section 1 exam booklet
TRANSCRIPT
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A2 media StudiesCritical perspectives Exam
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production
The exam in a nutshell:
The A2 Media Studies exam is called G325 Critical Perspectives in Media. It is two hours long. There are two sections. Section A is called Theoretical Evaluation of Production and contains two questions
about your practical work. You have only half an hour to answer each question, in essay
form. You must answer both questions and there is no choice of questions.
Section B is about more purely theoretical issues, and we will be preparing you for theMedia and Collective Identity questions. (This is one topic out of six set by the board so
make sure you find the right section in the exam paper!)
You will have to answer one question on collective identity from a choice of two. You willhave one hour to answer this question.
This booklet contains all you need to prepare for the two half hour essay questions in Section A
questions 1a and 1b.
How to do Question 1aFor 1a you have to write for half an hour about examples of your coursework from AS and A2. Since you have made
three magazine covers, in many cases these are the texts that you will focus on, but where appropriate you can also
discuss other products, such as your trailer.
The question will ask you to focus on one or two of the following areas:
Digital technology Creativity Research and planning Post production Using conventions from real media texts
So a sample question is:
In your experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your
productions?
Use the SEVEN PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE for any possible essay this is all you can do in half and hour.
PARA 1 intro: address key terms and state which /processes/technologies/products you will focus on
PARA 2 6 five good points expressed clearly, with examples, and using media terminology
PARA 7 conclusion: sum up what your overall response is to the question.
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Past Exam Questions for 1a
Jan 2010
Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how
these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your
answer to show how these skills developed over time.
June 2010
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts
and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Jan 2011
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and
evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of example
in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
June 2011
Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you
created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this
understanding developed over time.Jan 2012
Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative
media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed
over time.
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How to answer any 1a question
Question on digital technology and creativity.
Example question:
In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through your use of digital technology?
PARA 1 Digital tech has transformed the media landscape and my production work over two years shows this. I
will show this by focusing on three products, all magazine covers - from my AS Prelim Task (college
magazine cover) and Main Task (music magazine cover), and one of my A2 Ancillary Tasks (film magazine
cover). The digital technology vital to this work was Adobe Photoshop.
PARA 2 AS Prelim Task a way of exploring the possibilities of the digital tech initially leads to an uncontrolled
product - fonts mix serif/sans serif and too many styles; blending options over used drop shadows,
strokes, bevel and emboss, outer glow; colours too varied; photographs dont control mise-en-scene in
backgrounds and are often medium long shots without impact; conventions like masthead and cover lines
present but underdeveloped and uncontrolled. [Write specific stuff about your Prelim cover.]
PARA 3 AS Main Taskmore control leads to emergence of house style (font and colour control), better use of
conventions, better cropping of backgrounds and more consideration of shot distance and camera angle;
masthead gets more of a design rather than simply being bigger text at the top!, cover-lines on the right
get right justified etc; more subtle conventions get deployed splashes, straps etc. Over use of blending
options is reduced.
PARA 4 A2 Ancillary tasksimilar control but QUICKER. Took weeks in AS now takes hours. Photoshop is now a
means to achieve creativity rather than a hurdle you have to jump to get your ideas on paper. In A2
Photoshop even becomes a tool of choice to help formulate creative ideas in planning moodboards for
trailers.
PARA 5 Other digital technologies are also worth discussing briefly. Blogs in AS if you did a PowerPoint to show
your research - this was just used as a retrospective way of presenting it for examination. In A2 your blogs
actually helped in the research and planning process collections of Youtube teaser trailers to analyse,
looking at each others ideas online; presenting visual analyses in Flickr etc.
PARA 6 However it is fair to say that in some ways digital technology has not necessarily encouraged creativity.
In the past, film stock was expensive and so you couldnt just snap hundreds of photos and hope one
would be all right for your cover. You had to PLAN much more carefully. In the film industry footage was
extraordinarily expensive and without proper storyboards and really carefully rehearsed shoots you would
never be allowed to shoot. If I am honest in our group we did sometimes go out with a camera, without
planning, and just see what we could get. So I think that although digital technology has been a
democratising process, it has not ALWAYS led to enhanced creativity more is perhaps left to chance
when filmstock is unlimited and free.
PARA 7 Looking back through my products for this exam was a pleasurable experience as I could really see my
progress. Digital technology has enabled me to create products which improved each time to the point
where I think my A2 work is really professional. I have learnt that creativity is best realised when you can
control the medium and the technology fully, and when, in fact, it is channelled through a set of
conventions. Using generic conventions does not strangle creativity, it channels it to a better, morecoherent outcome.
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Question on Research and Planning (will probably go with digital tech or creativity).
PARA 1 Creativity cannot be uncontrolled or it produces chaos. Research and planning are vital if you are to useyour creativity effectively, and this is particularly so in media production work. My work from AS to A2
shows my development of these skills.
PARA 2 In my AS Prelim Task college magazine I did a bare minimum of research and planning. We looked ata few college magazines in class, and we thought about how we could find out what college studentswould want from a magazine, and produced a questionnaire which we gave out to about ten students
each. So for our research I investigated existing media products and my target audience, but in a very
superficial way. In planning I decided on roughly what central cover image I wanted then asked a friend to
pose for it. That was the extent of my control of mise-en-scene! This was OK as the prelim task was really
about learning how to use Adobe Photoshop , but the approachled to what I would call a creatively
uncontrolled product [see textual points in previous table].
PARA 3 AS Main Taskmore considered research and planning. Creativity is a glamorous idea but true creativityis a product of the nuts and bolts activities of effective research and planning, and I went some way
towards this in my main task. My TA research was also more focused as I was learning that commercial
magazines have two revenue streams and you have to know the psychographic and consumer habits of
your TA, as well as demographics, in order for a magazine to be a good business proposition. But I also
realised that planning is more than just deciding on a target audience and looking at some similar texts. It
is about organisation and foresight, and about the ability to overcome problems. For instance, in
developing the mise-en-scene of several of my cover images I needed to organise props and actors, recce
locations, and plan my shoots around the availability of all three. I learnt quickly that although there is an
idea that arty creative people are disorganised, when you are working on a technologically and
organisationally complicated product this disorganisation leads to failure!
