#nc2med

[chicargill]

A Rant on Generalisations

A generalisation is a point like: "Women then became a strong presence within the workforce and no longer depended on men to support them" or "Women weren’t happy with their current roles in society". They are generalisations because while you are saying something that is generally true, you sound extremely silly because you are applying a trend as a absolute truth. Of course not all women depended on men to support them, of course some women were happy with their role in society.  So don't be a silly billy, THINK about what you are claiming. Find another way of expressing it: "as the traditional family structure broke down, more women found themselves in the work force with career aspirations. This meant a tension formed between the stereotypical role of house wife and the career aspirations of the new wave feminist. Some families could not cope with this tension and in some cases this contributed to the increase in divorce rates."

In other words, don't settle for a simple, 'A' happened and 'B' caused it. Take you time explaining the relationships between things. The more you can use evidence to support your points the better.  

[chicargill]

The price paid by the makers of The Cosby Show for its jumbo audience was clear: silence on racism.

'White Racism and The Cosby Show' by Mike Budd and Clay Steinman

[chicargill]

Learning in the classroom. Adeo, shooting day one.

[chicargill]

A new approach to Representation

I've spent a good several hours over the last couple of days devising a new way of presenting my unit on representation of the family unit. In this topic we look at a number of sitcoms that present the idea of the American family from 'Father Knows Best' in the 1950s through to Modern Family in 2009. Looking at the representation in the shows and connecting this to the society that it reflects is a challenge. Students have to have a sense of curiosity and discovery in order to get their head around a time that was not our own and not make the traditional mistakes of making wild generalisations. 

These problems have often ended up resulting in largely teacher directed units. I would use strict powerpoints and make my points and then lead activities that explored these points. I've really become distanced from this form of teaching and as a result I've devised a unit that removes me from the front of the class and emphasises critical curiosity and student choice. 

For each week of the unit I have devised a table with three columns. Each columns has up to four activities. This is the table for week one:

Teacher/Class Time:

a) Class brainstorms - the family unit is represented in... the family unit is represented as...

b) Viewing: Father Knows Best, S01E10, ‘Typical Father’

c) Class Discussion of hypodermic needle theory and “Idealised family that viewers could relate to and wish to emulate.”

d) Viewing: ‘The Evolution of Family Structure and Values through Television’

  Select-Directed Tasks:

  a) Research: what is the stereotypical family image? Where does this stereotype come from? Who decides what it is?

b) Read p. 58 of the blue book (Media Studies: Achievement Standards L2)

c) Read and Learn important terms and concepts from the definition google doc.

d) Answer Questions on Father Knows Best and the Evolution video

e) Read ‘A brief history of moral panics’ pp. 287-9 in Senior Media

  Extension Opportunities:

  a) Production Information from imdb on S01E10, ‘Typical Father’

b) Research: Look into 1950s American society. Find academic writing about the status of the American Dream, and American families.

c) Read the rest of the representation chapter in the blue book (pp. 55-71)

d) Viewing: Another episode of Father Knows Best, e.g. ‘Grandpa Retires’

The idea is that during the week I will run the Teacher Time when appropriate, and the rest of the time the students will complete tasks from the other columns. These tasks range from researching a question or concept, reading a particular reading, answering questions in a google doc, or viewing related material on their devices. 

My challenge is now to sell this a get a strong buy in from the class. I'm convinced that this can produce better learning outcomes, (perhaps not results, but you never know) and it heightens so many skills that I value and the curriculum values. Tracking progress is a major concern, and I'm going to look at ways of doing this successfully. 

[chicargill]

Script Writing and Development

A collection of tips co-constructed by my Level 2 Media Studies class.

Character Tips:

All characters should have clear emotional arcs (i.e. The Wizard of Oz)

Character need to be distinctive (i.e. melodramas)

Characters should be relatable and real.

Are telling the viewers 2 stories, what they tell us about themselves, and what other characters tell us about them. (reactions, opinions etc)

Stick to stereotypes so that they audience can tell who they are.

Perfect characters are not realistic - your characters should have some flaws in order to make them more relatable.

Challenge your characters. What do they like/dislike? Give them the complete opposite.

Give your characters opinions in order for them to be more relatable.

