Sample Responses
Narrative & Ideology
Sample part on Sound:
During Colossal, in the playground scene, the technical code of audio is employed to emphasise Gloria’s vulnerability. Despite Gloria seen screaming in the background, her yelling remains inaudible to highlight her lack of power over Oscar’s decision to destroy Seoul. Conversely, the diegetic sound of Oscar’s stomping in the scene illustrates his power. The loud volume has an echo, with the stomping intensified through the jarring explosion-like sound effects with every step conveying to the audience the extreme destruction he is causing with his actions.
Sample part on feminism/men in power ideology:
The playground scene reflects the imbalance of power in terms of gender, demonstrating how vulnerable women can be controlled by powerful men. With Gloria as the sole female character, she represents the female audiences who are challenged by immoral men and often outnumbered by them. Vigalondo also depicts the male characters, such as Oscar, as deeply flawed, demonising the men who utilise their status to abuse females.
It is the film’s resolution with Gloria becoming ultimately triumphant over the controlling Oscar that highlights Vigalondo’s purpose. Her transformational change allows her to recapture her true self from Oscar’s blackmail. Vigalondo highlights Gloria’s ability to stand up against her adversary as the narrative’s admired protagonist. Therefore, Vigalondo urges the female audiences via the explicit ideologies to confront the manipulative men who utilise their power for control over vulnerable women.
Sample part on Institutional Context:
As the film was produced and distributed via the video on-demand service, Netflix, the website influences the audience’s perception on the narrative. This is seen through the recommendation systems which cater to the audience’s interests by monitoring their viewing history. The website algorithms suggest programs for specific audiences and their specific tastes.
Audiences who consume content with the veganism ideology, such as Cowspiracy and Food Inc, would be recommended Okja. According to Wired, over 80% of what users watch on Netflix is discovered through the platform’s recommendation system. Since individuals are more likely to enjoy content which reflects their existing beliefs and values, the software allows for more positive reviews on Okja. Thus, the institutional context impacts the audience’s perception of the narrative.
Question 2 (4 marks)
How may the reception and/or audience engagement have changed over time in one of the media narratives you studied this year?
Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal, (screened at the Toronto film festival in 2016 and released in 2017), is a dark comedy romance. In 2016, audiences were drawn to the comedic nature of the film, with one Telegraph review describing it as a, “goofy godzilla movie”, whilst the New York Times, described it as, “..a great deal of fun.”
During the Tekken-style fight scene in the film, the slow-pan shot of Hathaway and Sudeikis in a classic fighter stance creates an homage to popular street-fight video games. The very exaggerated expressive skills of the actors in this scene appears comedic, and audiences who are familiar with this pop-culture reference would find this humorous.
However, audiences who saw the film after The New York Times published the Harvey Weinstein allegations in late 2017 started to notice a different ideological aspect of the film, and engaged with the film very differently.
With the rise of the MeToo Movement, and growing condemnation for men abusing their power over women, a very different ideological lens started being applied to the film. Now, instead of Colossal being reviewed as, “fun” and “goofy”, it was being described in early 2018 reviews, as “a dark exploration of social tyranny”, and, “a film about gender politics and women fighting their oppressors”.
An article published in 2017 Vulture magazine exclaimed, “a woman finding her inner strength is inspiring.”
Discuss how institutional contexts can shape media narratives (4 marks)
An institution can have an impact on the reception and creation of a film and can occasionally be characterized by the way in which institutional contexts such as the power of producers and distributors can interfere with the “vision” of the film as outlined by the creative team. Often, the ideology which a director may be attempting to convey may be too explicit, or tonally distanced from the studio’s initial plans and turn off mainstream audiences from attending. To combat this, studios will often step in and assert their authority as the people funding the film, in order to change or edit the movie.
This was evident in Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four (2015) in which the director’s tone of the film, conflicted with the studio’s. This lead to an uneven and tonally chaotic film, as there were multiple rewritten/reshot scenes. Due to this becoming a more common occurrence, many people in the industry are turning to streaming services such as Netflix, who promise their film makers with complete creative control. Since these films do not release in cinemas, and are simply housed on the streaming service, creators can make the film have much more explicit themes and ideologies.
