UNSEEN ANALYSIS

Unseen Analysis: S5/6 - Wednesday 18th AprilS4 - Thursday19th AprilS3 - after S3 exams

Sat in class but marked externallyWorth 20% overall markTests your knowledge of CATEGORIES and LANGUAGEINT 1 45 mins.INT 2 1 hourHIGHER 1 hour and a half

FORM CONVENTIONS - Film Poster

Conventions of form are codes that are frequently used in a form:

E.g.

images of the main character(s)genre conventions - tells you the genre - through images or wordsfilm titletagline - one sentence about the plotrelease date or 'Coming Soon'actors' namesfilm company logos and namesmain creditspositive reviews and ratings (if the film has already been released)'from the producer/director of ...' or director's namekey image

Things to think about when analysing print:

juxtaposition (of characters, images) - tells you about their relationshipangles - high, low, slantedsizing - cropping - how images are cuttypography (fonts) - how the type is written - serifs, sans serif

and

use of enigma (mystery) - narrative code - intrigue the audience'You think you know the story' ... but you don'tgenre conventions redundancy - key information missed out but made clear through other codestagline

and

wordplaypunsalliterationonomatopoeia

CATEGORIES

MEDIUM - print - still images, no sound, includes writing

FORM - film poster

PURPOSE - to grab your attention, to make you think and to convince you to go and see the film

GENRE - comedy, horror, action, romance, fantasy, drama etc.

TONE - light-hearted, unsettling, sad, uplifting, melodramatic, humorous, thrilling

STYLE - unconventional (The Dark Knight Rises, The Cabin in the Woods), conventional (Beneath the Darkness)

GENRE CONVENTIONS

FANTASY - swords, magic, wizards, strange creatures, lightning, castles

ACTION - guns, explosions, moving vehicles, long shots, movement of actors

COMEDY - curly font, funny-looking costume/make-up, light/bright/warm colours, smiles and laughing faces

CHILDREN'S - cartoons, bright primary colours, silly poses, funky fonts

HORROR - red font (connotations of blood), deformed faces, one central image, lots of dark space

DRAMA - serious or sad expressions, muted colours

WESTERN - sand, cowboy hat, horses

ROMANCE -

Film Poster Form Conventions

names of actorstaglinebold titlecreditspictures of main actors, charactersfilm companiespictures showing important plot detailsrepeating images, ideasrelease date

pathetic fallacy - weather suits the mood

CATEGORIES : UA Questions

What is the form of the text? By referring to the text, give reasons for your answer.

What is the purpose of the text? By referring to the text, give reasons for your answer.

What is the genre of the text? By referring to the text, give reasons for your answer.

What is the tone of the text? By referring to the text, give reasons for your answer.

HERO FIGURE

Aron Ralston - outdoors, adventurer, risk-takertypical - strong, takes risks, physically and mentally fit, male, white

Edward Scissorhands - protective over the princess, nice person, non-stereotypical - wears black, has weapons for hands, looks a villain

Battleship hero - hero stance: legs apart, has weapons, facing a big obstacle - looking up, centred in the posternon-stereotypical - looks small, has his back to us

Wuxia Knight - hero stance, looks straight at the audience, the word 'knight' doing battle, dressed like a martial arts warrior, low angleBUT no eyes - lights so possibly alien - harder to connect

Abraham Lincoln - centre position, has a weapon, dangerous position, on his ownBUT face completely hidden

The Island President -

LANGUAGE: UA Questions

Explain how technical and/or cultural codes are used to suggest particular meanings in the text.

Give one example of anchorage and explain how it helps you to understand the intended meaning of the text.

HIGHER

Analyse the use of Categories and Language in the text.

Unseen Analysis Preparation

AIM: to prepare for tomorrow's practice Unseen Analysis and think about how relationships are portrayed in posters

SUCCESS CRITERIA: by the end of the lesson you will:

·look at the structure of the exemplar essay·go over anchorage and technical and cultural codes·look at a key question: GENRE·anchor down a different meaning·look at different relationships in posters

HW: look at the Unseen Analysis page on the wikispace

KA: LANGUAGE

ANCHORAGE

Anchorage is used to avoid polysemy (audience confusion over lots of possible meanings). This is incredibly important in a film poster which may only be viewed for a few seconds. One meaning is anchored down by several codes.

Cultural codes: mise-en-scenesetting and propslighting and colourcostume and make-upcharacter expression and movement

Technical codes: camera anglescamera distancescroppingposition in the frameeffects - blur, dissolve etc. juxtaposition size of images

Denotation - description of codeConnotation - what the code implies

Sentence starters for writing about ANCHORAGE:

To avoid polysemy, several codes are used to anchor down the meaning that . . . One meaning that is anchored down is . . .Several codes are used to anchor down that . . .One technical code is . . .A culture code used is . . .An example of mise-en-scène is . . .This connotes . . .

TYPOGRAPHY

TIMES is a serif font. It has serifs - curly bits! Serif fonts tend to connote a more traditional style. They are good for print, especially for large sections of writing. Apparently, our brain uses the serifs to help link onto the next word, making large paragraphs easier to read.

ARIAL is a sans serif font. This means is without serifs. It connotes modernity, amongst other things. Sans serif fonts are particularly good for looking at on screen. (Serif fonts tend to get lost a bit.)

You also get script fonts, such as Viner Hand, which look closer to handwriting and suggest a more personal style.

And then there are display fonts, like Playbill, which are more suitable for titles as they are quite hard to read in large quantities. Sometimes they have particular genre connotations, such as Playbill suggesting a Western.

Font choice in film posters is always designed to catch the attention of the audience. Any font will stand out if you make it big enough. They are almost always big

and bold, even if they are a delicate serif font, so you need to think deeper about what are the connotations suggested by the particular font choice. Look out for the choice of colours and textures and outlines or shadows, the positioning of fonts, extra details added to make a simple font send a clearer message and so on.