Media Language Essay

Media Language Analyse one of your media productions in relation to media language? Media Language is the language film and television defined by how micro- elements such as camera, editing, sound and mise en scene etc create meaning. I will be looking how media language relates to my A2 Music Video, which is Monster by The Automatic. I will be incorporating 5 theorists and how it relates to my production within the media language subject. The 5 theorists I will be using are Andrew Goodwin, Carole Vernallis, Stuart Hall, Charles Peirce and Umberto Eco.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory is on how there are 5 conventions of music videos, which then create the media language within to relate to the audience. One of these conventions is Thought beats, I used thought beats throughout my music video but mainly cutting on the beat of the guitar and lyrics, this is reflecting a typical Indie/Rock genre based video. Another convention is narrative and performance. Narrative and performance is a key convention of music video’s and this was shown in my music video, the narrative of the cookie monster and how we caught him was in twined with the band performance with instruments playing along with the track showing a link. Lastly there is Star Image this is how the main like person is portrayed as a leader/role model. Our Star Image was used through close ups and meat shots of the lead singer Paul, to focus on him and show he is the main man, the star of our music video. An example of this is where he is singing into the camera showing his confidence and posture and showing the audience how he is the Star. This therefore showing media language to the audience. We have used Andrew Goodwin’s theory and we have followed it and adapted it to our video.

Carol Vernallis is another theorist, which relates to our music video through her 4 ways of video construction to show meaning. These 4 ways of video construction include narrative, editing, camera movement and diegesis. Carole is a adaption of Andrew Goodwin’s theory but more in-depth. Narrative is debated in how it creates a clear resolution and if its disjointed or fragmented. Our music video has a clear resolution of catching the cookie monster with the net over the camera lense shot portraying that we have caught him to the audience. Editing is used using micro-elements such as cross cuts between the band performing and the narrative of catching the cookie monster another example of this is a jump cuts of the band walking up the road getting further and further away using thought beats of the guitar solo. Camera movement was used throughout our music video using micro elements such as close ups and zooms to portray media language to the audience. This included close ups of the star person to portray his significance of the video and also the movement of the hand held camera portraying a band members scared face as he is getting chased by the cookie monster this is showing a symbolic/ Humorous perspective to the audience, this is showing that we have used micro elements to show media language and get the point across to the audience.

Stuart Halls ‘Reception theory’ is also closely linked to our music video to show media language through visual micro-elements that we used. In Stuart Hall’s theory we have used a particular reading this is called the preferred reading, this means that we want the audience to see how we intended the music video to be. One example is that we have a clear resolution of the cookie monster getting caught at the end using the net over the camera shot. Another example is that we have made it humorous as the monster is intended not to be scary it’s a light hearted approach which we have taken, we used the cookie monster from sesame street which isn’t scary at all. Lastly the performance of the monster, he isn’t scary he uses humorous actions such as flopping arms and funny poses such as pretending to be a bird and smiling at the camera. Using these examples we have showed that we have used Stuart Hall’s preferred reading within his reception theory to get the point across to the audience through its micro-elements of media language.

 ‘We only think in signs’ is a theory of Charles Pierce, this is split into 3 types of signs, and these are Iconic, Index and Symbolic. Iconic signs are a relation to normality and abnormality, this is shown in our music video as the monster costume is clearly just a person in a costume not a real monster as that’s not real life, its just a fictional character. Index signs are something that has two meanings; this is also shown in our music video as we have a net over the camera shot, this is portraying that there is a net used but also that we have used this micro-element to show we have caught the cookie monster with the camera shot. Lastly there are symbolic signs, this is the audience’s own opinion of what the signs mean and how the media language of the micro elements link to there own perspective. We have used this by the performance of the cookie monster; him chocking a band member with cookies could be taken as chocking and killing him, or feeding him as a humorous act etc. even if it wasn’t how we intended into to show the certain media language across to the audience. We have used all of the sign theories and this therefore shows that we have incorporated Charles Peirce’s theory of ‘we only think in signs’ in our music video successfully.

