Media revision Flashcards
Semiotics
Study of signs and how they make meaning
Signifier
The physical form - Name of the object
Signified - The object
Denotation and Connotion
Denotation - Literal meaning
Connotation - Extra,linked meaning
Mise en scène
‘Put in the scene’
‘On stage’
Costumes
Cinematography
Setting up camera and lighting.
Includes editing
Editing
Montage - Series of shots which summarise an action or build a mood.
Cross cutting - Action at the same time and an editing technique used in films.
180 degree rule - 2 characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another.
Rule of Thirds - Frame divided into 9 sections.
Focus Pull - Change focus during a shot.
Sound
Diegetic - e.g ( traffic,telephone,dialogue)
Non diegetic - Postproduction
Parallel - Children playing and laughing,happy voices,sounds of play
Contrapuntal - People laughing on a beach,sinister music sounds suggesting fear - Jaws
Sound Bridge - Continued sound to next scene
Synchronous and Asynchronous - Sound that is visible/not visible on screen
Camera shots
Distance - Extreme Close Up,Mid Shot,Long Shot,Wide Shot
Angle - High Angle,Low Angle,Canted
Effect - Two shot,Point of View,Bird’s eye
Movement - Pan,Zoom,Track
Lighting Sources
Key Light
Filler Light - Lightens up shadow areas
Back Light - Separate subject from background
High Key Lighting - This type of lighting constructs a fairly natural, everyday form of lighting, free from dark shadows.
Low Key Lighting - This type of lighting highlights the contours on objects, creating dark shadows onscreen.This type of lighting is seen in horror genre.
Magazines
Masthead - The largest typeface for the title of the magazine and iconic recognisable font creates brand identity for the magazine.
Main Image - Dominates the cover.The captions are used to anchor or direct meaning.
Strap lines - The next largest typeface for the most important articles.
Date/Barcode/Price - Essential details about the issue.
Cover lines - Tease for contents and features.
Puffs or Blurbs - Blocks of text or images to attract readers to offers inside the magazine.
Laura Mulvey
Suggested that women in films are represented as objects with visual impact.
This gives the (male) audience an active role in looking at the female as (passive) object and gaining pleasure from doing so
This look, from audience to actress, is called ‘the gaze’.
Different types of gaze
The spectator’s gaze - the gaze of the viewer at a character in the scene
The intra-diegetic gaze - the gaze of one character at another.
The direct gaze - a character looking out at the viewer.
The look of the camera - the way the camera itself looks at a character.
Genre Theory
a way of categorising a particular media text according to its content and style.
Sub genre - Combining two genres together.
Hybridisation - Three or more genres mixed together.
Subversion - It’s the act of telling a familiar story but making subtle changes and introducing new themes
Intertextuality - When one media text references another.
Audience Effect Theories
George Gerbner: Cultivation Theory
Idea that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way people perceive the world around them
Idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values
The more important impact of this is the development of a view of the world that sees it as a mean and scary place: Mean World Syndrome
Albert Bandura: Social Learning Theory (Hypodermic Model)
the idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly
the idea that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling
idea that media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.
Regulatory bodies - IPSO
Regulates all press in the UK
Responds to any complaints made about the press and monitors the conduct of journalists and hold editors into account.
Focuses on the editorial content of newspapers and magazines.
Strives to protect the rights of individuals, while preserving appropriate freedom of expression for the press.
Regulatory Bodies - ASA
Regulates all adverts in the UK.
Responds to any complaints made about adverts and it’s role is to regulate advertisements,sales,promotions and direct marketing.
Its ‘code of advertising practice’ ensures no one is likely to be mislead by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, or omission.
Not funded by the UK government and cannot interpret legalisation.
Regulatory Bodies - BBFC
Regulates all classification and censoring of films released in the UK and responds to any complaints made about films.
Funded by the film industry and has statutory requirements to regulate DVD’s, video’s, and some computer games.
Distributes age certificates and consumer advice on the age suitability of the film.
Narrative
The timing and manner in which events are revealed to the audience.
Pastiche
A copy of a genre;blurring genre boundaries.
Subversion
Genre expectations set up and then not fulfilled
Hybrid/cross genre
A mix of several genres
Subgenre
Category within a genre
Typeface
The shape of the letters,numbers and symbols that make up a design of type.
Manipulation
The photo maybe enhanced from the original or additional elements added.
Objectification
Treating someone as an object rather than a person,with no thoughts,feelings or rights.
Immersion
The player fully enters the gaming world by adopting its rules and conventions.
Diegetic UI elements
Items that help to immerse the player in the game’s world,such as a gun,character or setting.
Non - diegetic UI elements
Items from outside the game’s world that help the player to play the game,such as text showing points earned of health ;or volume control icons.
Interaction
Two way communication between the players and the game that leads to something happening in the game.
User interface
The means by which a player controls the software and hardware to interact with the game or app.It can also be what the user sees on screen.
Classical continuity editing
Using agreed conventions to cut and join shots to tell the story smoothly and clearly.
Creates the least challenging and most structured narrative style for the audience.
Effects of editing
Establishing shot - A long or extreme long shot showing the spatial relationship between,or location of characters,objects and setting.
Shot/reverse shot - During dialogue,the camera cuts back and forth along the central line from one character to another,pushing action onwards.
30 degree rule - The camera angle between two consecutive shots should move by less than 30 degrees for continuity.
Cross cut/parallel edit - This is cutting between actions in different locations to convey the impression that two or more events are occurring simultaneously.
Cutaway - A shot of something related to but outside the main action of a scene.It cuts away from the main action to a separate or secondary action,for example to show the response of another character.
Match on action/action match - Two shots are linked by two farmings of the same action,for example a character begins to move or speak in one shot and their movement or dialogue continues in the next shot.Can show time passing.
Eyeline match - A cut between two shots.A character looks at something and in the next shot we see what they see,such as the person they are talking to,looking at them.
Re-establishing shot - This is another long shot to reinforce the setting or show how it has changed.
180 degree rule - This maintains continuity by ensuring that the action in a sequence of shots takes place in the half circle in front of the camera,so that characters’ positions aren’t reversed.Crossing the line creates a disorienting change in perspective.
