Melodrama Key Features

Sources
Victorian novels, stage melodramas, Greek tragedy, Italian opera, French stage musical drama, etc.

Definitions
‘Melodrama’ stems from the French, meaning ‘drama with music’. Like Action/Adventure it might be considered a mega-genre, as it encompasses many different styles and can be interpreted very broadly. A narrower definition of melodrama has been applied by Thomas Elsaesser and others to describe films made by director Douglas Sirk in the 1940s and 50s. These ‘family melodramas’ focus on central female characters and their struggles in a socially repressive society.

Key Characters
The key protagonist of melodrama is female and it is through her perspective that the story is structured. Conflict typically arises through some form of social repression involving the family, relationships with other women or repression or romance by/with men. Male roles are often marginalised and their drives and motives apparently less complex and more simply delineated.

Textual Features
The melodramas of the 1950’s tended to be characterised by a heightened use of mise-en-scene where the emotive value of objects may be emphasised within careful framing and composition. Certain films are marked with a subtle expressionism and symbolic use of colour. Music tends to be used expansively, resulting in noticeable clichés.

Melodrama Audiences
The audience for melodramas was frequently conceived of as predominantly female. Melodrama, and the ‘Romantic Drama’ have been referred to as ‘women’s pictures’ and ‘chick flicks’. The ‘woman’s picture’ flourished in the 1930’s and 40’s as audiences were more balanced across age and gender demographics than today. Audience studies identify women as regularly making the key decisions about which films they or their families saw, and indeed family viewing was far more common in the days when cinema was a more dominant leisure pursuit.



I have based my chick flick on the melodrama key features.

'LOOK' Magazine Analysis

Exploring the concept of Genre

(FGI)
Different types of genres:
• Combat/War
• Western
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Disaster Movie
• Teen Movie
• Horror Film
• Swashbuckler
• Epic
• Suspense
• Historical Epic
• Historical Adventure
• Romance
• Melodrama
• Comedy
• Police/Crime
• Martial Arts
• Comic-book
• Animation
• Thriller

My genre of my movie is ‘Teen Movie’, with a ‘Horror’ genre towards the end. My film consists of a teenage girl with an obsession with beauty and material possessions and doesn’t care for anyone else’s feelings. My movie opens with 2 girls chatting together about one of their birthday party’s; they begin to bully the class geek by putting chewing gum in her hair. When this girl is enjoying her birthday party, all of the students from her school who weren’t invited because they weren’t ‘cool enough’ crash the party and make her night hell.


Genres as a form of Economic Determinism
Genres exist in film as an essential marketing tool. They provide a means for studios and distributors to both differentiate and standardise product. This means that films are required to provide elements of the familiar alongside elements of apparent originality.

A theoretical model – the ‘process’ of genre
It has been suggested that the best way to think of genre is as a constant process of meaning exchange between filmmakers and their audience – in ways that can be identified within film texts. This creates a ‘triangular’ relationship:



Genre and the academic study of films

Genre study has been as established part of film studies for many years and has accumulated a long history of popular genres around which some degree of critical consensus has developed. Some genres have been as indigenous to American cinema. Film director Martin Scorsese identifies three of these as the Western, the Musical and the Gangster film.

Features of genre

There are a number of ways in which we might be said to identify and understand genres. One of the oldest is through shared themes and concerns. Other identifying features include similar narratives, recurring character types and iconography.

Genre across the arts and media

Genre is a French word meaning ‘type’ or ‘kind’. It is used in a variety of different disciplines, from music to literature, to categorise and define different forms of repetitive practice. However as a critical term it can be confusing as it can be used in quite different ways within separate ‘disciplines’.
However, critics would also recognise story types such as the ‘romance’ or the ‘literary novel’ as genres. In television, genres are referred to as formats and are principally defined by institutional practice.

Magazine Cover - An Excellent Deconstruction (JDU)

(JDU)

Anchorage - How does anchorage create/manipulate meaning? The photo alone makes you think that Jennifer Aniston is happy and pleased, but the words next to it show that she isn’t happy in love, she is happy that she has got her revenge on her ex.
Audience - How does this magazine target a desired audience? This magazine targets a young female audience because of the fashion down one half of the page and the latest news on Jennifer Aniston’s relationship. It shows the newest trends that are on the highs street for this month.
Connotations - What connotations are brought by the signs or symbols on the cover? Why are they placed? The title is bold, block; solid letters which draw your attention to the front cover of the magazine, the title of the magazine is ‘LOOK’ and the ‘O’s’ look like eyes looking at you, the title jumps out at you making you want to continue to read it. They are placed across the photograph on the front page because they have more importance.
Conventions - What are the conventions of this magazine cover? It will help to have two different issues of the same magazines? The expected ingredient in the media text is the main verb like ‘revenge’ because it is such a strong word to describe a situation.

