This post is for students (and teachers) who would like some resources – videos, quotes, theorists, key texts, key words etc to help them think about the topic of POSTCOLONIALISM, which may appear in a range of creative, media, culture, communications, English, History and other courses.
Overall, this is a topic that concerns IDENTITY and REPRESENTATION. In other words, where does our identity come from? How is our identity formed? How do we understand our own identity and how is our identity represented in the local, national and global media? You can look at another post that looks at identity, representation and the self. But here it is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
In this post I will look at some of the conventions and key terminology associated with moving image. It would be useful to look at this post together with my post on Narrative. In this post moving image refers to Film, TV, adverts, animations, installations and other moving image products.
Moving Image Conventions
Different MEDIA FORMS have different MEDIA LANGUAGES as an introduction it is worth looking overall at what constitutes the LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE – in other words, key terminology – which also suggests that there is a GRAMMAR or CONVENTION or set of rules
The following recognised conventions should help students to deconstruct key moving image media texts and will also help students to create their own moving image products, working within or against these conventions. Remember the key is to know what the rules are before trying to break them. It is also worth pointing out that when students make their own products, they often struggle with aesthetic concepts of SPACE, SIZE and SCALE and I have another post which looks at this in more detail.
As alluded to, when looking at moving image products, it is useful to make a link to NARRATIVE THEORY as most often the key ideas, codes and conventions that are put to use for moving image products, are usually put together to serve ideas around NARRATIVE. For example, character, theme, motivation, empathy, ideology and so on.
The first and most distinctive tool of a moving image product is the camera. The camera is used to create images and although I write about photography and a more detailed use of the camera in another post, I would just like to re-cap some of the key features of the camera in terms of creating a moving image product.
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
Introduction
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. The ideas of codes and conventions are the starting point to think about MEDIA LANGUAGE and has been discussed in earlier posts, remember each MEDIA FORM has its’ own language.
Please note that although genre is often considered in terms of the Film Industry (as it is here) it is a concept that could be applied to all other media forms – music, radio, TV, newspapers & magazines, on-line/social media etc
Task 1: make some general notes on genre
Genre as ‘Textual Analysis’
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.
In the extract provided on this blog post, from the Ballad of Buster Scruggs, you could ask students what they expect just from the title of the film and then by looking at just the first frame of this clip, discuss expectations. Get students to predict particular elements around: characters, setting, lighting, dialogue, music, sounds, mise-en-scene etc. From this excercise you should be able to elicit key characteristics (codes and conventions) that identify this as a Western.
Watch the extract and then talk about how students respond – identity any surprises – differences in expectations. It should show that although this clip follows generic expectations, it also shows how expectations can be altered, adapted, challenged, changed.
In this way it might be possible to understand the notion of CREATIVITY. The way in which new ideas (creativity) emerge from the predictable and expected. It is also possible to identify this clip as something more nuanced than simply a Western.
In some ways it hold conventions of other genres, as such it could be considered as a SUB-GENRE film (a genre within a genre) or a HYBRID GENRE (a combination of two genres). However, overall, it could be said that “genre is a system of codes, conventions and visual styles which enables an audience to determine rapidly and with some complexity the kind of narrative they are viewing” (Turner p.97 Film as Social Practice)
Task 2: go back to your statement of intent and indicate the genre and generic conventions of your film idea
This is a targeted CSP and needs to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (Media Language and Media Representation).
1 TASK 1: MAKE SOME GENERAL NOTES ON THIS MEDIA PRODUCTION: NAMES, DATES, NUMBERS, ETC
Ghost Town is a product which possesses cultural, social and historical significance. It will invite comparison with the other CSP music video allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.
2 TASK 2 Continue your notes: WHAT IS THE CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND? Use ppt from Jodie below
Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.
The aesthetic of the music video, along with the lyrics, represents an unease about the state of the nation, one which is often linked to the politics of Thatcherism but transcends a specific political ideology in its eeriness, meaning that it has remained politically and culturally resonant.
The representations in the music video are racially diverse. This reflects its musical genre of ska, a style which could be read politically in the context of a racially divided country. This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.
3 TASK 3:Continue to build up your notes (in preparation for the unseen essay) by reading see BOTH: 1. Paul Gilroy chapter in the Mark Dixon AND 2. some of the linked articles below.