PARA 4 I also put time in on the AS main task to improve my Photoshop skills, which was an essential part ofplanning for the production, and this also channelled my creativity to produce a more coherent product
[see textual points in previous table].
PARA 5 A2 Advanced Portfolio the move from individual print work to group based video production workwas a big change from AS, and meant that I was now working in a way which is more similar to the way
the majority of media products are actually produced in teams, within commercial organisations. A
media text is an industrial, rather than an artistic product. This meant the need for research and planning
was increased even more. Communication. Expression of ideas to create common purpose. Difficulties of
this. Use of blogs/moodboards/youtube to share ideas at research and planning stage. Understanding
mechanics of film distribution and how a campaign is created (institutional awareness in research).
Logistics of organising shoots travel, unreliable team members, creating horror trailer during coldest
winter for many years! Also depth of understanding of genre, narrative and representation issues which
arose in detailed study of the horror genre enabled more sophisticated thinking about these elements of
our trailer.
PARA 6 Make some sort of general reflection on creativity and planning. For example:One area that I think I have found difficult is drafting. The specification asks for evidence of drafting but I
found that my earliest ideas were often very poor and unformulated, and it was only really as the project
continued that they developed. So in my print product designs my paper drafts were hopeless, and it was
when I was experimenting in Photoshop that my creativity emerged. Similarly in our trailer although we
planned our shoots well it was only as we began to cut the footage together on Premiere Pro that I began
to see the potential of the footage. For me I think it was an issue of VISUALISATION I could never really
see my products in advance. So to some extent I think that there has to be flexibility for media
production to move away from what is planned.
PARA 7 Looking back through my products for this exam was a pleasurable experience as I could really see myprogress, and the development of my research and planning skills has been vital for me to achieve this
progress. I have learnt that creativity is best realised when it is channelled in a clear direction, and you
can only achieve that clarity through good research. Nevertheless, it is also important to be alert to the
possibility that, at each stage of production, new creative directions can arise.
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Question on Post-Production techniques (will probably go with digital tech or creativity).
Example question
How much of a media text is created in post-production? Show how you developed your post
production techniques through your course.
PARA 1 Digital tech has transformed the media landscape and this is especially true in post-production
work, because of the immense range and power of the software that has developed to handlethe post production of media products. I have been lucky enough o gain extensive experience of
two major industry standard packages in my post production work Adobe Photoshop and
Premiere Pro. Because I only used Premiere Pro in my second year, I am going to begin by
looking at my print based work. In AS I did the college magazine/music magazine option. Post-
production as a term is generally used for moving-image products, but for this question I have
considered my research ad planning for my magazines to be pre-production, my photoshoots to
be production, and my actual creation of the products on Photoshop to be my post-production.
The post production technology vital to this work was Adobe Photoshop.
PARA 2 AS Prelim Task a way of exploring the possibilities of the software initially leads to an
uncontrolled product in post production- fonts mix serif/sans serif and too many styles;
blending options over used drop shadows, strokes, bevel and emboss, outer glow; colours toovaried; conventions like masthead and cover lines present but underdeveloped and
uncontrolled. With photographs very little post production so no control of mise-en-scene,
backgrounds etc, no control of colour balance/brightness and contrast/levels etc so photos
remain washed out and lacking in punch, no appropriate cropping to anchor image and remove
unwanted signifiers and photos often remain medium long shots without impact [Write specific
stuff about your Prelim cover.]
PARA 3 AS Main Taskmore control with post production technology leads to more accurate
implementation of planning and clearer emergence of house style (font and colour control),
better use of conventions, better cropping of backgrounds and more consideration of shot
distance and camera angle; masthead gets more of a design rather than simply being bigger text
at the top!, cover-lines on the right get right justified etc; more subtle conventions get deployed splashes, straps etc. Over use of blending options is reduced. Post production of photos more
developed brightness/contrast; levels; colour balance; red-eye fixes; cropping to remove
unwanted signifiers; selection of heads to put on different layers so they go in front of
mastheads etc etc [Write specific stuff about your main task cover.]
PARA 4 A2 Ancillary tasksimilar control but QUICKER. Took weeks in AS now takes hours. Photoshop
is now a means to achieve creativity rather than a hurdle you have to jump to get your ideas on
paper. In A2 Photoshop even becomes a tool of choice to help formulate creative ideas in
planning moodboards for trailers.
PARA 5 For A2 main product use of Premiere Pro really illustrates power of post production to
transform raw material. Discuss how your text only really began to come together during the
edit as your footage was transformed. Consider juxtaposition of shots, editing pace, use of othertransitions |(white flashes etc), use of sound (and sources for sound), use of intertitles/credits,
adjusting brightness/contrast of footage, control of opacity, use of effects etc. Be specific and
detailed. If you really liked doing the editing then convey your enthusiasm for it.
PARA 6 The section above on Prem Pro is important and you should spend two paragraphs on it.
PARA 7 Looking back through my products for this exam was a pleasurable experience as I could really
see my progress, and thinking about post-production I can now see that it was my developing
skill in post-production software that has enabled my texts to be a success. Nowhere is this
more true than with my horror trailer for A2, where the transformation of our somewhat
mundane footage into a text which I think rivals some professional trailers is nothing less than
remarkable!