To be continued...

Diegesis
A moving image media text creates meaning for the audience through the combination of diegetic and non-diegetic material, and particularly sound.
Diegetic material is that which exists in the world of text itself.
Examples are dialogue, sound effects which are heard by characters (like thunder), background music which is heard by characters and dialogue between characters. Non-diegetic material is added purely for the audience, for example, atmospheric music, soundtrack music, voice-over or narration.

Some types of sound are both – for example, a character’s thoughts in a voice-over are diegetic in that the character is aware of them, but non-diegetic in the sense that other characters are not. A good example of this is the film Taxi Driver, in which the non-diegetic music creates a haunting atmosphere while a voice-over of the main protagonist’s thoughts situates us in the mind of a character losing his sanity. This technique makes highly effective use of diegetic and non-diegetic elements placed deliberately in a state of confusion to defamiliarise the audience.

Another interesting example of the difference diegesis can make is the film Blade Runner. The studio inserted a film-noir style voiceover narration from Harrison Ford against the wishes of the director Ridley Scott, and it was only years later when the ‘Directors Cut’ was released without the voice-over that the audience realised the original has a less anchored, more ambiguous narrative. In the meantime the film had become a cult classic with the voice-over.

Micro and Macro Origination
In order to shoot material that is appropriate, you need to adopt the micro-macro strategy. You may decide your fiction film will follow the conventions of a particular genre or style of film, in which case the micro elements – types of camera work, music, style of titles, dialogue, setting and pace – will add up to a macro theme and set of representations. For this reason it is important not to dive straight into filming the main task. Spend time with storyboarding and ideas development first, so you can ensure that your approach to filming is not out of step with the conventions of the type of film you are making.

Camera Work and Framing
Holding a shot steady is not as simple as you might think and mostly you should be using a tripod unless a hand-held realist/documentary effect is required. Most of your shots should be filmed with a camera that is not moving, so movement becomes an effective exception to the norm. Zooming is rarely used in film so it is best to avoid it unless you want the appearance of amateur footage.
Select a widescreen framing and remember that film uses fewer close-ups than TV (simply because the viewing screen is much bigger). Select long shots, extreme long shots, mid-shots, close-ups and extreme close-ups. For film it’s suggested that you mostly use mid-shots and long shots, with close-ups used sparingly.
The ‘rule of thirds’ principle is useful for framing your shots. Imagine the frame is made up of nine squares (3x3). The off centre areas are where the eye is drawn to, so it is best to avoid the central square and position objects and people just off-centre as this aids concentration on the image. Combining shot types and distances is essential to the ‘language film’. Effective combinations include going from long shots to mid-shots and then to close-ups. This enables you to establish action, emphasise location and then move to detail and cutting between two-shots, over-the-shoulder shots and point-of-view shots to situate the audience during a conversation.
As far as camera angle is concerned, you need to consider power and neutrality. High-angle shots reduce the power of a character and low-angle shots increase it. A simple principle of framing is to ensure that characters have room above their heads and are not made to look strange by objects behind them and have space around them to show direction if they are moving.

Mise en scène
Mise en scene is all about atmosphere and continuity. Working as a student without access to the expensive resources and amounts of time that the film industry enjoy, mise en scene is the most difficult element of production to get right, but probably the one that reaps the greatest rewards for those that do. Essentially it is about detail. Choose costume, lighting, locations and props to create the kind of ‘feel’ and verisimilitude that is required. Then ensure that this is maintained shot by shot. Simple mistakes that can happen are costume changes or haircuts mid-sequence, poor lighting or drastic contrasts in lighting mid-sequence, poorly chosen and unconvincing props and - as performance is another element of mise en scene - bad acting.

Lighting
1. Use natural light – sunlight, in shadow, in mist, through rain – depending on the effect you need, and bearing in mind that you will have to be flexible about time if you need to wait for the right conditions.
2. Use cheap and cheerful artificial light – as long as you have carried out risk assessments, you can make use of candles, firelight, torches, car headlights, security lights, neon signs and street lighting.
3. Create colour filters – you can easily shine light through coloured liquids, vases, ornaments.
4. Position the light source for effect – lighting a scene from above, below or in an obscured way will create different kinds of atmosphere (mise en scene).
5. Ultimately, lighting a scene is a scientific process. Massey describes the equation in helpful, clear terms.

