Essay Mats to help students during controlled assessment on media language, audience and narrative. Perfect for laminating!

1. Race and Ethnicity: Country/Cultural Origin i.e.
Propp’s Character Roles
African, Ethnic Minorities (within culture), British, Asian etc...
The hero: seeks something
Interests: i.e fishing, sports, films, - this helps in identifying
The Villain: opposes the hero
WHO buys certain products/watches certain programmes.
The donor: helps the hero by providing a magic object
For example, men that like film often like gadgets. Men
The dispatcher: sends the hero on his quest
that like cars quite often like football...
The helper: gives support to the hero
Age: We usually split into RANGES i.e. UNDER 16, 16-19, The princess: the reward for the hero, but also needs
19-25, 30-45, 45-60, OVER 60 protection from the villain
Her father
Attitudes & Beliefs
Belongers: Traditional, conservative
Social Classification conformists; family orientated
Emulators: Young people searching for an
A: Upper Upper Class: i.e Royalty/ PM etc identity, desiring to fit into adult world, but can be
B: Upper Class: MPs, Consultants, Lawyers, discouraged about prospects
Headmasters, Bank Managers Emulator Achievers: Successful, enjoy acquiring things
C1: Upper Middle Class: Teachers, and buy brand names
Secretaries, Solicitors, Architects Societally conscious achievers: Inner peace and
C2: Lower Middle Class: Plumbers, environment more important than financial success; want
Electricians, Mechanics personal fulfilment, lovers of outdoors and fitness, like to
D: Upper Lower Class: Unskilled workers i.e experiment
Shelf stackers, road sweepers, rubbish Needs Directed: Survivors on incomes that only allow
collectors needs and not wants to be fulfilled; pensioners and those
E: Lower Class: Unemployed, Homeless, on unemployment benefits, for example
Non-income
Barthes’ Code
Encoding & Binary Oppositions
Oppositional Reading Action - a narrative device by
Decoding E.g. A criminal may
reject the concept that
which a resolution is produced
the police are the
Weak through action, e.g. shoot out
• Strong •
Preferred Reading: Media
“goodies” in a crime Enigma - a narrative device that
movie as they believe • Powerful • Powerless teases the audience by presenting
producers create texts with a their reasoning for
preferred reading (the meaning committing crime are • Ac/ve • Passive a puzzle or riddle to be solved.
fair and they connect Works to delay the story’s ending
they WANT the audience to take with the criminals on • Heroic • Cowardly
from it) which the audience then screen rather than the pleasurably.
DECODE heroes and heroine of • Good • Evil Symbolic - (connotation)
the police force
Oppositional Reading: When • Dominant • Submissive Semic - (denotation)
someone makes a conscious Cultural - a narrative device which
• Prac/cal • Imprac/cal the audience can recognise as
rejection of the preferred
meaning • Rich • Poor being part of a culture e.g. a
Negotiated Reading: When “made man” in a gangster film is
someone understands the part of the mafia culture
meaning but it doesn’t relate to
them so it is of no interest to them
to decode it

2. Camera

3. Shots Camera

4. angles Camera

5.
PACE OF
EDITING: When
the pace of
editing is
movements
slower, and a
shot may
A long shot is used to A high angle shot continue for a
show the full human positions the camera longer period,
figure and often above eye-level, this may make
provides a clear view looking down on the Panning - When the camera stays in the the scene feel
of the environment or subject, which same position but turns left or right. more relaxed.
setting where we find consequently At the
the character. appears insignificant, beginning of a
weak, helpless, or film the longer
Tracking - When the camera changes its
An extreme long shot small according to shots may be
position by moving left or right.
is used to show how extreme the needed to give
landscapes or provide angle is. us information
a view of a whole
world (ie. A city, a Tilting - When the camera stays in the same
town, or even a position but turns up or down.
galaxy) where the WIPE: One shot
story is set. At eye level, the Dollying - Changing the camera’s position by is wiped from
impression is the screen by
moving it forward or backward.
A full shot is a variation neutral. another .
on the long shot, Often used to
showing the full go from one
subject (ie. The full Zooming In/Out - Even when the camera is scene to
human figure, with the stationary it can appear to move closer to, or another or from
feet at the bottom on further from, its subject by using a special ring one time to
the frame and the A low angle shot has or lever on the lens. another
head at the top of the the camera looking
frame). up at the subject,
which then appears
Shot Shot
important, powerful,
A medium shot shows
or domineering,
the human body from
again depending on FADE OUT One shot
mid-shin or mid-thigh DISSOLVES: One shot fades in while
how exaggerated the disappears, often
up and is often useto another fades out so that for a few
angle is. into black or white.
show interaction seconds, the two are on top of each
other and appear to blend Often used to show
between two or more
Editing
a change of time
characters
In close-ups, we can
understand how a
character feels; even
Shot Shot FADE IN The shot
“get into the head” of
that character. 1 Shot 1............. dissolves into................... shot 2
appears gradually
often from black or
white
Cut