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Question on using conventions from real media texts (will probably go with digital tech or
creativity)
PARA 1 The tasks set for coursework in Media Studies over the last two years have always focused on
particular genres and forms. Therefore we have always had to develop a keen understanding of
the languages of the medium we were working in, and of the conventions of the specific genreswe were working in. I have worked in both print media and moving image media and so have
wrestled with a wide range of these conventions. It has been important, even if I decided to
undermine or challenge conventions, that I had a clear understanding of the conventions in the
first place. In this essay I will look at the ways in which I deployed conventions from print media
by exploring the three magazine covers I have made, the college mag cover in the AS Prelim Task,
the music mag cover from the main task, and more recently the film mag cover, one of my A2
Ancillary tasks. Then I will look at my horror teaser trailer, as it is an interesting case study in
having to think about Three sets of conventions those of film as a medium generally, such as
continuity system; those of HORROR as a film genre specifically; and those of the TEASER TRAILER
as a specific form of advertising.
PARA 2 AS Prelim Task a way of exploring the possibilities of the digital tech initially leads to an
uncontrolled product in terms of conventions - fonts mix serif/sans serif and too many styles;blending options over used drop shadows, strokes, bevel and emboss, outer glow; colours too
varied; photographs dont control mise-en-scene in backgrounds and are often medium long
shots without impact; conventions like masthead and cover lines present but underdeveloped and
uncontrolled. [Write specific stuff about your Prelim cover.]
PARA 3 AS Main Taskmore control leads to emergence of house style (font and colour control), better
use of conventions, better cropping of backgrounds and more consideration of shot distance and
camera angle; masthead gets more of a design rather than simply being bigger text at the top!,
cover-lines on the right get right justified etc; more subtle conventions get deployed splashes,
straps etc. Over use of blending options is reduced. More audience research into very particular
niche audience leads to high degree of creativity within the constraints.
PARA 4 A2 Ancillary tasksimilar control but QUICKER. Took weeks in AS now takes hours. Very careful
use of real magazine conventions as a template for my own. In the end a less unique productbecause made more quickly to demonstrate my awareness of the generic conventions, rather
than to actively seek a particular niche audience. In this exercise creativity was more constrained
than in the AS main task.
PARA 5 A2 main taskexplore general conventions of film continuity (180 degree rule, eyeline match,
matches on action etc did you need to worry about them in a trailer at all?) Then explore
conventions of horror (settings, technical code (camera angles, shot distances, lighting),
iconography, characters and representations (final girl etc).
PARA 6 The A2 main task as a trailer - look at deployment of teaser trailer conventions (elements of the
narrative you chose to foreground, use of dialogue or intertitles, editing techniques; use of non-
diegetic music; how you teased the audience into wanting to see the movie).
PARA 6 Looking back through my products for this exam was a pleasurable experience as I could really
see my progress. Working within the conventions of particular meida and particular genres . Ihave learnt that creativity is best realised when, in fact, it is channelled through a set of
conventions. Using generic conventions does not strangle creativity, it channels it to a better,
more coherent outcome.
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Now lets move on to Question 1b!
How to do Question 1b the close analysis of one of yourproducts using a key media concept
In this question you have half an hour to look at ONE concept in relation to ONE of your production
texts. You should look at your horror teaser trailer.
The concept will be ONE of the following:
1. Genre2. Narrative3. Representation4. Audience5. Media language
Past Exam Questions
Jan 2010
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
June 2010
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre.Jan 2011
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
June 2011
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.
Jan 2012
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
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How to answer any 1b question
1. Answering a 1b question on GenreYour product is, in a sense, a product of TWO genres the horror genre and the teaser trailer
advertising genre, and so your exploration of how you have deployed generic conventions should
explore both of these. You are also expected to understand some theoretical issues around genre.
Theoretical issues of genre.
No single text can contain all the elements of a genre, without tipping into parody, so a sensible
definition of genre cannot be an exclusively textual one.
Genre is often seen as a shared set of expectations about texts which circulate between industry
and audience. Industry uses genre to target pre-existing audiences, thus minimising the risk to
their capital investment, and consumers use genre as a way of filtering the sheer amount of media
available to them. The teaser trailer is a particularly good text to allow us to consider thiscontract between audience and industry, as its explicit function is precisely to target an audience
and to encourage that audience to pay to consume the text which is being advertised. Thus how a
trailer deploys generic conventions is worth studying.
Although there is this problem with defining genre simply through its textual components,
nevertheless a lot of work has gone in to understanding genre texts AS texts and into exploring the
repertoire of elements they contain. Steve Neale, an important genre theorist (name drop him),
has argued that a genre is a system of differences within an underlying pattern of repetition. In
this sense there is a tension between originality and similarity. The conventions can be categorised
into those of setting, technical code, iconography, narrative structure, character types andrepresentations, and themes. You will need to show how you used particular genre conventions in
these categories but how your combination of them gave your film a unique selling point.
To do this you must use the A3 Horror genre chart and the handout about the conventions of
trailers, and go through your trailer finding examples of each. In case you cant find it, on the next
page is the A3 chart reproduced in little tiny format!
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HORROR GENRE CONVENTIONS CHART
Settings Technical Code Iconography Narrative Structure Character Types ThemesSmall communities or
isolated places - more
rural/suburban than
inner city. This offers
more opportunities
for a sense of
isolation, or for a
whole community to
harbour a secret.
Often places with a
past which will
return. Abandoned
house, old lunatic
asylum etc.
Homes, usually with
different levels and
cellars and attics
places for secrets and
the past to inhabit.
Basements connoteour primitive instincts
and attics our
repressed terrors?
Night-time/out of
hour often places of
innocent daytime
fun, but out of
hours!
Religions/medical
institutions
possession, demons,
psychosis.
Dreams and the
unconscious mind
The East strange,
other cultures with
weird traditions
Camerawork is
EXPRESSIVE rather than
naturalistic. Weird high
and low angles. Canted
camerawork common
disorientating.
ECUs on victim to
enable audience
identification with
terror and to exclude
threat from frame
(more scary as you
dont know where it is).
Sudden ECUs on
monster to connote
invasion of our
personal space.
