Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.
My prior understanding of conventions in existing media influenced the way that I created my media products significantly.
My AS production was the opening sequence of a thriller and therefore I did a lot of research into similar products to ensure that I followed conventions correctly to make my own product successful. The first convention that I noticed was apparent in a lot of opening thriller sequences was that the end of the story was shown at the beginning and therefore I used this technique in my own work as I found from research that it was a successful way of enticing an audience and films that had previously done this such as Saw, are all very successful media products. Another technique that is apparent in thrillers was flashbacks. I chose to adapt this technique into my own production because I thought that it was a positive way of attracting my audience’s attention from the beginning and as a result achieve the main purpose of an opening sequence. Furthermore, from prior knowledge and research, it is important that there is a hidden storyline within all thrillers to ensure their success. Therefore I transmitted this technique into my opening sequence, by not revealing enough of the storyline for the audience to completely understand what was going on. Furthermore by using a secret/code message “the next is among you”, allowed me to achieve this technique and put the audience in suspense due to the mystery that I was aiming to create. One other convention that I knew was extremely important in thrillers was music, as music plays a major part in creating the right atmosphere and building suspense for the audience. Therefore I used a nine inch nails track which sounded very sinister and dark as I think that this worked complimentary with the storyline of my opening sequence and added to the atmosphere. Overall I think that I applied a lot of conventions from existing media into my own product to make it successful and as true and stereotypical to similar products as possible.
Furthermore, my knowledge of existing conventions also influenced my A2 production in several ways, which was a trailer for a new adventure film that would be released in the near future. One technique which I noticed was apparent in all adventure films was that there is always an iconic object, for example treasure in Pirates of the Caribbean, the ring in Lord of the Rings and so on. Therefore I adapted this technique into my own work, however using a map as my iconic object as the storyline was that the main character was out on a quest and therefore this was appropriate. I think that it is important for all adventure films to have an iconic object as it is often the basis for the entire product and as a result I ensured that my production included one, to follow this important and stereotypical convention. Another technique that is apparent in the majority of adventure films is that there is some form of “adventure” or “quest”, like there is with films such as POTC and therefore again I decided that it would be important to apply this into my own work. To do so successfully, I showed the main character walking out with a suitcase in his hand and various shots of a map to make it obvious to the audience that the central character had set out on a quest. Furthermore, in doing so, it created a sense of mystery, which again is a stereotypical convention of adventure. However, when producing my A2 production it was not only important that I followed conventions of adventure films, but further, was equally important that I followed conventions of trailers. Therefore I did a lot of research into trailers which enabled me to do so successfully. Stereotypical conventions of trailers are that the studio production will appear at the very beginning, followed by the production logo, which I did in my trailer. Credits often appear at the end, and there are a variety of shots and speeds used for different clips often broke down by transitions like fade to black. I followed all of these conventions when producing my trailer to ensure that it looked as realistic as possible and therefore ensure the success of my product. I also knew that the music, theme, font, studio names and all other aspects of the trailer had to be fitting with the genre of the film and as my film was an adventure I ensured that all aspects were generic to this.
Prior knowledge of existing media further influenced the ways in which I produced my two ancillary tasks. My first ancillary product was a magazine cover; I researched into several film magazines such as Empire to get a clear understanding of the layout and then adapted these conventional features into my own magazine. Some of these conventions included taglines and puffs, which I used in my own work to make it look as realistic as possible. I then placed an image of the main character central on the magazine cover, in front of a background image of a map, as I had a clear understanding that the graphology of film magazines had to be fitting with the genre of films that they are advertising. My second ancillary product was a poster. I wanted the poster to look simple with one recognisable central image as my understanding of conventions influenced this because I knew that this is what a lot of adventure film posters do, such as the Harry Potter posters.
Overall, I think that my understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way I created all of my media products, and that as my course progressed, my understanding and interpretations of adapting these conventions has developed significantly.
Analyse A2 in relation to the concept of narrative.
I am going to analyse my A2 production in relation the concept of narrative. Narrative in media regards essentially regards “how the story is told” and can be made up from conventions of genre, character types, form and time.
For my A2 production I used an open structure to therefore leave the audience in anticipation of what is happening and further allowing them to create their own assumptions if they wish to do so. I chose to use an open structure as my production was a film trailer and therefore it was important that the audience were left wondering what was happening to entice them to watch the full version of the film on its release.
