Oliver Twist (social class)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEAUjTTT_8M

Representations of Class lesson 1

Representations of class from Jodie Turnbull

Representation of Sexuality - Sugar Rush

http://tvdrama.posthaven.com/sugar-rush-sexuality

Sugar rush stills from nicolanais

Representation of Sexuality

Representation of Sexuality from nicolanais

Fingersmith Exam Extract

 
G322 Fingersmith from Stephen Adams on Vimeo.

Exemplar Essay from Fingersmith:

In the clip, ‘Fingersmith’ the audience is being presented with an issue about sexuality. This clip is set in Victorian times, when being homosexual was very taboo for women and even illegal for men. In this clip, we are being presented with the issue of a woman, Maude, repressing her sexual feelings. The audience is instantly meant to be sympathetic towards Maude and this is known because she is the voiceover. The audience is being told of her secretive feelings through her voiceover, making them feel as though they are being trusted and are already on her side.

The first frame is a two shot of Maude and the woman she has feelings for. This two shot immediately demonstrates their unity as women. The audience immediately told by the voiceover of her feelings for this woman and this two shot reinforces the fact that this is an issue of homosexuality. The audience sympathises with Maude from the very beginning of the clip mainly due to the voiceover.

The director uses piano and violin while Maude talks about the thoughtful act the other woman did with her uncles’ books. Piano and violin are also used when Maude is lying next to the woman, almost stroking her, to emphasise this romantic and meaningful setting and furthermore to highlight Maude’s romantic feelings for the woman. The slow zoom on the women when they are in bed together, Maude resisting touching her, symbolizes how meaningful this moment is to Maude and making the audience empathise with Maude because she cannot romantically touch the one she loves. The focus on Maude’s hands is significant because she is wearing white gloves. These white gloves represent her purity and innocence. She wears these gloves even when trying to touch her, highlighting her sexual repression.

The director uses fading when moving on to a new scene and this constant use of fading represents how meaningful these moments are and dramatises them to provide sympathy for Maude from the audience.

In the next scene Maude is shown through a close-up, painting outside in a field watching the female character. While painting the sounds of singing birds is used, conveying a natural environment and signifying how Maude’s feelings are natural for her. The male character is then quickly introduced, emphasizing a binary opposite of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The first shot of the man shots him standing in between the women, thus suggesting that he will cause conflict.

The binary opposite between homosexuality and heterosexuality are again emphasized when the male character notices Maude looking at the womens breast, through the use of a close-up. When Maude realises she has not repressed her feelings successfully, she drops red paint from her brush. This red paint connotes danger and possibly foreshadows death. The use of flutes becoming louder and high-pitched highlight the tension and discomfort Maude is feeling now that she has exposed herself. Once the male character realises Maude’s feelings, cello, violin and flute are dramatically used to highlight his power in the narrative. The music then stops abruptly when the male character grabs Maude, emphasising that she is now in danger and gaining sympathy from the audience due to this aggressive male dominance.

After threatening Maude, the male character then takes Maude’s glove off. Maude has worn this white glove, a symbol of her purity and innocence, constantly throughout the clip and therefore this glove taking symbolizing her innocence being taken away, making the audience feel empathy for her.

The clip then fades again, indicating a transition into a romantic setting, and the female character is undressing. The setting is romantic once again, with violins playing throughout and a hot fire and candle is also placed in the shot to reinforce this intimate setting. The low-key lighting highlights how deep and secretive Maude’s feelings for this woman are and this low lighting is consistently used whenever the women are together, highlighting Maude’s true feelings and thus making the audience sympathise with her.

While the female character is undressing, the audience sees her through a point of view shot, therefore making them truly aware of Maude’s intimate feelings for this woman and thus making them feel empathy for her.

The clip ends with a close-up of Maude in her bed with her gloved hand close to her mouth, emphasizing how she is desperately trying to repress her homosexual feelings. The director has used this final close-up to let the audience know that this is who they should still sympathise with.

The director has clearly used camera, mise-en-scene, sound and editing to address the binary opposites of homosexuality and heterosexuality, and unsympathetic and sympathetic characters.

