Ill Manors (Notes so far)

Stanley Cohen

Greg Philo

Negative Representations

Positive Representaion in Media

Quadraphenia Questions

1. What are the defining characteristics of the Mods?
Significant elements of the mod subculture include:

•  fashion (often tailor-made suits)
• music (including soul, ska, and R&B)
• motor scooters (usually Lambretta or Vespa). 

The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs. And they often brawled or rioted in fights against Rockers (another subculture).


2. What attitude did they have towards authority figures - explain with examples towards upper class, parents and police

- Jimmy tells his boss to “shove his job”.

- At Brighton the mods smash up a café (with rockers in it) and terrorise the town, and they also beat up police officers.

- Jimmy is watching his favourite band performing on TV and his dad tells him to “stop watching that rubbish”.

- When Jimmy is being sick in the toilets at work, two men (probably bosses) are discussing business matters and ignore him.

- Also when Jimmy is wearing wet jeans to shrink them to him and his parents think he’s mad.

- When Jimmy and the Mods are chanting “We are the Mods!” through Brighton and they scare passers-by. They then attack a café full with rockers.

- When Jimmy is on the train he sits next to two older, upper class men and they look down at him.


3. Quadrophenia deals with collective identity and personal identity. How does the film illustrate the collective identity of Mod culture? Find specific examples from the film that illustrate your point. Jimmy personal identity. How does Jimmy change during the film? What do you think that this change symbolises?

This is shown in the film with the scene where Jimmy and his friends who laugh whilst breaking into a chemist to steal drugs for the weekend of partying in Brighton. Also in the scene where Jimmy and his friends are shouting “We are the Mods!” whilst walking near Brighton beach. Its a collective identity of the individual only acting with his "tribe" not caring personally how it make him look, it is the collective identity that rules.

A change that occurs in the film is when Kevin (a rocker) comes to help Jimmy with his bike. At first Jimmy justifies his reasons for hating rockers, but then sees beyond the superficiality of it all and sees them as people too. Another change is when Jimmy and his friends are riding after some rockers who beat up his friend. Finally they get one and start to beat him up, but Jimmy sees that its Kevin tries to stop his friends, but ends up riding away. Both of these scenes symbolise Jimmy’s changing attitude towards rockers and changing attitudes towards this whole collective identity (that he is a part of) view of hating rockers.

When Jim returns home and he's been kicked out by his mother who has found his drugs and he has just quit his job. And while he was in jail Steph and Dave have gotten together all this culminates and Jimmy just rides away and his bike is hit by a postal truck and Jimmy realises that he is losing everything around him - this collective identity is everything, the world is still turning and bad things can happen to you. Jimmy changes from having this exciting life, to nothing, so he rips down the posters on his wall that represent his mod lifestyle and he decides to leave. Also when he drives Aces scooter of a cliff, a clear symbol of leaving this mod culture, a hate for it.

1940's to the Naughties

1940's

Children after the war suddenly became teenagers, no longer got to work at 13 got to secondary school instead until 16. More youth, bit more freedom to not just become a reflection of their parents.

1950's

Teenager attended college, no longer working form age of 13, given more free time to find opinion, fashion and music interest - working small part time jobs provided spending money.

The Teddy Boy Subculture appeared in the 50's, they were unified by look , the first subculture to appear (scaring adults) and the media misrepresenting them. Their fashion was styled on the old Edwardian Suits from the early 1900's, a smart look that this youth subculture took on the separate themselves from everyone else and then American Rock and Roll hit England in 1955 and the music and the teddy boys became inseparable.

For women skirts became shorter and more colourful; more revealing compared to war standards.

Music - Mack the Knife - Pearl Bailey Sing

1960's

1960's context from hentonmedia

1970's

Punk fashion wasn't a fashion it was a rebellion - they would buy 2nd hand clothes as a stand against capitalism.
Disco and Glamrock became big with David Bowie ultra egos wearing makeup and outrageous clothes.
First Gay Pride rally in 1972 helped by glam rock homosexuality became okay, more accepted became a regular site in news and magazines.

