AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will

Understand the requirements of your exam Distinguish TV Drama from other genres

Be able to analyse representation in a range of media texts.

ASSESSMENT
G322: Key Media Concepts (TV Drama) The exam is 2 hours (including 30 mins for viewing and making notes on the

clip) . Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions - each question is marked out of 50.
There are two sections to this paper: Section A: Textual Analysis and Representation (50 marks) Section B: Institutions and Audiences (50 marks) - see the case studies for The Inbetweeners Movie and John Carter. You should have also researched

your own examples of an independent British film and mainstream Hollywood film.

SECTION A
Section A: Textual Analysis and Representation You will watch an unseen TV extract from a TV drama (a one-off drama series or serial drama programme scheduled on British TV, including some sourced from other countries). You will answer one compulsory question dealing with textual analysis of various technical aspects of the languages and conventions of moving image media. Candidates will be asked to link this analysis with a discussion of some aspect of representation within the sequence: Camera Angle, Shot, Movement and Composition Mise-en-Scne Editing Sound

SECTION B
Section B: Institutions and Audiences
One compulsory question to be answered by candidates based upon a case study of a specific media industry (we will study Film and Video Games). We will choose one of the topic areas in advance and prepare you for it. You will

need to know contemporary institutional processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or international level as well as British audiences reception and consumption. There should also be some emphasis on the students own experience of being audience.

What is TV Drama?
YOUR TASK - Starter 1. Write a list of the TV Dramas that you know! 2. Put them into groups and label them appropriately. 3. How have you decided to group them? Why?

TV Drama is
A story that is presented in a dramatic way and explores a range of genres Dramatic programming that is scripted and normally fictional

TV Drama Sub-genres
A sub-genre is where genres are subdivided into even more specific categories.

What sub-genres can you think of?

Teen Dramas
These depend entirely on the target audience empathising with a range of authentic characters, age-specific situations and anxieties.
E.g. Skins. Watch a clip from 4OD or on Youtube: Think about the target audience. Who are they? How do you know?

Period/Costume Dramas
These are often linked to classic novels or plays and offer a set of pleasers that are very different to dramas set in our times.
E.g. Downton Abbey As you watch this clip think about the target audience. Who are they? How do you know?

Medical/Hospital Dramas
We witness trauma and suffering on the part of patients and relatives with a set of staff narratives that deploy soap opera conventions.
E.g. Holby City, ER, Scrubs. As you watch this clip think about the target audience. Who are they? How do you know?

Police/Crime Dramas
These work in the same way as medical/hospital dramas but we can substitute the health context for representation of criminals and victims.
E.g. The Bill.

As you watch this clip think about the target audience. Who are they? How do you know?

Remember
It is rare to find a TV Drama that fits all.
Audiences like choice and different audiences find

appeals in different types of media texts (Uses and Gratifications, Blumler and Katz) What is in each TV programme has been constructed to appeal to those audiences. Representation is constructed your task is to deconstruct how it has been created using technical language.

Representation
The process by which the media present to us the real world.

Okay, thats harsh Im stereotyping!!

Representations can change over time

The Sun, 1998 Headline Banished Beckham

The Sun, 2001 Headline Glorious Golden Balls

Other factors that affect representations:

Audience positioning consider how different

categories of audiences will react to you. Interaction between other groups (important when looking at characterisation within TV Drama). Cultural ideology we hall have expectations about how certain characters and groups should react, behave and operate within society. Exam spec has changed no longer is the extract exclusive to UK but can be an imported TV drama shown in the UK. How does the above affect this?

Key points
For many of us, the media are the key source of our

understanding of the world. For example, what is it like to live in Australia? If you have not been there, how do you know this? Many people believe that the media are a powerful means of shaping our attitudes and beliefs what does this mean?

7 groups of representation
Class Sexuality Disability Regional identity Age Ethnicity Gender

How accurate is the media?

Can we trust the representation that is being made

to be an accurate portrayal?

STEREOTYPING
What does stereotyping mean? The portrayal of people or places through a few

obvious characteristics What is the stereotype of British youths?

YOUR TASK
Look at the images on your table.
Answer the following questions on the images. You will be required to feed back your answers!

Things to think about

How accurately do they represent young people in

Britain? Are the images a positive or negative representation?

YOUR TASK
1. Research examples of the following TV Drama sub-genres:

Teen Drama Period/Costume drama Police/crime drama Medical/hospital drama

2. Look for representations of the following within each genre: Class, Sexuality, Disability, Regional identity, Age, Ethnicity, Gender YOU WILL FEED BACK YOUR FINDINGS TO THE REST OF THE CLASS!

Homework/independent study
Choose a TV Drama to watch before next lesson

(Monday) Choose a specific representation to analyse Make notes and be ready to feed back to the class on Monday about what you have found!
END OF SESSION 1

AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will be able to deconstruct a TV Drama extract. STARTER: Watch the following extract (Put your homework on your desk ready for collection)

Deconstructing
What is it?
Looking at the choices made in production. Picking

them apart. We will deconstruct the text.

What should we look at?

