KA4

Explore how the combination of media language creates meaning for the audience in the video to Riptide [15]

Plan:

·       Media language=everything in the video like colour, shot types and costume

·       Montage

·       Contrast

·       Lyrics and literal interpretations

Throughout the music video there are a series of differing shots making a montage like video. The shots show literal interpretations of the lyrics to the song, with repeated shots showing a riptide on a beach, this makes the video really simple to interpret for the audience as the repeated chorus shows the same images over and over so the viewers know what the lyrics mean. This appeals to Neale’s theory of repetition with in a genre as he says that audiences want to see repeated conventions so that the media products feel familiar, Riptide appeals to this theory again as the video has newer things to add to the genre like how the video has subtitles when the woman is singing in one of the repeated scenes. The appearance of the woman changes and this is another way the video uses media language, as her make up and outfit get more and more worn out and smudged as she is singing as if she has been attacked while singing without even moving. This creates meaning for the audience because by using these symbolic codes  as according to the theory of semiotics by Roland Barthes, it could represent how artists like Vance Joy get all kinds of abuse while they are trying to sing and be creative so by having this literal visual representation the audience can understand the meaning for the artist easily. The subtitles that are used are in fact the wrong lyrics with in itself represents the lyrics as in the scene the lyrics are “I’ve got a lump in my throat, coz your gonna sing the words wrong” so by having the subtitles be wrong this creates humour for the audience as they will find it amusing that she is singing the wrong words in a music video.

The colour in the video is a key focus from scene to scene as some have a more warm effect on the audience like the scene that is repeated of the woman running in the sand of a beach, as this should make the audience feel like they are having fun and are safe. Contrastingly the video also has scenes where the colour is harsh and makes the audience feel that the scene is dark and the actor is in danger. The bright colours of the beach scene help the audience to feel safe and up beat as a day at the beach is always better when it is sunny, this contrasts with the scene where the lyrics say “taken away to the dark side” and in these scenes with those lyrics a woman is being dragged off into the shadows with a look of terror on her face or she is unconscious. This is consistent with many horror films and makes the audience feel that the woman is in danger, with the use of lighting focussing on her hands as she is dragged away and her chipped nail polish this creates the meaning for the audience that the woman is in danger and has had to fight. The shadows in particular scenes emphasise how the darkness is in everything but life still goes on with a montage of different things that are good and that are bad. These darker scenes use conventions of the horror and thriller genres like how the women keep getting tied up to a tree or dragged off into the shadows once again linking to Neale’s genre theory.

In what ways has ownership shaped the media products you have studied? Make reference to the Assassin’s Creed franchise [15]

Plan:

·       Conglomerate

·       Specialised

·       Industry

·       Resourcing

Ubisoft is a large video game devolving conglomerate that is the fourth largest gaming company in the world, they develop games such as; Just dance, Assassins Creed, Far cry and Rayman. The gaming industry is fairly new in terms of ownership as when games first started being developed, they were really expensive and could be modified by at home gamers who could code. As soon as gamers could start to code their own gameplay add ons the ownership of games changed as the companies needed to keep up with the demand for content that gamers would want to buy, home consoles are in almost every house in this day and age so gaming has had to evolve in order to change with the way that audiences interact with them. In the 90’s and early 2000’s at home developers would sell their coded games and this meant that when these large developing companies such as Ubisoft started, they would need to be specialised in the most popular gaming trends.

Ownership has shaped the video game industry as gaming is a very specialised industry in terms of coding needed and technical skills that will have to be learnt in order to develop games so by having ownership conglomerates like Ubisoft ,games can be developed by specialists and genre based experts, leading to better gameplay for users and higher sales profits for the companies. Assassins Creed is one of the most popular of the company’s games with over 140 million copies of the game series being sold, making it one of the highest selling game franchises of all time. The game was developed by Ubisoft’s experienced and skilled developers so the game is as high a standard as it can be so it can offer the best gameplay for users as well as generate merch sales and revenue for the company.

