10.Analyse the ways in which at least one group of people is ‘mediated’(Jun ’12)

10.Analyse the ways in which at least one group of people is ‘mediated’(Jun ’12) 

intro what mediation is "The process by which the institutions or individual or a technology comes between events that happen in the world and the audience that receive this representation". A representation is shown to be reality to the audience. 

para 1 historical film television quadrophenia - Jordaan & Jordaan (1993) of youth subcultures that they want a sense of belonging and pressure to conform for example jimmy is a mod but does not want to speak to his old friend because he is a rocker, they all dress in certain ways to give themselves a new identity mods ride scooters where rockers ride motorbikes wear leather different music tastes grange hill - hegemonic values are reinforced the youths behave to the adults and do what they say, this is how society wants children to be 

para 2 contemporary ill manors -  london riots - reflective representation acland ideology of protection shown as delinquent there violent need to be controlled the news shows these events as if they are reality although the news has selected, organised and focused on certain areas and information 

para 3 - young apprentice - youths are shown as intelligent, well mannered, organised and mature 

4th Feb Homework

 Describe the ways in which your project work was aided by your use of digital technology and how your ability to use digital technology developed over time.

What they mean is to cover both your AS year and A2 year. Include research and planning as well as construction in  our answer, and do not forget to state what products you are talking about. 

In the first and second year digital technology has evidently played a huge part in the construction of out media texts, along with the research and planning. From the beginning of the first year through to now my skills have improved with digital technology in regards to using it efficiently and quickly and with more creativity in my media texts. 

20th Jan Homework

Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions. 

In the first year of the course, me and my group created a media text of a horror film opening. This was called Scarlett, the basic storyline of our film opening was a group of five teenagers drinking alcohol in a park, things turn badly when a doll comes and kills them one by one. 

In our film opening we incorporated the narrative theory of Todorov, this is an equilibrium, a disruption of that equilibrium, a recognition of the disruption, the attempt to repair the disruption and the new equilibrium. In our film opening we had the equilibrium of the group of teenagers having a good time and laughing, we then used a flash forward to show the disruption of the equilibrium and the events that were going to follow. As this was only a film opening we couldn't reveal the whole narrative and therefore didn't show every stage of Todorov's theory. The flash forward showed the last teenager who was the only one alive, the audience connoted from this that the rest of her group of friends had been killed off. The film opening then returned to the present time, and all the teenagers are shown back when there are in the park having a good time.

We also used Propps narrative theory of characters having roles to play which he had been influenced by fairytales, These characters are to have a role of a villain, a hero, a heroine and so on, we included a villian who was the main character, Scarlett, the doll that kills off the teenagers one by one and the last teenager who is shown in the flash forward could be the hero, however this is not something we could show in the film opening as we had to keep the audience guessing in order for them to want to watch the rest of the film.

In our film opening I think we used Todorov's theory well by incorporating the flash forward, as we showed the equilibrium, the disruption of the equilibrium and then returning to the equilibrium, although we did not follow all the stages this was due to the type of media text we was creating. Propps theory was not as apparent in out film opening, apart from the villain who was easily connoted as this from the creepy visuals, the audio and the acts she had done in relation to killing the teenagers apart from one. However, for a film opening to work we had to keep some parts of the narrative away from the audience, if we was to make a full film, I think we would have been able to show both, Todorov's and Propps theory well.

Describe the ways in which your production work and informed and aided by research into real media texts and planning. How was your ability to use research and planning for production developed over time. 

Research and planning plays an essential part when producing media texts, as it helps create more professional results by following the codes and conentions used by other producers which attracts certain audiences. Through research I can find out what conventions I need to follow in order to get a substanital audience and through planning I can sort out how I am going to do this and what conventions I am going to include.

In my first year production, I created a horror film opening. Research was very important in order to find the conventions of horror and also the amount of narrative shown in a film opening. For this we was split into groups of three, therefore we could share the reasearch and planning between us, this made certain things difficult as we had different ways of how we wanted to do this when it came to the planning aspect. We used youtube and various other websites to find our information and then put this on powerpoints and word documents to present it for planning. I think my finish media text in my first year suffered and was not as successful as it could have been due to the lack of research and planning being done properly and effectively. Going into my second year I created make-up advert, and realised the importance of research and planning from my first year. There was a lot more to do as this year we was working individually, althought this meant we could create our media text the way we liked. Also by doing an advert we had to do research and planning for two adverts, and ancillary tasks which was a sponsorship seqeunce and web pop-up. I went into more detail when it came to finding out information about target audience using websites such as barb.co.uk to look at specific channels and tv programmes that relates to my age range of 16-24 year-old females, this helped with my ancillary task when finding a tv programme to sponsor and on what channel. I found that programmes such as new girl and 90210 were popular, and E4 attracted a lot of viewers from my target audience therefore I decided to use the E4 channel and 90210 as the programme to sponsor.

Health check - discuss the way that women are represented in the media

Women have always been represented through media as maternal, seeking marriage or judged on for their looks. 

To begin i will use the music video Blurred Lines to show how women are represented. In this video we see attractive half naked women dancing around men, instantly they are being represented as attractive and sexualised. This conforms to Laura Mulvey 1975 theory of the male gaze, this says that women are objectified in the media, this media text is largely about the men being statisfied by the girls, this futher supports her theory that the media is made by men for men. 