Don’t always make the character instantly badass. Nobody likes an instant badass all the time. Make them work for it, to achieve this success. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Your character should have a goal.

Step into your character’s shoes. How would you react if you were in that situation, and what would make you act that way? This helps to develop the character into someone more relatable to the audience.

Don’t have throwaway characters - try to fit in as much as makes sense to key characters.

give your characters opinions :)

Creating what you want in a character and work around the biography, Never assume a character will be created by a guess.

Scene Tips

Scenes should turn.

Make the audience think.

Start with an answer, end with a question.

Make the scene build up to a turning point.

Not all answers are needed. (2+2)

Have settings relevant to the narrative.

Make a realistic ending... don’t use the typical cliche, be original.

Having trouble in a scene keeps the viewers interested.

Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle.

Have each scene like a chapter.

Try and film in a well lit area.

Film scenes multiple times with different dialogue.

Just because you’re not happy with the placement, doesn’t mean you have to keep it, change it as many times as you like, cling to your vision.

Make the audience be on a journey!!!!

Don’t try too hard to stick to your ‘theme.’ Oftentimes, it will come by itself.

Dialogue Tips

Show don’t tell - this is a visual medium. Tell the story visually. Dialogue should be non-existent/minimal.

Use strategies to help sound issues. I.e. voice over that is recorded separately from your location.

Use sound effects to make it the atmosphere more realistic, dramatic etc and set the tone of the film.

How the story is told is more important than what the story is about.

Cut out what you don’t really need.

Tension will draw in the audience.

Use language that fits into your characters personality or background.

Show the film through imagery, not a speech.

Try using realistic dialogue and not dialogue that is barely relatable and doesn’t make sense.

Tell the story visually.

Try not to convey information in huge chunks of dialogue. Show not tell.

Set the tone of the film.

If you have bad background noise then add music.

Don't have characters talk about what they already know.

Seeming that we’re having minimal dialogue, only use it when it’s completely necessary

Handy Links

Alfred Hitchcock on evoking an emotional response

Film Riot - Learn to Write Screenplays for Film

Celtx - software to help you write your script

[chicargill]

Narrative - Cliffhanger - Exemplar

Below is the NZQA exemplar for Excellence for our 2.2 standard. 

To achieve this standard at Excellence the student needs to:

demonstrate critical understanding of narrative in media texts

The student demonstrates critical understanding by examining the implication(s) of the contribution of at least two selected narrative features to narrative in media texts by:

describing narrative features in the text:

(Cliff hanger) The convention of the cliff used in Holloween is important to the narrative as it drives the audience to the unexpected and unknown thus creating the iconic fear from a slasher film.

 supporting and illustrating good discussion with examples from the text:

(Cliff hanger) An establishing bird’s eye view shot shows us the seemingly dead unstoppable masked killer on the ground, this leads to us to the conclusion Myers is dead and the climax was Laurie struggling against Myers’  killing attempts. However the music and shots continue until Loomis looks over the balcony again to regain his feeling of finally dealing with Myers.  But the reoccurring establishing bird’s eye view shot reveals the infamous cliffhanger of Halloween and the typical slasher unstoppable masked killer characteristic.

 examining the implications of the contribution of selected narrative features to narrative in the text:

(Cliff Hanger) The unresolved climax is an important aspect of the slasher genre and usually exceeds the audience’s expectations to introduce sequels and more commercial productions…The cliff hanger drives the narrative towards the sense of Myers being the unstoppable psychotic and babysitter obsessed killer, this was the convention of the cliff hanger where his typical characteristic as unstoppable is emphasized. The narrative continues this sense throughout the film…this idea of fear lurks behind the wonder of how he can be this way and get away with the things he does, and it all links back to the cliff hanging enforced idea of Myers being unstoppable.

Loomis’ revelation of Myers surviving and getting away not only enforces his typical UMK character but also drives the fear of the typical slasher through the open ending and sense that anything could happen next.

Slasher is the genre that produces fear filled films that leave the audience (mostly teenage targeted) feeling unsafe in the place they consider the safest. The cliffhanger convention ensures this sense of unsafe and enforces the fear through the narrative of the unresolved  anti-climax stuation. Halloween has intentionally provided an open ending cliff hanger with a commercial agenda at hand. Halloween benefits from this convention from the fear induced audience coming back for more no matter how scared the movie before made them.

