To what extent do television producers attempt to target national and global audiences through subject matter and distribution?
Refer to both of your television Close Study Products to support your answer:
Capital and Deutschland 83
OR
Witnesses and The Missing
OR
No Offence and The Killing
Production company: UFA Fiction
Genre: Cold War espionage
1 season 8 episodes
Was most popular foreign-drama in Britain upon release.
Deutschland 83 is a 2015 German television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who, in 1983, is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy for the HVA, the foreign intelligence agency of the Stasi.
Narrative
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the spy thriller and crime drama – use of
enigmas, binary oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc. – position the audience?
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 has been controversial – particularly in Germany -through its
use of binary oppositions to contrast East and West Germany.
• The role of the hero and effect of audience alignment with Martin Rauch, a Stasi Officer.
• The narrative of Deutschland 83 can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style.
• Narratology including Todorov.
Production Company: Kudos
Genre: British drama television
1 Season 4 Episodes
Capital is a three-part British television adaptation of John Lanchester’s novel Capital. The series was written by Peter Bowker, directed by Euros Lyn and produced by Matt Strevens for Kudos Film & Television Company. The story centres on the residents of a road in South London as the value of each house in the street is approaching £2 million. They all begin to receive repeated postcards with the message “We want what you have”. The first episode was broadcast on BBC One on 24 November 2015.
Narrative
• Which narrative techniques are used to engage the audience in the opening episode of Capital?
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas,
restricted narration etc. – position the audience?
• Capital is characteristic of contemporary TV narrative style in its use of multiple story structure.
• The ways in which the narrative structure of Capital offers gratification to the audience.
• Narratology including Todorov.
Pages 6-9 in the CSP booklet
Awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, Common’s “Letter to the Free” speaks out against a justice system which helps to perpetuate the terrible inequality endured by many African Americans. With a disproportionate number of ethnic minorities incarcerated in prison, the lyrics criticise the money-making “business” of the “prison” system when these institutions should be a tool for positive reform and rehabilitation. Released in 2016, the rapper also worried about “staring in the face of hate” of Trump’s vision of America.
Born: March 13, 1972 (age 49 years), South Side, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Net Worth: £45Million
First rapper to win an academy award
Common was formerly known by common sense
Commons genre of music he records is Hip Hop, Neo Soul and Progressive Rap.
“Prison is a business, America’s the company” linking to how Americas prison system is just a money making business, and how instead of rehabilitation they focus on punishment. The Documentary 13th explains how people of colour were incarcerated for simple things like ‘loitering’ and how since crack was more popular was more popular with people of colour having 10 oz of it meant more jail time than 100 oz of cocaine even though thy are the same drug.
“No consolation prize for the dehumanized” links to how ethnic minorities are dehumanized and wouldn’t get the same benefits as other ethnic groups. Furthermore, “dehumanized” relates to how poorly ethnic minorities are treated.
Cultural Hegemony:
● Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s
Key Terms:
● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values
● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.
● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
But here it is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
The Shadow of Slavery
In other words, postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc – much of which is institutionalised into academic syllabi.
“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“
Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii
He asked if ‘imperialism was principally economic‘ and looked to answer that question by highlighting ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’ (1997:3)
The ‘other’
Kill Bill: The iconic dominant signifier is the katana, this carries the connotations of death, blood and a samurai, by doing this the poster gives a short insight of what the film may be about, the reason they may have chosen to have the dominant signifier carry connotations linked to the main themes of the film is because the katana is the focal point. The symbol of the Japanese characters in the background may act to set the scene of the movie. The katana and the characters then form a paradigm with signification.
Jaws: With the dominant signifier being the shark the poster falls into the convention where a movie poster has the seen or main antagonist be opposed to the protagonist or ‘good guy’. Furthermore, the shark being the dominant signifier generally means that it’s the focal point, by having the shark being the first thing the viewer looks at it may almost guide the viewers eyes to the next thing they see, this poster does this by making the shark act like an arrow pointing to the woman, furthering the convention.
Back To The Future 2:
All media forms have a language, therefore moving image has its own language and conventions.