POV shooting very
important subjective,
hand-held or steadicamcamerawork often
places audience in
monsters eyes raises
issues about audience
identification. Clover
(Men, Women and
Chainsaws) argues this
usually switches to the
victim/protagonist/final
girl as the film
progresses. Again
raises issues about
audience identification.
Camerawork often
makes use of depth of
frame protagonist inforeground, unaware of
monster emerging in
background.
Editing may create
unsettling jumps from
LS to CU, rather than
smooth use of MS.
Editing pace may be
used to create
suspense. Sudden
increases in editing
pace when there is no
apparent threat creates
feeling of jumpiness
something must be
about to happen
Sound may be very
important. Ambient
sound for atmosphere,
footsteps, heartbeats
high in the sound mix.
Visual signifiers of
genre are readily
apparent. The colours
black and red (obvious
connotations of
darkness, evil, blood
and danger etc).
Lighting expressive and
non-naturalistic.
Motivated, low-key,
high contrast,
chiaroscuro, to
emphasise shadows.
Lighting direction often
from unexpected
angles eg below, to
create unfamiliar
shadows (and connote
hell, bonfires, primitive
instincts etc, as natural
light - sunlight,moonlight, room lights
- is always from above
us).
A selection of the
commoner objects in
the mise-en-scene
would include
weapons, (particularly
bladed), blood, masks,
icons of the
supernatural (ghosts,
moving objects) and
religion (crucifixes,
pagan symbols).
Iconography ofchildhood/innocence
dolls, playgrounds,
clownschildrens
songs (see Barthes
structuralist narrative
theory of binary
oppositions).
Classic realist/classic
Hollywood narrative
structure (normality-
enigma-path to resolution-
closure, or hero-agent of
change-quest- resolution-
closure) largely applicable to
genre, although there may
be false closures and the
real closure often left
ambiguous for two reasons
1 to suggest mythic quality
of the monster and 2 to
enable a sequel. This
conception of narrative
structure is based on
Todorovs theories.
The clear, unambiguous
hero of the classic
Hollywood narrative is
somewhat problematic inmany horrors as a main
protagonist, the final
girlof the slasher and many
other horror films is a
victim/hero rather than a
simple hero, and thus
provides a point of
masochistic identification
for the spectator which is
more complicated than in
many other genres.
The narratives of some sub-
genres, such as the slasher,
are very formulaic.
Childhood psychotic event
creates killer who return toa past location on an
anniversary to kill again
usually a group of stupid,
immoral teenagers etc,
with one (virginal, slightly
masculine) female character
who survivesthe final
girl.
Propps theories of
narrative? We will try to
apply them to our next
film
Barthes and Levi Strauss,
structuralist narrative
analysis not so concerned
with linear development but
more with underlying
mythic structures works
particularly well with horror.
Binary oppositions abound,
for example innocence/evil.
Horror often plays on this by
developing very sinister
atmospheres through a
reliance on our awareness
of the existence of the
opposite term to
innocence. Hence the use
of dolls, fairgrounds,
nursery rhymes, children
etc.
Main protagonist often
victim/hero see
points on narrative
structure. The Final Girl,
androgynous, virginal...
Monsters with a hidden
secret or made psychotic
by an earlier event.
Stupid/immoral teens
to get killed...
Children.
Ineffectual police and
normal law enforcers
(horror is not containable
through normal
channels).
The have a go herowho will get killed
Scientists who do stupid
things or over-reach their
powers
People who refuse to
believe
Binary oppositions
natural VS unnatural; good
Vs evil; known Vs
unknown.
Return of the repressed
Freudian theory horror is
often close to sex in some
way
The hidden evil inside.
Science out of control.
What lies on the other side
of death?
Does horror reinforce or
subvert dominant
ideology???
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And on the next page is the conventions of trailers sheet!
TRAILER KEY CONVENTIONS
Trailers are advertisements for a film, usually constructed using actual footage from the film, aimed very carefully at thefilms target audience and designed to leave the viewer with a feeling that they want to know more
No matter what genre or target audience a trailer is for, they all share some central conventions.
o Trailers MUST indicate: The GENRE of the movie The NAME of the movie! The PRODUCTION VALUES of the movie (stars, budget, special effects, name director etc)
o Trailers must also pick out aspects of the movie that the TARGET AUDIENCE will be interested in.
introduce central characters and their relationships indicate the central narrative enigma of the film, but not how it is resolved show a selection of moments from the quest section of the film which are attractive to its
target audience (eg action, romance, comedy sequences or whatever)
indicate the mood of the film utilise techniques to entice and tease the audience into wanting to see the film they must
leave the audience feeling excited but unsatisfied. There are many techniques to do this,
involving the soundtrack, the use of language etc
o MUSIC will be emotive and in keeping with the genre. It will emphasise build-up/crescendo rather thanrelease (thus leaving us with a sense of wanting more).
o A mixture of DIALOGUE and, very often, VOICE OVER (V/O) or INTER-TITLES will introduce the centralcharacters of the story and explain the premise, and complication, but will notgive the resolution. In
narrative terms, the enigma is presented, and moment from the quest or pathway to resolution, but the
resolution itself must be withheld
o The V/O or inter-titles may well tease us into wanting to see the film by asking, but not answering, questions.It may well be an authoritative male voice, and it may use repetition of grammatical structures, alliteration and
other language devices for emphasis, memory and emotion. It may speak a single sentence, breaking it up into
clauses, with dialogue in between each clause. The dialogue and visuals will back up what the V/O is saying.
The V/O will repeat the name of the movie for emphasis and memory.
Teaser trailers may leave more narrative enigmas and may be shorter (average of around 60-90 seconds). There are
some exceptions to these general conventions, but in the main commercial trailers for mainstream movies follow them.
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2. Answering a 1b Question on NarrativeTheoretical issues of narrative.
Narrative structures have been explored by many theorists, such as Propp, or Todorov. It is of
limited use trying to see how a text fits into the structures suggested by these theorists, as
ultimately it does not tell you much about the specific nature of the text you are studying.
