Homework for Half Term Post Modernism

Half Term Homework piece 1: Reading Comprehension

Objective:

To develop your Independent learning & Academic skills

To prepare an introductory grounding in the concept of Post Modernism

Read through the chapter on Post Modernism from the OCR Handbook attached 

1. What does Post Modernism suggest about the value of high art (eg opera) and popular culture (eg TV)
2. What does Post Modernism suggest about the ideas of truth or reality - how is this linked the the Media?
3. Who were the 2 big thinkers and what concept do their theories share?
4. Give an example of 3 'Grand-narratives' or 'Meta-narratives' (2 will need you be your own not listed in the chapter)
5. What is significant about Disneyland and simulacrum?
6. How is our understanding of the events of 9/11 hyper-real?
7. What is significant about the Matrix as an example of Baudrillards ideas of simulation & hyper-reality?
8. Why are Post-modern elements of The Mighty Boosh ?
9. Why are Post-modern elements of Extras ?
10. Why is Grand Theft Auto Post-modern?
11. Why is the Cadburys Gorilla ad Post-modern?
12. What does FLOW and IMMERSION mean?

Half term Homework piece 2: Written analysis on Modern Modern features

Objective:
To demonstrate your understanding so far of why some texts are described as 'Post-Modern'.


Task:
Choose a 'comtemporary' example (2007-2012) you are familiar with that would be described as Post-Modern. Write a 300 word response and post to this blog as a comment


"Explain why your case study is post-modern, analysing how it constructs meaning through its post-modern features"


Use the class resources to revise apply these terms. 
The powerpoint we used in class 
Intertextuality how it makes texts richer 
Post Modern Aesthetic - some other examples and definition of the terms (bit long though)
Inglorious Basterds - example of how this can be applied


Mark Scheme
Analysis of how the text uses post-modern features - 20
Examples of post-modern features from the Text - 20
Correct Terminology applied - 10

Half Term Homework piece 2: Match up the Terminology

Objective:
To discover definitions of Theoretical Terms to improve grade in exam (10 marks)


Task: 
The mark-scheme rewards you for accurate and precise use of theoretical terms. However, that means you need to understand them very thoroughly. Try matching the theoretical terms with their appropriate definitions. Research the answers online and using the resources to help you

Theoretical Terms 

1. Post-modern 

2. Post-modernity 

3. Parody 

  

4. Pastiche 

5. Hyper-reality 

6. Consumer culture 

7. Simulacrum 

  

8. Cultural capital 

9. Signifier and the signified 

10. Multi-accentuality 

11. Ideology 

12. Hegemony 

Definitions

A To copy something in a humorous and tongue in 

cheek way.  

B A culture and society in which individual and 

collective identity is constructed in material acts of 

economic exchange e.g. shopping 

C The semiotic landscape of a society dominated 

by consumer culture and information technology 

D A copy without an original 

E A historical period in Western culture after the

Second World in which society became dominated 

by information technology 

F The knowledge and information that informs 

people’s cultural consumption in a post-modern 

society 

G The basic units of semiotic analysis. 

H To copy something without humour, irony or 

anything else that communicates difference 

I The dominant way of thinking about society and 

culture enforced by the ruling class. 

J A system of belief or ideas. 

K The collapse of the distinction between the real 

and simulated. 

L The way in which meaning changes according to 

context and over-time. 

Mark Scheme - 12

What is Creativity?

What is creativity? (G325 questions on production work)

Taken from Media Magazine blog.

One of the possible areas you could be asked about in the exam is creativity. The projects you have undertaken will hopefully have felt like an opportunity to display your creativity, but you will need the chance to discuss what you understand by creativity and what it might mean to be creative.

The assignment options at AS and A2 all offer constraints for your work, whether it be making pages for a music magazine, the opening of a film or the packaging for an album; one of the reasons why you aren't offered total free choice is because people often find that working within constraints gives them something to exercise their creativity, whereas total freedom can sometimes make it really difficult to know where to start. It's why genre can be interesting- how has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules but plays around with them to give us something a little bit different?

The word 'creative' has many meanings- the most democratic meaning would really suggest that any act of making something (even making an idea) might be seen as a creative act. In more elitist versions of the term, it is reserved for those who are seen as highly skilled or original (famous artists, musicians, film-makers etc). an interesting third alternative is to think about how creativity can be an unconscious, random or collaborative act that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

A great shared site for creative random art with some effort is on Flickr with the shared CD meme pool. This is a game where you create a CD cover for an imaginary band and upload it to Flickr; the trick is you have to create it from 'found' materials, again following a set of rules.

1. Generate a name for your band by using WikiPedia's random page selector tool, and using the first article title on whichever page pops up. No matter how weird or lame that band name sounds.
2. Generate an album title by cutting and pasting the last four words of the final quote on whichever page appears when you click on the quotationspage's random quote selector tool. No matter what those four words turn out to be.
3. Finally, visit Flickr's Most Interesting page -- a random selection of some of the interesting things discovered on Flickr within the last 7 days -- and download the third picture on that page. (Even better: Click on this link to get a Flickr photo that's licensed underCreative Commons.) Again -- no cheating! You must use the photo, no matter how you feel about it.
4. Using Photoshop (or whatever method you prefer), put all of these elements together and create your very own CD cover, then upload it to the CD memepool
My version:

Margarita Rosa de Francisco

Milk's Leap Toward Immortality




Ideas and theories to help you.