Camera (angles and movement) Sound (dialogue, effects, music) Editing (pace, transitions) Mise en scene

YOUR TASK
Time to deconstruct another extract! You will be either a 1, 2 or 3
If you are a 1, you will focus on camera (angles and

movement).

If you are a 2, you will focus on editing (pace,

transitions).

If you are a 3, you will focus on sound (dialogue,

effects, music).

FEEDBACK

Future Focuses
There are more areas to focus on. You should also be looking at shot types, special effects, props, costume, hair and make-up, setting, colour, and lighting.

See other presentations on editing, camera and sound.

AIM: By the end of the session, you will understand realism and apply this to extracts from a range of TV dramas. STARTER: Complete the terminology test!

CAMERA
Let us recap what we know about camera.
ACTIVITY: Match the camera shots, angles and movements to the definitions. Write the correct term above each definition. Now tell me, what shot is this?

CAMERA: ACTIVITY
Watch the following clip from 24. Note down (in a list) every camera shot, angle and movement

you see! Now, in pairs, discuss the use of these shots and answer the following questions: WHY was that shot used? What effect does it have? Write an account for the significance of each shot (and sequence of shots used) in explaining the setting/location and social context.
the amazing episodes.

This slide assumes youre a 24 fan or can have access to any of

REALISM
WHAT IS IT? A style that attempts to represent the real world. TASK: Read the extract on your worksheet, then watch the following clip. Consider how the narrative, mise-en-scene, camera and sound are constructed to represent reality.

REALISM
Characters and narrative are plausible they help to convince audiences and provide the effect of reality;

REALISM
Mise-en-scene designed to look realistic (appropriate sets, locations, dress and lighting);

REALISM
Camerawork although stylised and contemporary, aimed at conveying realism;

REALISM
Sound mainly diegetic but non-diegetic sound is not intrusive.

MISE-EN-SCENE (RECAP)
What is mise-en-scene? Everything that appears before the camera. What can be included in mise-en-scene?

Set, props, actors, costumes, composition, lighting.

ACTIVITY: Watch the following extract and describe

the mise-en-scene of the scene. GIVE AS MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE!

Answer the following question

Discuss the ways in which the following extract from Shameless constructs the representation of social class using the following:
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition Editing Sound Mise-en-scne

HOMEWORK
KNOW THE APPROPRIATRE TERMS
USE THE CORRECT ONES!

AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will have analysed the
representation of gender within a range of TV drama extracts.

STARTER: Complete the terminology test.

ACTIVITY
Using the worksheet, analyse the following extract from Primeval.
As in the exam, you will see the extract four

times. During the first viewing, you will not be able to make notes.

http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/

ON YOUR OWN
Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender using the following:
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition Editing

Sound
Mise en scene

AIM: By the end of the lesson, you will create your own character representation. STARTER: Look at the still images from TV dramas and answer these questions: What sub-genre of TV drama does it belong to? How do you know? Who is being represented? How are they being represented in this image?

ON YOUR POST-IT NOTE

Write YOUR definition of representation (and your name) and go and stick it on the whiteboard.

Watch the following video and be ready to discuss.

Stuart Hall Key Points

Representation to present/to depict.

Hall emphasises the importance of visual representation

the image seems to be the prevalent sign of late modern culture.

The word suggests something was there already and has

been represented by the media.

Representation is that which stands in for something else.

Representation is the way in which meaning is given to the

things which are depicted that stand in for something.

REPRESENTATION
What questions do we need to ask ourselves when we look at representation within an image (or an extract)?
WHO is being represented?

IN WHAT WAY are they being represented?

WHO is representing them in this way? WHY are they being represented in this way? In the representation FAIR & ACCURATE?

ACTIVITY: Go back to your still images sheet answer all of the above questions about each image.

QUESTION
Representation is not present just in people its in places and ideas too.
Does representation in media texts alter how we see the real world around us?

SEMIOTICS
WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO

The study of signs. Developed by Ferdinand de Saussure (1974).

We make meaning through the creation and

interpretation of signs. Signs can be words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts, objects. The word sign is used to describe anything that carries meaning - whether its a word, a symbol/image, or a sound.

SIGNS
Because of their nature, we have to view signs as

having two distinct parts:

The signifier - the physical sign itself The signified - the meaning carried by the sign Alternatively, we can think in terms of the denoted

meaning (what the thing is), and... the connotations carried by the thing.
It is important to remember is that signs are

polysemic: open to many interpretations.

ACTIVITY
Look at the following images and make a note of:
The Signifiers The Signified

YOUR TASK
You will be given a character from the list. You must create a storyboard (minimum 5 slides) to tell the story of them taking a trip to the shops. How would you represent them? Use all the technical codes to add understanding to your storyboard.

Characters:
A teenager Middle class, middle aged man Elderly person

Things to think about:

How would they get to the shops? What might they buy? What would they wear? How would you frame it? How would you edit it? What would we hear? Would they go on their own?

Technical codes:
Camera work Editing Mise en scene Sound

A disabled person
Housewife Doctor

A trip to the shops

PRESENTATIONS

You should continue to look at TV Drama clips and practise analysing them.
Presentations on the other key areas are on a separate

presentation.
Visit www.alevelmedia.co.uk for more ideas and

suggested activities.