Combining Sound, Image and Titles
You need to make very careful decisions about titles, choosing the most appropriate font, colour and size from the vast array that your software will present. In addition you must, though trial and error, end up with the most pleasing timing of titles for the audience. You need to make creative decisions about where to place each title, whether to place it over black between shots or over the action and how long each title stays on screen. You also need to understand what contribution each title is making to the audience’s understanding of the narrative, the genre and the representational aspects that you need them to grasp quickly since this is an opening sequence.
Furthermore, you will be using music to add ambience to the start of your film. Here you must think very carefully about the semiotic function of music and ensure that what the music suggests to the audience is in keeping with the tone and pace of the drama you are unfolding. It is a good idea to test this out with audience members at an early stage of post-production so you can make changes if they do not respond as you expect.

The grammar of non-linear editing
You will be using a non-linear video editing software package for your post-production work and you will be assessed on how well you can edit the material so that meaning is apparent to the viewer. To achieve this you need to observe the rules of grammar that apply to editing, creating continuity and the right rhythm and pace. Choosing the right kinds of transition is essential and the software you use is likely to offer an enormous range of effects. Avoid choosing transitions that are exciting to use but do not reflect the conventions of the type of film you are constructing. Most editing is simple – hard cuts. You should be using hard cuts for at least 90% of your sequence. This exception is where you place a transition between a title and images, but you should still be consistent – do not use a different type of transition for each title.
Make the editing invisible, so that the viewer believes in the reality of the fiction is unfolding. A fade might be used to portray the passing of time, and if you are establishing tension or action early on in the sequence, you may choose to use a greater number of edits. Editing is all about the manipulation of time and space. You will manipulate space by editing between two simultaneous pieces of action, and manipulate time by editing between two shots to move the narrative forward and bypass unnecessary time that is not interesting to the story. As standard industry technique is to cut from one shot of a subject to a different subject and then back again, rather than moving immediately to the same image.
Editing allows you to do things that you can’t in real life. The careful execution of these forms of manipulation without distracting or confusing the viewer is what we call the ‘grammar of the edit’.

Print Production - Key Terms

Generating a Front Page
A quick glance at the magazines on display in a newsagent or supermarket reveals instantly the importance of the front cover design in either introducing or welcoming back the existing or potential reader to the world of the magazine. This is a world where identity is clearly constructed to make the reader feel a sense of belonging, of a desire to belong to the community or readers that is established. The front cover design is essential.

Conception
You need to ensure that the images you develop are appropriate for the product being constructed, so how you conceive of the intended images is paramount. Take time arranging the front cover; create a ‘mock up’ first.

Framing and Composition
Framing can be adjusted through cropping at the design/editing stage, but good framing in the lens leads to a better quality image. The photographer is in ultimate control of what the viewer sees: by choosing the angle; by deciding whether the subject in the photograph will be close to us or further away; looking up at us, down at us or away from us.

Shot Distance
There is little you can do to alter this in editing, so this needs to be ‘spot on’. Depending on the effect you want, using the zoom function will allow you a variety of possible distances from your subject.

Mise en Scène
Meaning ‘putting into the scene’, it describes all the creative choices made by photographers, designers, and directors when creating an authentic atmosphere. For still images, this is partly constructed at the photography stage and partly through editing. You need to make clear creative decisions about lighting (trial and error is the best way), costume, appearance, props for the shot, background imagery and colour.

Colour and Resolution
The computer you use for downloading and editing and the printer you use will both influence the final quality of resolution and colour. It is sensible, therefore, to trial the process first so you get a sense of how the ‘reality’ of what you photograph will translate into a printed outcome.

Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs and meaning and can help us to analyse seemingly obvious meanings and interpretations that circulate everyday in the visual world. It’s easier to learn semiotics through basic digital image manipulation, which preliminary task is all about. It is best to use semiotics as a way of developing your own thinking about ‘polysemic’ meaning (the way that the same sign can mean lots of different things to different people) rather than assuming that signs mean single things to everyone.
There are three kinds of signs in semiotic theory:
• Ionic signs which actually look like what they represent.
• Symbolic/arbitrary signs which have a meaning that must be culturally learned because they don’t actually look like what they represent.
• Indexical signs which have a connection to what they represent and are suggestive rather than directly resembling what they represent.

Motivated Signs
When signs are in circulation they can be more or less motivated. More motivated signs are images which have more of a fixed meaning (bit we must remember that no meaning is ever totally fixed as each human being will have a slightly different take on what they see as a result of their cultural experience). A more motivated sign just has a more limited range of possible interpretations.

Using Captions
For magazine production, the most common way of ‘holding down’ the meaning of an image to make it more motivated is to use text alongside an image or as a caption. This has the obvious effect of making the meaning less abstract and in semiotic terms this is known as ‘anchorage’. The sign is anchored by the caption, the meaning is pinned down.

