LUTTERWORTH COLLEGE 2014

YEAR 12 MEDIA STUDIES

HOMEWORK BOOKLET 2014
Audience and Institution

25% of your media grade requires you to understand how films are made. Youll
need to be able to compare US films and British films at every stage of
production from pitching an idea, gaining funding, casting, filming, editing,
advertising and finally distribution.

Task: Watch a film at the cinema this summer and complete a case study on it.
Some titles are suggested below:

The Edge Of Tomorrow
Bad Neighbours
Godzilla
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Maleficent
Hercules

Below is a list of the basic things you must write about

1.) An explanation of the films plot
2.) The films genre (who do you think would want to watch it? Teens, Adults,
Males, Females etc)
3.) The films rating (e.g, is it 15, 18, PG?)
4.) The films budget (i.e. how much it cost to make)
5.) Who directed the film (is this film typical of their work?)
6.) Who starred in the film (are they major stars or relative unknowns? What
films have the previously been in?)
7.) Which Studio(s) produced the film (and more importantly WHO owns them?)
7.) The technology involved (was it filmed on film or digital, is it 3D? Does it use
CGI? etc)
8.) Which studio(s) distributed the film (and once again who owns them?)
9.) The films release date in the UK and the US
10.) How many screens was the film shown on? (This is a tricky one)
11.) FIVE different examples of how the film was marketed (e.g. Posters, trailers,
premiers etc).

Useful websites:

imdb.com (general film info)
wikipedia.com
screendaily.com/ (website dedicated to films)
makingof.com/ (site dedicated to how films are made)
the-numbers.com/charts/today.php (US Box office figures)
ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/weekendboxoffice (UK Box office figures)
cjr.org/resources/ (Find out who owns the companies who make your
favourite films)
http://eleanorwatsonlcmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/case-study-kings-speech.html
(an example of the standard of research required at AS level)

Representation

By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality.
This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped,
captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are
entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us.
When studying the media it is vital to remember this - every media form, from a
home video to a glossy magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of
existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an
audience.
The study of representation is about decoding the different layers of truth/fiction.
In order to fully appreciate the part representation plays in a media text you must
consider:
Who produced it?
What/who is represented in the text?
How is that thing represented?
It is worth thinking about each of these for a moment- the first one is the more
straightforward - the media are in the business of describing things to us- they
represent people and types of people to us so that we end up feeling that we know
what they are like
Any representation is a mixture of:
1 The thing itself.
2 The opinions of the people doing the representation
3 The reaction of the individual to the representation
4 The context of the society in which the representation is taking place.

Representation of certain groups is very common, for example, age, sexuality,
gender. This makes it easier for media producers to get their message across and
we recognize the clues quicker.
















Representation in TV Drama or Soap Opera

Learning Objectives: To ensure an understanding of Representation within television programmes
and how programme makers achieve this through narrative and mise-en-scene.

Task 1:

Choose a character and think about how they are represented in the show in which they appear.
Make notes on the following points:

Tv drama/soap

Genre of tv drama/soap


Actor/actress name

Character name

Ages of character and actor

Ethnicity

Regional identity

Costume usually includes

Sum up lifestyle in 5 words

Friends include

Interests

Motivation in most situations

Love life

Problems in life

Key moment in drama series / soap

Prediction for future narratives(storylines)

How is the audience supposed to react to them? Explain view.



Task 2:


Look at the representation of age in your chosen TV drama/soap. How are old or young
people shown? Is that how they really are in life? Why have the programme makers shown
them in the way they have? Comment on the following and whether they are typical of how
young/old people are shown. Fill in the four boxes below.

Character Age (approx.) Type of clothing (costume) Example of
behavior/actions
e.g.: Tom Clarkson
(Waterloo Road)
Mid 30s Shirt and tie, blues and
greys. Smartly dressed.
Lively. Can have a
fiery temper. Has
students best
interests at heart