TV DRAMA: COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN

You have before you a paper copy of a real student exam script on this question. In class today, read the script and make judgements on why this student achieved such high marks.

This should support your own exam responses. We will also go through real student Section B exam responses on the film industry, again, to scaffold your own good practice. The two essay questions are on convergence and synergy as well as on audiences..

QUESTION: Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only.

1   Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations using the following:

  • Camera shots, angles, movement and composition

  • Editing

  • Sound 

  • Mise-en-scène     [50]

Extract : Coming Down The Mountain Extract goes from start to 4.58 only.
June 2012 Coming Down the Mountain, Julie Anne Robinson, BBC, 2007 
In point: 19 seconds (Opening of drama after fade out from black) 
Out point: 5 minutes 17 seconds (“I had to get some space” – end sequence before scene changes from bus to party)

Coming Down The Mountain, for BBC One, is the first TV drama written by the award-winning novelist Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time), and bears his distinctive and powerful simplicity of style.

This original and poignant 90-minute film looks at the unusual relationship between two teenage brothers. The film sees through the eyes of a typical teenage boy, with a very colourful interior life.

"We're just an accident. A load of mixed-up chemicals. Change the recipe and we'd be really big potatoes with eye-tentacles... Of course, sometimes they do change the recipe and you get a brother who really is a big potato with eye-tentacles. And then you might as well talk to the dog..."

Teenager David (Nicholas Hoult - Skins, About A Boy) falls in love for the first time and life couldn't be better. The only fly in the ointment is his 17-year-old brother, Ben (Tommy Jessop), who has Down's Syndrome. The family's world revolves around Ben's needs while David's are unwittingly neglected by their parents (Neil Dudgeon - Sorted, The Street - and Julia Ford - All About George, In A Land Of Plenty).

They decide to move the family from London to "the back of beyond" for the sake of Ben's education. David loses love, friends and his school. His antipathy to Ben grows and grows to the point where he decides to push him off a mountain and get rid of him once and for all. The drama takes the two boys on a journey to the dangerous and strange wilderness of Snowdonia.

Mark Haddon says: "I began writing Coming Down The Mountain with the idea of creating a meaty role for a young actor with Down's Syndrome. It ended up as a film about the stuff of every teenager's life - love, sex, friends, school, depression, anxiety, parents, parties, siblings, mountains, murder, ice-cream, Darth Vader, nipple-rings."

Establishing shot of boys' shared room

David tries to distance himself but is always tied to Ben by duty

David vocalises his resentment forcefully

The three-shot shows that he is protective to his vulnerable brother despite his resentments.

TV DRAMA: CONSUMING PASSION

Component 2: Media Texts & Contexts

BBC's TV drama Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon offers a wide variety of representations as practice textual analysis for the Section A exam question. 

• You are given 4 pages with screenshots of key moments on the left hand side and space on the right hand side 
• As you watch the screening, identify how media language creates meaning
• 3 of the first 4 are modeled for you as examples
• 
  
  
  
  

FILM INDUSTRY REVISION: WEBSITE & TRAILER ANALYSIS

Case studies on our list: Captain Marvell, Sorry We Missed You, Bait, Roma

Today, we look at how the film trailers for each promote the film, examining the trailers in detail and making notes. PREP Complete this revision and be ready to answer questions. In class, we note that is important to read all the class blog notes on these case studies so that you can use theorists to support your essay points. Marks are are awarded for this: Analysis of how meaning is created (AO2) [5 marks]

Q.1 Take one of our case studies. Explain how its website promotes the film.

Q.2 Take a second case study. explain how its trailer promotes the film.

Captain Marvell 

Roma

Sorry We Missed You

Bait

SUGGESTED THEORISTS

You have requested a shortlist of theorists for the Media Texts and Contexts exam.

You will also no doubt recall the lesson on theorists on 8 March on this blog.

By the time you sit the exam, you will have covered a unit on Media Ecology and studied additional theorists, which will be also be relevant to your AS exam work

Theories of Media Language:

·       Semiotics: Barthes  - (denotation, connotation), representation

·       narratology, including Todorov   

..      Propp - narrative theory 

        genre theory, including Neale.

·       structuralism, including Lévi-Strauss - binary opposition

Theories of Industries:

·       power and media industries, including Curran and Seaton.

·       theories of regulation including those of Livingstone and Lunt

·       theories of cultural industries including those of Hesmondhalgh.

 

Theories of Representation:

·       theories of representation, stereotyping including Hall

·       theories of identity including Gauntlett

L      the male gaze - Laura Mulvey

·

 Theories of Industries:

·       power and media industries, including Curran and Seaton.

·       theories of regulation including those of Livingstone and Lunt

·       theories of cultural industries including those of Hesmondhalgh.

 

Shirky -

argues that ‘everybody make media and that the industry is increasingly driven by audience feedback systems'

 

 

Theories of Audience:

·       media effects, including Gauntlett

·       cultivation theory, including Gerbner

·       reception theory, including Hall - (how audiences decode texts) - active / passive audiences

·       theories of fandom, including Jenkins

·       theories of ‘end of audience’, including Shirky 

      Blumler and Katz - audiences use media to gratify needs (= democratization / active audiences) 

Henry Jenkins - participatory culture Prosumers / prosumerism 

Dan Gillmor - the audience is now the producer.  We are a nation of Netizens and prosumers

 

 

 

 

 

Paper 2 Media Texts and Contexts

Section B: Media contexts Answer one question from Section B. You should make references to at least one case study in your answer. [June 2021]

EITHER 2 Analyse the ways in which technology is changing the way we consume media. [25]

• unpack what 'consume' could include
• explain that 'we' can refer to different kinds of audiences, various situations (including current trends and forthcoming changes) and various platforms, which you will discuss as you analyse film consumption 
• make a note of how your own personal consumption could be useful in illustrating your response
  
• planning: in your notes now, write down which case case studies you could use, starting with the Hollywood majors. Aim for at least 3 studios / film companies / films
  
• next to each film, make a note of the different technologies that audiences access, keeping in mind the actual question, so that each topic sentence (sentence that starts a paragraph) is expressed relevantly
• if you start with BP or CM, you can explain the different platforms that audiences use to watch the film but also the different technologies that they use to access trailers, information about the film, social media and so on
• proceed with other case studies; you could now analyse the ways in which Roma offered a range of different audience experiences
• what is the recent news about Netflix?
  
• Loach films: how did audiences consume information about IDB and SWMY?
• you can use any case study that you wish as long as you answer the question set
• can you refer to any theorists? See the post on theorists above
  
• have you used relevant terminology like convergence?

Examiner Report

Question 2 Analyse the ways in which technology is changing the ways in which we consume media. 

The question was clearly accessible to all candidates, as most had some first-hand experience to discuss, thus eliciting a wide range of answers. Most case studies tended to focus on the film and music industry resulting in some accomplished responses. The most interesting and engaging responses were from the games industry, as they were often quite personal and well supported with detailed and relevant case study knowledge. 

The strongest responses displayed direct engagement with the question, with comprehensive evidence from case studies and a diversity of texts and institutions offered. Weaker answers were merely a personal discussion of streaming services and the closure of cinemas during the pandemic, lacking any meaningfully detailed case study support, rather than evaluating the ubiquity (or not), of consumption, and deploying a limited technical vocabulary. More confident answers were able to discuss consumption of cross platform media, including the notions of an active/passive audience, prosumerism, democratisation and interactivity. In most cases, relevant media theory was largely ignored, resulting in the lack of any informed critical debate.