Research Methods

There are two types of research primary and secondarySecondary research should include good materials that consist of examples and arguments that would help support your research. Secondary could be found on the internet, textbooks, scholarly journals, audio visual experiences.With Textbooks you would use the index/reference page to found the information quickly.  Text books are reliable and have well established ideas in themScholar Journals are quality controlled so they are often reliable and are good for specific information.  They are also found quite easily on Google scholar which is a database that has thousands of different articles.
 Newspapers and magazines are a good source of research as newspapers and magazines keep up with the changing opinions of people. Good examples of this are The Guardian newspaper as they offer both sides of stories. Although newspapers are often written directly for people so the articles might be biasedTelevision documentaries are a good source of secondary research as you can get first hand quotes from the documentaries about the subject. The documentaries or televisions can be biased as they are edited to fit a certain point of view. Good examples on where to find information could be BBC Iplayer.Social networking is a good secondary research method. Items like Twitter is good as you can get a quick and easy response. Although the views could be biased as it might not be them. Blogs for example might be reliable as it could be done by a professional are by anyone who has a interest in the subject

MS4 Representation in Video Games

• Who was the first woman video game character you can remember? Describe her.

The first female character in a video game that I can remember is Princess Peach from Mario Kart. She had blonde hair and often had a pink dress.

Who was the first woman you knew that played video games? Describe her?

The first woman that I knew that played video game was my sister.

Do you think the woman gamer felt she was ‘represented’ in the character you described? Why, why not?

I believe that she did not feel represented within the game as she was too young to understand what is going on within the game.

Can you think of another female character that this woman would feel is a representation of her? Why?

A female character that could be a representation of her could be a sibling of any male leading characters in games. For example the Imagine serious were she could pretend to be a fictional charcaters within the games

Exam Style Questions

Ms1 Task

1)   Analyse the two film posters commenting on:

·         Visual codes

·         Layout and design

·         Genre conventions

The design of the  A team poster sees all of the main characters from the film facing the camera and looking directly at the camera lense which suggests that the director of the shoot wanted the cast to look serious but not too serious. On the poster you can clearly see that  the characters all have a weapon of some sort and the characters are not afraid of anyhting. the design of the posters see’s all of the actors in the bottom 2 thirds of the poster. The title of the film is at the bottom of the posters and is realitivly small compared to the tagline. The brand of the A team from the tv series probaly helps make this more recognisable than it actually is. From the film poster you can not tell much about the plot of the film although the facial expressions of the main characters are quite serious. In Sex and the City 2 poster the actress’ are looking directly at the camera which portrays that the characters are to be taken seriously. The flowing costumes of the actress suggest that the film is going to be a fun and flowing film. The characters are positioned in all three of thirds of the poster to make the most of the space on the poster which could suggest that they are the main stars of the film.  The Sex and the City poster is a realise date poster as it has the date and the month on it and the A Teams poster is a release date poster as it only has the month on it..

The genre conventions of the A Teams poster is that two men on the poster have guns and there fitting into the genre convention of a action film as the guns suggest that they are going to be up you something. The costumes that the actors of wearing suggest that they are going to go on a mission like in all action films.

The genre conventions of Sex and the City is that all of the actress have their own individual costume which fits in with the convention as women all like to have their own costume and the convention of a chick-flick. The actresses all have their own individual poses which suggest that each character is unique and going to have their own way.

2)   

a) Choose one of the film posters. Suggest two different audience for this film. Give brief reasons for your choice.

I have chosen to do the A Team’s poster. One target audience for the A Team would be original viewers of the A team TV series. People would like this who were fans of the original TV series as it continues on from the TV series and what they get up to.

Other audience that would enjoy the A team would fans of the actors who are in the film as they like what films or TV series they have done before. People who also like the director and his other work might be interested in.

Other fans who might be interested in the film would be fans of the genre of action as this film is within that.

(b) Using either of the film posters explain how the main audience for the film has been targeted.

The makers of the A team poster have tried to target the main target audience of 15-25 year olds by having the main actors from the film on the poster. The poster also features the actors holding guns which teenagers like. The audience has also been targeted by the men that have been chosen as teenagers might aspire to be them and would want to act like them.

(c) What different uses are available to a range of audiences from different media texts? Refer to your own detailed examples.

3. With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the different representations of gender in the media today.

In the media today both men and women are both represented in different ways. Men are represented as being strong and not afraid of danger and women as being represented as old and weak and not strong enough to make decisions.

