PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

On Tuesday and Wednesday, as we are doing the thriller brief, we plan, film, capture and edit our preliminary task.

Continuity task: filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom she/he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180% rule.

BOMBS, BANGS AND BAD, BAD BOYS

Representations of masculinity in The Night Manager
In your summer exam, you will watch a TV drama extract four times and write about how representations are constructed. The extract will be from UK or US television, about 5 minutes long. You will have time to make notes between screenings. The question will have a focus (such as gender, age, class and status, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or regional identity. 
The question will look like this:

Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only. 

1 Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of age using the following:

• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition

 • Editing

• Sound

 • Mise en scène

 In today's lesson, we look at how representations of gender are constructed in The Night Manager. We view the trailer here then watch parts of episode 1 in class. 
To achieve a level 4 mark, you need to be systematic in your written analysis. You should think of each point that you make as made up of three parts, as this is how the examiner will award marks:

• identify terminology (eg. "There are two types of close-up shots of Roper in the opening scene when he is presenting a lecture with slides to a respectful audience who do not know about his secret work as an arms dealer.")
• specific example (eg. "One type of close-up features black and white stills of two-shots, with Roper holding foreign children in his arms as he smiles directly and frankly at the camera, followed by group shots, where Roper has his arm wrapped around a member of the local community in a friendly embrace, again smiling widely. The second type of close up is live action shots of Roper addressing the lecture hall, looking sincere, serious and committed as he describes his charity work with refugees.")
• explanation, analysis, argument (eg. "The effect of these shots is to position him as a caring philanthropist who protects and nurtures the community, especially combined with the speech he gives, referring to his role as philanthropist, entrepreneur, innovator., especially his final close-up  where he talks about 'lifting up his fellow man. Mid shots allow for the significance of his hand gestures to emphasise his earnestness and sincerity.")

We read the Media Magazine article on how representations of men are constructed in The Night Manager.

MEDIA MAGAZINE FLM PRODUCTION COMPETITION 2016

Congratulations to Roma Productions (Ryan E., Xander A-V., Ollie M-R. and Milo G.) for reaching the shortlist of the Media Magazine Film Competition this year with their film opening Nine. Their excellent film work was screened at the BFI on 6 July 2016 in NFT1 in front of an appreciative audience of judges and fellow contestants. Their work was praised for its excellent editing, dramatic plot and the innovative use of the drome cam.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the AS Media Studies course OCR J4. Today we cover aspects of the four key concepts: representation, media language, audiences and institutions. 

• Using photographs taken by Marc Riboud, whose obituary appeared in The Telegraph today, we deconstruct the representation of a 16-year-old girl holding up a flower to the serried ranks of US soldiers, taken in Washington, 1967, during the Vietnam War.
• Introduction to semiotics: Roland Barthes, semiotics and the deconstruction of visual imagery
•  Key terms: denotation, connotation

• We look at television drama, our exam topic, and how to use media language to analyse representations, such as the representation of gender, through camera work, mise-en-scene and sound.
• We touch on audiences and institutions, such as by discussing our own film viewing habits, a topic that forms part of your response to questions on the film industry in your summer exam. 
• You are encouraged to go the cinema as well as watch film online. Please keep abreast of current films, how they are marketed and how they do at the box office. Issues surrounding the success or failure of different film genres, how audiences consume films and how social media promotes films underpin your exam answers.
• Audiences consume media to gratify needs, according to Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour (1975): the need for escapism, diversion and entertainment; the need to find out about what is going on in the world (surveillance); the need to form personal relationships in society (on screen and off); and the need to define our personal identity. (Useful sites: MediaEdu; MediaKnowall)

 