1. Media Theory for A level by Mark Dixon
Look specifically at pp. 72-73 & 77-79 – Paul Gilroy chapter in Media Theory for A level book by Mark Dixon.Think about the following key terms:
racial otherness (72-73)
post-colonial melancholia (72-73)
the story of UK race relations post W.W. 2 (72-73)
4 TASK 4:MAKE SOME NOTES ON THE WAY IN WHICH THIS MUSIC VIDEOS CREATES AND COMMUNICATES MEANING THROUGH NARRATIVE
You should INLCUDE SOME SEMIOTIC TERMS ANALYSIS (ie the use of signs) which should specifically look at:
You should also focus on GENRE
Mise-en-scene – ie what can you see in each shot
Cinematography – ie how does the camera frame each shot & how are the shots edited together
How the story / narrative is constructed (this post should be helpful or this BBC Bitesize post). Put another way, how could TODOROV, LEVI-STRAUS & PROPP be applied to this music video.
Think about how the visuals link to the song lyrics (is it a LITERAL OR METAPHORICAL interpretation, eg the journey through a deserted landscape, or the way lyrics refer to effects of political and economic conditions)
Make sure you reference Neale! You may remember that we looked at Steve Neale when we looked at AS TV CSP (link here)
How the music video genre uses intertextuality and hybridity to establish meanings
ASSESSMENT
We will complete an unseen question in class. This question could look at either MEDIA LANGUAGE and / or REPRESENTATION. THAT MEANS THE QUESTION DOES NOT REQUIRE YOU TO TALK ABOUT INSTITUTION AND / OR AUDIENCE
Your MOVING IMAGE NEA is centred around a CROSS-MEDIA PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN that asks you to produce the following media products:
A 400 word statement of intent
2 x Film Posters
2 x (1-2 minute) sequences from your film
3-5 web pages that promote your film and include 1 and 2.
Deadlines
As you know I have already brought forward the Film Poster production to accommodate both the AS Photography mock exam and my own absence. Which gave you 3 days in the TV studio and the last 2 days in class (without me) completing your products. Similarly, we put in place some time to complete the Film Sequences production as we looked at the language of moving image. The web design production is similarly staggered as I am away for a few days during this period and our classroom is being used by photography.
As such, although it would be best practice to complete all of your work and upload to the blog by Friday 8th April. However, I will notstart marking this work until Monday 18th April. This therefore gives you plenty of time to finish.
Ok in this section of the course, we will look at the way in which media productions are structured internally, for example, looking at narrative structures, themes, characters, motivations, genre etc. We will try to centre our conceptual approach towards moving image products (film, TV, music video, adverts, radio etc)
To get going . . . WHAT ARE THE KEY ELEMENTS THAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A MOVING IMAGE PRODUCT (FILM, TV DRAMA, MUSIC VIDEO etc).
Task 1
CREATE A NEW POST CALLED ‘MOVING IMAGE NEA’ categories NEA, PRODUCTION, THEORY
As a starting point for theory, let’s have a look at the Ancients with a brief look at Aristotle’s Poetics (see from 3:20 – 4:51)
Think about:
What is the point of art / aesthetics?
What are the key elements?
Define these words and apply to Blinded by the Light, your Xmas Film, your own film idea.
Peripeteia
Anagnoresis
Catharsis
Make notes on ‘The 3 Unities’
Action
Place
Time
Use the video above from about 9:46 and use the following bullet points to help you.
plot vs character
arrangement of incidences (how do you arrange events in a story?)
Aiming towards a goal
complication and unravelling (peripeteia)
Recognition (anagnoresis)
Pathos (agony of recognition)
Catharsis (knowledge through purge)
Key Terminology (ie Kahoot test!)
Linear
Chronological
Sequential
Circular structure
Time based
Narrative arc
Freytag’s Pyramid
exposition,
inciting incident,
rising action,
climax,
falling action,
resolution,
denouement
Beginning / middle / end
Equilibrium
Disruption
Transgression – often disequilibrium is caused by societal / moral / ethical transgression (ie challenging Aristotelian virtues)
New equilibrium
Peripeteia
Anagnoresis
Catharsis
The 3 Unities: Action, Time, Place
flashback / flash forward
Foreshadowing
Ellipsis
Pathos
Empathy
diegetic / non-diegetic
slow motion
In Media Res – starting in mid-action
Metanarratives – drawing attention to the process of storytelling
Quest narratives
Task 2: statement of intent (400 words)
Write up a synopsis (50-150 words?) of a new film that you think you could make (2 x posters, a couple of sequences or even a trailer and a few web pages).
The synopsis should aim to communicate the ideas as well as the techniques that you are aiming to use in your production(ie the ideas and key words that we identified yesterday in class discussion).
