Unit 1 - Genre and Narrative revision

Why is it important to be able to identify a genre of a media product?
It is important to be able to identify a genre of a media product because this is the easiest way to captivate your chosen target audience. Should producers make a film genre that is in fashion, it is easier to predict expenditure.

LO1; Production process and job roles

What are the key personell for the film industry?
- director / producer
- editor
- cast
- script writer
- Animators
- Boom operators
- Story board artists

editor , foley editor,  colourist and marketing are also part of post production.

Post production is one of the most important elements in my chosen film as the narrative relies heavy on the presence of CGI. Editors in this stage made the presence of Richard parker known by editing in the actual tiger as during the production of the screenplay , the acting out of the main character was based around the lack of second character.

LO2 Traditional to digital methods.

-Pre 2000 - web 1.0 pages that were not interactive.
-In the year 2000, Broadband entered the uk meaning faster download speeds hence content is more available to everybody. - web 2.0 O'Reilly (2004)
- As part of web 2.0 we gained audio visual content, video on demand services and interactive web pages .


Digital methods are in existence because of technological convergence. (technologies coming together to provide a new service for the audience.

Black box- Henry Jenkins, 2006.

Above the line advertising methods;

. premiers
. posters
. trailers
. reviews
. targeting mass audiences.


Below the line advertising methods;

. targets the individual
. social media updates (instagram,twitter,facebook)
. happy meals (toys)
. competitions

KTA 5 genre analysis feedback

LO3 Genre Theory

Genre is a type or another way to catergorize films based on their common elements.
These common elements are called generic conventions/characteristics/elements or tropes

• Horror
• Comedy (treatment)
• Romance
• Thriller
• Action - Adventure
• Social realism
• SC-FI
• Fantasy

6* Analyse how the production techniques are used to create meaning in a media product you have studied (worth 12 marks)

6* Analyse the concepts of 'genre' and 'representation' in a media product you have studies (worth 12 marks.

Life Of Pi is a Fantasy, Adventure hybrid.

Key Theory 1 : Barry Keith Grant (1995)

Suggests that all genres have sub genres that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and recognisable characteristics.

I dont agree with Barry K Grant's theory as my film is a hybrid of several different genres therefore doesnt have a relatable sub genre.

AUDIENCES LIKE GENRE AS IT HELPS THEM ASSOCIATE THEIR LIKES AND DISLIKES WITH A CERTAIN TYPE OF FILM

Key Theory 2: Patrick Phillips (1996)

Genre offers audience 'comfortable reassurance'. Genres fufil audience expectations to follow a familiar patterns.

My film is typical of the Fantasy/Adventure genre due to the fact that the audience are presented with things that do not happen in day to day life - things that are seemingly impossible which is a familiar characteristic of this genre. The film uses heavy CGI to create scenes fetauring wild animals and brightly coloured anomilies in the sky which again reinforces the adventure/fantasy house style.

Media industries like genre as it helps films become succsessful.

Key theory 3:Branston and Stafford (1999)

Genres:

1. Help to 'minimise risk and predict expenditure'.

2. Are a blueprint for success

3. Genre conventions also make it easier to market and sell products to audiences.

My film was marketed with this poster which gives a prospective audience a view of 2 characters conforming to genre of both Fantasy and Adventure due to the high key lighting and the presence of a Bengal tiger - the audience was told directly that this film is 'The Journey of a Life time'.

Sometimes actors are 'typecast' to play the same character in the same genre of film.

Certain genres provoke certain emotions.

Key Theory 4: Rick Altman (1999)

Genre offers pleasures.

1. Emotional pleasures:happy, sad, nostalgic ect.

2. Visceral Pleasures: 'gut' responses - excitement, fear, laughter ect.

3. Intellectual Puzzles: Makes the audience think.

The pleasures that Life of Pi has to offer are generally emotional and intellectual. When the boat is sinking at the beginning of the narrative, provokes an emotional response from the audience due to the fact we know the Main character has lost the entireity of his family. The insert shots and tracking shots provide not only intellectual but visceral pleasures because it lets the audience question and feel certain reactions stirring.

Key Theory 5: David Bordwell (1989)

said 'any theme may appear in any genre'

Theme= the ideas, ideologies, concepts , myths ect. that are encoded into a media text.

I partially agree with the theory as in Life of Pi, the narrative shows self fufilling prophecy and binary opposition between distopia and utopia. Overall the film is about friendship and how it can be found in the most unlikely of places for example man/beast which is relative to the genre due to the idea that fantasy is a sequence of unlikely utopian events. THEMES.

KTA 5

Into that defines genre + film

key theory 1 back up or challenge

key theory 2 back up or challenge

key theory 3 back up or challenge

key theory 4 back up or challenge

key theory 5 back up or challenge

Analyse the concept of genre in the film you have studied , use examples to support (particularly want to see the editing and sound techniques to support those ideas)

LO3 Narrative theory

1. what is the difference between 'story' and 'narrative'?
story is plot, however a narrative is the techniques used to tell the story - how it is structured.

2. What narrative theories can you name?
Binary opposition.

Plot of Life of Pi- A young indian boy is thrown into a different world of adventure and fantasy where he has to quickly adapt to life in the confines of a boat with a Bengal tiger, Zebra, hyena and Orangutan. The story follows the young man and his journey back to civilisation and the greatest story of a lifetime.

Key theory 1: Tim O'Sullivan et al. 1998

All media texts tell us some kind of story. Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves (as a culture) - these are ideologies.

