Section A, Question B - Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

• Section A, question 1b of the A2 exam is worth 25 marks
• You will choose to evaluate one of your pieces of coursework in relation to a media concept
• In the exam one of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:

- Genre
- Narrative
- Representation
- Audience
- Media Language

Last June's Question:

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.

Macro

• Genre
• Narrative
• Audience
• Representation
• Media Language

Micro

• Mise en scene (costume, props, location)
• Lighting
• Camera Angle, movement, position
• Editing
• Sound

Genre

Genres are categories or types of media text. Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions:

• Iconographies
• Narrative
• Representations
• Ideologies

Which of the above codes/conventions does your c/w use and how?

Genre and Audience

• Genre offers audiences a structure of framework
• Audiences gain enjoyment from "spotting the conventions" (repetition) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre
• If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken
• Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for predictable features

How did you use genre to offer your audience a framework? Do you think your target audience enjoyed spotting the conventions or seeing the rules broken?

Buzz Word: Stereotype

Narrative

You should aim to apply the narrative theorists which can be applied to your c/w:

• Prop - 8 character roles
• Todorov - equilibrium - disequilibrium - new equilibrium
• Barthes - 5 codes (action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, semic)
• Levi-Strauss - binary opposites (good vs evil)

Buzz Word: Verisimilitude

• All media texts tell stories. The structure of these stories is called narrative
• A story must have verisimilitude (appear to be real) in order to engage us - how does your c/w have verisimilitude?
• It might seem more obvious to apply narrative theory to a film, but if you created a magazine you need to consider the following:
• How is your magazine structured? How does the front cover lead the reader into the magazine? How does the contents page lead the reader in to the rest of the magazine?

Representation

Everything in the media is a representation - everything we see is being represented e.g regions/locations, individuals, groups, places, nations, ideas

Questions we would ask when analysing representations:

• WHO or WHAT is being represented?
• HOW is the representation created?
• WHO has created the representation?
• WHY is the representation created in that way?
• WHAT is the effect of the representation?

Consider the representations in your c/w and answer the above questions in detail.

• To maintain a representation of reality, media language elements such as lighting, music, editing, camera work and mise en scene are used. How did you use these micro aspects to create representations?
• Sometimes, representations are seen to be a deliberate attempt to create associations and ideas for the audience

Audience

• Consider: age, gender, demographic profile, socio-economic group, existing/new, lifestyle, values, attitude
• Categories A, B, C1, C2, D, E
• Is your audience mass or niche?
• What would the three reactions to your c/w be:

1. A preferred reading (your intended interpretation)
2. An oppositional reading (someone who didn't like it)
3. A negotiated reading (someone who isn't the target audience but might appreciate it for whatever reason)

• Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way - how did you try to please your audience?
• Success is measured by the audience's response to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive
• At the heart of this fact that all media texts are created in order to make money

Media Language

You will need to write about:

• Denotations
• Connotations
• Anchorage
• Micro elements

You made lots of desicions regarding the following micro aspects:

• Camera
• Editing
• Lighting
• Sound
• Mise en scene
• Special effects: visual, sound and ligthing

Choose one page or scene from your c/w and analyse the above aspects in as much detail as possible. Analyse the effectivness of each area as if you were analysing an unseen text.