This charity advert reverts the normal conventions of charity adverts. It uses themes of hope and happiness to advertise the outcomes of the charities work rather than the issues that exist and are trying to be avoided. The costumes and settings of the advert create a clear link to dry and hot less economically developed countries who are suffering in poverty, which are contradicted with the binary opposite of happiness on the facial expressions, lighting, colour and sounds of the advert. The gradual build of diegetic sound, from one soft singing voice, to a symphony of singing voices creates a massive impact on emotion and feeling to the advert and almost creates an enigma of suspense for audiences to be excited to help. The collaborated singing gives a sense of teamwork. The advert factual and powerful due to the lexis however the mode of address is much less challenging and accusing of a normal charity advert and is more positive and influential.
Tide print advert:
Kiss of the Vampire Poster:
The horror genre usually uses paradigmatic iconographic features like blood, gore, abandoned settings, horrified facial expressions, distorted body language and references to paranormal activity. Specifically vampire sub-genre uses more features like bats, castles, capes and dripping blood.
The poster uses a z-line so that people look at the poster in a certain way. The first thing the audience is drawn to is the title of the film. It then follows to the images of the characters and then to the names of the people featuring in the film down below. This makes a pattern of the significance of each feature to the poster.
The capitalised , serif font of the title creates connotations linked to the vampire film genre with its 'wooden' styling(referencing the vampire coffin) and the blood dripping from the V's 'fang'.
The use of a painted main image is highly conventional of films of this period- the fact it is in colour makes us see it is a modern telling of an older story.
The gloomy grey, black and brown colour scheme reinforces the film's dark scary conventions while the red is used to highlight the attacking bats, the vampire and the blood- all visual signifiers of the genre.
It also uses the innocent colour of peach to present the 'damsel in distress' characters; their dresses are a symbolic code for the weaker woman character that is to be saved from danger, and it's tight fitting sexualises the womans body. Here, a gender stereotype is formed, making the female character vulnerable and the male character mostly in power.
Suspense is created through the enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires(emphasised by the "kiss" of the title) and the fait of their two victims (Barthes Hermeneutic Code).
Formation - Beyonce(2016) and Riptide - Vance Joy(2013):
Daily Mirror and The Times set text (10/11/2016):
In what ways can media products incorporate viewpoints and ideologies? (Talking only about these articles)
The poster uses a z-line so that people look at the poster in a certain way. The first thing the audience is drawn to is the title of the film. It then follows to the images of the characters and then to the names of the people featuring in the film down below. This makes a pattern of the significance of each feature to the poster.
The capitalised , serif font of the title creates connotations linked to the vampire film genre with its 'wooden' styling(referencing the vampire coffin) and the blood dripping from the V's 'fang'.
The use of a painted main image is highly conventional of films of this period- the fact it is in colour makes us see it is a modern telling of an older story.
The gloomy grey, black and brown colour scheme reinforces the film's dark scary conventions while the red is used to highlight the attacking bats, the vampire and the blood- all visual signifiers of the genre.
It also uses the innocent colour of peach to present the 'damsel in distress' characters; their dresses are a symbolic code for the weaker woman character that is to be saved from danger, and it's tight fitting sexualises the womans body. Here, a gender stereotype is formed, making the female character vulnerable and the male character mostly in power.
Suspense is created through the enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires(emphasised by the "kiss" of the title) and the fait of their two victims (Barthes Hermeneutic Code).
Formation - Beyonce(2016) and Riptide - Vance Joy(2013):
Producers have constructed ideologies and viewpoints with in their music videos to explore and identify how to present individuals(celebrities) and social groups in different ways.
In the music video Formation by Beyonce, it encodes a viewpoint where the artist takes an almost goddess-like role due to her success and power, as well as her attention and awareness to world issues. When Beyonce is shot in a scene on top of a sinking police car, she is literally put above law, and seen as something higher to her fans and audiences. This creates an enigma code(Barthes), as it raises questions and makes the video more of a mystery as audience want to know why these scenarios have been applied to this video. As a result, media publicity is drawn to the crisis in New Orleans as this celebrity has the power to do so. Additionally, the ideology of Beyonce's almost 'sacred' portrayal is enhanced through the mise-en-scene of the video, for example, slow motion and birds-eye camera angle techniques, along with her angelic body language and facial expression.