Welcome to 1960 and the France of Charles de Gaulle, a country whose colonial power is in rapid decline, despite the Gallic pride and delusions of a grandeur gone by.
In Paris the French Secret Service hire the good-looking, properly-raised, and intelligent but impressionable 23-year-old André Merlaux (Hugo Becker, Chefs, Gossip Girl) as their new recruit. His boss is Moïse (Christophe Kourotchkine, Match Day), the Director of Operations, and three agents are tasked with training him in spy-hood.
They are Moulinier (Bruno Paviot, Détectives), the head of African affairs; Jacquard (Karim Barras, Daedalus), whose responsibility is Algeria; and Calot (Jean-Édouard Bodziak, Yves Saint Laurent), a specialist in Eastern European countries. What André doesn’t know yet is the head of the spy agency is none other than the intimidating Colonel Mercaillon (Wilfred Benaïche, Nicolas Le Floch).

A Very Secret Service (Au service de la France): (L-R) Marie-Julie Baup as Nathalie, Joséphine de la Baume as Clayborne, Hugo Becker as André Merlaux, Christophe Kourotchkine as Moïse, Jean-Edouard Bodziak as Calot, Karim Barras as Jacquard, Bruno Paviot as Moulinier
Photo © Luc Roux / Mandarin TV / Arte

André’s training is to prepare him for tackling the most delicate of missions, from becoming friends with the Germans and keeping Algeria French, to figuring out America’s obsession with communism and preserving the colonial empire. And lest I forget, the one thing the French do better than anyone: going on strike.
What he learns about being the crème de la crème in the world of international espionage is the devil is in the details. France’s superiority comes down to its brilliance in administrative intricacies. Cases in point: answering the telephone and getting the proper rubber stamp.
But while on his way to elite secret agent status, André pulls a no-no by falling in love with the wrong woman. She is Sophie (Mathilde Warnier, Caprice), a wannabe modern woman who happens to be the Colonel’s daughter…(Source: The Euro TV Place)

WOMEN ON TV: THE GOOD WIFE

The Good Wife (CBS/C4: 2009-present)

The Good Wife has run for seven seasons. Alicia Florrick is a politician's wife who has to return to work after her unfaithful husband has been imprisoned for paying for prostitutes with public money. She is constructed literally as 'the good wife' who stands by her man at a press conference, shoulders her domestic responsibilities for her two children singe-handed after his conviction and also holds down a skilled job as a respected lawyer.

As well as Alicia, the series features a powerful female boss, Diane, who holds her own in the cut-throat  world of the boardroom where she plots to remove her opposition and secures her own position of power. She is so successful that she is eventually on track to become a judge. Diane is childless and intially uninterested in marriage.

An unconventional female representation is that of Kalinda, the law firm's private detective who is fearless in uncover investigations and unafraid to use her sexual power to manipulate people. Bold, cunning, intelligent and ambitious, Kalinda nevertheless nurses a dark secret: before she ever met Alicia, whom she comes to serve devotedly, she slept with Alicia's husband. Kalida values her independence and guards her privacy ferociously. She trusts no-one.

All three representations are of strong, accomplished women in the world of work. Only Alicia is seen in the domestic sphere.

RESULTS

Congratulations to all Media Studies students who achieved such great results.

AS LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES 100% A- C (64% A)

8 students entered for GCE AS Media Studies (three A grades, three B grades, two C grades)

G321 All students achieved A grades. This production module had seven students with grades of 90%; the remaining student achieved 89%.

A2 LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES 100% A-B (71% A*-A)

10 students entered for GCE A2 (two A* grades, three A grades, four B grades, one C grade); one student only one mark off an A*

G324 Moderator’s Report: “The centre is to be congratulated for working in ways that are clearly supportive of the spirit of the specification. It was a pleasure to moderate the centre’s work.


“In the film trailer the candidates demonstrated some excellent and creative use of camera, mise-en-scène, sound and editing. In the ancillary tasks there was some very effective use of original images, fonts and layout. The variety of tasks undertaken by the candidates allowed them to fully evidence all stages of the production process and resulted in some very interesting and reflective work. It was evident how the research undertaken informed the planning of the construction pieces. The blogs were very well presented, with excellent use made of a variety of presentation formats.”