Lastly ‘Texts have open and closed meaning’s’ from the theorist Umberto Eco. Open meanings mean that the narrative and performance in twined is ambiguous and not easy for the audience to understand the media language used. Closed Meanings is that it is easy to understand and the audience does get the concept that trying to be put across using the micro-elements to portray media language. Our music video has a closed meaning, as it’s quite a easy video to understand, we have used the language successfully so the audience doesn’t get confused of what is happening. An example of this is that we used is that the cookie monster has killed our band member and we have caught him, this is an example of how we have closed the narrative so the meaning isn’t ambiguous and hard for the audience to understand. Another example is that we have used a wanted poster shot to show we are going to catch the cookie monster and this is an easy narrative to apprehend, so we have successfully used the closed meaning not the open meaning of Umberto Eco.

Representation Essay

Analyse one of your media productions in relation to representation

Representation refers to the construction in any medium such as in the mass media and aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, and cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. I will be discussing how representation relates to my A2 music video, which is Monster by the Automatic. The theorists I am going to use are Stuart Hall, James Baker, Carlson, Tim O’Sullivan and Dick hebdidge.

James Baker – Mediation – how the media constructed messages in its products.

3 ways – Selection – selected aspects to show messages e.g. band rooms, instruments and costumes.

Organised – organised aspects e.g. cross cuts between band and narrative.

Focusing –performance took more screen time less for the monster showing that the band will defeat the monster as its more dominant ideology.

Tim O’Sullivan – Ideologies’ – widely held belief or value by society

Reinforcing or challenging ideologies.

Doing something, band member killed by monster gets caught – JUSTICE

This is the dominant ideology e.g. band plotting to get him, net over camera.

Dick Hebdidge – ‘Subcultures’ – Indie Subculture – Costumes such as skinny jeans and instruments.

Rock – Performance based  - shows another subculture of music

Narrative typical of indie – Humour.

Audience Essay

‘Analyse one of your media productions in relation to audience’ Julian McDougall’s audience perspective of how the online age is affect the audience base as it’s harder to conceive a media audience which is stable and identifiable due to this online age aspect. The concept I will be discussing in relation to the audience is my A2 music video on Monster by The Automatic and how it portrays a certain audience and how it relates to theories. The theorists I will be using are Hartley, Ien Ang, Clark, McQuail and lastly Stuart Hall.

 Firstly Ien Ang’s theory on ‘audience on exist as an imaginary entity’ and how it provides a vantage point of the institution of interest. An aspect of this theory is used in my work such as my label for my music video which is monster recordings inc this was made with the audience in mind and how it links to them individually and how the relate to it. To start my project I had an imagery of what audience I wanted to conceive to and this was Alternative male teens between the ages of 14 and 25 this shows I have used Ang’s theory in my work, due to this its only British teens I have conceived to as it wont appeal as humorous to any other nationality.

Hartley’s theories on ‘invisible fictions on audience’, which then help, produce the product with the audience in mind. This theory is basically the same as Ang’s theory but has one development as the institution has the audience set not just an imaginary one like Ang’s theory. During the planning of my music video I used audience research to help what we had to include in our music video as we had the invisible fictions in mind as well as Ang’s theory. We got the typical dress sense such as skinny jeans and also instruments from our audience research and also from real media texts such as TDCC and Weezer’s track of ‘Keep fishin’.

 In relation to Hartley’s theory there is Clark’s theory on ‘regular audience feedback’ this is done by researching in many ways to gain the feedback to get a valid/conceivable audience. Primary audience research was used in our planning stages for our music video as we needed to see what the alternative male group aged from 14-25 would appeal to and watch, we used this by interviewing the face by face and asking them on what they wanted to see in our video. Some of the answers included skinny jeans, humour, instruments, funny narrative and typical dress and posture sense. Audience profiling was also done as we constructed the primary audience research into a category of what our alternative male audience looked like and listened to so we could get an easier perspective of what we had to include. Lastly using Clark’s theory on regular audience feedback we used a focus group for a viewing of our music video and gained feedback from which allowed us to see if we succeeded in humour such as the cookie monster theme and also to see if it appealed to the alternative category so we used Clark’s theory of regular audience feedback effectively.

 McQuail’s theory on uses and gratifications include the 4 ways of interacting with audience; these include Diversion/escapism, Personal Relationships, personal identity and Surveillance information. We used McQuail’s theory of Diversion/Escapism in our music video to interact with the audience as we used a humours/fiction narrative which isn’t real showing a sense of escapism and also diversion from there everyday lives, these included the cookie monster chasing band member through forest, also a wanted poster for the monster and us catching him with a very very small net showing humour and fiction. We definitely used McQuail’s theory of diversion and escapism as we adapted it to our music video but we didn’t include the other three of personal relationships or identity and surveillance information at all in our music video.

