Media Studies A Level

Evaluation - The Four Questions

In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed: 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? 

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

In order to gain as many marks as possible try to make your evaluation as "media -rich" as possible. Present your 4 answers in 4 different ways. Here are some ideas;

1. A screen- capture using Quick-Time. You can record the screen and talk at the same time to explain the work you have done.
2. Create a Prezi
3. Create a power point.
4. Do a Side Share presentation
5. Film yourself explaining your work

Audience Theory; Hypodermic Needle or Bullet Theory

I found this great picture on the Internet - it sums up the theory rather well!

Audience Theory - An essay plan

We have looked at 4 main theories about how audiences interpret a text.

These are;

1. Hypodermic needle or bullet theory
2. Two step flow
3. Uses and gratifications
4. Reception

In the exam you need to relate all four of these theories to one of your own texts. At Bluecoat we focus on creating a film trailer so that should be the text you use.

A good essay plan would be an introduction that briefly mentions the 4 theories above and that has a quick synopsis of your film idea. Then you should have 4 paragraphs. Each paragraph should outline one of the theories and then link it to your film. Remember you will gain extra marks for giving reasons as to how the particular theory can be applied to your work. Give clear examples and express opinions using technical vocabulary where possible.

Christopher Vogler's Narrative Theory

Christopher Vogler is a Hollywood development executive who is well known for the guide he created for screenwriters. This guide develops further the idea of equilibrium, disturbance and new equilibrium. In fact Vogler created the idea that these sections are subdivided into 12 smaller sections. The illustration below shows this.

Vogler originally wrote his book whilst working for Disney in 1992. He edited the book again in 1998 and as recently as 2007 he re-edited the book to show how his theory could be related to more up to date film releases.
It is hard to remember the 12 stages for the Media examination so concentrate on the fact that there are 12 stages and that there are thresholds ( major turning points ) in the story.

Levi Strauss' Narrative Theory

Claude Levi Strauss stated that narratives usually were made up of what he called a binary opposition.
This means that there are 2 opposite positions or characters in a narrative.

Examples of Binary oppositions could be;

War and Peace
Girl and Boy
Rich and Poor
Civilized and Savage

Clearly these oppositions can be quite emotive!

Todorov' s Narrative theory

Todorov had a theory that most narratives were divided into three sections.
He called these three sections;

• The Equilibrium
• 
  
• The Disruption
• 
  
• The New Equilibrium

The Equilibrium at the start is the way in which the characters are presented to begin with. That means how things are - this can be a good or bad situation, it just shows the audience the status quo (how things are for the characters).

The Disruption can come quite soon into the story. It is the moment when something changes - it is the catalyst that kicks off the main narrative of the story. All of the subsequent action/story line stems from this event or moment.

The New Equilibrium is how the story ends. It is called the "New" because the characters have changed and things have happened. This new equilibrium is not necessarily just a happy ending - although in some narratives of course it is. 

Propp's Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Study the Narrative theories of at least 4 people who have researched and written about the subject. 

A good place to start is the Russian Vladimir Propp;

He came to the conclusion that most narratives have 7 key characters that appear on a regular basis. 
Here they are;

The Seven Character Types of Vladimir Propp

1. The villain—struggles against the hero
2. The donor—prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object
3. The (magical) helper—helps the hero in the quest
4. The princess and her father—gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished
5. The dispatcher—character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
6. The hero or victim/seeker hero—reacts to the donor, weds the princess
7. False hero—takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Be mindful that not every narrative has all of these characters. 

Also remember that Propp was looking at folk tales and not films - so just be careful what you say!

OCR A Level Media Question 1B

For question 1b you will be asked to discuss a media "text" in relation to one of 5 areas of Media Studies. A "text" in this case means one of your media creations - your trailer, magazine or poster.

The 5 areas are; 

Narrative Theory

Audience Theory

Media Language - Codes and Conventions

Representation

Genre

Magazine Front Cover - some reminders.

Here is a good example of how Empire magazine lays out its front  cover. 

Notice that the main image is a front on shot that is a mid shot. 

The title of the magazine is partially hidden by the photo - this is a common code now. 

There is a date of issue, a bar code and a tag line for the magazine.

The main film is clearly highlighted but there are other films that are advertised too. The sticker type idea is also common to film magazine front covers. Be careful with this as they can look tacky if not executed well. Note that the colours of the fonts are reasonably limited - don't go too crazy on the colours!

Make sure that you use a very good camera with a good lens to make sure that the quality is as good as possible. 

As with the poster shots, take lots of photos so that you can choose the best one to use. 

Remember that you need to think about the consistency between this picture, the poster and the trailer itself. 

Photo Shoot for Poster

Here's an example of a film poster to remind you of the layout and the items to include;

Notice that it goes from a big bold image that fills the poster and that there is a tag line - in this case across the top. The title of the film is very prominent for obvious reasons as are the names of the main actors - the USP. Note too that there is a lot of "blurb" at the bottom and that it indicates a release date. 

Here is a landscape poster. Notice that the ingredients are still similar. A striking image, the title of the film, a tag line. Notice also that there is the same sort of blurb. This time the USP is the director as well as the actors. The poster immediately suggests an urban type film. Remember people will most likely see the poster as they go past a bill board or bus stop so it needs to tell you everything quickly and efficiently. 

Remember! When you take the photos for the poster;

1. Use a good camera - with a good lens.

2. Make sure the mis en scene fits the film footage you have already taken -shoot the photos in the same locations

3. Make sure the continuity is good. That means that the actors wear the same clothes, have the same make up and fit what you have done in the film footage. Consistency is the key. 

4. Think about the lighting

5. Take lots of photos from many different angles so that you have lots of choice when editing.