Mind Map- Rperesentation (Question 1B Exam Prep)

Exemplar Essays- Question 1B

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Question 1B- Essay Practice (Genre)

Genre essay

Genre is a very important aspect within our short film that we made for A2 coursework. There are many different ways we found out what we could do within our short film to try and reach the genre specifically for example ways of representation, meeting our target audiences needs and wants, using specific editing techniques, and using a specific narrative, themes and ideologies.

We found our target audience creating a questionnaire. The outcome was that our audience were of people aged 16+ which worked out better for us as well purely because of the topics that come up and the way we represent the youth culture. Also the violence used in our short film we thought would not be suitable for people aged 15 and below, therefore creating that 16+ barrier, also due to the fact it would be shown in schools we needed it to be at a decent age that they’re not so vulnerable to take it so seriously. Our genre was mainly educational and informative.

Therefore because of our target audience we decided we had to represent our teenagers so that our audience could relate well to them. Therefore costume was a very important aspect of representation, we had to make sure they were wearing clothes that people of our audiences age would wear. E.g, heels, dresses etc. The location was also very important and for that reason we chose the location to be at a pub, relating to the older generation of our target audience, due to the fact the characters in our short film were actually teenagers, they could be themselves and we were able to get a more natural short film which relates back to the genre of the educational informative sense because the best educational films are natural, based on real life events. Everyone in our short film was of a white ethnic background, who come from a working class background, aged 16-18. We chose this because we felt we could all relate to this due to the fact everyone in our group was white. We also felt this was easier to control therefore dismissed other ethnic groups. By looking at Halls theory- 1980, of three different types of reading, it is clear to us that our short film was of the “preferred reading” topic, which is the interpreted understanding of the film itself which we got from our audience feedback, having uploaded it onto ‘youtube’ a niche market distribution, the audience feedback we received suggested that we were in fact successful at positioning our characters with the representations that we wanted our audiences to understand. We controlled our audience by targeting people that are of our own ethnicity which automatically dismisses any readings from other ethnic groups that could potentially be negotiated or oppositional (because these aren’t the audiences that we are targeting). 

The themes and ideology of our short film was disabilities, it was to create awareness. We touch upon the theme of British culture as well- drinking in a pub, we also use very stereotypical men, wanting more than they can have, this was shown to be quite a negative way, although we balanced out the stereotypes by including a non-stereotypical girl which challenges conventions by the way she is responding, which is shown to be a positive thing the fact she is not allowing what happened to her to have a negative impact on her life.  Despite her disability, she wanted to succeed therefore she overcomes her issue. She is also seeing that seeking help is a positive theme which gives a refreshing approach to the genre.  We made sure that we made this theme obvious that it could happen to anyone; therefore we set it out in a bar, with teenagers, reflecting contemporary culture. We created a structure for the audience, although we deviated from the generic educational media texts which reflect Neal’s pattern of variation because we were able to push the boundaries and create more interest for the audience which in turn challenges the audience and makes them think more than they would usually have to.

We used a very closed narrative with a non-linear approach because of the flashbacks we used, in this sense we challenged Todorov’s narrative theory.  We didn’t follow genre conventions, we decided to challenge them within narrative purely because our film wasn’t the stereotypical education film in the way it didn’t follow a strict linear narrative. We went against this in order to engage a young audience with a short attention span. We thought this would have a better effect on our audience and draw them in within the first 10 seconds of our film which we wanted. We also challenged Vladimir Propps conventions on the character functions in that the female was the heroine in our production which went against stereotypical male who predominantly is known for moving a narrative forward. However, we did follow his character functions in using Becca (the female character) as a protagonist and the Man involved as our antagonist (the one the protagonist has to fight against who creates all these issues).

We were highly inspired by Shane Meadows films, his use of editing, and his realistic approach of characters, we were also inspired by true events due to the fact Shane's films are all based on real life, this made us want to recreate this sense of realism in which we thought we did to the best of our ability, we tried doing this by using specific editing techniques, although We challenged the conventions of the usual editing techniques because we went against the stereotypical way of editing a documentary film which would be elements such as straight cuts etc much like Shane Meadows. We did this because we felt it would engage our audience to a higher level if we edited it in a way that is more interesting, to complete this we looked at some of his films such as Trainspotting and This is England, to see what editing techniques they used and looked at how we could relate to this, for example slow motion, fast pace etc. We used a verisimilitude approach so that it would be very realistic and the audience would believe in the characters and narrative.