1980's

80's fashion was bright colourful and experimental - hair styles and wear big and bold fashion.
Music scene was sexualizing woman a profitable business - us pop items , Madonna, Michael Jackson.
Young ones - representing subculture in the UK, uni students of punks, nerds, hippies
New Romantics
Evolution of technology - phones, Ghetto Blasters
Gaming and arcades - teens would spend there time and arcades.
George hill and spitting image
Films - Hollywood blockbusters, nudity,
Emo was born, not scream - slipknot was created which is still about now.

1990's

Grunge (American rock edgy rebellious - nirvana) turned in Britpop - bands like Oasis and Blur. Britpop was a rebellion to American grunge.
Lad culture is associated with oasis with football fans, drinking, spitting, violent.
Acid House - illegal raves set up by the british youth, flurescent clothing and LSD - not a positive representation.
Pop - spice girls, destinys child, allsaints
GIRL POWER but also still use of femine gaze but they embraced it, took control of the sexualisation of the women.
People wer enow completely judged on what music they listened to, people would have friendship groups for it, people would dress to identity witht he music.
Representatation can be found in FHM Magazines for lad culture
Films could be Spice Girl videos.

2000's

Hoodie Horrors - Hoodie gained a negative impact. - associuated with gangviolence, even had petitions to get hoodies band.

in 2008 - American magazines stated that "British youngsters drink far more than their European counterparts.

Naughtis - launch of YouTube, first video in April 2005. Now celebrities had a bigger impact on teens because of the growth of internet and social media.
Fashion men would wear baggy trousers, jeans, hoodies. Women more velour ripped denim showing body off.

Section B

Collective Identity (this is our second section of the exam, 1 hour)

Representation of : British Youth Subculture (subculture: a group people belong to)

Historical context : Old texts (30ish years ago)
                                Contempory texts (last 5 years)
                                Future (what are your thoughts?

This context is across all media types, at least 3 sources i.e. Moving Image, Print Work, Web Representation.

Representations case studies - Positive & Negative - who made it? Purpose? Audience? (2012 - onwards)

Theories and Critics should be placed within arguments/essay across the whole thing, should be quoted and argued against to support of subvert your main points.

Subcultures are defined by:

• Clothing
• Music
• Hobbies
• Similar tastes
• Slang
• Political Context

Genre (finish essay)

Definition ::: come from the French word meaning "type" or "class". It is a catagorization of a media text not only to make it easy for someone to find what they like but to make it easy to sell those categorized media types to people. Genre's consist of codes and conventions.

Music Video Theorists

Goodwin

Vernallis

Film Opening Theorists

Steve Neale - Genre is repetition and difference, repeating what is expected of the genre (following similarities) and then trying something different to keep interest from the audience. Conforms to the stereotypes and conventions of genre but also subversion of the conventions makes it.

Rick Altman - semantic/syntactic approach. Semantic is where the conventions of the genre are applied but also syntactic is used, syntax; the connection of semantic and narrative. Also mentions the Pragmatic approach - institutions and audiences.

****Did you challenge (subvert) or conform (follow) the theory?****

Apply the concept of Genre to one of your coursework pieces.

Intro - state what piece you are talking about, brief overview (short and concise) what genre of you production is, inspirations.

Main Paras -

1st - 3 ideas from concept that sum/show the genre of the piece, choose a bit from DISTINCT, how do they show genre of the piece? Compare to real media products to back up your choice.

2nd - Apply some theories - which theories does the pieced conform or subvert?

3rd - Final - Comclusion - how did genre hep or hinder the process? did it bring creative? did it help make it your own?

Essay

Last para -

With our piece we had to push the boundaries of the genre trying to make it cinematic to pass as an intro but also stick to documentary conventions, the genre helped to give a direction and guide through research of documentary piece, a regime to work with and to feed off creatively.

Narrative

telling a story, plot and character, give a brief summary of your film opening.

