Sunday 21 September 2014

Gender in TV drama

Task: Produce a written exploration of gender in TV drama and post this to your blog.

Your written piece should include, but is not limited to, discussion of:
  • Gender stereotypes and their countertypes
  • How gender is presented in TV drama through the 4 areas of textual analysis
  • How gender links to the other 6 areas of representation (positively and negatively)
  • Examples from TV dramas to support your points (including pictures)

Wire in the Blood - gender representation analysis



Task

  • Analyse this clip looking at how gender is represented.
  • Embed the clip in your blog along with your written analysis.
  • Include the 4 areas of textual analysis
  • Include the theories of male/female gaze in your analysis


The gaze - female and male



Task

Embed this Slideshare into your own blog.

Trevor Millum - gaze facial expressions

Trevor Millum (1975) identified male facial expressions:

  1. Carefree: nymph-like, active, healthy, gay, vibrant, outdoor guy, often smiling or grinning
  2. Practical: concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, mouth closed, eyes object-directed, sometimes a slight frown, hair often short
  3. Seductive: similar to the cool/level look (indifferent, self-sufficient, aloof, confident, lips slightly parted, usually looking the reader in the eye), eyes shaded, confident, self-sufficient, may include a slight smile
  4. Comic: deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated, acting the fool, pulling faces for the benefit of a real or imaginary audience, sometimes close to archness
  5. Catalogue: neutral look, artificial, waxlike, eyes open wide, smile, look remains vacant, personality removed



Beyonce - 1+1 male gaze analysis



Task:

  • Analyse the music video to look at how gender / sexuality is represented - use the four areas of textual analysis to explain your ideas. 
  • Use what you have learnt in lesson about the gaze theory (Mulvey and Ferguson) and apply those theories to your analysis.
  • Embed this video and your analysis to your blog. 

Marjorie Ferguson - male gaze facial expressions

Marjorie Ferguson (1980) identified four types of facial expression in the cover photos of British women’s magazines: 

  1. Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
  2. Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
  3. Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
  4. Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include  male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’. 

Paul Lazarsfeld - limited effects theory



Task
Embed this Slideshare PPT onto your own blog.

Monday 8 September 2014

Common stereotypes



Task
In groups of 3 or 4, create a presentation on representation and a specific common stereotype area. You should include examples from all types of media, including TV drama, and discuss how these groups are represented in different ways.
  • Handout needs to be produced for each group
  • You need to embed the common stereotypes document into your own blog
  • You also need to embed your group's presentation into your own blog

Representation of age - Skins



How is the representation of age constructed in this video? 

Use what you've learnt so far and apply it to the clip.

Homework task
Apply the terminology and your analysis skills to a clip of your own. Embed the clip or include a link to it on your blog, alongside a written analysis of it.

Camera shots, movements and angles

Basic camera shots



Basic camera movements



Basic camera angles

Moving Image glossary



Also check out the Grammar of Film website.

Task:
Embed this glossary into your own blog.

An explanation of representation


Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures

The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the 'cage' of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to such demographic factors. 

Consider, for instance, the issue of 'the gaze'. How do men look at images of women, women at men, men at men and women at women?

Representation In The Media

By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us. 

When studying the media it is vital to remember this - every media form, from a home video to a glossy magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience. However, it is important to note that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artificial texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two-way process: producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

Task
Reduce this information down to a summary of now more than 100 words and post to your blog.

TA+R - areas covered in previous exams


Jan 2009 - Monarch of the Glen - Age
Jun 2009 - Doctor Who - Gender
Jan 2010 - Hotel Babylon - Ethnicity
Jun 2010 - Primeval - Gender
Jan 2011-  Hustle – Gender
Jun 2011 - Merlin - Class & Status
Jan 2012 - Fingersmith - Sexuality
Jun 2012 - Coming Down The Mountain - Disability
Jan 2013 - ER - Age
Jun 2013 - Doc Martin - Regional Identity

Sunday 7 September 2014

Representation - first impressions

What do we learn about these people from the way they've presented themselves?




Representation task - 12W


The area we will be covering is Textual Analysis and Representation.

You need to familiarise yourselves with the 7 areas of representation and the 4 areas of analysis . These are the areas we will be covering in class over the next 17 weeks.


As a starting point I want you to think about how you construct your own representation.

  • Use UK Tribes (password is on the wall in H2) to find the group or groups (there can be crossover) that you think you belong to. Why do you belong to this group(s).
  • What media figures (actors, musicians, sportspeople, celebrities) do you consider similar to you. In what way are they similar to you/ are you similar to them?
  • Do you consciously 'model' (copy modes of dress, style yourself, act like) yourself on any of these media figures? Why is that?
Construct a representation of yourself using the above information. Add images of the type of clothes, accessories and gadgets you prefer. Add images and descriptions from UK Tribes to further illustrate your self representation. Post directly to your blog, or if using word embed in Scribd before uploading.

7 areas of representation and 4 areas of textual analysis


7 areas of representation
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Ethnicity
  • Sexuality
  • Class and status
  • Physical ability/disability
  • Regional identity


4 areas of textual analysis

Camera shots, angle, movement, composition

  • Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide show, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the should shot, and variations of these.
  • Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.
  • Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.
  • Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field - deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.

Editing

Includes transition of image and sound - continuity and non-continuity systems.
  • Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.
  • Other transitions: dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.

Sound

  • Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.
  • Diegetic and non-diegetic sound, synchronous/asynchronous sound, sound effects, sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.

Mise-en-Scène
  • Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and makeup, properties.
  • Lighting: colour design.