Analyse one of your productions in relation to media language. DISCLAIMER: This is an example answer, not an exemplar!

1. Example answer for Question 1b
Critical Perspectives: Section A

2. • Q: Analyse one of your productions in relation to
media language
• Intro: Define the concept. Explain what the production
is, be detailed.
• Para 2: What are some of the key features of the
concept you are being asked to apply? Maybe outline
two of the theories/ideas of particular theorists, be
brief.
• Para 3: Start to apply the concept, making close
reference to your production to show how the concept
is evident in it.
• Para 4: Try to show ways in which ideas work in
relation to your production and also ways in which
those ideas might not apply/could be challenged.
• Para 5: Conclusion

3. Example
• Example is former student video - R1-17 I
Don't Want To See You (2008/09)
• http://youtu.be/rTV-hp4dpOg

4. • Media Language encompasses the technical
microelements used to create meaning
specific to the macro-elements of characters,
narrative and genre. It can also include the
generic conventions and visual signs and
symbols, any aspect that has, through
repetition, come to act as a sort of ‘short
hand’ for an audience. The production I will
be analyzing is the main task for my A2
Advanced Portfolio. I created a music video
for the song ‘I don’t want to see you’ by the
band Camera Obscura, a Scottish indie pop
group.

5. • Media Language is a broad term that will enable
a broad brush approach to the analysis of this
media text. Music videos are also a broad
medium and the approach we took was a
character based approach that used iconography
and mise en scene to construct a particular
impression of the central character, the artist. It
is possible for an audience to identify the genre
of this music video through the visual
iconography. Many of the visual signs were used
to create a nostalgic and quirky feel to the final
product. It is possible to apply the theory of
semiotics to the music video to get an impression
of the preferred reading we were trying to
construct.

6. • We specifically used quirky costumes to enable the viewer
to identify that the artist makes indie music. The black t-bar
shoes over knitted white tights, the long knitted hat, the
long green scarf, there was a definite ‘vintage’ feel to many
of the costumes worn by the artist, these costume details
coupled with the fuzzy degraded film effect put over the
top during post-production were specifically designed to
communicate nostalgia, and to a certain extent childhood
and innocence, to the audience. Many of the activities that
the artist carries out connote childhood and more carefree
times, things such as kicking up autumn leaves, playing
pooh sticks, dressing up etc. These all link into the lyric ‘a
woman pretending to be a girl’, Andrew Goodwin believed
that most music videos followed a structured approach,
one aspect of which was the relationship between lyrics
and visuals. The approach my video takes is an illustrative
relationship, the aforementioned lyric is the primary
illustration that is explored throughout the video.

7. • Roland Barthes theorized that the language of signs
used objects to ‘stand in’ for concepts or to infer a
deeper meaning. The origami swan on the record
player could signify the way in which the female
character is going around in circles trying to fix her
relationship. The mid shot of the artist that cuts
frequently to show her wearing different hats could
connote that she has a playful side or it could signifiy
multiple aspects of her personality, or possibly how
she is hiding behind a disguise to escape from her
current difficulties. Masks are used later on in the
video, when the male character is introduced he
interacts with the artist while she wears a mask. In
many cultures masks were used to allow people to
explore aspects of their personality that were hidden,
there is a long tradition of masquerade balls.

8. • The preferred reading of the video is that it is a
representation of that time when a girl grows up and
becomes a woman, it is about a loss of innocence and
a yearning to return to that innocence. The use of
cinematography, editing and particularly of mise en
scene constructs an impression of the character as
being very nostalgic for her own childhood as she sings
about not wanting to see her partner again. This video
uses microelements to construct a particular
impression of the artist and alongside this it uses
iconography, signs and the illustrative approach to
visuals and lyrics to communicate a clear story to the
viewer. A narrative of a woman longing for the
simplicity of childhood when you played with yo-yos,
made paper chains and climbed trees.

9. Theories used
• Semiotics
• Andrew Goodwin
• Stuart Hall – Preferred reading
• Denotation and Connotation
• How microelements inform macro-elements