A more practical approach to narrative was taken by the film theorists Bordwell and Thompson.
They looked at how the text creates a coherent narrative world of time and space, and cause and
effect, and how the story becomes a plot (ie how chronological events are reordered to generate
narrative tension and progression).
Another worthwhile approach to narrative is to look for the underlying deep structures of
meaning in narratives, which can tell us something about the cultures and societies that produce
them. This was the approach taken by structuralist analysis of binary oppositions in texts,
adopted by Claude Levi-Strauss and Roland Barthes.
For an essay on narrative you have to use the ideas of Bordwell and Thompson and Levi-Strauss and
Barthes. You will explore the spaces and times connoted in your trailer, tackle the story/plot
distinction and explain which elements of the story are indicated in the trailer and why. You will
also explore the extent to which your trailer is a restricted narration or an unrestricted narration.
Then you can look at binary oppositions working in your text.
You will need the handout on narrative to help you with this question, and must go through your
trailer working out points to say in relation to Bordwell/Thompson and Levi-Strauss/Barthes. A
shortened version follows now!
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A2 MEDIA STUDIES NARRATIVE THEORY
This is a cut down version of a handout you were given at the start of year two. For a fuller discussion of
narrative theories, see the original handout.
Narrative theory studies the devices and conventions governing the organisation of a story (fictional or
factual) into a text.
Why is narrative important to us? Stories are very important in helping us to make sense of our lives and the
world around us.
We are surrounded by story form:
As children we listen to fairy tales and myths. Reading material as we progress becomes shortstories, novels, history and biographies.
Religion is often presented through collection of stories/moral tales e.g. the Bible/ the Koran. Scientific breakthrough is often presented as stories of an experimenter's trial. Cultural phenomena such as plays, films, TV, dance, paintings tell stories. Newspapers tell stories Dreams are little narratives in themselves
Narrative in media texts
Most of the media we consume is in the form of narratives, texts that tell a story. Even texts which are
factual often employ story methods, for instance a documentary may follow the 'story' of a group of
environmental warriors over a period of six months in their fight to prevent a road being built. We talk of
news stories. The media, even when dealing with the real, always recreate it as a narrative.
We are so steeped in the narrative tradition that we approach most media texts with certain expectations
even more fundamental than our genre expectations, whether we know anything about the story or not.
For example, we expect
the opening to give us information about who, what and where. there to be characters who interact with each other. to see a series of incidents, which are connected with each other. problems and/or conflicts. the ending to resolve the action or cast new light on what has happened
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BORDWELL AND THOMPSON
Bordwell and Thompson, in their very important book Film Art: An Introduction (in the library) defined
narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". Whilst not
creating a full theory of narrative, they put together some very interesting ideas. For them, a narrative
typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect;
finally a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Narrative shapes material in terms of spaceand time - it defines where things take place, when they take place, how quickly they take place. Narrative,
thus uses technical techniques to manipulate our awareness of time and place; e.g. flashbacks, replays of
action, slow motion, speeding up, jumping between places and times. What editing methods can achieve
this?
When we are watching a film we try to connect the events to make sense of what is happening, to see a line
ofcause and effect. This is by far the most important factor in narrative because even if there is no obvious
connection, we still try to make one. This is a natural reaction because making connections is how we make
sense of the world around us, for example looking for a reason for feeling sick and concluding that we ate an
undercooked sausage. What we are actually doing in film terms is connecting the images that we see in both
time and space and creating a causal effect between them. How does the director manipulate cause andeffect? The director can create a mood or atmosphere by choosing certain shots in a certain order, to build a
picture in our minds. We automatically link what is happening in one shot with what happens in those either
side of it, as this is what happens in real life. Thus, by showing us a house and then an interior room, we
presume the room is inside the house. In this way we are interacting with the film.
TIME
Cause and effect take place in time. As we watch a film, we try to put events in chronological order and
allow them duration and frequency.
There are 3 distinctions of time within a film: Screen duration: the time the film takes to show Plot duration: the length of time the plot covers Story duration: the length of time the story covers (including all the inferred events we bring to it)
The plot does not always show us events in strict chronological order i.e. the story order in which they would
have happened in real life. For instance, sometimes a flashback technique is used to show us what happened
in the past, or less frequently, a flash forward to events which have not yet occurred. The narrative can also
be presented in parallel terms, for instance we watch a scene where a character is getting ready for a party,
then we see another scene where a friend is doing the same. The time when this is happening is parallel to
each other - it is happening at the same time in real terms. As with all narrative choices the filmmaker has
made, we must look at why s/he has chosen to present events in this fashion and the effect it has upon us asan audience. Time is also cut out of all texts. This is called ellipsis and is vital since a film only lasts for an
hour and a half and yet may tell a story which takes place over several years. We infer events in between. In
a trailer this ellipsis is even more vital.
SPACE
Editing also guides us through space, as in the house/interior room example above. The plot sometimes
leads us to infer other story space, which we may never see e.g. we know a character has gone off on holiday
but we do not see this 'space'. Screen space selects portions of plot space to show us, just as it selects
certain time events and leaves others out. Plot frequently implies space which is not shown.
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STORY and PLOT
When we are linking images together in terms of cause and effect, one of the ways in which we do this is to
look at what is happening on screen and assume that other events have taken place that we haven't actually
seen.
For instance, if we watch the opening to a film like Gladiator, where a huge battle is about to take place wewill assume that preparation for this battle has taken place, that the hero has proved himself to be a worthy
leader in battle, that he has had a successful home life before this point. Ellipsis has occurred. These events
will have taken place in a different time and space to what we see on screen at present. When discussing
film narrative, we can make a distinction between the story and the plot. Story is all the events that must
have taken place in a narrative, whether explicitly presented or not, and plot is the events explicitly
presented. The plot may reorder the story. For example, here is a story:
1. Criminal thinks up a crime.2. Criminal plans crime.3. Criminal commits crime.4.
Another character discovers the crime
5. Police are called6. Detective investigates7. Detective discovers who committed crime8. Detective chases criminal9. Detective catches criminal10.Criminal take to court11.Criminal convicted12.Criminal imprisoned
Now reorder this story as a whodunit plot. What is your sequence of numbers?
