A2 Brief A2 Brief You are to produce a Promotion Package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer (DVD), together with 2 of the following: A website homepage for the film A film magazine front cover, featuring the film (A4) A poster for the film (No larger than A3)

MEDIA THEORIES:

DEFINE GENRE THEORY: the word ‘genre’ means type or category. In film, genre refers to ‘the method based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed’. There are specific genre conventions in film, that are used by institutions and producers to show audiences what to expect and audiences also use these genre conventions to figure out if they will enjoy the film. These conventions could for example with a ‘teen rom com’ include a high school and the popular ‘jocks’ and cheerleaders ruling the school, with the main character being a female misfit or a nerdy male trying to fit in or not.

HOLLYWOOD Hollywood like very much to keep to traditional genre conventions and stick to the genres they know, as they know these genres sell and make them big profits! The films that hollywood generates each year always tend to match audience expectations, so for example if we look at this poster for recent film ‘World War Z’ (Marc Forster, 2013) we can gather straight away what the film’s genre is, and get a jist of the narrative already- Big city burning down, thousands of people in the streets- suggests its an apocalyptic action film. Here we have in big font (nearly as big as the title!) our main stars name. Audiences will immediately associate Pitt with all the other films he has done, and from this we can gather it will be action related film, where he is the main protagonist, the hero. The title itself is very bold and again relates back to apocalyptic action genre- ‘World War Z’ suggests the last war- the end of all wars- the most destructive war?

HOWEVER Genre is not static. Most films, certainly today, don’t just fit under one genre, they can even sometimes be seen as several genres all in one. This is what we call Hybrid Genres. Hybrid Genre refers to a combination of two or more stylistic, themed categories. So for in film for example the recent ‘Django Unchained’ (2012, Quentin Tarantino) can be classified as a ‘Western, Drama, Adventure’ as it follows all the conventions of each genre. Adorno and Horkheimer criticise the use of standardised genre conventions, and support the use of hybrid genres and creativity in genre. They believe that “Mass production of film create a repetitive ‘standardisation’ of conventions dominated with one ideology that communicates to the lowest common denominator for mass consumption”. They are basically saying that Hollywood which creates most of the films in the cinemas today, create these dominant genres that churn out the same message every time.

MEDIA THEORIES:

DEFINE POSTMODERNISM THEORY: Postmodernism reflects our increasingly global culture (globalisation) where ideas are borrowed from elsewhere, it reflects our insecurities of coping with the break up of traditional values e.g.. Religion, family values, class structure, etc. Postmodernism therefore encompasses the social and cultural ideas, attitudes and images since the 1960’s/70’s. In film, Postmodernism challenges ideas in a confused world so uses references and updates ideas (e.g. using hybrid genres) to offer challenging narrative, representations, high art style, etc.

PRE-INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRIAL TODAY 21 ST CENTURY The age of reason A time of ‘Modernism’-is modern thought, character, or practice. However also a time of Totalitarianism which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. People starting to rebel against systems- for example the ‘Luddites’ who protested against newly developed labour-saving machinery from 1811 to Postmodernism arose after World War II as a reaction to the perceived failings of modernism, however really came about from the 1960’s onwards, a very confused time. Globalisation also had a very big impact on the theory, and also the age of digital technology and computers. HISTORY OF POSTMODERNISM

POSTMODERN USES IN THE MEDIA NARRATIVES -Narratives that question whether the modern progress is for the good of society (e.g. The Matrix) -Narratives that challenge conventional film narratives (e.g. parody movies) -Non-linear narratives -Anti narratives META- REFERENCE – i.e. talking to the camera Michael Caine addresses audience through the camera in film Alfie (Lewis Gilbert, 1966) HYBRID GENRE’S INTERTEXUALITY -Paying Homage to -Bricolage (using certain icons) e.g. the yellow jump suit used in Kill Bill, was a bricolage and homage to the Bruce Lee movies PARODY / SATTIRE’S HIGH ART EDITING/ CAMERA WORK SIMMULCCA/ HYPER REALITY

THEORIES IN POSTMODERNISM Lyotard- The Postmodern Condition: suggested that we must challenge these dominant ideas or values present in the media as they are only ‘ideas of the truth’ and we can deconstruct them in different ways. So Postmodern texts embrace this and offer many alternative and challenging narratives or micro-narratives. Baudrillard- Simulacra or Hyper reality and Anti Truth- Baudrillard rejects truth in the media and said we must view all ideas of the truth with suspicion. He also argues that we live in a virtual world of confusing reality, we are only exposed to an unreal, hyper real world, which is a simulation or copy of reality Postmodern film makers reflect this. Jameson- Pastiche: Challenge ideas by borrowing from the past but updating the themes and morals. We are over exposed to the hyperrealism of our media and advertisement world there is no room for critique and therefore all media becomes a pastiche or copy of previous forms and ideas.

MEDIA THEORIES:

“In media terms, narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience. The difference between Story & Narrative: "Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess...)" (Key Concepts in Communication - Fiske et al (1983))” DEFINE NARRATIVE: In the next few slides are some of the most famous narrative theorists

LEVI STRAUSS Strauss was a French anthropologist who was around in the early 1900’s. he believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its ‘opposite’ or, as he called it ‘binary opposites’. Binary opposites have tended to always be easy to spot, such as good vs. evil in action films. However in todays postmodern era there has been a blur between these opposites where we see a bit of bad in the ‘good guy’ and the bad guy also tends to have some good, or the audience is made to feel sorry for them in some way or another. GOOD VS. EVIL BLACK VS. WHITE CIVILISED VS. UNCIVILISED YOUNG VS. OLD PEACE VS. WAR FEMALE VS. MALE PAST VS. PRESENT TECHNOLOGY VS. NATURE

TZETAN TODOROV Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured into five stages: A state of equilibrium at the outset A disruption of the equilibrium by some action A recognition that there has been a disruption An attempt to repair the disruption A reinstatement of the equilibrium These five stages can be seen to be adapted to most mainstream films in the past and even today! For example take ‘The Hangover’- it follows Todorov’s theory perfectly. The men are all happy, going to Las Vegas for a stag do. The men get ‘roofied’ and go crazy in Las Vegas. The men wake up, they’ve lost the stag, ones woken up with a tooth missing and they have a random baby, with no idea what’s happened. The 3 remaining men retrace there steps in order to try find their friend, and figure out what happened. The men find the stag and make it to the wedding just in time

VLADIMIR PROPP Propp studied Russian fairy tales, where he came to the conclusion that there are always eight characters present. He then applied this to fiction and films, these characters include; 1.the Villain, who struggles with the hero (formally known as the antagonist ) 2.the Hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds 3.the Princess, a sought-for person who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain 4.Her Father, who rewards the hero 5.the Donor, who gives the hero an item of power 6.the Helper, who aids the hero 7.the Dispatcher, who sends the hero on his journey 8.the False hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (i.e. by trying to marry the princess)

CHRISTOPHER VOGLER Vogler analysed a range of films for Hollywood film companies. His explanation of character archetypes and the 12 stages of the hero’s journey in films have become incredibly influential in Hollywood. Here is a picture of Vogler’s conclusion’s and the 12 stages to the narrative.

ROLAND BARTHES Linguist Roland Bathes narrowed down the action of a text in to Five Codes which are woven into any narrative: 1.The Hermeneutic Code (HER)- the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in order to drop clues in through out to help create mystery 2.The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT)- the way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next 3.The Symbolic Code (SYM)- similar to SEM but acts at a wider level, organising semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning, e.g. using antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas. 4.The Semantic Code (SEM)-points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggests 5.The Cultural Code (REF)- looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology