Wednesday, 14 December 2016

LO6 Exam Q

  1. Discuss how far you agree with the regulatory guidlines on the product you have studied.
  2. Discuss the potential media effects of a media product you have studied.

1: Within all media products released to the public domain they are acompanied by a certificate/ age rating given by regulatory bodies such as the British Board of Film classification, this certificate is based on the content seen within the product. The product i have studied is the 2014 action, adventure, comedy title; Kingsman: The Secret Service, due to the violent nature and use of language throughout the text it was governed to be suitable for ages 15 and older by the BBFC and therefore this product and the content will have likely been targeted for a younger target audiance during the production. In this essay i will show the points of regualtion and guidlines which have to be followed by production companies to ensure there product is suitable for the release to their target audiance and more specifically how this is evident within my chosen film.



https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/Kingsman_The_Secret_Service

Tuesday, 13 December 2016

Regulatory Bodies LO6- Legal and ethical

Regulatory Bodies LO6 - Legal and ethical

Legal - Regulation/ guidelines
Ethical - Social/ moral effects/ impact of media product.

Discuss the potential media effects on the audience of a media product you have studied.
Discuss the regulatory guidelines associated with a media product you have studied
'discuss' - two sides of argument/ debate
Regulatory bodies - Is a governing body that controls how something is done or made etc.
                                 A organisation/ group who checks the output of a media product.

It is important to regulate media products to ensure they follow laws and are appropriate for the audience to avoid prosecution and the product possibly being banned

Regulatory Bodies- OFCOM, ASA, BBFC.

OFCOM - Office of communications
ASA - Advertising standards authority
BBFC - British board of film classification
PEGI - Pan European games information
PRS
W3C
IPSO

Impact of content on younger audiances - effects, offence

Passive audience -
Hypodermic syringe (Adorno and Horkheimer)

Uses and gratifications (McQuail, 1972) Surveillance, personal identity, escapism,
Negative stereotypes - 1975 laura mulvey, objectification and male gaze, Turton(2014) Asian and black boys as trouble causes.
Alverado (1987) - Ethnic minorities are pitted, humoured etc.

Chris Anderson - Repeated exposure violent media results in violence
Desensitisation - Becomes normal to audience
Copy cat acts - Collumbine high etc
Moral panic - Mass media demonise groups or people   (Stanley Cohen 1972     GTA-folk devil
Ferguson 2012 - showed no long term link of over three years.


Active audience -
Stuart hall - encoding/ decoding
Preferred reading - by audience depending on their background but accepts the dominant viewpoint/ story.
Negotiated reading - partially agrees with meaning
Oppositional reading - meaning understood but don't agree and think opposite.
Aberrant - gets the completely wrong meaning entirely.

Exam technique - 90% D*, 80%D, 70%M, 60%P
Intro
  • Give your opinion to the answer to the question (debate)
  • Tell the product + specific audiance + regulator
  • Tell me how you are going to structure your essay

20 marks - 5 five clear ponits
  • level 4  16-20
  • level 3  11-15
  • level 2  6-10
  • level 1  1-5




Tuesday, 6 December 2016

LO3: Production Techniques

LO3: Production Techniques

Mise-en-scene
Lighting and colour - High/ low key
Character and acting gestures - links to meaning of representation (stock characters -prop 1978, objectified in media as part of male gaze - Mulvey 1975)
Location and iconography - when and where (show sub genre Barry kieth grant 1995)
Props - binary opposition
Costume - binary opposition. shows character or objectifies people

(Narrative thoery binary opposition -- Levis- straus 1958)


Costume in Kingsman
During the whole movie the iconography off suits and tailoring runs throughout and this is frequently used throughout the piece to show power and roles within the agency. The use of suits could also be linked to the stereotypical gender representations of men which therefore allows the audience to clearly link the character with the stereotypes of suited men contrary to Laura Mulveys theory on the male gaze as women are not seen to be objectified within the film neither are they presented in a derogatory manor. 

Props in Kingsman
Props are also heavily used throughout. Most noticeably the props of guns and weaponry is seen throughout, the use of these has connotations of violence or possibly skill in the way in which they are used by some of the characters. Gadgets are also used as props throughout and are valuable in representing the characters and their purpose. Furthermore, this supports 'Props' theory of stock characters devised in 1928 that states that stock characters are used to provide familiarity for audiences this is because these props apply to the stereotypical spy character.

Micro Production Techniques
Mise-en-scene - what is include, relate to meaning
Camerawork - key three scenes
Editing - Same key scenes
Sound - effect and impact

Create Macro meaning
Genre
Narrative + story
Representations and characters
      1. POINT
      2. DATA/EVIDENCE
      3. MEANING



    Camera Work
    Shot types -  Establishing shot, close up, medium closeup, extreme close up, long shot, medium longshot, wideshot, medium shot, two shot, ots (over the shoulder), crowd shot.
    Angles - High/low, canted angle,
    Composition - Rule of thirds, shallow/ deep depth of field,  
    Movements - Tracking shot(track forward, track backwards, side), panning shot, jib/crane shot, handheld shot, tilt shot, zoom.

    Camera work in kingsman
    Within the car chase scene a tracking shot is used to show continuous action/ motion in the scene as it closely follows the police car, the camera also keeps this subject in the frame throughout the scene this composition results in the audience’s attention always being on the action making it more engaging. The police chase/car is also used to clearly reinforce to the viewer the genre and narrative of the film in the first few scenes and can also be seen to link to the key theory of narrative codes devised by Roland Barthes (1997) as the tracking shot is seen to act as an action code to inform the audience in terms of what is happening in the next shot/ scene.

    Editing
    Continuity (Invisible) - Action match, shot reverse shot, insert shot, eye line match, cross cutting. 
    Non - Continuity (Notice)  - Flash back, flash forward, montage

    Editing in Kingsman
    Within the film a sense of disequilibrium is emulated through the use of several action matches. This form of continuity editing is evident in the violent and brutal church fight scene where a handheld shot combined with the action match connotes as sense of confusion and again enforces the idea of disequilibrium. Consequently, this can be seen to appeal to Tsvetan Todorovs (1977) theory of there being several stages of equilibrium and disequilibrium throughout a text often resulting in the order being restored in the end.

    Sound
    Diegetic (Appears to come from diegis/ story world) - Foley sounds/ sfx, ambient sound, off screen sound, dialogue - mode of address, accent, tone, dialect, can be music from tv/radio
    Non - Diegetic (Added to create emotive effect)  - Incidental music, narration, theme music, sound motif (sound bridge [editing] continuity editing technique - sound across a series of shots.)

    Sound in Kingsman
    In the film sound is skillfully used, most noticably the diegtic dialogue is used to represent the characters and their persona. The protagonist is seen to be of a higher, more sophisticated class due to the accent, tone and dialect used.













    LO2: Advertising

    Ways of advertising film products:
    Theatrical trailers - Trailers before films apeal to specific demographic/ target audiance.
    Billboards
    Endorsement
    Radio adverts
    TV trailer
    Social media