Jason Satham play the hard nut, action man in the transporter films. He's your typical action hero, full of fighting, determination, power and grit. He wins every fight, constantly taking his shirt off, has a never stay down attitude and always gets the girl.

Angelina Jolie plays Lara Croft in Tomb Raider; A british archeologist always on the lookout for ancient relics. She wears very little considering how often she's outdoors and uses her physical attractiveness often in the films to get her own way.

Heather is a character in Eastenders who isn't your everyday on screen female. Respectfully she isn't the most attractive woman and prefers to eat, drink and have a laugh over the normal womanly habits. She does possess some rather manly traits but is a well loved character nonetheless.

Jonah Hill plays Aaron Green, a low level talent scout at records company. He again isn't really in any sort of fit physical state and doesn't possess any of the macho, play hard work hard characteristics. instead he's a funny, honest and somewhat unlucky character, who never fails to make an audience laugh.



Joey Tribbiani is a character in the television series Friends. He's a dopey yet well loved character who loves the ladies and his food yet also values his morals highly. I'd compare myself to Joey because he loves food - as do i, even though he's a relaxed and fun loving guy he still has morals and values and always sticks by them, even if they're not the most ethical or if they even make any sense at all, he always sticks by them and stays true to himself.



Exam overview

G322: Key media concepts examination

Section A

Assessing your media textual analysis skills and understanding of the representation using a short unseen moving image extract

Section B

Knowledge and understanding of media institutions and their production processes, distribution strategies, use of technologies and related issues concerning audience reception and consumption of media texts

Exam: 2 hours (30min viewing and making notes on image extract, watched 4 times)

Two compulsory questions, marked 50 50 with total of 100 marks

Two section to the paper

Section A: textual analysis and representation (50marks)

Section B: institutions and audiences (50marks)

Section A: Textual analysis and representation

You will be shown and unseen moving image extract with one compulsory question dealing with textual analysis. You will be asked to focus this analysis on the creation of a specific representation that you will be given in the exam

Areas of focus:

·         Camera angle, shot, movement and composition

·         Mise-en-scene

·         Editing

·         Sound

Areas of representation (only one representation will be covered in the exam:

·         Gender

·         Age

·         Ethnicity

·         Sexuality

·         Class and status

·         Physical ability/disability

·         Regional identity

Marking criteria (section A and B)

• Explanation/analysis/argument (20marks)
• Use of examples (20marks)
• Use of terminology (10marks)

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Stuart Hall (1950) created this audience theory - Encode + Decode.





Hall himself referred to several 'linked but distinctive moments - production, circulation, distribution/consumption, reproduction' (Hall 1980, 128) as part of the 'circuit of communication' (a term which clearly signals the legacy of Saussure). Corner adds that the moment of encoding and that of decoding 'are socially contingent practices which may be in a greater or lesser degree of alignment in relation to each other but which are certainly not to be thought of... as 'sending' and 'receiving' linked by the conveyance of a 'message' which is the exclusive vehicle of meaning'

In order to fully appreciate the part representation plays in a media text you musct consider:

• Who produced it?
• What/who us represented in the text?
• How is that thing being represented?
• Why was this particular representation (this shot, framed from this angle, this story phrased in these terms, etc) selected, and what might the alternatives have been?
• What frame of reference does the audience use when understanding the representation?

Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:

• Beauty (within narrow conventions)
• Size/physique (again, whithin narrow conventions)
• Sexuality (as expressed by the above)
• Emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
• Relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom)

Representations of Masculinity.

'Masculinity' is a concept that is made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity. Representations of men across all media tend to focus on the following:

• Strength - physical and intellectual
• Power
• Sexual attractiveness (which may be based on the above)
• Pyhsique
• Independence (of thought, action)

Representation in the Media
By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us. When studying the media it is vital to remember this - every media form, from a home video to a glossy magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience. However, it is important to note that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artificial texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two-way process: producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

Masculine	Feminine
Physically strong	Caring
Macho	Emotional
Determined	Organised
Sporty	Stubborn
Independent	Maternal
Lazy	Fashion
Brash	Petite
Proud	Argumentative

Masculine	Feminine
Football	Hair and beauty
Beer	Shopping
Mechanic	Shoes
Rugby	Make up
Gaming	Dresses
Trainers	Handbags
Mirror	Books
Cars	Accessories
Paparazzi	Journalism
DIY	Perfume

Production Rules

180 degree rule.

If Mason(orange shirt in the diagram) is on the left and PJ(blue shirt) is on the right, then Mason should be facing right at all times, even when PJ is off the edge of the frame, and PJ should always be facing left. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that PJ is now on the left side and Mason is on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.

Match on Action

When filming the camera moves from postion to position whilst making sure the movement flows.

Continuity editing

Continuity editing is the predominant style of editing in narrative cinema and television. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

Eye-line match

This shot makes the audience want to see what the character on-screen is seeing.

TV Drama Definition

A Tv drama is a television program that consists of content that is normally fictional, yet often focuses and revolves around everyday situations and lifestyles.

TV Dramas	Genre	Narrative	Channel	Time
Eastenders	Family	Affairs	BBC 1	8.00pm
Hollyoaks	Teen	Murder	Channel 4	6.30pm
One Tree Hill	Teen	Affairs	E4	9.00pm
Ugly Betty	Family	Office conflict	E4	9.00pm
Holby City	Medical	Illness	BBC 1	9.00pm
Waterloo road	Family	Adolescence	BBC 1	8.00pm
Coronation street	Family	Affairs	ITV 1	7.30pm
90210	Teen	Drunk driving	E4	10.00pm
Misfits	Teen	Murder	E4	10.00pm

Shots, angles, movements and compositions



Shots

 


Establishing shot – An establishing shot in film and television sets up, or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects

    

Master shot - A master shot is a film recording of an entire dramatized scene, from start to finish, from an angle that keeps all the players in view.







Close-up - A photograph or a film or television shot in which the subject is tightly framed and shown at a relatively large scale

Mid-shot – A medium shot in photography, film, or videotape production, shot where the subject and background share equal dominance in the picture.



Long shot - A camera shot taken at a relatively great distance from the subject and permitting a broad view of a scene.



Wide shot – A video or film recording made with the camera positioned to observe the most action in the performance.



Two-shot - A medium-range camera shot of two people





Aerial shot – Aerial shots are usually done with a crane or with a camera attached to a special helicopter to view large landscapes. This sort of shot would be restricted to exterior locations. A good area to do this shot would be a scene that takes place on a building.



Over the shoulder - In film or video, an over the shoulder shot (also over shoulder, OS, OTS, or third-person shot) is a shot of someone or something taken over the shoulder of another person.


Angle

High angle - A high angle shot is usually when the camera is located above the eyeline.

With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject and the point of focus often get "swallowed up" by the setting. High angle shots also make the figure or object seem vulnerable or powerless.

Low angle - In cinematography, a low-angle shot, is a shot from a camera positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eyeline, looking up.

Canted angle - A camera angle which is deliberately slanted to one side, sometimes used for dramatic effect to help portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc.

Composition

Deep focus- is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image — that is, how much of it appears sharp and clear. Consequently, in deep focus the foreground, middle-ground and background are all in focus



Shallow focus -Shallow focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique incorporating a small depth of field. In shallow focus one plane of the image is in focus while the rest is out of focus. Shallow focus is typically used to emphasize one part of the image over another