Explore how the WaterAid advert you have studied appeals to its target audience(s) [15]   

Plan:

·       Lighting

·       Nostalgia

·       Target audience

·       How the audience relates

·       Key scenes and establishing scene

The target audience for the 2016 WaterAid advert is British white working class women and this is because they are the most likely to donate to the charity, they are targeted by this advert through the use of song that the actress sings as it is a well-known British song therefore the audience can relate and feel nostalgic as they watch the advert. By using this song, the audience feel nostalgic as the popular song will be well recognised by the target audience making them relate to the advert as they have heard to song so many times, they will be paying more attention when listening to it on television. The song is called “sunshine on a rainy day” and was released in 1990 so the target audience of 30-40-year-old women are likely to remember it.

The target audience of 30-40 year olds are likely to have children so by having a child actress the advert appeals to the parental instincts of the audience, with the name ‘Claudia’ being used the audience will feel a sense of familiarity with the child as it is a very popular name among the target audience. The advert is not set in England all the way through but it is in the establishing scene to make the target audience feel as if they are personally being represented in the advert with the rainy English weather clearly shown throughout the rain on the window behind the radio in the first scene of the advert. When the scene changes to show Claudia walking down a dusty path the lighting changes to a more orange natural light which contrasts the harsh clinical light of the windowsill of England. This use of lighting makes the audience feel as sense of escapism as according to the uses and gratifications theory, so the audience will actually feel as if they are walking with Claudia as she is singing because they can see the light and the dusty path and think back to when they were on holiday. The target audience is encouraged to donate to WaterAid via text messaging and this appeals to the audience as they will feel like a better person if they donate and as everyone in the UK pretty much has a cellphone, it is really easy to donate.

Liesbet van Zoonen argues that representations of gender are encoded through media language to position audiences and to reinforce dominant ideological perspectives. In what ways do the producers of Woman use representations to position their audiences? [15]

Plan:

·       Representation of women

·       Sexualised

·       Wardrobe/costume

·       Makeup

·       Repeated messages

Woman magazine presents a singular and sexist representation of women through the use of wardrobe and make up, for example in Woman magazine there is an advert for Breeze soap where a white female model is wearing no clothing whilst being covered with bubbles but has elaborate make up and hairstyle. By having the model wear no clothing this constructs a female representation that women are made to be looked at and only when they are being looked at is when they are truly beautiful. The model is making a face as she blows the bubbles and as her lips are puckered it looks as if she is about to kiss something which highlights how women are only needed to look good and to please the patriarchy. Lisbet Van Zoo nen argues that gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, so here the gender representation of women in Woman is that women are meant to be seen by men and sexualised. The audience for this magazine is women aged 20-40 so by reflecting the opinions of society in the 60’s the audience will then agree with the gender constructions in the media as it is repeated so the representations will seem truer. This also links to Judith Butlers theory that gender is constructed through acts that happen every day, so when a woman walks down the street in a particular way or is shown in magazines to not wear much clothing and to look a certain way then this adds to the representation of women as a whole. These repeated messages and representations then become public opinion as people get so used to seeing this ideology that they start to agree. Throughout the magazine women are represented as being needy and weak so by having this representation in magazines for everyday women this representation becomes part of the way women as a whole will act because they are represented a certain way.

Woman positions the audience by creating a mythic representation of gender constructs and making the audience want to be exactly like the model or representation. Woman magazine creates this idea of being the perfect woman and how to become said woman, the magazine does this by having women who look as if they are perfect so they are constantly smiling and they look stereotypically gorgeous naturally, these front cover women are constructing this ideology that women are meant to look a certain way at all times and that if they don’t then they aren’t women. Weekly women’s periodicals like woman have images that show ‘everyday women’ doing housework whilst being beautifully dressed up when this doesn’t accurately represent the real life women that would buy the magazine but it does make these women feel as if they need to be just like thee women in the magazines in order to be happy and appeal to the hetero normative ideology of society.