Theories ----

Levi Strauss - binary opposite

Todorov - equilibrium, disruption = new equilibrium

Propp - typical characters - heros, villian, damsel, sidekick, dispatcher (there are many more)

Barthes - codes - action, symbold/objects, enigma - all have meaning and connotations.

Narrative - Linear or non linear

Venaleus

Goodwin


Apply the concept of Narrative to one peice of work

Intro - State briefly whjat it was and media type, quick summary of the plot (keep the intro brief because there are no marks in it, only to get the examiner to know your peice)

WHAT THEORIES DID YOU USE AND WHY? the marks scheme asks for a variety and use of technical terms (media terminology)

Just interms of disruption and equilibrium in our narrative :::

When we set out to make our film opening we decide to go against todorovs theory of disruption and equilibrium because our genere was a documentary that follows a simple narrative of finding the answer to the questions set out at the beginning but prehaps beyuond the opening 2 minutes disruption may occur in the struggle of finding the answers.

Conventions Research

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.

• Refer to your AS blog, research of conventions and the fulfilment of those conventions...

Film Opening
Title and Order
Size and Font
Enigma (holding back the story)
Research of film openings
Style, mise en scene, camerawork
Film Posters

Music Videos
Disjuncture
Genre
Camerawork
Focal Image of the band
Branding

Digital Technologies (Finish Main Paragrpahs)

- refers to hardware, software and online technology.


Hardware

Nikon D3300 - DSLR was used across both years, now used much more professionally.
Lenses - Lenses for the camera, variety of camera equalled in a variety of shots, wide angles, sharp close up etc.
iMacs - used across both years, now much more confidently used.
iPhones - used to record sound, for dubbing, and diegetic ::: connects to software because of the voice recorder app we used.

Software

Photoshop
Premiere Pro
Screencast-O-Matic

Online Technology

YouTube
Blogger
Prezie & Emaze & Slideshare
Survey Monkey
Facebook Messenger
Bubble.us
Email
Google Docs/Drive


Example Question and Essay

'Digital technology turns media consumers in media producers' In your experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete coursework productions.


Introduction - Explain the tasks you have done across the 2 years of the course and mention anything made outside of the course that might be relevant.

In year 12, my group and I created a Film Opening as our final product for that year; we had worked separately on preliminary tasks before that. The Film Opening was for a documentary about Tattoos, titled "Tattooed Generation" and it worked on the premise of our generation and the ones above and below are going to be the most tattooed generations in history as tattoo culture becomes ever more popular. The Yr 12 Prelim was just a small scene piece showing drama between friends, it where we learnt a lot of our first media lessons in terms of creating a product. In Year 13 our media focus was on Music Promotional Package. In our prelim this year we copied the first 40 seconds of an official music video - we did History by One Direction - and then our final Promotional Package, which included a music video, website and digipack was created around a song that we found and a band that we created ourselves. The music video follows a band called Avenue and the song is called Monday Morning, its all about not wanting to work and do fun things instead.

Main Paragraphs - Start by writing about the technology you have used with some reflections on how you got to grips with it initially.
Discuss your editing package, the camera, blogger, YouTube...etc.
How easy is it to use the technology?
How did you use the technology in particular tasks?
How has creativity has creativity affected your work? What does it mean to you? How has it been encouraged by tasks matched with the technology?




Conclusion - Try to bring together these strands - tech and creativity - to answer the question....tie in the quote.

Technology allows inspiration of creativity because you can reach beyond what you could before thus giving the opportunity to be creative to your full capability. technology turns the consumer into the creator because the technology provides a path and system where the creativity can be manifested into a media product or text. Just as Adobe Photoshop allowed me to explore all the possibilities, creatively, of my digipack and to fulfil them.

Post Production (Write essay)

All Editing, after taking the pictures and filming the clips.

• Premier Pro CS6 - all the editing tools
• Photoshop - used for picture edits (for album), Magazine cover, Digipack, Tour Poster.

Adobe is industry standard, professional, software.

Yr 13 - Music Promotional Package (included many more post production creations, shows so much improvement)

Yr 12 - Film Production Package


Layout and Plan

In your experience how have your post production skills developed through creating your productions?