This is due to the fact that the streaming services collect data from their viewers and recommend films based on the styles/genres which are in their search history, meaning they are more likely to watch it. This means that Netflix are not bound by the same “self-imposed” regulations which a studio may be, as instead of creating a film to generate mass appeal, they can hand-pick their audience and use their algorithms to push content towards audiences who they’ve already established will be receptive to it.
In what ways do audiences engage with a media narrative? (4 marks)
An audience’s perceptions and interpretation of a media narrative is dependent on the film’s ideology and the audience’s social and cultural context. A film with a far more explicit or overt ideology may be less agreeable with some audiences as it perpetuates an idea/s which is not unanimously recognized as being a correct interpretation.
This is evident in Bong Joon Ho’s Okja in which the film perpetuates an explicit veganistic ideology, with its core message being that “we (audience) should no longer consume animals”. It accomplishes this by depicting harsh and graphic images of the film’s “superpig” characters being slaughtered.
Audiences may disagree with this explicit ideology due to the recent heavy stigmatization of veganism, labelled by a 2015 New Internationalis article to be the “vegan virus”. The film however, portrays the vegan terrorist organization, the ALF, as bumbling and dysfunctional therefore undermining the seriousness of its own ideology.
Anti-vegan audience members are positioned to view this as a way of the director communicating that there’s no true or honest way of viewing the idea of veganism as both the anti and pro-vegan movements have flaws.
During Colossal, in the playground scene, the technical code of audio is employed to emphasise Gloria’s vulnerability. Despite Gloria seen screaming in the background, her yelling remains inaudible to highlight her lack of power over Oscar’s decision to destroy Seoul. Conversely, the diegetic sound of Oscar’s stomping in the scene illustrates his power. The loud volume has an echo, with the stomping intensified through the jarring explosion-like sound effects with every step conveying to the audience the extreme destruction he is causing with his actions.
Sample part on feminism/men in power ideology:
The playground scene reflects the imbalance of power in terms of gender, demonstrating how vulnerable women can be controlled by powerful men. With Gloria as the sole female character, she represents the female audiences who are challenged by immoral men and often outnumbered by them. Vigalondo also depicts the male characters, such as Oscar, as deeply flawed, demonising the men who utilise their status to abuse females.
It is the film’s resolution with Gloria becoming ultimately triumphant over the controlling Oscar that highlights Vigalondo’s purpose. Her transformational change allows her to recapture her true self from Oscar’s blackmail. Vigalondo highlights Gloria’s ability to stand up against her adversary as the narrative’s admired protagonist. Therefore, Vigalondo urges the female audiences via the explicit ideologies to confront the manipulative men who utilise their power for control over vulnerable women.
Sample part on Institutional Context:
As the film was produced and distributed via the video on-demand service, Netflix, the website influences the audience’s perception on the narrative. This is seen through the recommendation systems which cater to the audience’s interests by monitoring their viewing history. The website algorithms suggest programs for specific audiences and their specific tastes.
Audiences who consume content with the veganism ideology, such as Cowspiracy and Food Inc, would be recommended Okja. According to Wired, over 80% of what users watch on Netflix is discovered through the platform’s recommendation system. Since individuals are more likely to enjoy content which reflects their existing beliefs and values, the software allows for more positive reviews on Okja. Thus, the institutional context impacts the audience’s perception of the narrative.
Question 2 (4 marks)
How may the reception and/or audience engagement have changed over time in one of the media narratives you studied this year?
Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal, (screened at the Toronto film festival in 2016 and released in 2017), is a dark comedy romance. In 2016, audiences were drawn to the comedic nature of the film, with one Telegraph review describing it as a, “goofy godzilla movie”, whilst the New York Times, described it as, “..a great deal of fun.”
During the Tekken-style fight scene in the film, the slow-pan shot of Hathaway and Sudeikis in a classic fighter stance creates an homage to popular street-fight video games. The very exaggerated expressive skills of the actors in this scene appears comedic, and audiences who are familiar with this pop-culture reference would find this humorous.
However, audiences who saw the film after The New York Times published the Harvey Weinstein allegations in late 2017 started to notice a different ideological aspect of the film, and engaged with the film very differently.
