Narrative analysis: Narrative
analysis is when one or more speaker is involved in sharing and recounting a
specific event or experience that has happened. Narrative analysis can also be
in a story since there are many twists and turns the character or narrator may
have a conversation about common structural features.
Todorovs 5 stages
50 Cent
Equilibrium- The advert starts
off with 50 Cents home town in his neighbourhood daily routine showing us his
street from his childhood just like any other ordinary day.
Disruption- The disruption in the
advert was when the advert shows signs of dripping water with the red lighting
as we hear a gunshot and see 50 Cent bend down forward which lets us know that
50 Cent has been shot and has then caused a disruption in his daily routine.
Recognition of disruption- The
recognition of the disruption was when the advert played sounds of distress
such as police and ambulance sirens which indicates the recognition of 50 Cent
being shot.
Attempt to repair disruption- The
attempt to repair disruption was when 50 Cent looks at his reflection in the
water reflecting back on his past as we then hear a rewind sound as the camera
reverses backwards which tells us that 50 Cent realises he has a second chance to
make something of himself.
Reinstate of equilibrium- Then the reinstate of equilibrium
is when we see 50 Cent counting up to 9 as we hear all the success and fame he
has obtained as it finishes with the words ‘I am what I am’ which then shows
his reinstate of equilibrium.
Semiotics is the study of meaning and how it is formed by
signs such as words, images or music. It can be used as a tool to help analyse
the symbolic codes of a media text.
Roland Barthes created the study which we now call
semiotics.
Moving image language: its split into 4 elements
Mise-en-scene (what is put into scene), Cinematography (camera works), Sound
and editing in film studies these 4 motive languages are called microliters.
Mise-en-scene:
Mise-en-scene: it’s a French term meaning what is put into a
scene or a frame, When you see everything in the frame what can you analyse
from that, all the elements are setting, props, costume, hair and makeup,
facial expression and body language, lighting and colour, positioning of
characters/ objects in the frame.
Props in scenes: Gun
seen in action films, knives seen in horror, big ben associates with London, a
taxi associates with New York, Gadgets used in spy/science fiction films.
Costume, hair and makeup: this shows the characters
personality, job and status. For example a vampire wears a black cape,
Spiderman wears a spider suit.
Facial expression and body language: if someone is smiling
we assume they are happy and if it was accompanied with scary muse
Positioning of characters & object within the frame:
thing in the frame can Signiant feelings of two different characters,
positioning in the frame can draw attention to certain objects / characters.
Colour: Colour can give a particular look or effect or mood
and can over all be used for a dramatic effect. Red = danger, Can be used to
how a characters hidden emotions or to highlight important objects and
characters within the frame, to make the character look mysterious i.e
shadowing parts of body, bright = happy, dark = disturbed.
Lighting: there is low key lighting and high key lighting,
Low key lighting is created by back lights and key, which
creates sharps contrasts of light and darkness areas, deep, distinct shadows/
silhouettes are formed.
High key writing: more filler lights are used lighting is
natural and realistic to our eyes, produces brightly lit sets or a sunny day.
Hairlight is used to separate you from the back ground and
makes you pop out more.
Key light: most important light in the scene, creates
dramatic scene, half dark, most brightest light
Fill light: less dramatic, not film like, more realistic to
our eyes as it feels in all the shadow spaces so it’s more lighter
To get less light push the light further away
Hair light turns it into a film- shines it down on the back
of actors head, if the hair light was by itself it makes the scene dramatic or
dreamy light depending on the apache.
Sound
Sound doesn’t seem important but it helps you understand how
important it is to make up the scene
Diegetic: any voice, musical sound that comes from the film
world that the characters can hear
Non diegetic: music originates from outside the film and
adds meaning to the audience which the film characters can’t hear.
Voice over: non diegetic, the voice over is used to describe
and help us understands what’s happening in the scene even though the guy
talking isn’t their
Sound bridge: links two scenes together for example music
plays in one scene and continues to a different scene which connects the two scenes
and suggest the mood is still the same and often has a common theme.
Pleonastic sound: exaggerated sound, can be exaggerated from
the use of foley sound, sounds that are quiet made louder, sound effects example
handling of guns, kissing and tap dripping.