To help you why not build your story / character around either Blinded by the Light and/or the Xmas film that you saw.
USE AS MUCH KEY LANGUAGE TO MAKE SURE YOUR STATEMENT OF INTENT IS 400 WORDS AND TALKS ABOUT
This is a Targeted Close Study product for which you will need to focus on the following areas ofthe Theoretical Framework: • Media Industries Students are not required to watch the film for the assessment.
TASK 1: Use this post (and the links provided) to build up your own post and notes in preparation for the unseen question that you will take in class. CATEGORIES: NEA, INSTITUTION & EXAM PREP
Blinded by the Light is an example of low-medium budget film making. Students do not need to watch the film but will need to be familiar with the production context and distribution materials including: • website (Bend it Networks) • website (Warners) • posters • trailer • social media presence (Twitter, Instagram, facebook etc). The film should only be studied in relation to Media Industries
Media Industries
Blinded by the Light is an example of a US/UK co-production and distribution. Its distributor New Line Cinema is associated with ‘indie’ films although it is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Pictures, part of the global conglomerate, WarnerMedia.
• Blinded by the Light is a low-mid budget production ($15m) co-funded by New Line Cinema (an American production studio owned by Warner Brothers Pictures Group) and independent production companies including Levantine Films. Bend it Films and Ingenious Media. • Identification of how Blinded by the Light is characteristic of a low-mid budget release, considering production, distribution and circulation • The role of the use of Bruce Springsteen’s music in getting the film financed and in the marketing of the film • The use of film festivals in finding distribution deals for films • Use of traditional marketing and distribution techniques; trailers, posters, film festivals etc. • Marketing techniques such as use of genre, nostalgia, identity, social consciousness • Distribution techniques – reliance on new technology; VOD, streaming • Regulation of the industry through BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). • Regulation including Livingstone and Lunt
The Importance of Film Festivals
The following link discusses the use of a film festival to secure a distribution deal.
The Importance of recognisable Generic Conventions (and the use of familiar music)
Blinded by the Light has been described as a feelgood jukebox musical film using the music of Bruce Springsteen. This link offers ideas about the importance of genre and this link about the use of recognisable music in the marketing of the film, It was directed by Gurinder Chada, a British director known for Bend it Like Beckham
Social, economic and cultural contexts
Blinded by the Light is characteristic of contemporary cultural production in its use of new technology at production and distribution stages, reflecting shifting patterns of audience consumption. As a low-mid budget film, it can be considered in its economic context having a mix of independent and major production and distribution contexts targeting a different audience to ‘indie’ and high budget films.
These videos show how directors, their past work and the ideas they aim to communicate can be important in film marketing.
It is based on the ‘true story’ of a Pakistani boy growing up in the UK in the 1980s. These links demonstrate how the historical context, nostalgia and British-Asian identity is used in the promotion of the film.
As a way of linking some of the ideas that we covered in terms of Feminist Critical Thinking towards the 4th KEY CONCEPTUAL AREA OF A LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES: INSTITUTION, let’s look at Bombshell (2019, Dir. Jay Roach) a story based upon the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. Follow this link for a brief summary of the plot.
Why is “Bombshell” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “sexual material and language throughout.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of implied sex scenes between a husband and his wife, between two women, many references to sexual assault and harassment in the workplace and descriptions of the types of harassment that occurred over many years, and many women wear low-cut and tight-fitting dresses throughout the movie that reveal cleavage and legs to the mid-thighs; many arguments in a work environment, threats of violence, and descriptions of a toxic work environment; and at least 40 F-words and other strong language
LINKING WITH PREVIOUS THEORIES:
You can understand misogyny (the poor representation of women in the media) in the same way you can understand racism, homophobia, ultra-nationalism and other forms of casual stereotyping, bias and prejudice, that is, through TEXTUAL ANALYSIS and the notion of REPRESENTATION.
However, prejudice may also occur beyond the level of text and can be identified as operating at a systemic INSTITUTIONAL intersection of race/class/gender <> power. Such ideas are proposed by Sut Jhally in his work for the Media Education Foundation – ‘Dreamworlds’ which looks at the role of MTV and music videos as a form of institutional / corporate sexism and misogyny
As such, this film provides a narrative of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM, in the same way that we could look at other stories that are concerned with other institutional prejudices – racism, homophobia, Islamaphobia etc. In other words, this film presents a version of the story of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM and MISOGYNY. It suggests a link between the presentation / representation of the female form and the ideas of a ruling patriarchy (Fox News, specifically Roger Ailes) and perhaps explains why we are presented with the stories we are presented with and how those stories are presented to us.
