Welcome Back!

Welcome back to Media Studies!
This lesson is a re-introduction to the Media Studies framework and a dust down of the Summer cobwebs!

Your productions are on hold until we have all the appropriate research and planning in place.
In addition, you need to sign off Textual Investigation #1
This must be submitted on Friday 19th September.
Some of you will need to work late in here with me to meet this deadline but we will discuss one to one next week.

First try to recall some of the key words we use in Media Studies...

Media texts: Genre, Narrative and representation

Media organisations

Media audiences and users

These are the main Media concepts and ideas, you will constantly revisit them during the course. 

In all your investigations of media texts and practical production work, you will constantly engage and reflect on these concepts. 
It's important that you treat all media texts as something to study as well as interact with and enjoy if you are to succeed here.

You will also study Ads, both TV and print in preparation for your exam in June.

You should each have a hand out to help with your analysis.
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Task 1:

Analyse this TV ad for Coco Chanel using the guide notes you have been given.

Guide to an Analysis of an Advert

Choice of People – Have they chosen a celebrity or model to endorse their product?  Why?  What effect will this have on the audience?

Facial Expressions – If there are people / animals / characters in the ad, what do their facial expressions suggest about the product?  Do they tell you how you would feel if you bought the product?

Body Language – What does their body language tell you about how you would feel if you bought the product?  Are they close together, far apart?  Do they look energetic or relaxed etc?

Colour –What colours have been used in the advert and what do they suggest about the product / brand?  Are the colours associated with any particular emotions or feelings?

Lighting – Where is the light and shadow in the picture?  What effect does this have on the audience?  Does it draw your eye to any particular points?  What effect does it have on the look of the product?  Is it subtle or dramatic?

Slogans / Wording – Is it catchy?  Is there alliteration? What words have they used and why?  What do the words tell you about the product?  Are they using puns, plays on words, metaphors and similes?  Why? Do the words suggest something about the product?  Have they used scientific words or statistics to make the product seem professional and effective?

Font – Why have they used a certain font?  What does it tell you about the product / bran / target audience?  Is it big and bold, or small and delicate?  Is anything in a different font and why?  What about the size of the letters?

Props / costumes – what do the props and costumes in the ad tell you?  Do they suggest something about the person who uses the product?  Do they tell you something about the way the product will make you feel if you use it?

Image Size – Have they used close ups, wide shots, medium shots?  Why?  Do they want you to see detail?  Or do they want to show you the whole picture?

Image Angle – Have they used an eye level shot?  A low angle shot (looking up at something) or a high angle shot (looking down at something)?  What effect does this have?

Product – How and why have they shown the product and its packaging?  What does the bottle / packaging / appearance of the product suggest about it?

Other images – what do any of the other images suggest to the audience?  Eg background images etc..

Product Name / Company Name – what do they suggest to the audience about the product or the institution?  Eg The brand name “L’Oreal Paris” suggests the product was made or associated with a capital city famous for fashion.  This signifies to the audience that the product is fashionable and chic.

KEY WORDS TO USE (tick them off as you go and use them as many times as you can)

Connotation / Denotation
Signify / Signifies
Target Audience

Visual Codes... Costume / Facial Expression / Colour / Body Language / Graphics
Technical Codes... Sound / Editing / Framing / Lighting

Represents (eg the image of diamonds represents the product as being quality)

Stereotypes...Challenge or Reinforce

Slogan

Brand Image

Shot Type...Close up / Extreme Close Up / Medium Shot / Wide Shot / Extreme Wide Shot

Low Angle / Eye Level / High Angle

Product

Packaging

Institution

ABOVE ALL

You should be writing about WHO the product is aimed at and how you know that.. and HOW it makes an audience WANT the product...

There is a strict word limit on the 2 analysis of 500 words TOTAL!  
Write in bullet points, rather than full sentences.  

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The advert was a total of 3 minutes 20 seconds long and followed a very seductive theme. Coco Chanel was introduced in 2001 and has been a hit with the ladies ever since. Their recent advert was released in 2011 and was a very popular 

As we can see from the advertisement, it give a sense of luxuriousness, elegance and a life that many women and also men may dream to live. The advert starts with celebrity endorsement which encourages people to buy the product. This is because they may feel that if a celebrity wears it, then it must be good and they can buy it just so that they have at least one thing in common with Kiera Knightley. It also makes the product more luxurious and makes it seem of a higher standard.