Students who make their own products often struggle with SPACE, SIZE and SCALE. These are fundamental principles.
The most important tool in a camera is the focus and depth of field (ie how much is in focus). The focus is used to direct and prioritise elements in a shot and therefore prioritise certain information. For example, it will determine who the audience should look at (even if we are not listening to them). It may switch our focus (known technically as a pull focus / rack focus / follow focus) between one element and another. Remember that the elements may not be people, but could be objects, spaces, shapes or colours, which may represent an idea, theme, belief etc (see the post on Semiotics)
Editing is the process of manipulating separate images into a continuous piece of moving image which develops characters, themes, spaces and ideas through a series of events, interactions and occurrences. As such, it is (usually) LINEAR and SEQUENTIAL, although, it must be remembered that moving image products often parachute the audience into a particular moment (IN MEDIA RES) and usually leave them at an equally unresolved moment.
The basic rule in editing is you don’t show everything literally, you need to use just enough information to provide ideas and suggestions for your audience to develop and generate a range of emotions and idea: EMPATHY, INVOLVEMENT, RECOGNITION, CATHARSIS etc etc . . . with characters, themes, setting, plot.
As such, what you leave out known as ELLIPSIS is just as important as what you put in. Again the ideas of SPACE, SIZE & SCALE are really important, because you need to frame your shots with appropriate SIZE AND SCALE and trim your shots so that they are not too long / not too short ie creating the appropriate SPACE for ideas, characters, themes, the plot etc to develop.
The basic tools you will use in conventional moving image products are either CUT, DISSOLVE, FADE. In other words, definitely avoid any trick edits, such as bouncing balls, waves, dilutions etc etc that are usually reserved for promotional or presentational videos.
The use of sequential editing (editing one clip to another) allows for a number of key concepts to be produced:
Montage consists of number of shots put together to inform the audience context to a character or situation.
Editing is the process of putting one element / idea next to another. It was first conceptually theorised as the Kuleshov effect, in that adding one element / idea to another actually produces a third idea / element, which if constructed well can produce in the audience an idea that isn’t actually present! This is the basis of MONTAGE EDITING – often the connection of images / ideas to create a new meaning (1 + 2 = ?). It is often seen as an allegorical, metaphorical way of editing to create symbolism, in the same way COLLAGE and MONTAGE ART creates meaning through putting ideas and objects next to each other.
Continuity editing can be seen as the opposite of montage editing as the main aim is to create a sense of realism or ‘believability’ known as verisimilitude and has it’s own structure of rules where shots are edited together at particular times or on particular shots, as previously highlighted above.
Conventional shot progression – to create VERISIMILITUDE (ie realism, believability) usually involves the following shots (although not always in the same order).
The use of these shots allow the audience to understand SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS between locations, people, movements etc. The length of shot will determine the drama, empathy, theme etc. The choice of how to sequence each shot will determine the AESTHETIC QUALITY of the product. The next sequence will then follow a similar pattern, which again allows the audience to understand concepts such as SPACE, TIME, DISTANCE, MOVEMENT, MOTIVATION, PLOT, THEME etc.
The Shot / Reverse Shot a really good starting point for students to both think about and produce moving image products. The basic sequence runs from a wide angle master shot that is at a 90′ angle to (usually) two characters. This sets up the visual space and allows the film-maker to to then shoot separate close-ups, that if connected through an eye-line match are able to give the impression that they are opposite each other talking. The shots are usually over the shoulder.
Firstly, they include both characters – which are called EXTERNAL REVERSES. As the drama increases, the framing of each shot then excludes the back of the head of the other character and moves in to a much closer over the shoulder shot – which are called INTERNAL REVERSES. Remember that these shots are not creating a direct look to camera. To look directly at the camera creates a very different relationship between the characters and the audience and is a technique that is only used for specific techniques / genres / film-makers.