This can be seen the James Bond film of Skyfall. James Bond is seen as a middle aged man who is rugged and a man that people who watch the film should try and aspire to. This is because he can been seen as being a brave man who as suffered a lot but is still strong enough to go out and complete his mission. Although in the film James Bond is also seen to have a sensitive side which is not as shown as much in the film as the makers didn’t want to make Bond weak. Other men in the Bond films like Q and the Director of Operations can be seen as being nerdy and controlling.

Unlike in most Bond films Skyfall doesn’t have women as ‘objects of sexual desire’ and women more as officer workers and sentimental. A example of this would be M as she is portrayed as being old and weak and not being able to do her job probably as they try and palm her off. This breaks the mould as in other Bond films the women is often seen as being flirty and seductive. The film is trying to change the way of how women are being represented in the media.

Harry Potter studios

Introduction

On Tuesday 11^th December 2012 are media class went on a school trip to the Warner Bros studios near Watford London to visit the Harry Potter Studio tour. The trip would consist of visiting the sets of the Harry Potter sets and learning about how a film script is made into a film.

Summary of events of the day.

On the day we got to the Harry Potter studios at half past 2 in the afternoon. As the our groups tour of the Harry Potter studios did not start until three in the afternoon we were invited to have a look around the gift shop.

We first went into a room were upon the walls of the room were all of the Harry Potter film posters from the UK and the rest of the world. We were then shown a video of how the makers of the harry potter film first discovered about the book and the lady who read it for the first time was on there.

We then seen a short video featuring the cast from the film and they talked about how the studios were designed and what the tour would be about. We were then allowed into the first set that was used on the film and were talked to by the tour guide who then told to go and have a look around on our own.

Script To screen

First we talked about how ideas for films come about and some ideas come about from imagination, true stories and television programmes. After we talked about how the film makers got ideas we talked about how a new film maker would go and make there 25 word or less pitch to a film production company and how the idea would take of from there.

We also look at a script from the Harry potter films and what is on a script and how information on a script is displayed with important text being in capitals and the lines are indented so the actors can read them. The text was in capitals so each department knew what they needed to do for each scene. As a class we were also able to see a actual film script that was used in the Harry Potter films and was owned by somebody who worked there. The script were all marked with the names of who the script was meant for so people could not copy write it.

We also looked at how a film storey board is created and how these storey boards can actually change when they are final put onto tape. A storyboard should include information like dialogue and camera angles and possible movements of cameras and the characters. The storyboards are important as it gives the director and writers of the film the chance to see what the film could look like on camera.

10 highlights

1.       First of all to see how many people actual like to go to the studios and how many tourist there are

2.       The large scale of all of the sets that were created and how they all took a long time to design and then build correctly

3.       Seeing all of the props that were used in the film

4.       Seeing how the film team made the green screen effects on the brooms and how the cars were flown

5.       The scale model of the castle at the end of the tour that was used for all of the wide shots.

6.       How the special effects team duplicated a section of the bridge saving the prop builders a lot of time.

7.       All of the arts departments work and how they had to make loads of costumes for all of creatures and monsters.

8.       Seeing how to make a film production pitch and how very few words you actual need to make a successful film pitch.

9.       Seeing the Great Hall where the first scene of Hogwarts is seen.

1.   Seeing the houses outside where Harry once lived.

Conclusion

In conclusion the trip to the harry potter studios in Watford was beneficial as I learnt about how to create a proper storyboard and that you can change the storyboard by adding things or by taking things out. I have also learnt how to generate ideas and to take inspiration from anything like films or from real life events. For my work I have learnt how to make a pitch successfully and how to go through the process of producing a film

First half recap

What I have learnt this have term.

　

In media this half term we have studied lots of things by going over things we might of done last your and some new information. With the course being split into two sections of moving images i.e.; film and static images i.e.: film posters.

For the film section of the course I have learnt how to analyse a film trailer successfully using Valadmir Props 8 characters and his 31 functions. The film trailer　that　we used was James Cameron's　Avatar and then we picked other films that we thought fitted Propp's　theories. Another part of the course that I learnt was how to identify stereotypes in TV programmes and how the programmes are assigned to a particularly type of audience. We also learn't about narrative in film and texts and how you can see them.

In the other half of the course I learnt about how films all fit into certain genres and that films can merge into other genres. I have also learnt how certain codes and conventions for each genre are seen and can be　spotted　in all films of that genre and those themes keep reappearing. I have also learnt about different types of research to find out information that you want. I have also learnt how to successfully deconstruct and analyse a film poster and say what certain points on the poster represent. I have also learnt how a film is constructed using Mise-en-scene and how the all of the parts of the scene need to come together to make it work.