With the rise of the MeToo Movement, and growing condemnation for men abusing their power over women, a very different ideological lens started being applied to the film. Now, instead of Colossal being reviewed as, “fun” and “goofy”, it was being described in early 2018 reviews, as “a dark exploration of social tyranny”, and, “a film about gender politics and women fighting their oppressors”.
An article published in 2017 Vulture magazine exclaimed, “a woman finding her inner strength is inspiring.”
Discuss how institutional contexts can shape media narratives (4 marks)
An institution can have an impact on the reception and creation of a film and can occasionally be characterized by the way in which institutional contexts such as the power of producers and distributors can interfere with the “vision” of the film as outlined by the creative team. Often, the ideology which a director may be attempting to convey may be too explicit, or tonally distanced from the studio’s initial plans and turn off mainstream audiences from attending. To combat this, studios will often step in and assert their authority as the people funding the film, in order to change or edit the movie.
This was evident in Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four (2015) in which the director’s tone of the film, conflicted with the studio’s. This lead to an uneven and tonally chaotic film, as there were multiple rewritten/reshot scenes. Due to this becoming a more common occurrence, many people in the industry are turning to streaming services such as Netflix, who promise their film makers with complete creative control. Since these films do not release in cinemas, and are simply housed on the streaming service, creators can make the film have much more explicit themes and ideologies.
This is due to the fact that the streaming services collect data from their viewers and recommend films based on the styles/genres which are in their search history, meaning they are more likely to watch it. This means that Netflix are not bound by the same “self-imposed” regulations which a studio may be, as instead of creating a film to generate mass appeal, they can hand-pick their audience and use their algorithms to push content towards audiences who they’ve already established will be receptive to it.
In what ways do audiences engage with a media narrative? (4 marks)
An audience’s perceptions and interpretation of a media narrative is dependent on the film’s ideology and the audience’s social and cultural context. A film with a far more explicit or overt ideology may be less agreeable with some audiences as it perpetuates an idea/s which is not unanimously recognized as being a correct interpretation.
This is evident in Bong Joon Ho’s Okja in which the film perpetuates an explicit veganistic ideology, with its core message being that “we (audience) should no longer consume animals”. It accomplishes this by depicting harsh and graphic images of the film’s “superpig” characters being slaughtered.
Audiences may disagree with this explicit ideology due to the recent heavy stigmatization of veganism, labelled by a 2015 New Internationalis article to be the “vegan virus”. The film however, portrays the vegan terrorist organization, the ALF, as bumbling and dysfunctional therefore undermining the seriousness of its own ideology.
Anti-vegan audience members are positioned to view this as a way of the director communicating that there’s no true or honest way of viewing the idea of veganism as both the anti and pro-vegan movements have flaws.
|
|
The clip to the left is me giving feedback on a sample response from last year. The opening paragraph is not great and I go over that a bit at the start. Jump to the 1:45 mark of the clip to get properly into the answer and the feedback
|
Agency and Control
Provide an example in which audiences exercise agency over the media in the contemporary media landscape and explain how this example conveys the dynamic and changing relationship between the media and its audience. (4 marks).
Due to the increase of globalised media distribution in recent years, audiences are now able to create and access media content whenever and wherever they want. The hybridisation of the internet and television has resulted in the success of streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime where audiences are no longer confined to the loungeroom and television sets to access their preferred media content.
This has enabled audiences to exercise agency over media distributors, especially commercial television, as there has been an increasing dissatisfaction amongst audiences for the outdated television distribution model of commercial networks screening programs at set times only once and, indeed, only screening types of programs that the network has decided the audiences wanted to see.
A study in 2017 found that there had been a large increase in the number of people signing up for video on-demand (VOD) services, whilst at the same time there had been a 17% decrease in commercial television viewership.
In 2018, Channel Ten introduced Pilot Week, a large diversion from traditional television creation models. Whereas previously, commercial networks would create entire series of programs and then promote them in a bid to find an audience, Pilot Week sought to do things differently. By making single episodes, pilots, of multiple potential programs and then analysing the “buzz” around each program online and via social media platforms, Channel Ten essentially put the future programming of the station in the hands of the audience. Audience members could, via positive or negative online commentary and discussion, determine which programs would and wouldn’t get turned into series in the future and exercise direct agency over the programming choices of a commercial television network.
