Analysing a Film Clip + Meaning in Media

Meaning in Media
 

Mise-en-Scene - creating verisimilitude

• location and set design used
• iconography - something encoded with meaning behind it so that there is a hidden meaning.
• props
• costumes and makeup
• lighting
• colour design and palette

Editing

• continuity editing - cuts
• non-continuity editing - dissolve, wipe, fade in and out

Sound

• diegesis - sound in the world of film
• non-diegetic sound used for the audience benefit
• ambient background sound eg. crowd, engine, traffic
• pleonastic sound - exaggerated in post production eg. dripping tap
• sound bridge - continues across cuts and transitions
• asynchronous sounds - different sound to what is expected

Camera Shots

• mid shot - shows character just above the waist
• arc shot - moves around the subject
• panning shot - camera turns horizontally
• canted angle - titled to one side
• tracking in/out - slowly moves into subject
• extreme close up - focus on eyes or mouth
• high angle - looking down on subject make them seem smaller
• two shot - shows both characters
• over the shoulder shot - over the shoulder showing conversation
• close up - tightly frames main subject
• crane shot - shot from above to show the scene
• low angle - looking up at the subject makes them seem more powerful
• extreme long shot - shows large amount of the background to create an establishing shot
• follow shot - tracks the subject as they move
• long shot - shows majority of person
• lateral tracking shot - move along with the person
• tilt shot - camera moves up
• pov shot - from the perspective of a character in the scene

Narrative Code - Roland Barthes

• enigma code - a mystery within the text that isn't answered to leave audience frustrated.
• action code - narrative related to things happening and the enigma code to create suspense eg. disarming a bomb
• semantic code - something that often has multiple meanings within a text
• symbolic code - a part of a text that symbolises something else eg. gold = rich and classy
• referential code - where a text makes a reference to something outside of it that an audience will know eg. the big bang theory referencing star trek

Clip Analysis - Twilight (2008)

Tzvetan Todorov's Narrative Theory

1. a state of equilibrium where everything is normal
2. a disruption of order by an event
3. a recognition that the disorder has occured
4. an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
5. a return or restoration of a new equilibrium occurs

Todorov's Theory - Twilight (2008)

1. everything is normal. Bella and Edward have not met yet and Bella has just moved to Forks.
2. Edward smells Bella's scent for the first time and cannot control himself. He finds himself obsessed over killing her and following her everywhere
3. After Bella nearly being killed several times by a car, thugs and other vampires, Edward realises he is in love with her and could never live without her.
4. After Bella is bitten by James, Edward puts aside his cravings and sucks the venom out of her to save her life.
5. They become a couple and he no longer wants to drink her blood but instead goes to prom with her.

Representation

For characters to be relatable and understandable, certain groups must be represented including age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and ability.

Stuart Hall's Representation Theory - media re-presents the world in an image that is desired by the creator. This can mean different political views are imposed.

Laura Mulvey proposed that in media women are presented as sex objects for the male gaze. As well as this, Judith Williamson investigated gender roles and stereotyping within advertising - for example in the Lynx advert women are portrayed as sex objects for men to use.

Representation - Twilight (2008)

Bella is shown to be nervous whereas Edward takes on the role of the predator. While this is because of his role as a vampire, this may also be due to the gender of them both. Aside from that, no women in the film are shown as sex objects meaning gender representation is good.

Genre

Claude Levi Stauss - Binary Opposition

Stauss theorised that stories told throughout different cultures were so similar because of binary opposition. This is when good and evil or old and young are opposed to each other. For example - Captain America = good, Red Skull = bad

Binary Opposition - Twilight (2008)

In Twilight, there is binary opposition as Bella is shown as the good, alive and pure human whereas Edward portrays himself as an evil, vampire monster.

Rick Altman - Audience Pleasure

Genre offers an audience a set of pleasures such as emotional pleasures, visceral pleasures (gut responses - fear) and intellectual puzzles (mystery). This means that texts have specific codes and conventions for the genre to give certain pleasures i.e. horror provides a visceral pleasure of fear. Furthermore, Altman's genre theory of semantics and syntactics regards the semantics (the codes and conventions of what is used within the product eg. characters, props and syntactics (the relation between the semantics and the narrative) eg. in romcom there is a series of meetings. Pragmatics are also added into this

Audience Pleasure - Twilight (2008)

Twilight uses visceral pleasure of fear due to Edward's initial reaction and the several near death experiences along with emotional pleasures of happiness and sadness as Bella and Edward fall in love.

Steve Neale - Genre Theory

Neale's theory believes that there should be similarities and differences. Their should be similarities within the product to make it a recognisable genre but there should also be individual differences to keep the audience interested. 

Conventions of Print-Based Media

Layout - how the elements are laid out on the page

House Style/Colour Scheme - creating a brand identity

Photography Techniques - the style of the shot and clothing choice are important

Captions - used the anchor the meaning of a product.

Advertising

1. the product
2. the name of product
3. logo
4. slogan
5. details of the product
6. hard sell or soft sell
7. facts, persuasive language, word play
8. reference to other products

Analysing a Print Advert

This Pepsi print advert is advertising the new thinner can for diet pepsi. It is showing a message of losing weight by using a thin looking model, thin text and a zero calorie drink. By using a woman within this advertising campaign it targets women more as they are usually more worried about the way they looked and encouraged to loose weight. It implies that women have to be attractive and remain skinny in order for others to like them. A side angle is used to further show how 'perfect' people that drink diet pepsi rather than regular can be.