The advertisement starts with Kiera Knightley casually waking up on a sunny morning in a large bed. She then looks the camera directly in the…well lens and then reaches over for a dab of her Coco Mademoiselle. This gives us the impression that the perfume sets her up for the day and makes every minute more luxurious and a better experience. It also must play an important role in her life if it is the first thing that she does every morning. The use of music in the advertisement, Joss Stone, which begins to play immediately as the advert begins, adds to the atmosphere of the advert and enhances the feeling of luxury.

The words of the song “Yes it’s a man’s world” may mean that because everything in life seems to be ruled and done by men, Coco Mademoiselle is a woman’s comfort and what makes her feel good about herself. It may also mean that because men are so hard and demanding, by wearing the perfume, you are able to control them and the way in which they feel by playing with their seductive emotions.

Kiera then gets onto her pristine luxury motorbike where she drives off to the photography studio. Everything in this advert just seems to be perfect. The bike is perfectly clean, her shoes are clean, there is no traffic or litter anywhere to be seen, its a sunny day and all of the streets seem immaculate. She meets some men when she stops at the traffic lights and whizzes off in front of them showing how it is done…all because she is wearing Coco Mademoiselle!

When she arrives at the photography studio, a man is waiting for her on the balcony and tells all of the team she has arrived and get ready. He opens the door where he is met by this luxurious women (kiera). She then goes into the photography studio and has her make up done ready for a photo shoot. The man is using a traditional camera on the shoot which again adds to the effect of posh, rich, luxurious Paris. You know it is a traditional camera due to the click noise it makes. All sound effects have been edited out of the video apart from key features such as the camera click and the sounds of the motorbike. There are also photographs of Kiera all over the walls of the photography studio. This shows how she has done shoots before.

She then lies on the bed and slowly, seductively zips down her top which would release the smell of the beloved perfume and you see a necklace. She then looks to the right at the people in the studio and the photographer then tells everybody to get out of the studio and leave them alone. Although you don’t hear him actually say it, his mouth moves followed by people leaving the studio. He is then standing on the bed above her where he slowly unzips her boots. She then stands up and takes off her top whilst he aims photography lights at her and takes photos. You hear a small laugh in this part of the advert which may be used to show that she is enjoying herself and life is good.

She has seduced him so much that when she lies down, he tries to kiss her. He gets so close until she stops him and tells him to lock the door. He gets up and walks off but when he turns back around, she is gone.

She is then getting onto her motorbike and you see her slip Coco Mademoiselle into her pocket. This shows that Coco Mademoiselle makes you incredibly irresistible and as I said before, you can play on men's emotions and control them!

Overall, I think that the video is extremely high end and creative. I think that it delivers the message very well and the audience understand what the company is trying to portray. It would encourage people to buy the product and the use of the celebrity endorsement enhances this. As we can see from the video, the codes and conventions of a seductive music video are

MUSIC: The music must be sleek, sexual, and romantic.

PEOPLE: The people used in these videos are usually very good looking, models or celebrities to encourage people to buy them.

LOCATION: The location is usually quite high-end and luxurious. For example Paris or Rome.

Task 2 (Homework)

Analyse this Print ad using the same guide

This task is for homework and needs to be returned as a paper version on Monday Lesson 5.

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15 September.

We looked at audience theory last term and to follow on...

Analysis of Advertising

Advertising tends to follow a basic format - a slogan or a striking image catches our attention, the body of the ad contains more factual information about the product , and a pack shot or logo reinforces the brand identity.The combination of these elements, even though we may only look at them for the average time of 1.5 seconds, leaves us with an impression of the values that are attached to that brand, and a sense of who the target audience for the product is (male? female? pensioner? teenager?).

When first analysing an ad you need to decide

• WHO the ad is aimed at - describe them demographically and psychographically
• WHAT is being advertising and WHAT is specifically highlighted about the product (the benefits) in this ad?
• WHY this helps sell a product
• WHERE/WHEN this ad might appear in order to reach its target audience

Task 1: 

Answer these questions with consideration given to the OMEGA watch, print based ad.

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