This is something that never would have even been considered as little as five years ago and highlights the dynamic and changing relationship between audiences and the media. The success of globalised VOD services and the ability to create and distribute media via platforms such as YouTube means that audiences now demand greater input into the media they consume and commercial networks are being forced to adapt or be left behind.
Due to the increase of globalised media distribution in recent years, audiences are now able to create and access media content whenever and wherever they want. The hybridisation of the internet and television has resulted in the success of streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime where audiences are no longer confined to the loungeroom and television sets to access their preferred media content.
This has enabled audiences to exercise agency over media distributors, especially commercial television, as there has been an increasing dissatisfaction amongst audiences for the outdated television distribution model of commercial networks screening programs at set times only once and, indeed, only screening types of programs that the network has decided the audiences wanted to see.
A study in 2017 found that there had been a large increase in the number of people signing up for video on-demand (VOD) services, whilst at the same time there had been a 17% decrease in commercial television viewership.
In 2018, Channel Ten introduced Pilot Week, a large diversion from traditional television creation models. Whereas previously, commercial networks would create entire series of programs and then promote them in a bid to find an audience, Pilot Week sought to do things differently. By making single episodes, pilots, of multiple potential programs and then analysing the “buzz” around each program online and via social media platforms, Channel Ten essentially put the future programming of the station in the hands of the audience. Audience members could, via positive or negative online commentary and discussion, determine which programs would and wouldn’t get turned into series in the future and exercise direct agency over the programming choices of a commercial television network.
This is something that never would have even been considered as little as five years ago and highlights the dynamic and changing relationship between audiences and the media. The success of globalised VOD services and the ability to create and distribute media via platforms such as YouTube means that audiences now demand greater input into the media they consume and commercial networks are being forced to adapt or be left behind.
Describe an ethical and/or legal issue arising from media institutions harvesting and selling an individual’s personal information. (5 marks)
Whilst it could be argued that the shopping chain, Target, aren’t necessarily a media institution, their use of marketing and market research, their online shopping platforms and the mass distribution of their marketing coupons and catalogues, means that they are essentially distributing media product to a wide and varied audience. According to laboratory research conducted by Ann Griebel at MIT on rats, it was established that once habits are formed, brain activity tends to drop considerably, meaning that habits are not only hard to break, but also good for marketers to establish themselves as part of. In addition to this, according to a UCLA study conducted in the 1980s, people’s shopping habits are far more flexible during times of great change, such as getting married or having a baby.
With the knowledge of these two studies, Target employed a statistician in 2002 to analyse shopping data of their own customers to determine to an 87% certainty which of their customers were pregnant. They were then able to send coupons and catalogues promoting baby-related products to customers at a time when their shopping habits were most in flux.
An ethical consideration arose from this, when a teenage high school student had been searching online for baby products and was sent catalogues and vouchers for cribs, baby clothes, etc. Her father angrily complained, accusing Target of encouraging teen pregnancy, only to later discover that his daughter was already pregnant and Target’s analytical “pregnancy predictor” had found out about his daughter’s pregnancy before he had.
This situation, once public, caused outrage and created a significant backlash for Target, even though they were not on-selling the data to other companies. Companies like Google, however, who are far more aggressive with their data mining and harvesting, openly admit to selling mined data about users of their browsers, phones, apps, etc. so that advertisers can directly target them. The question has arisen, if Target, through the creation of a statistical pregnancy predictor was able to gather so much data about its users, it raises the question, how much actual information by larger conglomerates such as Google is being mined and sold.
Whilst it could be argued that the shopping chain, Target, aren’t necessarily a media institution, their use of marketing and market research, their online shopping platforms and the mass distribution of their marketing coupons and catalogues, means that they are essentially distributing media product to a wide and varied audience. According to laboratory research conducted by Ann Griebel at MIT on rats, it was established that once habits are formed, brain activity tends to drop considerably, meaning that habits are not only hard to break, but also good for marketers to establish themselves as part of. In addition to this, according to a UCLA study conducted in the 1980s, people’s shopping habits are far more flexible during times of great change, such as getting married or having a baby.