Mise-en-scene is a big part of our genre which we had to consider. In mise-en-scene we had to think of costume which was appropriate that people in schools could watch it and not be shocked etc, but also appropriate that our characters were comfortable wearing it and could reflect our target audience well, for example we made sure there wasn’t much skin on show so it would be sensible and controlled, therefore we put them in tights to make sure we didn’t give of a negative representation of females at this age range. We did this to keep in touch with the fact our short film is an education film so it was more about reflecting on the issues and not on the fashion of today’s youth culture, although we obviously had to take it into consideration.  Relating this back to Laura Mulveys theory of “the male gaze”, we used a panning upwards shot of our female protagonist’s body, positioning the audience to see her from a male’s perspective. Although we also tried to go against this by not showing too much of the girl characters flesh.

Genre gives each media text its own identity and its own place in mainstream society. I feel that my short film fits perfectly into the education and informative genre, we tried to do everything and anything to make sure when someone was watching it they knew exactly what genre it would fall under, taking aspects such as narrative, mise-en-scene, themes, ideologies and editing techniques into consideration and in conclusion I feel I did this well and had a strong outcome overall.

Genre Mind Map- Essay Prep

Theorists & Practitioners

Shane Meadows- we were inspired by his films, his use of editing, and his realistic approach of characters, we were also inspired by true events due to the fact Shane's films are all based on real life.

Laura Mulvey- "The Male Gaze", we used a panning upwards shot of our female protagonists body, positioning the audience to see her from a males perspective. Although we also tried to go against this by not showing too much of the girl characters flesh.

Todorov- We know that his theory usually includes an equilibrium, then disequilibrium and then a new equilibrium, but we decided to challengehis theory by doing g a non-linear narrative, e,g our use of flashbacks and starting our film at the end. We thought this would have a better effect on our audience and draw them in within the first 10 seconds of our film which we wanted.

Vladimir Propp- Challenged his conventions in that the female was the heroine in our production which went against stereotypical male who predominantly is known for moving a narrative forward. However, we did follow his character functions in using Becca as a protagonist and the Man involved as our antagonist (the one the protagonist has to fight against who creates all these issues).

Vladimir Propps Character Theory

He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The dispatcher —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. 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.
6. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Vladimir Propps Character Functions

Functions
After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions:

1. ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.
2. INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').
3. VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.
4. RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.
5. DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.
6. TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim). The villain now presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise. This may include capture of the victim, getting the hero to give the villain something or persuading them that the villain is actually a friend and thereby gaining collaboration.
7. COMPLICITY: Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain now works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain. This may range from providing the villain with something (perhaps a map or magical weapon) to actively working against good people (perhaps the villain has persuaded the hero that these other people are actually bad).
8. VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc., comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc.). There are two options for this function, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first option, the villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim or the desired magical object (which must be then be retrieved). In the second option, a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero's family or within a community, whereby something is identified as lost or something becomes desirable for some reason, for example a magical object that will save people in some way.
9. MEDIATION: Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc./ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment). The hero now discovers the act of villainy or lack, perhaps finding their family or community devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe.
10. BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action. The hero now decides to act in a way that will resolve the lack, for example finding a needed magical item, rescuing those who are captured or otherwise defeating the villain. This is a defining moment for the hero as this is the decision that sets the course of future actions and by which a previously ordinary person takes on the mantle of heroism.
11. DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home;
12. FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc., preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13. HERO'S REACTION: Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);
14. RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT: Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15. GUIDANCE: Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16. STRUGGLE: Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17. BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18. VICTORY: Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19. LIQUIDATION: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);
20. RETURN: Hero returns;
21. PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22. RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23. UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL: Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;
24. UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero presents unfounded claims;
25. DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26. SOLUTION: Task is resolved;
27. RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28. EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed;
29. TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.);
30. PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;
31. WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

Exampler Essay

Analysis Key-
Explanation, Analysis, Argument- GREEN
Example- RED
Terminology- YELLOW


1b.) The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my favourite piece from the whole course which is my horror teaser trailer.