In Life of Pi, the wider meaning of the film is to accept what you are given and make the most of it - in addition to this there is also a sense of friendship and education being the two things you need for a successful life. Pi had Richard Parker and a learnt ability to keep himself safe from danger.

Key theory 2: Pam cook (1985)

The standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

"Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution"

A high degree of narrative closeure. A fiction world that contains verisimillitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence .

In Life of Pi the enigma would be Richard Parker and Pi being stuck on the boat together which is a potential life threatening circumstance - this engima has a resolution when RP is returned back to the jungle with the help of Piscine during which time a friendship developed and a deeper understanding between man and beast. At the beginning of the film and toward the climax, PI and RP demonstrated aggressive behaviour towards one another how ever it was the patience and growth of friendship that helped solve the enigma.

Key Theory 3: Tzventan Todorov (1977)

stage 1. A point of stable equilibrium.

stage 2. This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium.

stage 3. Action directed against the disruption

stage 4. Restoration of a new equilibrium.

My film doesn't follow the theory exactly because there is no equilibrium as as the begining of the film Piscine is rather unhappy about moving away from his first love to live in a different country. However there is further Disequilibrum when the boat capsizes and an action against the distruption when he attempts to train Richard Parker.

Key Theory 4: Claude Levi-strauss (1958)

Binary opposition Eg; good versus evil.

Man vs. Beast
Human vs. Nature
East vs. West

Key Theory 5: Vladimir Propp (1928)

All narratives features stock characters and that audiences understood stories because of such features

villian/antagonist
Hero/protagonist
Helper/supporter (sidekick)
Princess (the prize for the hero - not necessarily a person)  one that is rescued, saved or helped.

Life of pi consists of a Hero protagonist - Piscine and a Princess - Richard parker . Piscine essentially delivers RP back to the jungle and sets him free. Originally RP was being transported presumably for a circus and this turn of events managed to set him free. a blessing in disguise.


Key Theory 6: Roland Barthes (1977)

Narrative codes:

Enigma codes work to keep setting problems or puzzles for the audience.
Action codes work to inform the audience in terms of what is happening in the next scene/shot.

Enigma codes for life of pi:

clip one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9NBPPIEb0M  0.17 - this is an example of an enigma code as it gives the setting for 'why is he writing it down?' and 'what is he going to do with his notes?'

clip two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRXNEQ62yU0 0.08 - sets a puzzle for the audience of why has he got a pencil and what is he going to do with it?

clip three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD-xIq8BV10 0.51 - the fish falling onto the bpat also works as an enigma code as it leaves the audience questioning where the fish came from and what is going to happen accordingly.


Action codes for Life of Pi:

Clip one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD-xIq8BV10 0.41 - PI reaches for the weapon in order to attack something - this is follwed up in the following scenes

Clip two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD-xIq8BV10 0.51 - The fish dropping onto the boat gives an inclination that more are to come

LO3 KTA 4 Camera work feedback

Micro Elements - sound

Sound and sound effects are used to create a sense of tension or action for the audience to predict what might  happen in the following scenes. Additionally producers canuse these different types of sound to foreshadow further events.

diegesis is the narrative construct that everything takes place in, it is the 'story world/the world that the film or tv programme takes place in'

How real the diegesis appears is linked to the level of verisimillitude (appearance of being real).

Diegetic sounds are from noises that are happening from within the diegesis (story world). These are added during production and post preduction to create meaning.

northern accent.

Accent - the way you pronounce words due to the place that you live

Dialect- the words you use due to the place you live

Tone- how you say things/how you speak - the intonation.

Mode of Address- informal/formal.

Synchronous sounds are sounds which are syncronized or matched with what is viewed - this is a diegetic sound. This can be used for simple examples such as footsteps or movement. Another example ; when charcaters play instruments the sound, in most cases is added in pre production as part of synchronous sound - this contributes to the realism of the film and also help to create a particular atmosphere.

Ambient sound refers to any sound which is used to establish a location.

Non- diegetic sound is when the source is not visible on the screen and clearly not coming from the story world. Examples are a narrator's commentry and sound effects used for dramatic effect. These are added in post production.

Sound bridge- lead in or out of a sceme . Sound bridges are one of the most common transition in the continuity editing style. Sound bridges can be both non diegetic and diegetic. They can start as non-diegetic and then bridge to a scene where the music has a visible source.

Incidental music- music composed in a film or play as a background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere. The incidental music is composed to accompany the action of a drama or to fill intervals between scenes.Gives hints as to what might happen next, generally used in horrors and dramas to build tension.

An example of incidental music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z80usmGz_v4

Stings are used as distincitive background music to add emphasis to an important moment in a motion picture or television program. A sting can be used to introduce a section of a show, or indicate the end of a scene

Motifs- the sound motifs condition the audience emotionally for the arrival, or actions of a characters. The use of sound motif can help shape a story that requires many characters and many locations as it helps to sustain the narrative as they help clarify the narrative functions of the characters and provide a sound association for those charcaters as we move through the story.

editing

Shot reverse shot structure (used in conversation, commonly use over the shoulder and MCU)
Action match (continous action)
Cross cutting (showing the narrative in different locations with different characters, leads audience into the narrative)
Insert shot (close up that has relevance to the story regarding information. provides answers or a puzzle)
Eyeline match (tries to keep continuity of angle/level - shows characters wants and needs without speech)

cross dissolve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqQfj25aglc
wipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAhAEQUk8M
fade

unit 1 LO2 KTA2: Marketing task and feedback sheet

Unit 1 LO3 KTA3 Feedback Sheet Mise En Scene