To meet a secure Excellence the student needs to examine the implication(s) of the contribution of selected narrative features to narrative in the text. The student could:

focus on the wider consequences/implications of the the use of the selected narrative features in the media text and beyond. In particular, take a more critical look at how the cliff hangar convention drives the narrative with supporting examples from the text

adopt a closer critique of the cliff hanger convention and the problems associated with it in the slasher genre – i.e. its overuse, audiences becoming too familiar with it.

[chicargill]

Phase One Psychological Horror

Due to the arrival of World War Two, psychological horror emerged – a distinct change from the ‘monster’ saturated, classic horror of the 1930s. Val Lewton’s psychological horror of the early 1940s involved “no masklike faces… no creaking physical manifestations. No horror piled on horror” (Val Lewton). In the 1930s, horror monsters were exotic – from far away – and were non-human in appearance. This distanced the audience from the film with Draculas, Frankensteins, werewolves and supernatural characters all belonging to a world that is not our own – fantasy. Cinema in the 1930s was an escapist toll – it was important that the horror presented did not hit too close to home as the genre was still in its infancy. The change in the genre, towards a psychological form of horror was motivated by change in society. Val Lewton was the filmmaker that led this development. His “work did much to parallel, invoke, and implicitly illustrate the unimaginable terrors of the Second World War” (Paul Wells). In the Cat People (1942), the audience never sees the monster, like in the pool scene where shadows and lighting suggest a presence rather than explicitly showing it. Lewton’s films reflect the 1940s zeitgeist. Because of World War Two, ordinary citizens like Lewton were seeing body bags return home from Europe and Asia. According to J C Loophole, “it’s partly what Lewton was on the home front that affected what the audiences saw on the screen." The suggestive horror captured the fear of the unknown. Just as audiences could only imagine what was happening in the war, they were forced to imagine the terror that lurked in Lewton’s shadows, playing on our instinctual fear of the dark. Paul Wells suggested that the horror genre creates a space in which audiences can experience feelings that are normally taboo. The 1940s wave of psychological horror reacted to the shift in society and pushed the audience into exploring the anxieties associated with that time.

[chicargill]

Psychological Effects of Horror Films

This infographic makes a claim for the long lasting and terribly damaging effects of horror films. Citing sleeplessness, trembling, and fevers as some of the resulting symptoms, it appears ridiculous to think that audiences are making conscious decisions to go and see these films.

Theories are vast when it comes to why we watch horror films. Karina Wilson over at Horror Film History asks:

do we derive basic thrills from triggering the rush of adrenalin which fear brings, or do horror stories serve a wider moral purpose, reinforcing the rules and taboos of our society and showing the macabre fate of those who transgress?

Within both purposes, the cinema offers a safe environment to experiences the thrills and the moral stories. Within the walls of a cinema complex, we may be in a dark and amongst strangers - but the long established cinema code of how we watch films is concrete. I personally find it a bit perverse going to the cinema to experience fear. But conversely, I love seeing a horror film for the second time with someone who hasn't seen it before. There's something quite deliciously delinquent about this experience. As Wes Craven put it:

I don't think people like to be scared... They go to scary movies because they already have certain fears and the movies brings it out in a way that's fun because you know you're not going to get hurt...Something [gets] exercised, some terrible tension [gets] relieved momentarily and so it performs some sort of arcane service to the human psyche. Beyond that it is a mystery.

Further to these ideas, Paul Wells addresses the horror films in the context of the cinema in his book The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch. In this he suggests:

The frisson of the horror text for the audience is underpinned by the expressed desire to experience feelings which relate to taboo agendas and the limits of gratification.

This underpins the genres appeal. The audience knows what to expect from a horror film. It will take them to their emotional extremes and generate a physical reaction. It will challenge, subvert and manifest social anxieties of the time.

Maybe, it all comes back to the genius of Val Lewton. He was among the first filmmakers to investigate the unknown. Society has a deep-rooted fear of the unknown. Ultimately is the purpose then finding a way for the unknown to entertain?