon:

Index:

Symbol: 

2) Why are icons and indexes so important in media texts?

3) Why might global brands try and avoid symbols in their advertising and marketing?

4) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) where the producer has accidentally communicated the wrong meaning using icons, indexes or symbols. Why did the media product fail? (This web feature on bad ads and marketing fails provides some compelling examples).

5) Find an example of a media text (e.g. advert) that successfully uses icons or indexes to create a message that can be easily understood across the world.

Complete for homework if you don't finish this during the lesson - due next Monday.