USING NARRATIVE TO BUILD SUSPENSE
Restricted narrative can be used to surprise an audience, e.g. when a character does not know what is
waiting around the corner and neither does the audience.
Unrestricted narrative, giving the audience more information than the character, can be used to effectively
build suspense, as the audience are anticipating the events to come, of which the character has no
knowledge. Here is how a famous director, Francois Truffaut, explained it. Two characters are having a very
innocent little chat. There is a bomb underneath the table between them. Nothing happens, and then all of a
sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The audience is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an
absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is
underneath the table and the audience knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it
there, and the editing of the scene occasionally cuts to a close-up of it ticking as the characters talk. The
audience is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The
audience can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this innocuous conversation becomes
fascinating because the audience is participating in the scene, longing to warn the characters on the screen:
"You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There's a bomb beneath you and it's about to explode"
In this first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of explosion. In the
second case we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever
possible the public must be informed.
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A COUPLE OF OTHER IDEAS WHICH MIGHT HELP YOU
Lev Kuleshov, a Russian filmmaker in the 1920's experimented by
showing people shots of an actor in between shots of different
objects - food, a dead woman and a child. The audience interpreted
the actor's expressions (although it never changed!) as being hungry,
sad and. affectionate. This is because our brains try to makecontinuitive sense of what we see. This placing together of images is
called montage.
Sergei Eisenstein, another Russian filmmaker of the same era,
believed that it was more effective if consecutive shots were not
obviously linked as the audience were forced to think and interact
more to make the mental jump from shot to shot. In a more light-
hearted way montage is used today in pop videos and advertising, to
encourage us to make associations and link ideas.
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS/ROLAND BARTHES
Levi-Strauss and Barthes looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are
sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL - we
understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. They were not so interested in looking at the
order in which events were arranged in the plot. They looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes.
For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are
created by the narrative:
Earth/Space
Good/EvilHumans/Aliens
Past/Present
Normal/Strange
Known/Unknown
What horror binary oppositions are there in your trailer?
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Here is an exemplar essay for 1b on narrative:
Explore narrative in one of your products.
Many media theorists have investigated narrative structures and related issues. Much of this has
been interesting but some of it ultimately has little to say about how specific texts work. Forexample, Vladimir Propp investigated the character and narrative functions of Russian folk tales,
and his work has been applied to many media texts, but ultimately trying to see if a text fits in with
Propps functions such as the princess, the donor, the false hero and so on, do not really tell us
much about the text itself and its underlying organisation.
In this essay I will look at my horror teaser trailer, which was my A2 main task. I will investigate its
use of narrative from several perspectives. Firstly I will look at Bordwell and Thompsons useful
definition that narrative is a series of events, in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and
space. Secondly I will look at some of the attempts to uncover the deep structures of narratives
that structuralist theorists like Levi-Strauss and Barthes have used.
Bordwell and Thompsons definition is useful because it allows us to focus on how a text organises
itself. In my teaser trailer one of the things I was doing was playing about with the idea of cause-
effect relationships. In my trailer the main protagonist has had a heart transplant but died briefly in
the operation. The transplant was otherwise successful but she starts to see terrible events around
her, which seem to involve a little boy covered in blood. We give a central cause-effect relationship
the heart transplant has caused her to start seeing horrific things. But we leave out crucial details
or other elements of the cause-effect relationship. For example, WHO is the horrific child? WHY
has this happened to her? In the film we find out that she has been given the heart of a murderer,
but this is not stated in the teaser, so we have played around with the cause-effect relationships to
generate the tease of our teaser!
Bordwell and Thompson also point out that a narrative has to delineate time and space. A film
only lasts about an hour and a half (and the teaser trailer for it only about a minute and a half!) but
the story events of the film may cover a period of months or years. So time is routinely cut out of
the story when creating the plot, leaving the audience to infer the missed events. In constructing
our teaser trailer we had the luxury of being able to ignore the delineation of time because we
were able to show moments from the story in an unconnected way, allowing our audience to
undertake this process of inferring some relationship between these events, a relationship which
would be confirmed or changed when they actually watch the film itself, rather than the trailer.
Space also needs to be constructed in a narrative. When we see a house and the next shot is akitchen, we infer that the kitchen is in the house. We used this process to construct the spaces of
our narrative and their relationship to each other. We begin with a series of close-ups in a hospital
room. We next see a woman being wheeled down a corridor. The relationship of this shot to the
previous ones enables the audience to understand the space of a hospital corridor, even without
signposts or more detailed mise-en-scene.
Narratives may be restricted or omnipotent. That is the audience may know as little as the main
protagonist (restricted) or may know a lot more. We chose to make our narrative restricted. When
the main protagonist shouts whats happening to me? and we half dissolve to a montage of
horrific images across her face, we are in the same position, trying to make sense out of a numberof limited clues. Who is the boy child? Why is she seeing these visions? What will happen?
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Levis Strauss and Barthes investigated narrative in another way. They looked for the underlying
deep structures in narrative the elements which tell us about the fundamental assumptions
that the narrative is built up from. They did this through an exploration of binary oppositions.
They argued that terms in culture can only be understood by reference to what they are NOT. That
is, a concept like, say, good only makes sense if on some level we are aware of its opposite, evil.
Horror as a genre has been seen as one which really relies on this ideahence evil clowns etc.