Another Exemplar Essay from Fingersmith:

SOME NOTES BELOW FROM CLASS DISCUSSION 2015

Useful Youtube Channel to follow

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXfqzVEZr0XaZLWG3_HniA

A Helpful Video about making notes and deconstructing texts

Representation of Ethnicity - Creative Task

You have been commissioned to write the following;






An academic analsysis of how ethnicity is represented in the American TV drama Treme http://www.hbo.com/treme for A Level Media students to feature in the latest edition of Media Magazine https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/






You should use exmples from this extract to form your analysis











Your analysis should include screen shots and detailed reference to the micro elements sound, cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene. Your completed article should be put into InDesign with a suitable page layout provided.


Read the example articles given out in class to give you an idea of how to structure you writing and how to devise an appropriate layout.


You have 2 lessons to complete the activity. Work should be exported as a PDF and printed out for your notes.

Representation of Ethinicty

https://youtu.be/t2U2ycG3JOs

Representation of Gender. Peer Teaching

Team 1.

How is gender represented in this extract?

Team 2.

How is gender represented in this extract?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=105Id1KOzRI

from 48 minutes to approx 58 minutes 30.

Representation of Gender Lesson 2.

OCR Hustle Jan 2011 from Andrew Coles on Vimeo.

TASK

Answer the following question through still analysis (annotate screenshots from the extract commenting on how the 4 micro elements work together and construct representations of gender).

"How are representations of GENDER constructed in the extract? You must refer to sound, cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene".

Please print out your analysis for your notes and for a future exam response that you will be completing (over the half term).

Representation of Gender

Representation of Gender on Prezi

Technical Definitions

CAMERA SHOTS

Aerial Shot – A camera shot taken from an overhead position. Often used as an establishing shot.
Close Up – A head and shoulders shot often used to show expressions/emotions of a character. Also can be a shot of an object, filmed from close to the object or zoomed in to it, that reveals detail.
Extreme Close Up – A shot where a part of a face or body of a character fills the whole frame/dominates the frame. Also can be a shot of an object where only a small part of it dominates the frame.
Establishing Shot – A shot that establishes a scene, often giving ther viewer information about where the scene is set. Can be a close up shot (of a sign etc) but is often a wide/long shot and usually appears at the beginning of a scene.
Medium Shot – the framing of a subject from waist up.
Two Shot – A shot of two characters, possible engaging in conversation. Usually to signify/establish some sort of relationship
Point-Of-View Shot (POV) – Shows a view from the subject’s perspective. This shot is usually edited so that the viewer is aware who’s point of view it is.
Over the Shoulder Shot – looking from behind a character’s shoulder, at a subject. The character facing the subject usually occupies 1/3 of the frame but it depends on what meaning the director wants to create (for example, if the subject is an inferior character, the character facing them may take up more of the frame to emphaise this)
Overhead Shot – a type of camera shot in which the camera is positioned above the character, action or object being filmed.
Reaction Shot – a shot that shows the reaction of a character either to another character or an event within the sequence.

CAMERA ANGLES

Camera Angle – the position of the camera in relation to the subject of a shot. The camera might be at a high angle, a low angle or at eye level with what is being filmed.
High Angle – A camera angle that looks down upon a subject or object. Often used to make the subject or object appear small or vulnerable.
Low Angle – A camera angle that looks up at a subject or object. Often used to make the subject/object appear powerful/dominant.
Canted framing (or oblique) – camera angle that makes what is shot appear to be skewed or tilted.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

Pan – Where the camera pivots horizontally, either from right to left or left to right to reveal a set or setting. This can be used to give the viewer a panoramic view. Sometimes used to establish a scene.
Track - a shot whjere the camera follows a subject/object. The tracking shot can include smooth movements forward, backward, along the side of the subject, or on a curve but cannot include complex movement around a subject. ‘Track’ refers to rails in which a wheeled platform (which has the camera on it) sits on in order to carry out smooth movement.
Crane – A crane shot is sometimes used to signify the end of a scene/ programme /film. The effect is achieved by the camera being put onto a crane that can move upward.
Stedicam - A steadicam is a stabilising mount for a camera which mechanically isolates the operator's movement from the camera, allowing a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface. Informally, the word may also be used to refer to the combination of the mount and camera.
Tilt - where a camera scans a set or setting vertically (otherwise similar to a pan).
Zoom – Using a zoom lens to appear to be moving closer to (zoom in) or further away from (zoom out) a subject/object when in fact the camera may not move (so, strictly not camera movement). Can be used for dramatic effect.