Propp’s theory regarding narrative considered character types and narrative functions, also known as narratemes. Every character within a piece of media has a “type” whether it is a hero, villain, side kick or so on. Only one character is present throughout my production and the character type that it portrays is an anti-hero. I think that anti-hero is best to describe this character type because it is unclear to the audience whether the character is good or bad from what they are shown, and though we can guess he is on some form of “quest” which may suggest that he is a hero, the overall portrayal is very sinister and as a result I have chosen to connote this character as an “anti-hero”. Propp also talks about narratemes and he lists many of them. I think that there are two main narratemes presented throughout my production which are “hero leaves home”, when we see the character take a suitcase and set out on his journey and “hero acquires magical object”, which in this case would be the map as the character needs his map to set out on his quest.
Barthes is another theorist who deals with narrative in the media. He talks about a series of codes which are read and interpreted by the audience. Two of the codes which Barthes discusses are represented within my A2 production. The first being the “enigma” code, which is something hidden from the audience, and the second is the action code, which is something that the audience understands without requiring explanation. The enigma code can be used for my production because the entire storyline is hidden from the audience as it is a trailer and they have no real understanding of what is happening, and furthermore the action code can be used because the audience will understand from seeing the map and having the character walking out with a suitcase, that not only is the genre action but also the character is on some form of quest.
For my A2 production, I can also use a theorist called Levi-Strauss who talked about binary oppositions within media texts. Though there is only one character in my production, the opposition would be man V nature, as the lead character sets out on a quest of the world.
Overall, I think that my A2 production displays several different concepts of narrative.
Discuss how one or more groups are represented through the media.
The media portray several different stereotypes of male and female British Youth. It is my belief that male stereotypes are more realistic in the media, however I think that this is also influenced by the fact that there is a lot more variety with male stereotypes in the media, as females are often dismissed, which alone could represent the dominance of male youth over female youth in the British media. I have chosen to use Skins, Kidulthood and Harry Brown as my three texts as they will help me to explore my hypothesis because they are based around British Youth and each have a variety of different male and female stereotypes represented within them.
Historical representations of British Youth in the media are in some ways very different from modern day representations. They are different in the way that previous representations, though may still have been negative in some ways are not nearly as vulgar or violent as the representations that we are exposed to today. Some people say that this is due to the behaviours of British Youth becoming worse and the media portraying these behaviours, however some would argue that representations are unfair and that British Youth do not display nearly as negative attitudes and behaviours as those that are represented in the media.
In Kidulthood I have chosen to focus on four characters; Alisa, Becky, Trife and Sam. I have chosen these characters as they all have very opposing stereotypes and portray British Youth from a variety of angles. Though Alisa and Becky are both females of the same age, and friends within the film, their personalities couldn’t be any more contrasting. Alisa is pregnant, and though at times she displays irresponsible behaviours, we can tell that she is actually very mature for her age and develops a responsible attitude towards having a child. Whereas Becky is the complete opposite and tries to pressure Alisa into getting an abortion, she further craves male attention and comes across as being “easy” and at one point in the film we even see her sleep with an older man for money, which is a very degrading behaviour of a teenage girl. Though this film represents the contrast in female British youth, and Alisa’s character is more responsible, I think that representations of female youth are still very negative and associations are always of a sexual nature which is an unfair portrayal. Both of the female characters are used as sexual objects, as Alisa is pregnant and Becky displays “easy” traits and therefore female characters are viewed as narrative functions, rather than well rounded characters. I think that the producers represented these characters in this way because they wanted audiences to view British female youth as a collective separate to male youth and furthermore to represent their lack of importance compared to male characters.
Furthermore, though the male characters in the film all come across as “criminals” and “chavs”, there is still several different representations of them throughout. The character Trife strives acceptance from others, whether it is his friends or his uncle. However, although he displays very negative and horrific behaviours, such as when he cuts a man’s face because his uncle tells him to, we can tell that he is just a confused teenager that wants to fit in with others. I think that Trifes character is quite an accurate portrayal of teenage males in British media as they do look for belonging and acceptance within social groups. Sam’s character is again very different to Trifes. Sam’s reputation is very important to him, he protects his family – whether it blood related or “street” family and we know that this is true as he beats up Trife in the final scene to prove his “street rep” and defend his name. I think that Sam’s character displays a lot more strength and confidence than Trifes does and though both characters are very different, I think that Sam’s character is also realistic of some British male youth as boys of this age do portray characteristics that are represented in Sam’s character. I think that the producers created more diversity with the male characters, to represent a wider variety of personalities which supports my hypothesis that male characters are considered more dominant and realistic within the media.