Contrapuntal sound: sound that don’t match the image and can
confuse people and doesn’t link to what you see could create a mystery effect.
Example Happy music playing while two people are being aggressive and angry
arguing with each other. Creates a humorous effect example Shawn of the dead
Silence and dialogue: creates an impact, pitch/tone/volume
creates a meaning of how character mood an atmosphere of a scene. Creates a
tense scene a quit noise to a loud sound can be frightening.
Cinematography
The way the camera is angled to show the meaning.
Composition of visual elements
Cinematography is made of shots angles and movements
Need to think how to frame a shot how it’s organised on who
or what is in the frame to create a meaning.
Close up: used for facial expressions, show emotions, can be
used to show fear or evulsion, and makes the audience feel closer or repulsive
from the character.
Extreme close up: used to identify detail that you wouldn’t
really notice, can cause tension and makes you realise how important some
certain objects are.
Two shot: allows you to see two characters together to show
the relationship, its usually a mid-shot upwards shows two bodies to allow you
to compare.
Over the shoulder shot: camera angle from over someone’s
shoulder, helps you understand two characters and shows an angle from ones
perspectives of what they are looking at.
Point of view shot: first person view and puts you in the
characters shoes, leads sympathy to the protagonists
High angle shot: allows you to see a characters angle from
above makes the subject appear small a venerable.
Low angle: makes people look big tough and dominant, it’s a
camera angle shot from below looking up.
Pan: horizontal turns movement of the camera from left to
right or right to left on the spot.
Tilt shot: like a pan shot but moves up and down on the spot.
Editing
Editing a film involves selecting and combing sequences in
no particular order.
Good editing is used to get the audience to understand the
films story by creating and enhancing the mood, emotion and characters.
Sequences is a bunch of clips together.
Montage: A montage is created through assemble of quick
cuts, disconnected time or place that combine to form a larger idea. A montage
is frequently used to show a time happening as they
Parallel editing: filming two different locations at the
same time so you can see it happening at the same time and can be used to
mislead the audience. It’s also when it cuts back and forward between scenes.
Split screen: runs two shots side by side in the same scene,
this effect causes simultaneous actions.
Dissolves: dissolves are a form of transition, allows you to
get from one scene to another
Elliptical editing: the use of editing to compress time, the
use of transition such as cuts or dissolves to compress time e.g in Batman
begins Bruce Wayne has an on screen time of 58 seconds in which he climbs a
mountain so it shortens down the journey.
Graphic match: Graphic match is when a scene links to
another scene using the same shape or colour that match up
Rhythm and pace: the rhyme and pace helps set the scene by
the music or mood by the paste of the edit to create a tension shot by speeding
up the cut of the scenes and to create a more relax scene slow down the cut
speed.
Long takes: long take without cutting
Jump cuts, match cuts and cut away: jump cuts used to travel
in time or create disorientation, match cut is used to follow the movement of a
person or object, cut away is cutting away from the shot then returning to it
180 degree rule – it’s used so you don’t confuse the
audience, you can’t cut from one side to the other.
Soap opera-
Soap opera is a television genre that features a drama series which focuses on
the lives of different characters emotional relationships and how the cope with
everyday life problems acted out in the soap opera. An example of a soap opera
is Coronation Street.
Crime drama-
Crime drama is also a television genre except a crime drama focuses on a main
hero/character that is investigating or is going to commit the crime. Crime
drama usually involves some sort of criminal activity such as bank robberies,
murders and assault, for example Dexter is a crime drama.
Hospital
drama- Hospital drama is a genre that involves events which happen within a
hospital, this can involve surgery, life and even death of family members, an example of a hospital drama is Scrubs.
Lifestyle-
Life style genre is a television show about how people live weather that be a
rich life style like the house wives of Orange county or a poor life style like
the people who live on benefit street, or even a party life style like people
from the only ways Essex. Life style genres usually cover economic level,
social class, job, attitudes, habit’s and standards.
Makeover-
Makeover genres are self explanatory where people get a new look, they usually
start off with someone who wants to improve themselves in looks and by the end
of the show they will be looking beautiful/handsome. An example of this show is
10 years younger.
