Narrative Blog Task

Christmas 2014 - "The Boy Who Learnt To Share": To begin, we will start with the employment of Propp's character theory. He proposed that there are ‘seven spheres of action.’ In this clip we could identify the little boy as ‘the villain,’ as well as ‘the princess’ and the parents are ‘the heroes.’ We are most likely to associate the boy as being the villain because of his greed and the medium shots or close up’s on his expression. We are likely to associate the parents as heroes because they resolve the conflict by buying KFC Throughout the advert, we can see Barthes enigma and action codes. The first shot we see is an example of an enigma code as the audience are intrigued by the title ‘The boy who learnt to share.’ The next shot we can see includes the child and his sister who look excitedly out the window and start running. This is an example of an action code as we are aware that something exciting will happen. Finally, we will look at Todorov’s theory of equilibrium. This advert begins with disequilibrium as the child will not share but new equilibrium is restored through the KFC.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Official Trailer: To begin, we will start with the employment of Propp's character theory. He proposed that there are ‘seven spheres of action.’ In this clip we could identify the little boy and his older self as ‘the villain,’ and the mother as ‘the hereo.’ We are most likely to associate the boy as being the villain because of his ominous dialogue, suggestive expressions and the use of sinister music. We can see Barthes enigma and action codes used consistently in the advert. The shot where the toddler has destroyed his mother’s art room, we can see his sinister facial expression and the shock on his mother’s face. This is an example of an action code as we are likely to associate the next action as the child being told off. Finally, towards the end of the advert we can see fast paced editing and dramatic shots - this is an example of enigma code. Finally, we will look at Todorov’s theory of equilibrium. This trailer is a very good example of his theory. To begin, there is equilibrium. The couple are happy and enjoying their lives. Next we see disequilibrium as the couple are arguing and having issues with their son. Finally, after the peak of chaos has been hit, we see the mother sitting down again. This is an example of new equilibrium.

Girl, Interrupted Ending scene: This clip is a movie scene and the employment of character theory is harder to see here. However, the girl who appears to be the focus of the scene and is sitting in the back of the cab is ‘the hero.’ The several women looking out the window could be example of ‘the donors.’ Next, Todrov’s theory of equilibrium is a lot harder to find in this clip as it begins with new equilibrium. This is due to the scene being the final one in the film. However, we can assume that the state of new equilibrium was found after a state of disequilibrium. Finally, the use of enigma and action Codes in this clip are sparse. However, we can see the protagonist looking at the cab driver’s plate and this is an example of an action code because we assume she recognises him. 

Institution: Brand values

1) To begin, we will look at Tumblr, the popular microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007, and owned by Yahoo! since 2013. This source of social media enables users to post multimedia and other content to a blog that they have made. Their brand values would be about lifestyle, quality, fun, community and boldness. Tumblr fits into almost all of dyer's lines of appeal through its content but most arguably it consists of mainly rich, luxurious lifestyles, dreams and fantasy, art, culture, history and beautiful women. As there are so many lines of appeal, you can argue that Tumblr is attempting to appeal to the largest demographic possible, similar to most social media platforms.

Tumblr is about self expression and quality content.

Creativity.

2) Next, we will look at American Apparel which is an American clothing manufacturer, designer, marketer and retailer based in Los Angeles, California. American Apparel fits into dreams and fantasy, beautiful women, self-importance and pride. Their use of beautiful women is especially significant as the company has long relied on sex as a key selling point. According to Tom Reichert, "As long as people desire to be attractive to others, and as long as people desire romance, intimacy, and love, and all the wonderful feelings they involve, advertisers can show how their products help meet those needs and desires. Whether we like it or not, products play a role in society’s intimacy equation."

American Apparel is all about high quality products.

Stylish.