These type of shots are known as Point of View Shots – POV shots, or even direct address to the camera, and are quite different to over the shoulder shots, close-ups, reaction shots, internal and external reverses etc. All of which are deliberately used to create a range of subjective / objective positions for the audience as they engage with characters in the moving image products. AND NOT FOR THE CHARACTERS TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE AUDIENCE (ie directly into the camera)
This theory allows students to break down a narrative into 2 distinct elements. Those elements which are absolutely essential to the story / plot / narrative development, which are known as KERNELS and those moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed, known as SATELLITES. Think about the way satellites orbit something bigger like a planet. Satellites can therefore be thought as useful to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on, but NOT ESSENTIAL. In this way they are really useful creative elements but not essential to the story. As such, some elements may emerge and play out but actually turn out to be of little value, meaning or consequence to the overall / main parts of the narrative – these can be called non-sequitars. Nevertheless, the use of light & shade is very important in terms of constructing an effective and enjoyable narrative.
kernals- important parts of the plot that if they were taken out the plot wouldn’t make sense.
satellites- parts of the story there for aesthetic purposes, if they were taken out the plot still would make sense.
Although the words proairetic and hermenuetic may seem very complex, it is easy for students to grasp in that moving image products are either based around ‘doing’ / ‘action’ or ‘talking’ / ‘reflection’. Look at this sequence from Buster Scruggs (Dir J Coen E Coen 2018), which is basically divided into ‘some talking’ (hermenuetic codes) which leads into ‘some doing’! (proairetic codes)
The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers. Since it is also a practical device for enabling individual media users to plan their choices, it can be considered as a mechanism for ordering the relations between the two main parties to mass communication.Dennis McQuail 1987, p. 200
Ed Buscombe notes that the ‘kind’ or ‘type’ of film is usually recognised “and largely determined by the nature of its conventions” (1986 p. 15). In other words, the textual nature of the media production. To understand the way in which textual analysis is used to define the genre of a media product, look at any extract from any film.
A key theoretical area that underpins Media Language is the study of GENRE. Genre is a way of thinking about media production (INSTITUTIONS) and media reception (AUDIENCES). Overall, genre study helps students to think about how media texts are classified, organised and understood, essentially around SIMILARITIES and DIFFERENCE. In that media texts hold similar patterns, codes and conventions that are both PREDICTABLE and EXPECTED, but are also INNOVATIVE and UNEXPECTED.
Genres are really important for institutions and audiences.
. . . saddled with conventions and stereotypes, formulas and
clichés and all of these limitations were codified in specific genres. This was the very foundation of the studio system and audiences love genre pictures . . .Scorsese, A personal Journey through American Cinema (1995)
Key concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory
Cultural Hegemony:
Cultural hegemony functions by encouraging the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate ideology. Their ideologies are expresses and maintained through economic, political, moral and social institutions. These institutions surround the people in their every day life, and eventually influence their subconscious into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social group. As a result, oppressed groups are lead to believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.
Context:
● Race Relations
● Thatcher’s Britain
Most narratives can be broken down into beginning/middle/end. Todorov’s theory states that the beginning is the equilibrium where everything is ‘normal’ and balanced and around the middle there’s a disruption where things become unbalanced and by the end of the film there becomes a new equilibrium and everything becomes balanced or ‘normal’
condensed equilibriums- contemporary audiences have a much lower boredom threshold so to engage these viewers films must not focus on the initial equilibrium too much at the start and instead deliver action and immediate disruption to hook the audience
Multiple equilibrium sequences- contemporary media products often try to produce a roller-coaster effect for their audiences by deploying multiple disruptions before resolving them in a final transformation. This offers audiences multiple moments of narrative calm and excitement.
Metanarratives- audience are drawn attention to the fact that they’re watching a story (4th Wall Breaks)
Todorov was hugely influenced by the Russian literary theorist Vladimir Propp and his highly influential 1929 book, Morphology Of The Folktale, in which Propp arrived at the conclusion that folk tales drew from a highly stable list of characters whose roles and narrative functions he defined:
These characters are known as Stock Characters and structure the story/narrative. These stock characters are as followed:
‘these are not separate characters, since one character can occupy a number of roles or ‘spheres of action’ as Propp calls them and one role may be played by a number of different characters’
Stock character’s roles can be organised into