Consumer-
Consumer genre is a television show that try to sell you their products which
they are advertising on TV, for example the shopping channel offer a wide range
of shows where you can shop from and shows such as watch dogs which provides you with information on a product and helps you reconsider before purchasing the product or services, another example would be the gadget show who tell you about products which you will then go out and buy.
Sitcoms-
Sitcoms are comedy shows that involves a comedian telling the live audience
jokes to make them laugh. For example Russell Howard is a sitcom show where he
makes jokes about society.
Chat shows-
A chat show is a genre where people talk about a specific topic that may
intrest the viewer, as the show goes on the people on the show will give out
their own opinions and talk to one another. An example of a chat show is loose
women.
Reality-
reality is a show that is based on the real world and real time with live
events, for example Celebrity Big brother is a reality show.
Comedy-
Comedy genre is a show/film that is bound to make you laugh with jokes and
funny events, for example Happy Gilmore is classic comedy film.
TV series- A
TV series is a bunch of different programs that link together into a series,
one after the other and usually follow a story line, an example of a TV series
is the walking dead.
Serial
single drama- Serial single drama is a broadcast which is only shown once and doesn’t
follow the story of the drama show, it can be based on a true event. For
example Ghost adventures record a live event and only show the event once and
do not continue with the same location.
Narrative is
all about how a story is presented to the audience, and when we think about
narrative we must think of the plot and the story. Story is the chronological
order of all event, plot is the way we put it together for the audience. So
it’s the same story but the events are presented differently.
Linear- A
linear narrative is a story that will go in a chronological order and will jump
from one point to another without including/using any type of flashback or
future events within the story.
Non-linear-
A non-linear is a story type that will use flashbacks and future events within
the story however the audience viewing this can be very confused and will find
it difficult to understand the story. For example
Circular-
Circular is when the film starts off at the end and finishes at the end of the
film.
Episodic
narrative- when a film shows someone’s life and puts it into chapters
Single
strand- A single strand is when the story priorities one main characters story
and only focuses on that character instead of sharing the other characters,
this style will usually has a narrator to the story. For example “Dead Pool”
only focuses on the main characters life and talks to the audience narrating
the story.
Multi
strand- Multi strand is when a film/television has more than two different
stories within the film/television and all link to the end, for example the
game “ Halo 5 guardians” as it shows a bunch of different stories of how the
workers and old family and friends that all link to the ending. The audience
would then seek out the different stories and will eventually pick up how they
link to one another.
Realist- A
realistic narrative is a story which contains a real feeling to it, and is
known for giving a realistic effect on the audience and makes the story seem
believable, this story style would be based in the real world. For example the
film “Marley and Me” has a realist effect to the film. Realist films seem to be
about real social problems.
Anti-realist-
Anti realist can be an advert that has fictional characters that don’t appear
in reality to advertise a product, For example the M&M advert shows humans
interacting with the M&M sweet that has come to life.
Open ended-
An open ending is a story that doesn’t have a forsaken ending and will leave
the ending open, an open ending would normally be in chronological order and
would normally be multi stranded, an example of this would be “Coronation
Street”, it could also be presented in real time, however these shows don’t
usually back up the story with music.
Closed-
Closed narrative has a story that usually have a very tight reading, the film
would normally last about 2 hours but would have a compressed story fitting
many years into just two hours, the film would also contain music which will
bonds with the scene, and would end the film with “The End”. An example of this
would be “Forest Gump” that compresses a guy’s whole life into about 2 hours.
Single
episode- a single episode is one film with no continuation to that episode, and
just creates a new story line every time. For example “The polar express”
presents only one episode and doesn’t really continue from when the last
episode finished off as no more films were created.
Series- An
advert can have a series of ads to promote a product or brand or service and
continues to create more, for example the Specsavers advert features different
people who need glasses in the new adverts.
Serial- A
serial is a continuing plot that follows the story from one episode to another
and link’s them all together, For example
“EastEnders”, This story continues season after season, episode after
episode and stick’s to the plot of the television show.
Circular-
Circular is when the film starts off at the end and finishes at the end of the
film.
Episodic
narrative- when a film shows someone’s life and puts it into chapters
Flashback
narrative- Flashbacks are used in films to give an in depth story of a
characters past and helps recreate an event which happened previously,
flashbacks can also be confusing to the audience.