In other words, it helps to explain the ideas of Louis Althusser in that the ruling ideas emerge from elements of the Ideological State Apparatus (look at the connection between Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump etc) and those ideas shape who we are, what we could be, want to be etc by a mechanism that he calls INTERPELLATION. For a visual representation of this watch the sequence in Bombshell where we see how the presenters are encouraged to dress and the way in which the choice of camera angles are used to reinforce this particular dress code.
Again you can see a visual representation of this in Bombshell, for example, Roger Ailes talks about the media as ‘the most competitive industry in the world’, which means consent to a number of suspect practices – ranging from sexual favours (Roger Ailes and others at Fox News) to eating liberal food or wearing a hoodie (Mrs Ailes working practices as a publisher)! And don’t forget the opening sequence which clearly places Ailes at the centre of corporate and government power – Murdoch, Trump, Reagan, Bush etc.
Arguments presented against sexism and misogyny (ie the hegemonic struggle re: Gramsci) are raised through Feminist Critical Thinking and we have looked at early feminist movements as well as 2nd, 3rd and 4th wave feminist critics. We have even looked at theories of gender representation that look beyond binary gender values (male/female), which can termed as intersectionality, which first emerged as Queer Theory.
This is an NEA (non examined assessment) task otherwise known as coursework. In other words, it is a good way to understand an area of Media Studies (in this case Advertising) and to prepare you for your A level coursework, which we will do in later in this A level course.
You have 2 weeks to produce some advertising coursework / NEA
You need to submit a statement of intent (it is worth 10 marks) guidance below
You need to PRINT OUT YOUR WORK – if not you will not get any marks. This is print work and the expectation for your real coursework is to print your work out. So let’s set that expectation now!
You will need to produce 2 x Portrait A4 magazine adverts
Your adverts will follow professional conventions and look realistic and convincing.
Try to create a new product (ie change or hide the label?) but if not don’t worry too much.
You need to produce a contemporary and a historical print advert.
You need to produce a radical and a reactionary advert.
Make sure your adverts are produced at a high resolution 300 dpi so that the final quality is a professional standard.
We are also going to try and produce a short video advert.
Task 1: statement of intent
Upload a statement of intent to your blog. It is worth 10 marks. It needs to be 500 words. So perhaps write about: what your intentions are (100 words), focusing in particular on: Media Language (codes, conventions, signs, elements of real print product). Put another way: how did if follow your style model? (100 words). Representation / content (use key language) (100 words). Audience, ie what kind of audience would consume it? (Again, 100 words). Institution: What kind of company would make your product? 100 words.
This will be assessed with the products and will allow you to explain the ways in which you will apply knowledge and understanding of media language and media representation to your products, how your products will target the intended audience, reflect the industry context they are created for This is a compulsory element of the non-exam assessment and you must complete the Statement of Intent using a maximum of 500 words.
Task 2: Produce your adverts
Open up Photoshop – make sure it is a blank A4 PORTRAIT document (this should be 300dpi – THIS IS IMPORTANT AS OTHERWISE YOUR WORK WILL BE PIXELATED)
Develop your use of the camera. Make sure you are able to change the settings on your camera (specifically FOCUS & LIGHT) to be able to take a good PRODUCT SHOT.
make sure you are able to use the flash lighting set-up (YOU NEED THE TRIGGER FOR THE FLASH LIGHTS)
Create an appropriate (AND ORIGINAL) logo and title for your product. Think about Font, colour, size etc etc
Record and Produce all of your assets – product shot, model shot, text, copy, background images or textures, any other symbolic / creative features
Task 3: Edit,Publish and Print your products
Edit all of your assets. Think about size, positioning and placement. Edit all of your assets appropriately into an A4 portrait document (I suggest you use Photoshop at 300 dpi)
Post-produce your assets – so adjust as appropriate eg colour correction, size, scale and positioning
Make sure that you save your PSD as a JPEG and upload to the blog
Make sure you print out your finished products and pin up to the blue display board in our classroom.
To add to this brief introduction, we drew upon Toril Moi’s (1987) crucial set of distinctions between: ‘feminist’, ‘female’ and ‘feminine’.
Feminist = a political position
Female = a matter of biology
Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
So in summary, we have already looked at a number of key concepts, ideas, approaches and theories, which can be applied to a range of cultural / media texts. For example, Jean Kilbourne‘s work at the Media Education Foundation looked at visual narrative media / culture, primarily in terms of advertising.