"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jone 1993)


"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)


"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)


"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)

Work set for today

Hi All

Looks like I won't be back til next week. Please continue putting together your evaluations.

I would appreciate some feedback from the lesson yesterday & today as it is 3 hours so can you all please reply as a comment to this post with your rough notes for Q1 Conventions or Q2 Combination of products and i will give you some feedback.

Now is the time to start selecting and cutting together clips as evidence and so again make sure you use the time wisely.

We will be using next Thursdays & Fridays lesson to set up Post Modernism so I must re-enforce the importance of using yesterdays and today's lessons effectively - your deadline for your evaluation presentations is 2 weeks today.

I will check the blog at 3.20 today, I will be unable to take the register if your names are not listed as a reply to this post. Yvonne can you pls take responsibility for getting the class to do this

Good luck

Mr.B

Man Flu...

Hi all

Sorry I'm not in today, am not feeling well.

Hope you got a lot of encouragement from yesterday, Kwame was very impressed with your skills and work.

Please look at the evaluation blog (link on the right) and start putting together your audience feedback questionnaires. There are examples of last years students plus the movs on the desktops we were using yesterday. there are alalo some posts entitled q1 & q2 to help you break down your responses.

Please comment on this post with your names so i know who is in for the register, Katie could you take responsibility for this pls.

If you need the Lacie its in the top drawer, you can record video using the build in cams on the macs

Good luck, i'll check in at 3 to see how it is going

Cheers
Mr.B

Homework xmas break - evaluation & audience feedback

Hi All
We are entering the final stage of the coursework which is the evaluation. You have 4 questions which must finally be presented as a digital media format (ie not an essay)


We are changing to a new blog for the evaluation: http://leighmediaa2eval.blogspot.com - there is a link on the right


This task to begin with is individual but you will work in teams to finally present these.


Before you leave for the holidays:
1. Export your video and post to youtube/then to your blog


2. Upload your Digipak & Website images to your blog


Then over xmas finish your website...


3. Collect audience feedback using social networking sites


Build a questionnaire for Facebook & Myspace and circulate to members of your target audience - *IMP USE THE PAGE YOU CREATED FOR YOUR ARTISTS RESEARCH/MARKETING STRATEGY - IF YOU HAVEN'T DO SO NOW & INVITE YOUR AUDIENCE

• Facebook - http://www.quibblo.com/facebook-quizzes-surveys
• Myspace - http://tjshome.com/survey/

4. On your Individual Blog, add a post of preliminary notes/answers for each of the evaluation questions - they do not need to be full sentences just blog thoughts.
Look over the previous year' students examples for guidance (click on the links to see Sean's grade A example)


5. Look over the mark scheme (following post on the blog)  - why did he get L4?

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Capture 9 frames to demonstrate this

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Include visuals (print screens etc)

 

Evaluation Question 3 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Include print screen evidence of comments/questionnaires from Facebook - Youtube - Myspace & The bands website feedback

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?Include images from your work in development on your blog to back up your comments

Please be ready to present these when we return in January

Merry Xmas & well done!

Mr.B

Characteristics of Music Video

Characteristics of Music Video

Characteristics of Music Video

Ultimately we will advocate using cultural models for the rhetorical analysis of music video. To fully understand how a cultural model facilitates rhetorical criticism of music video, it is first necessary to explore the unique features of the genre. Music, particularly rock, has always had a visual element. The album cover, the "look" a band strived for in performance, concert staging, and promotional publicity have all helped create a visual imagery for rock (Goodwin, 1992). The use of video to stimulate album sales and the birth of MTV as a continuous outlet for viewing simply served to enhance the visual potential present in rock.

Viewers typically do not regard the music video as a commercial for an album or act.Aufderheide (1986) describes the connection of viewer to video."With nary a reference to cash or commodities, music videos cross the consumer's gaze as a series of mood states. They trigger nostalgia, regret, anxiety, confusion, dread, envy, admiration, pity, titillation--attitudes at one remove from the primal expression such as passion, ecstasy, and rage. The moods often express a lack, an incompletion, an instability, a searching for location. In music videos, those feelings are carried on flights of whimsy, extended journeys into the arbitrary." (p. 63)

That music videos present compelling mood states that may claim the attention of the viewer is not a matter of happenstance.
Abt (1987) states that "directors of videos strive to make their products as exciting as the music. In the struggle to establish and maintain a following, artists utilize any number of techniques in order to appear exotic, powerful, tough, sexy, cool, unique" (p. 103). Further, Abt indicates a video must compete with other videos.

"They must gain and hold the viewer's attention amidst other videos; help establish, visualize, or maintain the artist's image; sell that image and the products associated with it; and perhaps, carry one or several direct or indirect messages . . ." (p. 97).