Lastly Stuart Hall’s theory on the reception theory was used in the audience perspective of our video after we developed it. Stuart hall’s reception theory include 3 ways of reading these include, preferred which is an accepted meaning such as the audience viewed it and understood it as we intended It to be. Then there is negotiated reading which is an accepted meaning with some disagreement, lastly there is oppositional reading this is where the audience completed reject the meaning of my video. In my music video I have used the negotiated reading as we had humour in our video such as the use of the cookie monster and fictional storyline, but this can funny for some but not for others viewers showing some disagreement. Again we used the negotiated reading as when we used the feedback of the class shown using Clark’s theory we had some disagreement of the dress, humour and the fictional storyline between the class showing we follow Stuart Halls’ reception theory of negotiated reading.

Narrative Essay

‘Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to narrative’ In this essay I am going to show how my a2 music video production can be related to narrative using theorists and how it relates to my work. My A2 music video is Monster by the Automatic and I will show how this relates to theorists within the narrative subject. The theories I will discuss are Andrew Goodwin’s, Pam Cook’s, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Carlson, in relation to my A2 music video project.

Firstly Todorov's relation to my a2 music video using his 5 stages within a music video to do with narrative. The five stages are equilibrium, disruption of the equilibrium recognition of disruption, action against the disruption and restoration of the new equilibrium. My A2 music video has used this theory quite closely and followed it quite well, firstly the equilibrium is the band performance at the start with us all playing our instruments, then the disruption was the killing of our 5th band member by the cookie monster so this is the problem which has occurred. Recognition of our disruption was that we found out that our band member was missing and then found a wanted poster for the monster and put two and two together. Action against the disruption is that we all got ready and set out to catch the cookie monster for our missing friend. The last point is not used in our music video so its ambiguous it ends on us catching him and keeps the audience interested and wanting for more. Using Todorov’s theory in relation to narrative within my A2 music video we have used the structure effectively but also challenged it with the ambiguous ending.

Pam cook’s states that mainstream narratives include a ‘high degree of narrative closure’. This is closely related to my A2 music video project and how it shows a firm resolution at the end. In my A2 music video of monster by the automatic the end scene is the band catching the cookie monster, this is a resolution of the full video as that is what we aimed to do because of our missing friend, which follows Pam Cooks theory of narrative closure. The ending also uses a net over the camera signifying we have caught the monster this also shows we have followed Pam cooks theory of narrative closure in our A2 music video as we have caught the culprate of our missing friend which is the cookie monster.

 ‘Binary Opposites’ is a key theory made by Levi Strauss, this in close context means basically good v evil and this is portrayed in my A2 music video. The use of his theory of binary opposites is shown through my good v evil theme in the video, this includes the band being good and the cookie monster being evil, as he has caused our friends disappearance. Another point is in our band we all use the same outfits so this shows us as a social group like all having similar indie taste wearing dull clothing and skinny jeans etc. in relation to our genre; on the other hand the cookie monster outfit is all bright and fluffy in relation to sesame street this is showing an easily distinguishing binary opposites which therefore is following Levi Strauss’s theory.

 Carlson’s theory of Music video’s shows that there are many types of clips these include narrative based, performance, and artistic and conceptual clips. In my A2 music video I have used only 2 of these, performance and narrative based style clips. Within my music video I have used an integration of these two clips such as band performance and then the cookie monster story of how we catch him. This is showing we follow Carlson’s theory but also challenge his work, as we don’t use all of his conceptual clips/shot’s. Also in my A2 music video our lead singer is Carlson’s relation to televised bard using meat shots to tell the story to the audience, main character more or less.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory of ‘Narrative relations are highly complex’, this is stating that in different cultures it may not be understood or maybe took in the way other cultures such as ours take it. For instance the humour factor of our video with the cookie monster outfit chasing a band member funnily like prowling through the tress maybe seen as funny in our culture but in other cultures it may be seen as quite a scary sequence therefore showing narrative relations are quite complex and should be taken into account. Another relation to Goodwin’s theory is the cookie monster outfit as it American other cultures outside the region may not see the relevance to sesame street with the playing with the title taking the cookie monster as the monster. So all in all using Goodwin’s theory to explain narrative in my A2 music video I have challenged it and also followed it.