The genre of the trailer is obviously ‘horror’ and this in itself allowed us to be creative with narrative etc but limited us because we had to stick to a certain amount of generic conventions in order for it to be recognised by it’s existing target audience. Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated which in my case was the use of a creepy location of the woods as well as hand held camera and restricted narration to cause disorientation and suspense within our trailer. However, the pattern of variation Neal describes also links to my horror teaser trailer because we were able to creatively push the boundaries by twisting some generic features in order to make the trailer interesting and therefore cause the audience to want to watch the full movie. For this my group chose use a female psycho killer I order to subvert the stereotypical male dominated role. This female identification through point of view shots etc captured our female audience because were providing them with power and this is unusual for the horror genre although it is known for its forward thinking approach as it often attempts to focus on subcultural views instead of targeting the mainstream. Genre encompasses many parts and the trailer links to it in more ways than one. Its use of enclosed location and the fact the woods attempts to reinforce our society’s fear of loneliness and isolation which the woods creates when the three friends get lost. In these sections of the trailer we used a lot of heavy cross cutting between the female victim who is running anxiously through the woods in order to find her friends and get home safely. We also used the Kuleshove and collision cutting methods as the pace began slow as the friends head our in the car unaware of the danger before them and once they are in the woods we deliberately quickened the pace of editing to cause tension and to show that something is not right, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre and reflects very quickly certain moods and atmospheres. Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes argued that the horror genre like many others used ‘binary oppositions’ in order to show the contrast between good and evil in order to force the audience to be constantly questioning the trailer for example; in my trailer I used light and dark to connote their happiness and carefree attitude in the daytime and the darkness to emphasise their fear and reliance
on their senses. This is particularly important to the horror genre as characters are often shown in high angle shots to appear vulnerable and therefore under threat.

Gore or ‘body horror’ is also a common generic convention used by most horror films that we studied including Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero who used it to make the audience feel sick by forcing them to see extreme violence. In my own trailer we were inspired to use gore differently by showing a hanging scene in slow motion to create tension and the centoring in on the face and neck which had been broken and this was shown by the rope burn we had made from latex and the blood pouring down her chest. This shot moves clockwise and slowly zooms in to force the audience to see what the hang (woman) has done. In our final two shots we finish the trailer with the male anti hero being lifted off the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth which causes the audience to assume no one survives because the final girl is stabbed by her friend accidentally which quickens the pace and adds tension but she is the survivor who as Carol Clover suggests will be terrorised throughout the film and finally overcome the monster. This plays with the audiences emotions and links back to the horror genre well by creating our own style of horror. Andrew Sarris argues because it encompasses so much and is key to explaining a film. Genre is the ideas that collectively make a particular recognisable style that draws in its existing target audience. My horror trailer had expressionist camera angles as the female victim desperately trips over the camera and we see her running above it as well as close ups of her facial expression that causes us to identify with her fear and therefore makes us scared. This meant the audience also were forced to objectify the female victim from the high angle camera shot down her top in which we can see her breasts slightly after watching other Hitchcock movies which use the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey to force us to take a male’s viewpoint.
In my trailer we also used an iconic symbol of the noose because obviously as a hangwoman she needed the prop but also as a female the circular shape suggested female power and this is something the horror genre often does but for male characters using guns etc as phallic symbols which we also used as the male anti hero takes out a knife and stabs his friend frantically when she walks up behind him. The horror trailer was made much darker in Final Cut Pro using the brightness and contrast menu and also dragged the saturated colours towards the blue in order to create a dark, dusky night time atmosphere a generic convention of horror trailers.
The generic conventions we chose to use were all important to the success of our product and since distributing it on YouTube we have over 4000 which I am really pleased with and gives me the confidence that we obviously stuck to the genre enough to capture our intended target audience but were creative enough to make people want to keep watching the trailer and virally sharing it with others.
Genre places a media text into a grouping giving it an identity which can be recognised by the mainstream society and I believe my product is successfully fitted to the horror genre using the narrative that todorov argued was important to the horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beginning then a problem which in our case was the male anti hero playing a joke on the soon to be female victim making jump running after him causing their separation then a pathway to resolution – as they attempt to find each other and then a new equilibrium at the end which we deliberately left as an open ending to capture our audience effectively.