Music videos may be further characterized by three broad typologies: performance, narrative, and conceptual (Firth, 1988).
These types describe the form and content selected by the director or artist to attract viewers and to convey a direct or indirect message.

Performance videos, the most common type (Firth 1988) feature the star or group singing in concert to wildly enthusiastic fans. The goal is to convey a sense of the in-concert experience. Gow (1992) suggests "the predominance of performance as a formal system in the popular clips indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by communicating images of artists singing and playing songs" (pp. 48-49). Performance videos, especially those that display the star or group in the studio, remind the viewer that the soundtrack is still important. "Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that, indeed, the recording of the music is the most significant element" (Gow, 1992, p. 45).

A narrative video presents a sequence of events. A video may tell any kind of story in linear, cause-effect sequencing. Love stories, however, are the most common narrative mode in music video. The narrative pattern is one of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen (Schwichtenberg, 1992).Conceptual videos rely on poetic form, primarily metaphor (Firth, 1988). The conceptual video can be metaphysical poetry articulated through visual and verbal elements. "These videos make significant use of the visual element, presenting to the eye as well as the ear, and in doing so, conveying truths inexpressible discursively" (Lorch, 1988, p. 143). Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing (Firth, 1988).

Conceptual videos contain the possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor or metaphoric sequence is interpreted by the viewer.
"Thus the metaphorical relations between images structured according to musical and visual rhymes and rhythms play a suggestive role in soliciting multiple meanings from us, the viewers/listeners, that resonate with our experience--something we can feel and describe" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 124).

A given music video may actually have elements of more than one category. Goodwin (1992), in describing Madonna's videos, suggests that the essential narrative component of a music video is found in its ability to frame the star, "star-in-text," as all Madonna's videos seem to do. A story exists solely for its ability to create, or in Madonna's case recreate, the star's persona. This blending of elements can also enable a type of music such as rap to have cross-over appeal to a wider audience.Although we may profitably interpret the message potential of music video using these three categories as a basis for content analysis, certain limitations exist if we remain on that path. "Analysts of music video narrative have been all too eager to freeze the moment and study videos shot by shot, but here the problem is that this generates not too much but too little knowledge, because the individual narrative is highly intertextual" (Goodwin, 1992 p. 90).

As a blend of video technique and imagery from film and television, music video offers us a new perceptual agenda by providing allusions to and incorporations of old iconic imagery from film, allowing us to reconstitute the pieces of the 20th century information explosion (Turner, 1986). The brevity of the music video has created a new grammar of video technique particular to this miniscule video form.

"Visual techniques commonly employed in music videos exaggerate . . . Interest and excitement is stimulated by rapid cutting, intercutting, dissolves, superimpositions, and other special effects, that taken together with different scenes and characters, make music videos visually and thematically dynamic." (Abt, 1987 pp. 97-98)

Born of an amalgam of commercialism, television, and film, for the purpose of selling rock albums, music videos frequently employ well-established verbal and visual symbols in telling a story or making a point. If no such symbols exist, music videos coin their own which, given the ubiquity of the medium, quickly find their way into the vernacular.How then to best understand the rhetorical properties that such a media form has for the audience? Schwichtenberg (1992) suggests that what critics should consider "is how music videos are woven into a complex cultural context that includes performers, industries, and diverse audiences who attribute a wide variety of meanings to the music and visuals" (p. 117).

These characteristics suggest that the most methodologically appropriate approach to understanding how music videos might function as rhetoric is to view them as cultural acts, intertextually located in the viewer's own experience. We define culture, with a little help from Bruce Gronbeck (1983), as a complex of collectively determined sets of rules, values, ideologies, and habits that constrain rhetors and their acts. This complex leads a society to generate meaning through various message forms to establish a series of societal truths. The extent to which any form of communication such as a music video plays a part in the process of truth-making is what the rhetorical critic attempts to discover through criticism.

Karyn Charles Rybacki and Donald Jay Rybacki Northern Michigan University

Audience feedback - (6 (work) days remain to deadline 4pm Friday 16th Dec

Time to start thinking about the next step. Your module result is based on the progress you have made on your video & ancillary tasks against the marking criteria. As your video has til next week til deadline this is a prediction on THE PROCESS and time management as well as what I have seen of your footage and editing progression and what you have evidenced on your blogs of the construction (photos from the shoot, during the edit, your reflections on your individual/group blogs..)

Next step - audience feedback


You should already have set up pages using social media to identify your target audience. If you have used an actual band use their website and collect feedback from them - this is 'client's feedback' and is valuable.

Facebook - Twitter - Myspace - comments on website

All ways to collect audience feedback on your work. Ensure you have an audience profile (photos) of your typical audience member.
Consider:
Age;
Gender;
Subculture (Punk, Emo, Scene Kid, Skater, Nu-Raver);
Region;
Outlook - values (facebook useful for this)

Collect the feedback and post to your blogs.

Evaluation is dependent on your analysis of the feedback - this includes each other.

If you are ahead please feedback on each others rough cut.

Thanks
Mr.B