When we are conscious of innocence, the concept of corruption or whatever is bubbling just
below. We used a series of binary oppositions in our trailer. The mise-en-scene of the church
implicitly hits at the existence of satanic even. The blind woman implicitly suggests extreme sight
(visions of the future). The child is a signifier of innocence yet he is covered in blood. The trailer
begins in the day but this soon tips into night. We can see that these oppositions, day/night;
god/satan; innocence/evil etc create a really strong sense of the invasion ofthe normal world by
these abnormal forces a return of the repressed which can be further explored to understand
the deeper cultural assumptions of our horror film.
Overall narrative tools are useful as a method of analysing a text, but they must be more than justan attempt to fit the text into someone elses set of categories. Narrative analysis needs to
explore how a text organises its self-created world and what the underlying assumptions of that
world are.
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4. Answering a 1b question on AudienceTheoretical issues. Audience is a double edged concept in media studies. Firstly there are issues
about how a text targets and speaks to an audience. This is about mode of address and
mechanisms of identification, which tell us about how a textinteracts with its audience. The
second area of media studies relating to audience exploreS issues to do with media effects. It isonly the first area that you need to write about here.
Of course, in horror films, we have an interesting point about identification if you have used a final
girl in your product since this will take you into the Carol Clover issues to do with young males
identifying with female victim/protagonists in a way quite unlike the controlling/objectifying male
gaze identification with a masculine hero.
If you get a question on audience here are the areas to cover:
A. Targeting the audience
Discuss your audience research process. How did you decide on a target audience? Core horror
audience males age 15-24 but significant secondary audiences too. What audience research did
you do? Did you consider demographics and psychographics? You can do this part fairly quickly.
You could say that issues to do with how the audience is targeted are less interesting than looking
at how a text interacts with the audience, and so you want to move on to discuss this area.
B. How the text engages the audience
The way a mainstream film text encourages audience involvement is principally through the
mechanisms of identification with the protagonist. The three most essential conventions for
encouraging that involvement are:
The close-up taking us into the personal space of the protagonist (a space we only go into inreal life with those we are very close to) and thus encouraging a clear empathy with the
emotions of that character.
The POV shothere we see through they eyes of the protagonist hence we areencouraged to experience what their responses will feel like.
The reaction shot when the protagonist finds out something important, or is, say, givenbad news, the film cuts to a close-up of the protagonist we are interested in his/her
narrative journey and therefore his/her feelings are tracked through reaction shots. If we
are watching, say, a gunfight between an action hero and his evil opponent, it would be
ridiculous to cut to the reactions of the villain after a just missed bullet flies past. We arenot interested in his emotions only those of the hero.
Explain how your trailer uses these shots.
C. More complex audience issues with horror texts
But horror is interesting for two reasons in relation to these mechanisms for audience identification
with the text.
1. The extended POV shooting from the monster, often called subjective camerawork in horror
theory. This creates an unsettling situation for the audience as it subverts moral categories andsafe assumptions. We are killers for a moment. Why? If you have used this explain how and why.
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2. If you had a FEMALE protagonistyou must explore this section in your essay. In most
mainstream genres the heroes have traditionally been male, and this process of IDENTIFICATION
with the male hero leads to a process of OBJECTIFICATION of the female body. Women are
accessories to the masculinity of the hero, connoting only his power and strength rather than
having an independent role in the narrative. They are presented in terms of their status as objects
of attraction which the hero can use. This process of objectification was originally identified by
Laura Mulvey, who termed it the MALE GAZE.
But many horror movies do not create this audience identification with a strong hero and related
sadistic, controlling objectification of the female body. Instead, through the figure which Carol
Clover identified as the final girl, the audience is asked to identify with a female victim/hero who
is repeatedly terrorised through the narrative but who finally overcomes the monster. This is really
interesting because the core target audience for horror is teenage to early 20s boys. So we have a
genre targeting males which offers them an audience identification positions with a female, who is
also not an all-powerful hero! Instead of sadistic objectification of the female, we have masochisticidentification with her!! It has been argued by Clover and others that horrors relationship with its
core audience is often one which allows that audience to play out fears of the status and power
held over them by dominant males ie which essentially allows them to explore their position as
males lower down in the brutal hierarchy of masculinity.
If you didnt use a female protagonist you can still explore some of this by explaining the argument
and then explain that you place males into victim roles, so the idea of horror exploring male
insecurity is still present in your text.
If time you could conclude with some discussion about what has been said about the popularity ofhorror in relationship to audience. For example some have argued that horror offers a way of
exploring deep seated anxieties about sexuality and power but in a safe context. Therefore it is
cathartic for its audience and ultimately conservative because it allows us to come to terms with
our own repression and to maintain ithorror is like letting of steam to stop the pan boiling
over! Others have argued that horror is a radical genre because it exposes our deepest anti-social
fears and fantasies which society tries to bury. Robin Woods is a crucial theorist here, who argued
from a Freudian psychoanalytical perspective that horror is the return of the repressed.
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Answering a 1b question on Media LanguageMedia language is an overarching term which relates to the conventions of the medium, as well as
the genre. Your medium was film, so if you get a question about media language, you would be
expected to explore the general conventions of film language, such as:
Continuity System (180 degree rule, match-on-action cuts, eyeline match-cuts, shot-reverseshot, establishing shots),
mechanisms of identification such as use of close-ups, reaction shots, POV shots,constructions of time and space (see section on narrative).
techniques of suspense use of sound
Ideas on hoiw to explore each of these are given below:
To answer a question on media language you therefore discuss the general conventions of film,
rather than the genre specific ones. You could, for example explore, in detail, how you used the
continuity system (although it is worth pointing out that a trailer does not have to use continuity in
the way the film itself does, because it jumps about in the narrative to create a desire to see the
film). If discussing continuity explain what each of these elements of the continuity system ARE and
how they work, and give a clear example of HOW you have used them describe the
shots/sequences where you have done so. Here are the elements to use. Write a clear example to
finish off each part.