Describe how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework?

Throughout the 2 years of media studies coursework I have develop my research and planning skills, which has influenced my work and creativity within the course in many ways. In AS I created a 2 minute film opening sequence, made to look within the Film Noir genre. Whereas in A2 we were asked to create a music promo package; including Music Video, Digipak and Advert within the indie genre (The Automatic – Monster). Throughout this essay question I will explain in depth about my research and planning development I have done throughout my AS year of this course and then back that up with how I have developed my skills into my A2 year.

During my AS coursework, firstly for research was the brief of the coursework task ahead, this allowed my understanding of my task and what I had to base my product around. I took a real media text such as LA Confidential for instance then I was able to understand that my product will have a good cop/bad cop follow up and a crime storyline. This research gave me the boost I needed and gave me a foundation on what my product will be based on, also I researched the conventions of what a typical film noir will include and portray and example of this is the black and white theme shown in the successful film noir Seven. In Seven I understanded the key concepts of the genre and take ideas that could be adapted into my sequence, including elements that could be twisted for creativity. Lastly I looked at L.A confidential for a second time to look at the opening sequence as a whole to gain a more in-depth knowledge what is needed for the task and how it looked such as the fancy but professional titles.

In my AS coursework planning was key too as this provided a kind of platform to fall back on and act as a guideline. My group and me wrote our individual ideas on a piece of paper, which we then picked the best ideas and used them as key ideas/ possibilities, this then was used in our product with the best ideas used. Another key part of planning was the use of a risk assessment, which allowed me to understand that risks that, would be undertaken when creating the opening sequence and any problems. For example, we understood that lighting conditions might affect how our sequence is recorded, this now allowing us to prepare for such problems and discover alternatives. A storyboard was key to the sequencing of the clip, and created a structure that could be followed when preparing to film. Our storyboard allowed the whole group to understand how the opening sequence will be played out, also allowing any feedback and ideas to be inputted before committing to filming.

In A2, research for my products developed quite considerably and allowed a more effective use of research as a whole. As with AS, we started with a brief of what we aimed to achieve throughout the preparation of our products and what we were expected to achieve. However, this was developed primarily due to the reason that A2 required research and planning on more than one product, such as the video and Digipak, therefore our brief was much more detailed and expanded upon. The conventions of music video's was also a key area of the research, following a similar structure to the reviewing of film noire clips, but now however being much more varied and in-depth due to the flexibility of the dance genre. This allowing understanding of key parts of dance music, such as the thought beats found in call on me, and created a wider selection of elements to consider than film noire. This can also tie closely with the creation of a 9-frame analysis, which went further than simple convention reviewing and allowed a detailed dissection of a typical dance clip for key elements. A2 also developed from AS through the incorporation of new research techniques, such as a lip sync to a video with lyrics. This allowed greater preparation for the task ahead and removed the need for having to learn from scratch when filming, which was slightly the case when filming in AS. Genre research was also more in-depth than that of AS, embracing many elements from a variety of media's rather than a few like film noire. This again establishing a greater understanding of what dance music actually is and the conventions normally tied to it. 

Planning in A2 also developed quite considerably from AS. Drafting ideas were also carried on from the opening sequence in AS, however this ideas went much further than just group consideration. During A2 we embraced the use of fellow peers and social media to gain opinion on ideas on a much larger scale; this is turn creating a much more direct and appealing array of products. Carrying on from this was the use of audience profiling, which went beyond the typical genre stereotype and tried to understand what a typical viewer for the product would be like, and what would appeal to them. Creating a much more focused and aimed product than before. A storyboard was also key during planning in A2 too, again acting as a framework for the sequence to be based upon and enable a rough idea of the finished product before committing to filming. Although similar to AS, during A2 we did develop the storyboard to include details such as shots and specific lengths; thus making filming a much easier process than previously. Shot listing was also vital in the pre-production of A2, giving a outline to what we aimed to use during filming to meet the genre guideline and implement the unique ideas we had ourselves. For example, the use of high-angle shots was noted as something unique we aimed to implement, and was continued into production due to it's listing in the shot list. Finally, schedules encased the planning of our products in A2. This went further than A2 as it gave a clear plan of action for pre-production, preventing losing track of time like that which occurred during AS.