Easter Homework :

1. Watch lots of different dramas : 1 episode of each Think about what makes them conventional but also slightly different. What is their 'gimmick' or 'USP (Unique selling Point). What is their appeal to different types of audiences.

Watch : DEXTER / NUMB3RS / LIE TO ME / SCOTT & BAILEY and 2 more of you choice (come on its not lke you actually have anything to do for 2 and a half weeks)

Use :
CUEVANA or WATCH SERIES for your totally illegal internet streams

Then complete the booklet below. THIS WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR WHEN YOU GET BACK

Easter Revision

ALSO those of you who are still flopping your media life and still have a D or below for your coursework you have until the wednesday we get back to improve it for the final time...

Lesson 7: Audiences

A huge part of making any media text is loking at audiences . You already know this but if you want to egt a good grade in your exam you also need to mention some media theory to make you sound smart and that you know what you are talking about:

Today we talked about tehse key areas :

DEMOGRAPHICS

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS:

NEALE'S THEORY OF REPETITION AND DIFFERENCE

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY

DYER'S UTOPIAN SOLUTION THEORY :

We then watched 2 clips (the wire and Dexter) and tried to talk about what we had seen using the theories . Difficult but understood very well by most of you ... as a recap the slideshow below has some info (but not all... copy someones notes if you werent in !)

3. Who Watches Crime Dramas and Why?

View more PowerPoint from latymermedia

Lesson 6: Textual Analysis

Good old analysis .. you cant avoid it. Its extremely important to use media language when analysing still and moving images to see how the text is constructed you need to use these words and words like CONNOTATIONS in your Exam..

Today we started off brainstorming all the terms we could use :

Mise en scene / Settings / Diagetic Sound / Editing / Camera Angles / Camera Shots / Props and costume / Lighting / Make up / Dialogue / Soundtrack / Character Expression / Space / Colour / Camera Movement etc etc


Then we looked at some still images and annotated them for the connotations



We then looked at how a media studies text book did it:
Analsyis of Crime Drama Mi Seen Scene

and then stated analysing the opening credits and their use of iconography :





Nice one - get analysing

Lesson 5 : Narrative and Characters

Wow so now you should know about at least 4 old, dead white guys who you can use in your media exam... They are

Propp - characters list : Hero / Villain / Donor / Dispatcher etc

Todorov - Narrative theory : Equillibrium / disruption / new equillibrium

Levi- Stauss - Binary opposites (Good vs Evil / Love vs Hate etc)

Roland Barthes - Enigma Codes - mysteries created for the viewer at the start.

If you name drop these guys in your exam you will definately get some good marks !!!

If you missed the lesson you could check out this lesson powerpoint.....

2. Who Are The Characters In Crime Drama?

View more PowerPoint from latymermedia

We also watched a clip from Luther series 2 episode 1 to spot the narrative devices HERE

Lesson 4 : Case Study - The Wire

Yeah i know its the best show ever and every one loves it ..but why ?? We're Media Students we need to break it down an see what they done did wid dis here package, ya feel me. This aint Baltimore and the 5 0 aint comin but ya still gots ta get the re-up on dat Media Studies terminology ... shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii*!

Ok i better stop and talk like a proper teacher..today we watched the wire as an example fo a Police Procedural Sub Genre and atlked about how it was similar and different to Sherlock.

Watch any episode of Season 4 and think about:


What Genre Conventions can you identify

How is it similar / different to othe TVCDs you have seen ?

Describe the main character(s):

Summarise the Narratives:

What happens at the end? Are the problems resolved ?

Where there any ‘Red Herrings’ ? Why not ?

What ideas could you steal for you own TVCD ? What did you like about it?