On the other hand, in Vance Joy's video, Riptide, it forms an unusual link by presenting viewpoints on the oppression of women through themes of horror. This is done through the use of displaying paradigms typically from the horror genre, eg. dark lighting, horrified facial expression, graveyard settings, a gun and dragging bodies across the floor. This is met by features of the video that comply to Van Zoonens theory that womens bodies are used to sell a product aimed at a male heterosexual audience. For example, the video includes a shot where an unidentified woman undresses facing away from the camera. This is enhanced by a lower floor camera angle, as if audiences are watching and the subject doesn't know. I think producers have done this to create the ideology that the objectification of women is a subject that is almost horrific to think about and this is why they have made this representation.
Furthermore, Beyonce's music video, formation reveals many viewpoints and ideologies that explore conflict which consequently creates binary oppositions(levi-strauss). An example of this could include the contrast between white and black culture and how it is interestingly represented in the Formation music video. This is because the white culture is performed through the costume and setting of the video eg. suit and tie, big ancient houses, maids, children in white dresses and bonnets, however the cast of the video are all of darker skin colour taking on the typically 'white' social qualities. Another contrast could be the re-representation of 1950's New Orleans fashion conflicting with the modern video that displays issues that New Orleans faces today. This applies to Halls theory as he believes representations exist through repetition and remix of media trends.
To conclude, music videos are a method of creating multiple representations of different individuals/groups so that viewpoints and opinions and messages can be put across to the audience.
Daily Mirror and The Times set text (10/11/2016):
THE TIMES:
Headline lexis: Man held after baby dies 'in attack on twins'. Giving the title 'man' , makes the murderer anonymous and mysterious. It also creates enigma and makes audiences want to know who this 'man' is. The verb 'die' sounds cold and intrusive, as it is explaining the murder of a child. Attack on twins gives the story a narrative and sounds like a title to a story. This gives a basic idea on what the advert is based on.
Selection of Images:
The only image used includes a low angle shot of police entering the crime scene.
DAILY MIRROR:
Headline lexis: Man held after toddler dies in hammer attack
Use of 'toddler' makes the victim sound even more vulnerable and innocent, giving the story more tragedy. 'Hammer attack' sounds violent, and the producer has jumped to conclusions on how the murder happened just to make the story more tragic.
Selection of Images: The use of an image where the victim looks upset creates more emotion and sensationalistic characteristics to the news report. An image where the potential murderer looks content makes audiences think that murderers can look like an average person, and you can never know who can capable of doing such a thing.
Layout: This news story is considerably larger in size in comparison to the times report, maybe because the story evokes emotion, tragedy and scandal which is more common of a tabloid newspaper.
In what ways can media products incorporate viewpoints and ideologies? (Talking only about these articles)
Media language can be used to incorporate viewpoints and ideologies. For example, in the Daily Mirror article, emotive language is used to describe the victim to enhance his vulnerability and innocence. This gives the story more tragedy, and consequently giving a viewpoint in which the children are in danger. This language creates ideologies based around the murderer. "Hammer attack" gives connotations of violence and makes the murderer sound more brutal as the murder weapon is mentioned.
Barthes codes are also used to create enigma in the headline. The unidentified suspect makes audiences suspicious and want to know more.
Straight Outta Compton(2015) and I, Daniel Blake(2016):
Late night Woman's Hour:
Assassin's Creed: Liberation(2012):
Humans(2015) and Les Revenants(2012):
The Sci-fi genre based series Humans, demonstrates many binary oppositions within the text. The most significant opposition lies between Man vs Machine. There is a constant tension between all of the human and synth characters. For example, initially we only see Anita's feet, in the mesh 'delivery bag', claiming she is an object to be bought and sold. This is our first impression of the synths, in a scene where a family 'buys Anita'. The non-diegetic music however, suggests a heart-beat rhythmic sound that represents the birth of Anita when she is programmed and started-up. This contrasts with objectification themes as the synth is so human like that it is presented to be alive.
Producers have used these themes to maybe reflect the on goings of today's world, and how technology has overtaken society. This explores how humans revolve around the use of electronics, and makes audiences ask the question, have we become cybernetic organisms.
Genre is essential for both audiences and producers alike. It is a way of categorising media texts. This allows the audiences to identify what type od media product to select based on their own expectations and prior knowledge. Genre is also important to producers, as it allows them to specifically target audiences, and thus ensure profit. Conventions are the building blocks of genre, acting as a crucial signpost.
Les Revenants takes a more challenging, subversive approach to genre convention. Rather than being categorised into one or two genres, it's a text that encompasses many - a fluid, post-modern drama that embodies genre hybridity, polysemy and the complexity of modern day media. In this response I will be discussing the genre conventions within the text, how they have been developed to work and change genre convention.
Las Revenants is encoded with meaning from a variety of genres, it forms a complex ideology that challenges genre convention. Arguably the text reflects both horror and supernatural genre conventions, it is an enigmatic drama that makes references to both French poetic realism and the avant-garde, as well as embodying iconography and paradigmatic features from the 'zombie' genre.