CONTINUITY CONVENTIONSThe continuity system evolved in the early years of Hollywood as a system of editing which minimised the
potential disruptive force of the edit. Every time there is a cut in a film, there is the potential for the audienceto get confused and thus to lose their involvement in the narrative world of the film. The continuity system
consists of a number of techniques, several of which I used in my trailer
The establishing shotEstablishing shots are a vital part of the continuity system. They are long shots, used early in a scene, to
establish where characters and objects are in relation to each other. A typical cycle of shots in a scene will be
an establishing shot, followed by a series of closer shots, then a re-establishing shot as a reminder of the spatial
arrangement. Some genres or sequences, such as the opening of a whodunit, may choose not to use
establishing shots so that narrative information, for example the identity of the murderer, is withheld to
generate mystery. In our trailer we used
The eyeline-match cutThe eyeline match cut occurs when a character looks out of frame. This motivates a cut to a shot of what they
are looking at (which may be a POV shot). The eyeline match helps the audience to be clear about the spatial
arrangement of a scene by reinforcing where objects and people are in relation to each other. In our trailer we
use this technique in the scene with.
The match-cut on actionThe match on action is another editing technique used to help overcome the potential disruption to audience
engagement which editing creates. An action begins in one shot and ends in the following, thus clearly
indicating that the shots are linked and show a continuous sequence. If you had a long shot, say, of a man
leaning against a wall, followed by a close up of a hand going into a pocket and pulling out a knife, then it is
not necessarily clear whose hand it is. It could be the man in the long shot or it could be another character. So
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to make it clear that it is the man in the long shot the action of putting the hand in the pocket needs to BEGIN
in the long shot and conclude in the close up. In our trailer we used several matches on action, for example
The 180 degree ruleIn order for characters to move, or look in the same direction from one shot to another an imaginary line is
placed in a scene, down the main axis of action, and as long as shots stay on the same side of the line, thenscreen direction and screen position is reinforced. In our trailer we utilised this technique in the scene where
Another really good area to explore is your use ofCONVENTIONS TO ENCOURAGE
AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION WITH THE PROTAGONISTTo work, a film has to create identification between the audience and the main protagonist. If this does not
happen then the audience is likely to be unengaged in the film and have no interested in the narrative. There
are three central techniques to encourage identification. These are the close-up, the POV shot and the reaction
shot.
The close upThe power of the close up is the key to the power of film. In the real world we all have a private space around
us into which we only allow those we are close to or those we love (the space might also be invaded by
someone being aggressive to us). Thus when we get a close up of the main protagonist it creates an immediate
sense of intimacy between us and him/her. Even without any narrative understanding it is easy to work out
who the main protagonist in a commercial film is the character with the most close-ups! In our trailer we
The POV shotThe point of view shot is a really powerful identification mechanism because it places the audience into the
view of the main protagonist, allowing us to experience events in their shoes. This creates a really intimate
connection between the view and the main protagonist. We used POVs in this way in. In horror, the POV is
often used for another purpose, by placing the audience into the eyes of the monster/killer. This is deeply
unsettling for the viewer as it undermines our morality. Such a disturbing effect is of course part of the horror
genre. We used this in...
The reaction shot
Reaction shots are a particular form of close up which is crucial to enable the audience to share in theemotional journey of the main protagonist. When the protagonist receives some bad news, or a bullet
narrowly misses them, we expect to see their reaction, in a close up. This techniques was used by is in our
trailer when
CONVENTIONS TO ENHANCE SUSPENSEEven if a film is made comprehensible through the use of the continuity system, and we are encouraged to
identify with the main protagonist through the techniques discussed above, the film still has to generateexcitement and tension for it to be a success. Thus suspense techniques are common to almost all movies. Here
are some of the most important:
Cross cuttingCross cutting is a series of cuts between two scenes or parts of a scene which usually implies they are
happening at the same time and will converge. We are a ware of the impending convergence but do not know
what will happen. James Bond trying to untie a woman in a room where a ticking bomb is counting down
would be a typical example. The pace of editing increases as we cut back and forth between Bond trying to
untie the woman and close ups of the timer device counting down to zero. In our trailer we used cross cuts
when
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Increasing pace of editingWe read editing pace as indicating levels of excitement. The faster the pace the more the excitement. Control
of editing pace is therefore vital to a successful product. In our trailer
OTHER STUFF YOU COULD WRITE ABOUT
Use of sound:
non-diegetic - incidental music diegetic - sounds from the world of the character synchronous (onscreen source),
asynchronous (offscreen sources)
ambient sounds to enhance realism of a scene sound bridges
Camera angles to connote power
Control of lighting to express mood (low key)
This should give you plenty of general film language conventions to explore in half an hour! Make
sure you decide on you examples from your trailer and can write fluently about the conventions
and your examples.
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REVISION WORK 1b essay plans
FIRST ESSAY PLAN FOR 1b. MY HORROR TEASER TRAILER AND GENRE
INTRO
PARA 2
PARA 3
PARA 4
PARA 5
PARA 6
CONCLUSION
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SECOND ESSAY PLAN FOR 1b. MY HORROR TEASER TRAILER AND
NARRATIVE
INTRO
PARA 2
PARA 3
PARA 4
PARA 5
PARA 6
CONCLUSION
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THIRD ESSAY PLAN FOR 1b. MY HORROR TEASER TRAILER AND
REPRESENTATION
INTRO
PARA 2
PARA 3
PARA 4
PARA 5
PARA 6
CONCLUSION
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FOURTH ESSAY PLAN FOR 1b. MY HORROR TEASER TRAILER AND
AUDIENCE
INTRO
PARA 2
PARA 3
PARA 4
PARA 5
PARA 6
CONCLUSION
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FIFTH ESSAY PLAN FOR 1b. MY HORROR TEASER TRAILER AND MEDIA
LANGUAGE
INTRO
PARA 2
PARA 3
PARA 4
PARA 5
PARA 6
CONCLUSION