EDITING

Editing – the stage in the film-making process in which sound and images are organised into an overall narrative.
Continuity Editing – the most common type of editing, which aims to create a sense of reality and time moving forward. Also nick named invisible editing referring to how the technique does not draw attention to the editing process.
Jump Cut – An abrupt, disorientating transitional device in the middle of a continuos shot in which the action is noticeably advanced in time and/or cut between two similar shots, usually done to create discontinuity for artistic effect.
Credits – the information at the beginning and end of a film, which gives details of cast and crew etc.
Cross Cutting – the editing technique of alternating, interweaving, or interspersing one narrative action (scene, sequence or event) with another – usually in different locations or places, thus combining the two: this editing technique usually suggests Parallel action (that takes place simultaneously). Often used to dramatically build tension and/or suspense in chase scenes or to compare two different scenes. Also known as inter-cutting or parallel editing
Cutaways – A brief shot that momentarily interrupts continuous action by briefly inserting another related action. Object, or person (sometimes not part of the principle scene or main action), followed by a cutback to the original shot.
Freeze Frame – the effect of seemingly stopping a film in order to focus in on one event or element.
Eye-line Match – a type of edit which cuts from one character to what that character has been looking at.
Flashback – a scene or moment in a film in which the audience is shown an event that happened earlier in the film’s narrative.
Graphic Match – an edit effect in which two different objects of the same shape are dissolved from one into the other.
Juxtaposition – the placement of two (often opposed) images on either side of an edit to create an effect.
Linear Narrative – a style of storytelling in which events happen chronologically.
Montage Editing – the juxtaposition of seemingly unconnected images in order to create meaning.
Parallel Editing – a type of editing in which events in two locations are cut together, in order to imply a connection between the two sets of events.
Visual Effects - visual effects are usually used to alter previously-filmed elements by adding, removing or enhancing objects within the scene.
Match on Action - A shot that emphasises continuity of space and time by matching the action of the preceding shot with the continuation of the action. (For example a shot of a door opening after a shot of a close up of a character’s hand turning a door handle)

SOUND

Diegetic Sound – sound that can be heard by the characters within a scene/ sound part of the imaginary world.
Non-diegetic Sound – sound that the characters cannot hear and is not part of the imaginary world of the story. This includes a musical soundtrack or a voiceover (however this excludes a narration by a character within the story – referred to as an internal monologue and is diegetic).
Score – The musical component of a programme’s soundtrack, usually composed specifically for the scene.
Sound Effects – sounds that are added to a film during the post-production stage.

OTHER KEY TERMS

Artificial Light – A source of light created by lighting equipment, rather than from natural sources.
Convention – a frequently used element which becomes standard.
Disequilibrium – the period of instability and insecurity in a film’s narrative.
Enigma – the question or mystery that is posed within a film’s narrative.
Equilibrium – a state of peace and calm, which often exists at the beginning of a film’s narrative.
Framing – the selection of elements such as characters, setting and iconography that appear within a shot.
Genre – a system of film identification, in which films that have the same elements are grouped together.
Iconography – the objects within a film that are used to evoke particular meanings
Intertextuality – reference within a film to another film, media product, work of literature or piece of artwork.
Mise en scene – a French term, which literally means ‘put into the frame’. When analysing a sequence the term refers to everything you see in the frame (props, costume, lighting, colour, makeup etc.)
Narrative – a story that is created in a constructed format (eg. A programme) that describes a series of fictional or non-fictional events.

Theory of Representation

Representation Intro from nicolanais

Representation Video - additional viewing

Dr Who

07 as a Level Media Studies UnitG322 June2009 Exemplar Analysis of Doctor Who Extract

What is TV drama about? (From the Chief examiner)

Tv drama from petefrasers