Key Skills and Knowledge
By Natasha Milton-Hunter
During the AS Media course so far I have learned theories and gained knowledge that has helped me develop skills that are important to complete this course to the best of my ability.
Mis-en-scene
Mis-en-scene is when we look more closely at the the arrangement of scenery. Mis-en-scene consists of background/setting, props, facial expressions and body language and when looking at these things closely we can analyse them to a great extent.
Watching this clip, you can analyse things very closely through the use of mis-en-scene.
Conventions
Conventions are the specific things that you would expect to see in a media text. They are what we can describe as stereotypes when looking at media related things.
For example the conventions of a film poster would be things like the billing block, a review, the title etc. Things you would usually see on a film poster.
Representation
Representation is a way you 'show' something to an audience. In media terms this would usually have something to do with a film, magazine, television show etc. People use signs and codes for the audience to read. Representation usually goes either along with a stereotype or against one.
An example of representation would be how teenagers are represented in soaps. In the photo below, you see the character Whitney Dean from the popular television soap Eastenders. I would say she is being represented as a rebellious teenager, and I'm given this impression because although she is giving the audience a direct mode of address, the look in her eyes doesn't seem all to welcoming, which could be representing her intimidating nature. She is also wearing dark colours, which could be a representation of her personality. (Dark colours usually connote danger and such.)
Audience
Audience is what splits people into a certain group depending on things like their age, gender, preferences etc. This is so that others who trying to target a specific type of group in order to sell products can reach out to them in an easier way.
Teenagers is an example of a type of audience, and they are an audience that we have looked over again and again. A teenage audience is usually targeted through movies or magazines and can be done so easily by drawing them in to things they can relate to.
Genre
Genre is what splits certain conventions into a specific category. It is a big contributor to our media world today as many things people like to do for enjoyment are split into genres. An example of a genre in certain area of media would be a movie that centers around genre horror. We would be able to tell when a film is of the horror genre because it would have certain conventions we would expect to see things like killing, screaming, creepy shadows etc.
Narrative
Narrative is the way a sequence of events is put together so that they can be showed to the audience. When talking about narrative people usually refer to Tzvetan Todorov - theorist that came up with the theory that narrative is in a three part structure.
This movie poster is a great example of what the genre horror consists of. It sticks to the conventions of what is expected of it's genre to have. Blood is splattered on the wall which is also something people relate to the genre of horror with and the cracks in what looks like a wall adds an eerie effect.
Denotation and Connotation
Denotation and Connotation is an important concept in media. Denotation is when you simply see something for what is, whereas connotation is when you go into more depth and try to find a meaning to what it is you are seeing (if it possible that there is one)
Take this photo for example. If we had never seen this before then using denotation we can easily say that there is a boy and a girl holding hands and looking at each other. Also that there is a river and what seems to be a mountain behind them. But then using connotation, we can look into it further and we can begin to suggest things. Maybe the boy and the girl have a very close relationship as more than just friends and that the the colours in the background are a way of trying to represent the mood between them.
Parts of the theory are:
Equilibrium where it's the beginning of the story and nothing bad has yet to happen, which then brings on the disequilibrium (or also known as disruption) where something out of the norm (usually a bad thing) has happened. And then the New equilibrium where normalcy has been restored and everything is back to normal.) This is what many films and television shows notably do.