Intro same as always - state what your productions were and any other creations that are relevant.

Main Paras -

• What is post production
• Write about the tech used in post production on prelim and film opening in yr 12 - write about editing in detail  - Adobe Premier Pro, Editing on a iMac rather than a PC
• How much of the text was created only in post production - key part of the production I would say it 60/40 split of post-production and production.
• How much footage ended up being unused or rejected and why? Understanding that not everything has to be used, some shot don't fit with the feel of the film opening or prelim. The Close up shot of text on the phone in prelim and some tracking shots in the film opening were not smooth enough because Steadicams were not available and we had to just hand-hold a tripod, becomes shaky, even though it was a part of the story board had to be dropped and replaced because it reduced overall quality of the text.
• How did you use sound and music? YouTube music library of royalty free music, Folly sound effects, narration - uses of it in prelim compared to film opening how it has developed for telling the narration and bringing a pace to the visual.
• Transition ranges? Why? Fade to black used effectively in prelim to smoothly transition from establishing shot to first scene of prelim, Film Opening used basic hard cuts in video to go along with the spoken narration creating a montage of images reflecting the narration - hard cuts also equal a pace - understanding that the pace keeps interest from a viewer compared to our prelim which had longer shots and longer times before.
• What titles did you add? Development from prelim to film intro - prelim just used black screens with the titles but for film intro skill developed with Adobe Premiere and titles for the opening such at Director, Producer, Writer etc were overlaid on moving image of the opening. Also these titles were faded in and out and we found out how to use different fonts for the title rather than just using whatever we got with the prelim.
• After the edit what was done? Film Poster - use of adobe Photoshop and Audience Feedback - understanding the right questions to ask to get the best possible feedback and improvement of product also what type of feedback to take on.
• Then do the same thing for MUSIC PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE and the prelim before that - Adobe Premiere Pro, facebook messenger, google docs, backing up video onto a secondary memory stick, Photoshop. Transition of spin up transition uniting camerawork in production with the editing in post production, a whole seen got rejected because it didn't fit with the video (white sheet scene) other idea for the music video were dropped such as the idea to present th3e final montage as BOXY ART WITH COLOUR?. Much more footage than anything we had shot before, so many shots are necessary, the song reflected the visual sometime much like narration did in the film opening but this time it is lyrical. Photoshop skill improved by work experience being in a photography studio for two weeks during summer, learnt how to use photoshop very well in that time helped with the creation of digipack and teaching other member of the group how to use photoshop for tour poster and such.
• Then talk of the final evaluation - the software used, producing it, how you made an evaluation more interesting this year? Different software used? Yr 12 - slide share, emaze, prezi, YouTube, adobe premiere pro for vlog, Yr 13, much more to evaluate so we used green screening in adobe premiere, emaze and prezi and bubbl.us, narrated video, screencast-O-matic. Blogger to hold it all ,   Place to present everything. Survey Monkey.

Conclusion - full on just answer the question back up with mentioning the factors you have already brought up. Overall summary of how much your post production skills have developed from creating productions.

THE EXAM - G325

Outline of what the exam consists of...

Section A - 1 hour

• Theoretical evaluation of production
• Two compulsory questions, 30minutes each
• Based on all the coursework we have done, from AS to A2

Question 1 - Evaluate your progress over time a s media student?

• Will be applied to :: Digital Technology

                                           Research & Planning
                                          
                                           Post Productions

                                           Recreate Codes and Conventions

                                          Creativity - wont be asked directly, would be added on to others.



Question 2 - Apply a media concept to one of your pieces of coursework.

• Concepts that could be applied :  Narrative

                                                                Audience

                                                                Representation

                                                                Media Language

                                                                Genre
Theory would applied to these.


Section B

• 1 essay, choice of 2 question

Based on Collective Identity

• Representation of British Youth

                      - Old texts (30ish years ago)
                      - Contemporary text (last 5 years)
                      - Future
Look at 3 media Platforms : 

• Moving Image
• Print Work
• Web Representation