The women are shown to be very "sexy". This is portrayed through they're make-up of red lipstick and they're clothing. The lip stick can be read into further, as this colour can infer love, passion and attractiveness, this all conforms to the stereotypes of women. This whole media product is based on the women's looks, which is Richard Dyers theory, who says that we treat others on how they are represented, therefore from this mediation we would treat women with less respect and treat them in regard to their looks.

Secondally I will look into the historic film of a Brief Encounter. This representation is very different to the previous one. The character of Lauren conforms to the maternal stereotypes of women as she has a family, two children and a husband. She cooks, cleans, looks after the children and this is shown when the welfare of one of her children is at risk and she shows lots of concern. She is also shown to do her make-up and look at her own refelction to make sure she looks alright. 

Lauren is shown to listen to the men and her husband in particular. This represents women as very passive and that women accept that they should do what they're told by men, and this tells other women in the audience how they should be and tells men they can tell women what the can do. The theory of John Berger 1972 focuses on the "Ways Of Seeing" this is how men look at women, and women see themselves being looked at by men and they are aware that they are being seen from a males point of view. Also compared to the men in the film there is a clear distinction between men and women, the men are employed and the woman isn't.  

Thirdly I will look at the film Sket and the slightly different representations of women. This film challenges the stereotypes of women being attractive, reserved, and polite. The women here are shown to be in a gang and are spiting and swearing, here they are shown as violent and agressive which are stereotypes of men. The theory of Michel Faucoult is the theory that our identity isn't fixed on factors such as gender, age, race or sexuality and this does not define who we are, because he says there is no fixed boundaries to categories such as with the idea of collective identity. He also says that identity is used to exercise power over people in order to prevent them from going outside the fixed boundaries. Alothough the women in this film do not comply with the stereotypes of women, when it comes to their relationship with men they are still dominate. 

Heath check - Analyse your film opening with regards to genre

At the beginning of the year, we created a film opening. We used the genre of horror, as a group we decided that this would be a good choice as the codes and conventions were easier to follow than that of comedy or adventure.

We started filming around four o'clock as it was starting to get dark in the winter, we did this in order to use dark lighting and the weather also contributed as it was raining and cold. However this did work in regards to following the conventions of horror, but some shots are hard to see and are unclear.

In regards of location, we used a childrens park. The park was surrounded by a field and a wood, this created a isolated area, making the characters more vulnerable. The fact we used a childrens park adds a 'creepy' aspect to our film opening, as we had research many horror films had used the theme of children to give a sense of inncoence and vulnerability. The real life doll, who was the threat in our film tied in well with the children theme as this was apart of her background story, however we did not use this in our film opening. This follows Mcquell's 1987 theory, and lives up to the audiences expectations. 

The age of our characters were primarily teenagers, of the ages of 16 and 17. They are shown drinking alcohol illegally in a park as they are under age, there is a danger shown here which may foreshadow future events. As we had a target audience of 15-20+ the majority of the audience were teengers, therefore they could almost identify with the characters, we also added a wide variet of personaitys in to appeal to a bigger audience, this allowed the audience to relate and put themselves in that position, which creates mire fright in the audience. Although this was a good starting point to show the audience a danger at the start of the film opening, i think we gave too much information away, as we used a flash forward to show the coming events. We decided to do this to keep the audience interested in the film and watch it until the end however, we would have lost the suspense of our film because of revealing to much in the opening. 

To improve on this I would, change the narrative of our film opening, and surround it around our main character of the doll. As mentioned before we had thought of her background story, and we could have incorporated this into our film opening, many horror films rely on history to scare the audience. Also in order to keep the suspense of the film I would not give as mucho of the story line away, therefore I wouldn't use a flashforward, but instead a flashback to show the history of the doll. I think we could also use Neale's 1980 theory of using the same and changing conventions, as genre is instances of reptition and difference.

How we used representation in the film opening we made earlier in the year?

We made a horror film opening earlier in the year, we used the representation of the youth in particular. We done this by creating a group of teenage friends with different stereotypes of teenagers such as a confident, ladies-man and popular male teenager and a teenage female wearing makeup grown up clothes and trying to impress boys. 

In our film opening they were shown going to a children's park area at night, whilst there they were drinking alcohol illegally. This shows an interesting contrast between them as young children but wanting to be older by doing adult things such as drinking alcohol. This conforms to the dominate ideology that teenagers are rebels and don't do what they are told but also shows them as vulnerable as they have this treat of the doll which the audience connotes is killing them. 

We also challenged the stereotype of women being weak and passive, as the last survivor in our film opening is a female. Having a female as the main protagonist challenges the dominate ideology of men being strong and brave as this is the typical characteristics of a man. Although her being the last survivor shows she is strong, she is also shown to cry and call for help by dialling 999 which makes her seem weak but also practical.

We represented the doll as quite young and playful this makes a contrast between her acts and the way she looks. She looks innocent and not old enough to be able to do such evil acts. This is a representation of a women's mental state as women are thought to be all over the place and very emotional. The doll in our film is a physical statement of this.