Fiction-
Fiction is described as an unrealistic television show that’s full of creative
ideas which can be impossible to create in the real world and is full of
creatures that don’t exist, fiction is also defined as imaginary for example
cartoon characters such as Gumball and Darwin from the cartoon show “Amazing
world of Gumball” are not realistic and are just cartoon. This could also
relate to the Uses and Gratification theory for self-accusation and esteem to
try and relate yourself to the audience.
Documentary-
A documentary is best described as an education program that has a purpose to
educate the viewers about a specific event. Documentaries are mostly about the
planet earth and about fascinating event that can provide the viewer with
knowledge. For example the discovery channel features documentaries about wild
life. Documentaries could also be related to the Uses and Gratification theory
News- The
news is best described as a way in which people can gain knowledge about
society as the purpose of the news is to educate the viewer about what’s
happening in the world around us, the news is a television show that provides
the public with in depth facts that could affect their lives. For example the
news provides the public with the weather forecast which could affect any
events planned. The news also brings in Uses and Gratification theory as the
theory states we choose what we want to watch to fill in one of our needs and
by watching the news this will fill in your surveillance.
Advertising-
Advertising is best described as a promotion and display of a product as
adverts are created to tempt the viewer into wanting the product. Advertising
are also usually short films which are paid for by the company product
manufacturer to try and sell their product during a television show break. For
example the Cadburys chocolate bar advert, advertises during the break and
temps the hungry audience into wanting it.
Promotional-
A promotional video is a type of advertising that promotes a film or an event
on their television channel to encourage the audience to watch it. Promotional
is also described as a way of self-promoting what you have to offer on your
channel and can keep viewers tuned in for further programs and new releases. For
Sky movies promoted itself at Christmas by advertising a bunch of different
films that are going to be shown.
Hybrid-
Hybrid is a mixture of different genres within the film or video, Hybrid is a
mixture of 3 or more genres within a film for example if a film/video display
romance, horror and comedy all together in the same film this would be classed
as hybrid. An example of a hybrid film would be Avatar as it has action,
romance and comedy within the film.
Tastes and decency:
Tastes and decency is a guideline created by Ofcom, this guideline is in place
to make sure that no broadcaster present any content which may be offensive
against a good decency or taste. Another reason why this guideline is in place
is to prevent any type of encouragement to crime as well as leading to disorder which may be
very offensive to the public in society and feelings. Licensees must also take
information about the guidance which is provided within section 1 of the ITC
programme show, this also relates back to the use of bad taste in humour and
language which may be offensive to some viewers. Finally in relation with the
ITC’s family viewing policy on no circumstances are material that are
unsuitable for children aloud to be shown before 9.00pm, advertising also has
separate rules which can be found in rule 22 part C.
For example the comedy show “Family Guy” features bad humorous
jokes which can be offensive to religion and race however they also include
content such as bad language so therefore this content isn’t appropriate for
children and must be shown over 9.00pm, however “family guy” did included a
song about weed and how it should be legal however this is illegal in UK and
the song is encouraging viewers to rebel against the law.
Quality and standards:
Quality is the excellence of a channel as well as all the programs they
produce, and standards is a certain expectation of a programme, for example is
it meant to be that explicit? Or is it too explicit?
According to broadcasters in 1999 quality wasn’t up to
standards and was classed as failing as a survey which had included more than
450 people that took part in. This then resulted in 70% of people felt as if
the quality of TV output had diminish ever since 1994. According to statistics
more than a quarter of people had agreed it’s got a lot worse and a low as one
percent of people said they agree quality has improved within the period.
People say that the reason for the poor quality was less money, a managing
director had opinion saying “It’s very upsetting that even as inflation is
still occurring, we are being told to create the same content of the programmes
for less money than last year at the exact same standards”.
Public service
broadcasting & the free market ethos: This is a broadcasting which
gains funding’s publicly from the TV licence which will have a total cost of
£145.50, in return the channel would then need to show programs which
entertain, educate and inform the public as well as providing public services.
The BBC is a broadcaster in which does this and has values such as honesty,
this means the BBC must put the audience as first priority at the heart of
thinking, and they must also present creativity within their content, celebrating
diversity and lastly offer value for the customer’s money.