Designing the Front Page
The decisions you make about font size and colour will be symbolic. Once you have decided on these, you need to create the text that will appear on the cover, which needs to have a narrative form, drawing in the reader to the contents with the most attractive material being signposted first. This can be achieved by either at the top of a list or in a larger font or in a different colour, look at other magazines for ideas.

Writing Skills
You should match your style of writing for the style of the magazine. You must ensure that spelling, grammar and punctuation are perfect.

Design Principles
The key principles to apply are:
• Separate the most important aspect on a page from the rest.
• Spend time on tightly cropping and resizing images and use clipping paths so you can work on an image but not the background.
• Experiment with filtering and other effects to create impressions of motion or to soften focus but never use these for the sake of it – only when the effect is essential for the meaning you wish to suggest.
• Use a range of fonts and sizes but remember most magazines use two or three fonts in total, with distinct contrast between each font and its purpose, e.g. one font for headings and titles.
• Use a pyramid approach for margins – the margins at the bottom of a page should be broader than those higher up.
• Use DTP software’s guidelines facility to keep text and images neatly arranged.
• Experiment with colour, black on white and white on black for contrast.

Meanings

(JDU)

What is meaning?
The underlying messages and values of any representation or narrative. Ideas that are trying to be put across.

How is meaning constructed?
Meaning is construced in text (formal and informal), photos, colour, backgrounds, objects, body language and facial expressions.

Why is meaning constructed?
To attract an audience, to understand the meanings and purposes of things - to make a way through life.

Who constructs meaning?
The audience that it's aimed for. (Everybody).

Why is meaning constructed?
When you're in contact with something, it's a never ending process.

Where is meaning constructed?
Everywhere

Introduction to Media - Key Terms

(FGI)

'The OCR AS Media Course'

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as_alevelgce/media_studies/

Arranged into two units that cover three areas of study. Create two pieces of media and evaluate the process and the outcomes.


Media Literacy
Burn and Durran (2007) offer a clear idea of what we might mean by 'media literacy':
Media literacy allows us to engage in cultural practices
through which we make sense of and take control of our
world and ourselves, in expressive practices in which we represent
ourselves, and in critical practices in which we interpret what we read, view and play.

Buckingham (2003) focuses on the inter-related nature of these practices:

Literacy clearly involves both reading and writing; and so media literacy
must necessarily entail both the interpretation and the production of media.
This model of 'media learning' attempts to provide a more dynamic, reflexive approach
which combines critical analysis and creative production.


Media Language
Media language refers to written, verbal, non-verbal, aural and aesthetic communication and usually a combination of these. For example, in television drama, a phone conversation between two characters in different locations can only be understood by the audience because of the relationship between the camera angles (close ups, head shots, etc), non-verbal performance (facial expressions during the phone conversation), dialogue, lighting (to provide a meaningful atmosphere), editing and sound.


Form and Style
The form of a media text is its shape and structure and the combination of the 'micro' elements such as dialogue, sound effects, editing and ambience in the case of radio drama.


Convention
Conventions are usually descried as the 'ingredients' of a particular form or genre.
Convention - Format of something.


Representation
We see media texts as mediating between our sense of reality and the fictional or factual representation of reality - of people, places, ideas, themes, time periods and a range of social contexts. The media student's job is to deconstruct representations at the 'marco' level of text.


Audiences
the simplest way of analysing this concept is to look for a 'target audience' for a media text or product. But it's often more interesting than that - many text appeal to a range of secondary audiences and the ways that different people respond to texts often challenges expectation.


Narrative and Genre
The news is presented through a particular narrative structure. Fictional TV and film tends to operate on a simple structure of balance, conflict and attempts at resolution. Narrative describes the process of balancing what we actually see or hear and what we assume in addition.
When a range of media texts share form and conventions and the audience for this type of text develop certain expectations, this is referred to as genre.


Creativity
Creativity is a key 'performance descriptor' for the media student.
Creative skills operate on two levels:
• The ability to use digital technologies to make meaning so that the audience can respond easily to the text.
• The ability to engage and interest the audience.

Connecting the Micro to the Macro
The micro elements of a text are the technical and symbolic features which you will need to identify, recognise and describe the function of. These micro elements can be treated separatly - for example, lighting has one range of meanings and editing has another, or speech in radio as separate to sound mixing. But when these elements combine they add up to an overall representational 'world' that makes sense and is believeable.


Multimodal Literacy
Critical multimodal communication literacy is about users making their own trajectory through hypermedia environments.This means we have to be careful about theorising simple producer-audience relations and creater-consumer patterns of behaviour.