With the knowledge of these two studies, Target employed a statistician in 2002 to analyse shopping data of their own customers to determine to an 87% certainty which of their customers were pregnant. They were then able to send coupons and catalogues promoting baby-related products to customers at a time when their shopping habits were most in flux.
An ethical consideration arose from this, when a teenage high school student had been searching online for baby products and was sent catalogues and vouchers for cribs, baby clothes, etc. Her father angrily complained, accusing Target of encouraging teen pregnancy, only to later discover that his daughter was already pregnant and Target’s analytical “pregnancy predictor” had found out about his daughter’s pregnancy before he had.
This situation, once public, caused outrage and created a significant backlash for Target, even though they were not on-selling the data to other companies. Companies like Google, however, who are far more aggressive with their data mining and harvesting, openly admit to selling mined data about users of their browsers, phones, apps, etc. so that advertisers can directly target them. The question has arisen, if Target, through the creation of a statistical pregnancy predictor was able to gather so much data about its users, it raises the question, how much actual information by larger conglomerates such as Google is being mined and sold.
Media Production Process
Explain how feedback processes used during post-production helped you refine your media product. (6 marks)
As part of the post-production process for my narrative fictional film, audience feedback was sought from both my target demographic and indeed a broader range of audience members. The feedback processes used included: rough cut screenings, surveys, one-on-one discussions/interviews and email feedback from uploaded links. The intention from seeking this feedback was to ascertain both the strengths and weaknesses of my product at those moments in time and, thus, ensure that my finished product was as polished, sophisticated and professional as possible.
As a result of consultation with my target audience, multiple people suggested that the diegetic sound, especially dialogue, was distracting from the success of the product, due to noise, distortion and uneven sound levels captured during the recording process.
In response to this, I was able to export all sound files from my film product and import them into the sound application Audacity. Using Audacity, I was able to use the Noise Removal filters. This aided in successfully removing all of the noise and distortion that existed in my film product.
I was also able to use the Adobe Premiere Pro Adaptive Noise Reduction filters and the Multi-Band Compressors to normalize the audio of the entire product, meaning that fluctuating noise levels were removed and the entire sound tracks of my film product consistently hovered between the broadcast quality levels of -6db and -12db.
Following this, further feedback was sought from audience members and it was advised multiple times that the now lack of atmospheric diegetic sounds added an artificial quality to my film and affected the audience engagement and immersion in my product. In response, I used an H5 Zoom Audio Recorder, to then record diegetic foley sound effects and atmospheric diegetic sounds, to then apply to the final sound mix of my product. This assisted in creating clean audio tracks without noise and distortion whilst the foley sounds and atmospheric sounds in the sound mix created a realistic and immersive environment and added a professional sophistication to my final product.
As part of the post-production process for my narrative fictional film, audience feedback was sought from both my target demographic and indeed a broader range of audience members. The feedback processes used included: rough cut screenings, surveys, one-on-one discussions/interviews and email feedback from uploaded links. The intention from seeking this feedback was to ascertain both the strengths and weaknesses of my product at those moments in time and, thus, ensure that my finished product was as polished, sophisticated and professional as possible.
As a result of consultation with my target audience, multiple people suggested that the diegetic sound, especially dialogue, was distracting from the success of the product, due to noise, distortion and uneven sound levels captured during the recording process.
In response to this, I was able to export all sound files from my film product and import them into the sound application Audacity. Using Audacity, I was able to use the Noise Removal filters. This aided in successfully removing all of the noise and distortion that existed in my film product.
I was also able to use the Adobe Premiere Pro Adaptive Noise Reduction filters and the Multi-Band Compressors to normalize the audio of the entire product, meaning that fluctuating noise levels were removed and the entire sound tracks of my film product consistently hovered between the broadcast quality levels of -6db and -12db.
Following this, further feedback was sought from audience members and it was advised multiple times that the now lack of atmospheric diegetic sounds added an artificial quality to my film and affected the audience engagement and immersion in my product. In response, I used an H5 Zoom Audio Recorder, to then record diegetic foley sound effects and atmospheric diegetic sounds, to then apply to the final sound mix of my product. This assisted in creating clean audio tracks without noise and distortion whilst the foley sounds and atmospheric sounds in the sound mix created a realistic and immersive environment and added a professional sophistication to my final product.