In the opening scene we are introduced to 'camille' through close-up on a bus, the non-diegetic music is sombre and emotive connoting the lyrical codes of French drama and poetic realism. As the bus crashes there is diegetic screams from inside the bus - reflecting horror conventions of death and mortality. Next, as the camera moves through the house there is a mid-shot of a butterfly, seemingly dead, breaking through the glass from which it is kept, reflecting paradigms from the supernatural/zombie genre. This opening uses hermeneutic code and is very polysemic, encompassing multiple meaning and genres.
Woman(1964) and Adbusters(2016):
Woman magazine analyses and represents a time period where women were hugely oppressed and objectified; typically they took the role of the housewife, where they would stay home to cook, clean, look after the children and wait for their husbands to come home from work. The advert with in the 60's magazine for Breeze soap is a prime example of portraying women as objects as it displays a woman fully undressed selling a product. Using theories explored by Lisbet Van Zoonen, the women's body is being used in a media product as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony. This means the stereotype that woman are important and significant only for their bodies and for the sole purpose to appeal to men is being reinforced by this advertisement. The subjects seductive body language and facial expression, combined with her face full of make-up gives us the impression that all women are and want to use a passive attitudes. Consequently, these aspects of sociohistorical context have influenced the representations of women and their bodies in the media today as this is where initial media trends would have formed.
Zoella and Attitude Online:
Late night Woman's Hour:
Assassin's Creed: Liberation(2012):
Humans(2015) and Les Revenants(2012):
The Sci-fi genre based series Humans, demonstrates many binary oppositions within the text. The most significant opposition lies between Man vs Machine. There is a constant tension between all of the human and synth characters. For example, initially we only see Anita's feet, in the mesh 'delivery bag', claiming she is an object to be bought and sold. This is our first impression of the synths, in a scene where a family 'buys Anita'. The non-diegetic music however, suggests a heart-beat rhythmic sound that represents the birth of Anita when she is programmed and started-up. This contrasts with objectification themes as the synth is so human like that it is presented to be alive.
Producers have used these themes to maybe reflect the on goings of today's world, and how technology has overtaken society. This explores how humans revolve around the use of electronics, and makes audiences ask the question, have we become cybernetic organisms.
Genre is essential for both audiences and producers alike. It is a way of categorising media texts. This allows the audiences to identify what type od media product to select based on their own expectations and prior knowledge. Genre is also important to producers, as it allows them to specifically target audiences, and thus ensure profit. Conventions are the building blocks of genre, acting as a crucial signpost.
Les Revenants takes a more challenging, subversive approach to genre convention. Rather than being categorised into one or two genres, it's a text that encompasses many - a fluid, post-modern drama that embodies genre hybridity, polysemy and the complexity of modern day media. In this response I will be discussing the genre conventions within the text, how they have been developed to work and change genre convention.
Las Revenants is encoded with meaning from a variety of genres, it forms a complex ideology that challenges genre convention. Arguably the text reflects both horror and supernatural genre conventions, it is an enigmatic drama that makes references to both French poetic realism and the avant-garde, as well as embodying iconography and paradigmatic features from the 'zombie' genre.
In the opening scene we are introduced to 'camille' through close-up on a bus, the non-diegetic music is sombre and emotive connoting the lyrical codes of French drama and poetic realism. As the bus crashes there is diegetic screams from inside the bus - reflecting horror conventions of death and mortality. Next, as the camera moves through the house there is a mid-shot of a butterfly, seemingly dead, breaking through the glass from which it is kept, reflecting paradigms from the supernatural/zombie genre. This opening uses hermeneutic code and is very polysemic, encompassing multiple meaning and genres.
Woman(1964) and Adbusters(2016):
I think that sociohistorical context has greatly influenced representations in the magazines I have studied.
Woman magazine analyses and represents a time period where women were hugely oppressed and objectified; typically they took the role of the housewife, where they would stay home to cook, clean, look after the children and wait for their husbands to come home from work. The advert with in the 60's magazine for Breeze soap is a prime example of portraying women as objects as it displays a woman fully undressed selling a product. Using theories explored by Lisbet Van Zoonen, the women's body is being used in a media product as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony. This means the stereotype that woman are important and significant only for their bodies and for the sole purpose to appeal to men is being reinforced by this advertisement. The subjects seductive body language and facial expression, combined with her face full of make-up gives us the impression that all women are and want to use a passive attitudes. Consequently, these aspects of sociohistorical context have influenced the representations of women and their bodies in the media today as this is where initial media trends would have formed.
Zoella and Attitude Online:
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