Unit 1 Genre & Narrative Revision

Unit 1 Genre & Narrative Revision

It is important to be able to identify the genre of a media product as this allows us to further analyse the characteristics of the product and possibly relate it to theories surrounding its subject.

Types of narrative structure

Linear
Non-Linear

LO1: Production Process & Job Roles

Production Process & Job Roles

Key Personnel for the film industry

Script Writer
Cameramen
Actors
Director
Editor
Technicians (light/sound)

Animators
Special effects agents

Key Personnel in Django Unchained

One of the most important roles in Django Unchained is the location manager. Because the film is set across a large portion of souther USA and various bits of scenery are needed throughout the film (forests, mountains, old-style towns etc.)

LO2

Pre 2000

Web 1.0 - not interactive

2000

Broadband - faster download speed

web 2.0 - interactive - VOD (Video On Demand services)

YouTube 2005

Digital methods are in existence because of technological convergence (technologies coming together to provide a new source for the audience.

"Black box" (referring to a smart phone)
            - Henry Jenkins (2006)

"Above the line" advertising methods

Premieres
Trailers
Posters
Reviews
Targets large audiences

"Below the line"advertising methods

Social Media

LO3 Narrative Theory

What is the difference between story and narrative?

A story is a sequence of events whereas the concept of narrative deals more with how the events are told. Narrative is the ordering of events into a consumable format.

Story = Plot
Narrative = Structure

The story of Django unchained

Two years before the Civil War, Django a slave, finds himself accompanying an unorthodox German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz on a mission to capture the vicious Brittle brothers. Their mission successful, Schultz frees Django, and together they hunt the South's most-wanted criminals. Their travels take them to the infamous plantation of shady Calvin Candie, where Django's long-lost wife is still a slave.


Key Theory 1: Tim O'Sullivan et al. (1998)

All media texts tell us some kind of story. Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves (as a culture) - these are ideologies. 

In Django unchained the two bounty hunters travel through southern USA killing criminals; this shows that justice is always important no matter how difficult it may be to seek it. 

Key Theory 2: Pam Cook (1985)

The standard Hollywood narrative structure should have: Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution, a high degree of narrative closure and a fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence. 

The enigma in Django unchained is Django being separated from his wife and her being kept as a house slave at a plantation. This is resolved at the end of the film when Django and Dr. Schultz travel to the plantation on pretend to buy a mandingo (fighting slave) in order to add Django's wife to the deal. However the deal turns sour when Calvin Candie (the plantation owner) realises what the pair are up to and makes them pay an extortionate amount of money for her release. Dr. Schultz ends up being shot and Django has to fight his way out in order to rescue his wife. 

Key Theory 3: Tvzetan Todorov (1977)

Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium.

Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, creating a state of disequilibrium.

Stage 3: Action directed against the disruption.

Stage 4: Restoration of a state of new equilibrium.

Django unchained does not follow this theory because it starts with Django being a slave, he then gets freed and becomes a bounty hunter, and finally he finds his wife. Unlike the theory where a film is said to go from equilibrium to disequilibrium to equilibrium again; Django unchained starts off with disequilibrium and progressively changes into equilibrium.

Key Theory 4: Claude Lévi-Strauss (1958)

Binary opposites: good vs evil etc.


Binary opposite in Django Unchained:

Good vs Evil (Django & Dr. Schultz vs Calvin Candie)
White vs Black (Django vs Calvin Candie)
The Law vs Outlaws (Django & Dr. Schultz vs the Brittle brothers)

Key Theory 5: Vladimir Propp (1928)

All narratives feature stock characters and that audiences understood stories because of such features. Villain/antagonist, hero/protagonist, helper/supporter, Princess (the prize for the hero - not necessarily a person) one that is rescued/saved/helped.

Protagonist: Django
Antagonist: Calvin Candie
Supporter: Dr Schultz
"Princess" (prize for the protagonist): Broomhilda (his wife)

Fluid character roles - characters that change roles throughout the film

Key Theory 6: Roland Barthes (1997)

Narrative codes: Enigma codes work to keep setting up problems or puzzles for the audience; action codes work to inform the audience in terms of what is happening in the next shot/scene.  