I think that overall, both genders characters are portrayed realistically to some extent, although I do think that the male characters within the text are shown more realistically as there is more realism and variety with the behaviours that they display. However, despite the realism in the characters, I think that the portrayal of British youth is still very unfair as there isn’t much positive representation in any of the characters shown within the text.
Skins is another text that I have chosen to use to help me explore my hypothesis. I have chosen four characters to discuss; Tony, Michelle, Sid and Effy, as I think that these characters represent contrasting gender roles very well. Tony is a stereotypical “top boy” in his school with friends that look up to him and girls that want to be with him. He likes to go out and party, he smokes weed, and even peer pressures his best friend Sid into buying weed. He further argues and fights with his dad a lot and tries his best to get his friend Sid to lose his virginity before he turns 17, because it would be “embarrassing” if he didn’t. I think that Tony’s character, though at times can be a bit exaggerated, is actually a quite realistic portrayal of British male youth at his age. Sid on the other hand is a very contrasting character to Tony. He comes across as nerdy and sloppy, and we know that he is not good with girls as he is still a virgin and foolishly in love with Tony’s girlfriend, who would never go for a boy like Sid. As an audience we feel sympathetic towards Sid’s character and can empathise with him at times, which I think despite his character being completely opposing to Tony’s, represents the realism in his character also and that the portrayal of British male youth is in fact to a certain extent realistic. I think that the producers created two completely opposing male characters within the programme to represent the contrast in British youth and therefore for this, I think that Skins displays a more realistic representation of male youth.
Michelle is Tony’s girlfriend within the programme. She loves Tony, but knows that he doesn’t love or appreciate her as much as a boyfriend should and despite her character being loud and confident, she doesn’t really stand up for herself when it comes to this. I think that this is an unfair portrayal of British female youth as it suggests that males are always dominant in relationships, which is not always true and therefore this representation is not as realistic as the males within the programme. Effy’s character within the programme is again very different to Michelle’s in ways. Effy as Tony’s little sister is an interesting relation to explore. Her parents believe that she is their innocent little girl, though we know otherwise. When she goes into hospital because of her drug overdose, her parents blame her brother, even though it was not his fault, but he takes the blame for her (which is a realistic representation of male youth as they will often defend and look out for their younger sisters.) Effy’s character, though comes across as very quiet, she secretly has a very wild trait that she does not let anyone know about. When her parents split up, she “goes off the rails” and is afraid of commitment and love due to her parents separation. This represents a realistic portrayal of British female youth as parent’s separation often affects females more than it does males and this has been represented accurately in her character. Again, the female characters, like in Kidulthood are reliant on males as Michelle and Effy are both reliant on Tony. Producers chose to represent female characters in this way to make the audience feel like they are superior to male characters and as a result, not as important.
Therefore, I think that representations of both genders in Skins are both realistic in ways, however I think that male characters overall are portrayed more accurately as characters than the females.
Harry Brown is a film that I have chosen to discuss as I think that it is a really good text regarding British Youth. The dominant gender of British youth within Harry Brown is males. The males in the film are all vandals and thugs, they take drugs and drink, abuse the elderly, graffiti, victimise people in their neighbourhood, carry weapons, belittle female characters and generally display disgraceful and criminal behaviours. These are all very negative portrayals of male British youth, and I think that they are very unfair representations as it leads viewers to believe this is what all members of British youth are really like. The two main male characters; Noel and Marky are especially represented negatively as they are shown physically and verbally abusing other characters, especially the older generation of characters.
Female characters do appear but are not as important as the males (which alone can represent that the media are able to stereotype male characters a lot easier than females), the females that are shown are used by the male characters as sexual objects, they are “easy” and want to be accepted by the males which is stereotypically associated with teenage females. I think that Harry Brown probably portrays the least accurate representation of British youth; though some traits of the characters are realistic I think that overall representations are overly negative for both males and females.
I think that overall, both genders of British Youth, though displayed negatively, do portray some realistic representations. However the representations of male youth are portrayed more realistically than females as the attitudes and behaviours that they display are a lot more accurate and there is also a lot more variety with the representations. I think that future media texts will continue to follow this trend as historic and modern texts have all done so.