Med 5 Blog Task 6

The following comprises TASK SIX...

• Carry out a close textual analysis of a chosen scene from your main text and post it up on your blog. The scene should be able to exemplify some of the key points you wish to make in your Independent Study and link with some of the key issues and debates that your text raises.

Think of the task as like a Module 6 analysis but with one text instead of two - so you need to cover MIGRAIN and SHEP and you are advised to watch the scene several times and to make detailed notes before embarking on the write-up. Also, use the Key Concepts Glossary from Year 12 to help you think about terminology to use (see below). You should be including as many of these keywords and ideas as possible in your analysis.

Glossary: Key Concepts/Key Terminology

Media Language (M)
what techniques are being used to make meaning in the text?
semiotics: non-verbal codes, denotation/connotation, signs, signification, anchoring
cinematography, camerawork: composition, framing, BCU, CU, MS, LS, pan, tilt, tracking shot, zoom
mise-en-scéne: clothing, props, gestures, facial expressions, sets, setting
lighting: key light, back light, filler light; underlighting, top lighting, back lighting; low-key/high-key lighting
sound: diegetic/non-diegetic; on/off screen, sound bridge; parallel/contrapuntal sound, voiceover narration
editing: continuity editing, jump cut, dissolve, wipe, fade in/out, cross-cutting, paralleling, cutaways,
montage, suturing (shot/reverse shot)

Institution (I)
who produces, distributes, regulates the text?
production: Hollywood/non-Hollywood
promotion: reach, trailers, posters, publicity, marketing
distribution: mainstream, multiplex cinema/independent, alternative, art-house cinema
scheduling: prime-time; the ‘watershed’
broadcasting: public broadcasting (BBC, public service)/commercial television (advertising, profit)
ethics: (non) intervention, manipulation, ‘set-ups’, reconstruction, simulation, exploitation, ‘dumbing down’

Genre (G)
what type of text is it?
hybrid genre, sub-genre
generic conventions/repertoire of elements: iconography, style, setting, narrative, characters, themes
repetition/variation
appropriation: parody, pastiche, formulaic, homage
film genres: film noir, horror, gangster, melodrama, teen movie
documentary elements: ‘fly on the wall’, observational documentary, actuality, ‘vox pops’, formats
documentary genres: institutional, ‘reality TV’, social issue, reportage/investigative, docudrama, docusoap
development of doc: Vertov, Riefenstahl, propaganda, city symphony, cinema vérité, Direct Cinema
broadcast fiction genres: one-off drama, series, serial/mini-series, soap opera, sitcom
broadcast fiction elements: title sequence, theme tune, melodrama, tragedy, comic relief

Representation (R)
who or what is being represented in the text? how?
gender, ethnicity
positive/negative: fair, accurate, reflects society
stereotypes: challenge/reinforce
mediation: constructed, constructedness, mis-representation, selection, compression
realist aesthetic, naturalism

Audience (A)
who consumes the text?
primary/secondary audiences
target audience: age, gender, ethnicity, social background, interests
(genre) expectations: fulfilled/cheated, subverted
narrative pleasures: suspense/dramatic irony, identification/alienation, stars, escapism, entertainment
aesthetic/visual pleasure
sexual/psychological pleasures: sadism, voyeurism
reception: how? when? where? possible audience readings
appeal, popularity

Ideology & Values (I)
what are the belief systems/messages/values underpinning the text?
liberal values: progressive values, anti-racism, multi-culturalism
dominant ideology: traditional values, maintain the status quo
positive values: to educate, to inform, to create sympathy, to encourage social or political change
patriarchy: misogyny, feminism

Narrative (N)
how is the narrative in the text organized and structured?
closed narrative/open narrative
exposition: recapitulation, foreshadowing
closure: denouement, resolution/cliffhanger, resisting closure
linear narrative: chronological
non-linear narrative: flashback
narrative structure: equilibrium-disequilibrium-new equilibrium (Todorov)
narrative roles: protagonist, hero/rescuer, villain, princess/rescued (Propp)
narrative themes: binary oppositions (Levi-Strauss)
enigma codes: question, disruption (Barthes)
strands, multi-stranded narrative

Med 5 Blog Tasks 1-5

Here's a checklist of the Tasks set so far for your Med 5 coursework...

TASK ONE
Summer Research Project

Most of you have done a really good job here and there have been some excellent Powerpoint presentations. However, there are still a number of aspects of the Task that need more work. In particular, the answers to the Key Concepts questions are often too brief so these need to be expanded upon if that's the case with you. (There should be a separate, detailed posting for each Key Concept). The same goes for Theory and Wider Contexts.

Also, make sure that you upload any research that you included in your presentations that isn't yet on your blogs - including images, summaries etc. If it was substantially different to what's on your blog then you should post up the whole presentation.

TASK TWO
Comments x5

You should have checked all the other Year 13 Med 5 blogs in the sidebar and identified the five studies that share most in common with your own. Then you should have commented on each one of these offering three positive points and one suggested improvement or idea for further research. Links to these comments needed to be posted up on your blogs too.

The aim here is to create a collaborative learning community where you will all support each other in addition to the help you receive from your teachers. And through helping others to think you will clarify your own ideas and understand the specifics of your own study better. Everyone's a winner!

TASK THREE
Video Clip

Find trailers and excerpts from your text (or related texts) that are available online and post up the links or embed a video player window in your blog.

The best place is, obviously YouTube, but there are plenty of other sites too. Start searching at Macguffin's del.ici.ous video bookmarks.

TASK FOUR
Keywords x10

Using the Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary that 13C have received (and 13D will get this week) you need, in the first instance, to identify TEN keywords, ideas, theories or theorists that are relevant for your study. For each one, provide a definition of the term and then explain how it is useful or can be linked to your study.

TASK FIVE
del.ici.ous Links x10

It is noticeable that too many of you haven't been using the list of Med5 links that Macguffin has put together for you that are really useful for your research. There are over 100 carefully selected sites that will lead you to the right kind of infornmation you need for a top grade.

Over the next term you need to have explored all of them but for the time being you need to select TEN that are directly relevant. Navigate your way to specific links within the site (don't just stay put at the homepage) and copy these to your blog. Under each one explain what it is and how you will use it in your essay.

ALSO...
In addition to this you should be progressing with your own self-directed research. Don't just wait to be told what to do - seek out useful information etc. and keep posting to your blog. Some people are doing this really well already...well done!

Welcome Back!!

Back to school tomorrow and the start of Year 13 proper. You'll be really pleased to know that 13C have 'Bush' period 2 on Monday (your very first lesson!) and 13D have 'Munro' on Tuesday, periods 1 & 2.

These are the deadlines for all of the Summer Research Project to have been completed. Check all the tasks very carefully to make sure you've done everything...or be prepared to face the music!

You need to have done all of the blog tasks (for the first lesson) and have your five minute Powerpoint presentation ready (for the second one...the following day).

This includes emailing Macguffin the address of your blog so it can go up on the sidebar. Well done to the following who have already done so (and in the order I received them)...

Ashley, Anika, Kiran, Ajay, Ramneet, Sonal, Puja, Shreena, Rajan, Parampreet, Harveen, Bushara, Kavita, Jaskeerat, Kalpan, Navdeep.

As for the rest of you - click on your name on the sidebar to ask yourself an important question!! We're expecting the answer to be 'No!'