Divers is extremely important for the BBC as UK has many
different races and religion within UK who do pay for their TV license and
would then receive the same as everyone else. The BBC is owned by the
government and is known as a public service broadcaster since the public pay
for the BBC from their TV license. Since the BBC is a public service they must
make sure they don’t provide any biased content. I personally think the BBC is
one of the very best examples of public services as the BBC has been around for
many years and was the first channel to ever be setup in UK and has regulations
about their content which is important to the public.
Free market ethos:
The free market ethos is slightly different from public service broadcasting as
a free market ethos would not need any type of payment to broadcast which then
allows a load of new audiences to be formed. There are also issues with free
market ethos as since any company is allowed to form a channel and broadcast
their content to the public, there could possibly be some content which viewers
may find distressing or un-exceptable. The broadcasting Act 1996 was then
invented to replace the old broadcasting act 1990 in order to allow more
television companies to broadcast their own shows. Some example of free market
channels are Dave, Really, Sky, MTV, Disney XD and E4. The 1996 Act does also
include restrictions to what can be shown on the channels. If there was no
restrictions companies would broadcast anything they want and this could lead
to TV being low quality as there will be a lot of arguments and complaints
which could shut down channels. Free market ethos can be positive as this
allows channels such as Really which features ghost adventures and can be quit
scary to younger viewers.
Ownership and access:
Ownership and access is having the ability to own a piece of content which only
you can access unless you choose to give access to the content to another
person, for example channel 4 has ownership of the Simpsons as part of a
contract and is aloud to broadcast it on television however if channel 4 didn’t
have the any documents or ownership of the Simpsons and broadcasted the show
this would then lead to illegal consequences such as heavy fines but the
original owner.
Regulation and the
free market: Regulations are the governing of videos and programmes and
would then prevent the public mostly younger viewers from seeing anything
innapropiete, and if the programme is found guilty of doing this they would be
held responsible and would either be fine or delete the programme from being
broadcasted. One of the regulators that deal with complaints and misuse of
broadcasting is Ofcom where they invented the watershed which allows
broadcasters to show content which may be inapropiet for children, the watershed
starts at 9.00pm and at this time children should be in bed asleep meaning they
wont see the explicit content. The film and video regulator is BBFC in which
they lay down some rules to make sure only people who are a certain age can
view the content. For example The hunger games , as this featured one of the
contestants got hit by a spear and was then cut out, so all we saw was the
spear being thrown and the person laying on the ground well as before we would
see the person be hit by the spear. The free market is content in which is
streamed/uploaded or downloaded for free, content from the free market is not
regulated and can be watched by anyone meaning young kids could watch
inapropiet content online, an example of free market is you tube or twitch.
Ratings wars:
Ratings wars are when two primetime shows compete against each other to get
more viewers so they can survive for another season and so they can obtain more
funding, this mostly appeals to reality shows like the un-datebles which need
to gain high enough ratings in order to continue the seasons and get more
funding or they would be cancelled. Shows such as Britain got talent and the
X-factor compete against each other to obtain viewers create a fragmented
audience since both these shows are featured at the same time.
Effects of on-demand
services: On demand TV service is away to catch up on any show you missed,
for example the ITV hub allows you to view shows which have recently been
broadcasted. This also means the when shows are competing they must look at the
views obtained from broadcasting as well as the views gained from on demand.
This then effects the viewing habbits of television shows as now people have on
demand they can watch the programme whenever they feel like it and will miss
out on the TV viewing. This is good news for the public as they can view their
favourite programme whenever they feel like it, on the other hand this is bad
news for the product creator as they may receive bad reviews since not many
people are viewing the broadcast on TV and are watching it whenever they feel
like it and some TV programmes may feel as if it is unpopular to the public which
could lead to cancellation of the show.
The effects of
streaming media online: Streaming videos online is a way for the public to
freely search up videos, films and programmes online and download them for free
from the internet, however this can be really negative as the quality of the
film can be low and could also be classed as illegal viewing downloading from
pirated websites which can put cinemas out of business. This means the media
will lose money as people will no longer need to pay for the film since they
can get it for free.
50 Cent