Action Code: 0:15 seconds - Dr. Schultz pulls a gun out of his sleeve so the aduience knows that someone will get shot in the next scene

KTA 4 Feedback

LO3 - Genre Theory

A films "genre" means the category it would fall under, such as: comedy (treatment, not a genre), action, horror, thriller, adventure, animation, sci-fi, social realism.

Exam Questions

Analyse how the production techniques are used to create meaning in a media product you have studied
(12 marks)

Analyse the concept of genre and representation in a media product you ave studied
(12 marks)

These common elements are called generic conventions/characteristics/elements/tropes

Plenary

The film I have chosen to study is Django Unchained, it is an action film.

Sub-genres

Horror - slasher/zombie/hammer/gothic

Key Theory 1: Barry Keith Grant (1995)

All genres have sub-genres (a genre within a genre)

The sub-genre of my film is western as it is set in America in the late 1800's and features cowboys and horses.

Key Theory 2: Patrick Phillips (1996)

Genre offers audiences comfortable reassurance. Genres fulfil audience expectations by following predictable patterns.

Django unchained reinforces the stereotypes of its genre as it has protagonists and an antagonist; it also features weaponry and lots of violence. More specifically, it reinforces the stereotypes of it sub-genre (western) because it features horses, old guns, cowboys, taverns and is set in late 1800's America.

Key Theory 3: Branston & Stafford (1999)

Genres: help to minimise risk and predict expenditure, are a blueprint for success, genre conventions also make it easier to market and sell products to audiences.

The genre of Django Unchained helps to market the product as action is one of the most popular genres and the films takes the conventions of the genre to the extreme as it is very violent.

Niche

Actors, emotions

Key Theory 4: Rick Altman (1999)

Emotional pleasures (happy, sad, nostalgic), Visceral pleasures ("gut responses" - excitement, fear, laughter), intellectual puzzles (make the audience think).

Th genre of Django Unchained (action(western)) gives visceral and emotional pleasure. At points in the film such as when D'Artagnan gets ripped apart by dogs the audience feels disgust and sadness where as when Django rescues Broomhilda the audiences feels happy.

Key Theory 5: David Bordwell (1989)

Any theme may appear in a genre.

Theme - the ideas, ideologies, concepts and myths that are encoded into a media text.

The main theme in Django Unchained is slavery. This theme is mostly relevant to the genre of my film (action) but it could appear in films of other genres such as social realism and possibly romance.

Sound

Sound Analysis



Sound is important in creating meaning for the audience as it plays a key role in changing the mood of the film. The theme of a section of a film can be completely changed by the soundtrack that is played in the background.

Diegesis is the narrative construct that everything takes place in, it is the "story world that film and TV take place in". How real diegesis appears is linked to the level of verisimilitude (the appearance of being real).

Diegetic sounds are from noises that are happening from within the diegesis, for example: dialogue, sound effects such as footsteps (including foley sound).

Mode of address: peer to peer, parent to child, teacher to pupil

Accent - they way you pronounce words
Dialect - the words you use

Synchronous sounds are sounds which are synchronized or matched with what is viewed. This is diegetic sound. this can be used for simple examples such as footsteps or movement. Another example is when characters play instrument, in most cases the sound is added in post production.

Ambient sound refers to any sounds that are used to establish location.

Non-diegetic sound is when the source is not visible on the screen and clearly not coming from the story world (e.g. narrators commentary, theme music).

Sound bridges lead in or out of a scene; they are one of the most common transitions in the continuity editing style. Sound bridges can be both diegetic and non-diegetic; the can start as non-diegetic in one scene and then bridge to a scene where the music has a visible source.

Music composed in a film or play as a background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere. The incidental music is composed to accompany the action of a drama or to fill intervals between scenes.

Stings are used as distinctive background music to add emphasis to an important moment in a motion picture or television program. A sting can be used to introduce a section of a show or indicate the end of a scene.

The sound motifs condition the audience emotionally for the arrival or actions of a character. Active viewers find a pattern relating it to a character or action. The use of sound motifs can help shape a story that requires many characters and many locations as it helps to sustain the narrative as the help clarify the narrative functions of the characters and provide a sound association for those characters as we move through the story.

Unit 1 LO3 KTA 3 Feedback Sheet Mise en Scene