3) Now we will move onto IAMS, a popular brand name for dog food and cat food manufactured by Spectrum Brands in Europe and Mars, Inc worldwide. IAMS was founded in 1946, in Dayton, Ohio, United States. IAMS fits into happy families - everyone wants to belong and childhood. I believe this because a large selection of their adverts use families, specifically children. This could be used to evoke either nostalgia or nurturing instincts. Also, perhaps they fit into rich, luxurious lifestyles because pets are a luxury so they may be inspiring people to want a lifestyle that includes pets because in their adverts, the animals are shown in a positive light.

IAMS is about having the best food available to your pets.

Nurture.

4) To continue, Dominos is an American pizza restaurant chain and international franchise pizza delivery corporation. Dominos fits into comedy & humour  as many of their adverts are designed with content to make us laugh. This could of intentionally been used to allow the audience to see that their brand values are about fun. Also, almost all their content uses vibrant and pleasant photos of their pizza perhaps to let us see that another brand value of theirs is also quality.

Dominos is about having fun and enjoying their products.

Enjoyment.

5) Lastly, is a very well known British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer known as Tesco. Through Tesco's advertising, we can see that they focus predominantly on their 'low prices' and 'high quality products'. Although most of their adverts are many minimalistic and don't use people at all, some of their video adverts use families which suggest Tesco fits into happy families. Also, almost all their adverts use humour to show us one of their brand values is having fun. From this, we can argue that they also fit into the comedy and humour line of appeal.

Tesco is about good quality foods and low prices.

Affordable. 

Trinity Mirror Response

• A nice starter activity - gets good engagement although perhaps (like mine!) it was a little too easy! 
• Video content is excellent - A great example of how revenue streams are changing for traditional print institutions. However, in terms of the presentation you needed to say more about why the video is significant

• You mention regional titles in the second slide but I'd like to see a lot more on this - a critical part of Trinity Mirror.
• Phone hacking is important to mention but like the rest of the presentation you raise an interesting point but then don't go on to say anything about it. It's important to go into depth at A level - this doesn't reach that standard.
• It's a shame because this is the basis for a great lesson.

WWW: I think my presentation was quite engaging as I used many visual aids such as the video and interesting clip art. Also, I mentioned many interesting points. 

EBI: I needed to elaborate on my points to an A level standard and I could have made my presentation longer to enable me to go into more depth. Moreover, I think my presenting skills are weak in general because I struggle to talk in front of groups of people, so I could have improved on my entire delivery of the presentation.

LR

WWW: This is a really good start to AS Media – I enjoyed reading all the blog posts you’ve produced so far. The questions you answered at the beginning are thoughtful and I like your thoughts regarding future study. It’s also great that you’re watching interesting film and TV texts! Your analyses of the two adverts are very good with some excellent insight in places. When you’re picking out interesting and original connotations you’re starting to push towards the top levels. Keep up the good work!

EBI: One crucial aspect to work on: make sure work is on the correct blog! This is a common problem in the first few weeks but please go back to your blogs and make sure everything is in the right place – that means all Film Language work for Mr Bush moved to the MEST2 blog. Another basic aspect to work on: organising your writing. Make sure you left-align text (as you would for an essay on Word) and organise your work in paragraphs. For example, the theoretical analysis of each advert using Hall’s preferred/oppositional reading should have its own paragraph at the very least. For your media consumption, you clearly reflect on needing to read the news more – I strongly advise using Twitter to do this. Follow notable journalists and newspapers and you’ll find you’re more informed about the big stories in world media.

LR: Tidy up your blogs to ensure everything is in the right place. Next, reflect on your first month of AS Media. What do you feel is your strongest piece of work so far? What is your weakest? What specific skills or knowledge do you need to develop over the rest of the course?

I have attempted to align all the text on my blog but it is having trouble working so I will try again on the school computers. I have organised all my posts onto the correct blogs too. I think my strongest piece of work is analysing mise-en-scene or my analysis of the adverts. However, I do think I need to develop my analysis and knowledge on lighting.