Media Language PPQ & Comments

1b Explain how meaning is constructed by the use of media language in ONE of your coursework productions. 

For our AS production, my group and I produced an opening sequence for our sci-fi/action/drama film ‘Mute’, set in a dystopian future where- due to the overuse of technology and evolution- the human race had developed to not have voiceboxes. As a film opening, it needed to draw in audiences to make them want to carry on watching the film, showing and introducing the main themes, genres and setting. Therefore we needed to do this to create an effective opening, and we did this via media language- the way a producer conveys messages to the audience through the use of camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene.

As our film was predominantly sci-fi, we needed to convey this message to our target audience. From viewing previous sci-fi films such as ‘I am Number four’ (2011), we saw that a main convention of sci-fis was that a lot of the shots were tinted blue. We wanted to recreate this, so when editing our footage in the program Adobe Premiere Pro, we used the ProcAmp and three way colour correct tools to create this blue tint. We decided our tint would look effective if it was a duller blue-grey tint, to connote two meanings- the first that it is a sci-fi and secondly that this world is dull and a dystopia, ruled under an oppressive government. The blue also connotes a technological vibe, which was a key idea in our film. To further these technological connotations, we used the program LiveType for the opening titles. We created a digital-clock look for our titles, with the fonts flicking first then showing the real titles. As we used this digital font and flicking effect- inspired by the trailer for the upcoming film ‘In Time’ (2011)- it helped again convey this sci-fi theme and a world where technology takes over.

This exploitation of technology in our film plot follows Fiske’s theory, that genre conventions ‘embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time that they are popular’. At the moment everyone uses technology and many people prefer to text and e-mail rather than talk face-to-face. We wanted to develop this idea and create a film which wonders ‘what if technology takes over?’. To emphasise the use of technology in our film, the beginning of the sequence shows a montage of close-ups of people’s phones, showing their thumbs typing away. We then cross- cut these shots with close-ups of people’s mouths pressed into a firm line, again emphasizing our plot on how people don’t speak but use technology instead. Throughout our sequence, we see many of these shots of people typing, which is most obvious when our main protagonist Ava returns home. We see her brother send her a message in one hand, while simultaneously playing Xbox with his other hand. This raises questions in the audience’s minds, such as ‘why did her brother text her, surely it would have been much easier to talk to her?’ This follows Barthes’ enigma code, where media provokes audiences to ask questions.

The answer to their questions are only revealed at the very end of the sequence, where we show a slow zoom of a laptop screen which shows a news article stating ‘scientists claim voiceboxes still exist’. The fact that we used a slow zoom and a drone sound effect in the background shows that this is an important part of the sequence, making audiences concentrate and read the text. The use of the drone and then cut to black also acts like a cliffhanger, making the audiences want to carry on watching the film.

In retrospect, viewing and evaluating a film opening, we could easily see how Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary opposites can be applied. This is shown when Ava returns home and takes her earphones out of her ears. So far from the beginning to this point in the sequence, Ava is listening to loud music and this is what the audience hears. So when she takes out her earphones, the audience hears the diegetic sounds of her world- silence. As we cut the sound so abruptly, we hear the binary opposites of sound/silence, which is obvious to the audiences. This almost deafening silence emphasizes the fact that this world is full of a lot of silence, as people do not have the ability to speak.

From viewing all our camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene decisions, it is easy to see how media can convey a message through media language. This follows Stuart Hall’s theory of decoding/encoding- how producers decode a message and want audiences to encode it. Furthermore, theorist David Bordwell stated that in film, ‘every gesture and every camera movement is designed to shape our uptake’. I believe that in making these important creative decisions we conveyed meaning well, and this was backed up with the audience feedback received. The majority of our audience understood our plot, and this was due to the fact that we could construct meaning by the use of media language and not even by any speech.

COMMENTS This response starts well, with a strong definition of media language in the final line of the first paragraph. It is clear about the project to be used. The second paragraph relates the candidate’s own film to real examples of the genre and how these use media language. Though there is some overlap in the third paragraph with q.1, it does go on to be very specific about how an effect was created and the meaning attached to it. This is taken further with the references to LiveType and in the fourth and fifth paragraph there is some good textual analysis with references to particular theorists. In paragraph 6, the impact of camerawork upon meaning is well explained and paragraph 7 makes good use of theory in relation to sound. Though the final paragraph throws in two more theorists, it does show understanding of them and brings us back once again to the question set and to her opening paragraph to demonstrate how she has answered the question. Overall, this a very high level 4 response, very lengthy again, with lots of textual detail, reference to theory to support points and a clear relationship to the question set, covering sound, camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Media Language

A lot of people have assumed this is going to be the most difficult concept to apply, but I don’t think it need be. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might beRoland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image workBordwell and Thompson

So what do you do in the exam?

You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it

You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout

Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project

Media language from Andy Wallis

10 g325sectionaq1b-5medialanguage from ctrmedia