Learning task 1: Analysis
Outline the unit to students
As a way of ascertaining their prior knowledge, show students the title sequence from the TV programme you intend to use in section 3 (eg ER, Frontline
or other programme with a "busy" highly constructed title sequence).
Show the sequence once to the class and ask for any general comments about what impression about the following programme we are meant to take from it.
Now, divide the class into groups and, as the sequence is re-shown, have each focus on a particular aspect of the sequence and how that contributes to our overall impression (groups could focus on: location, music/sound;characters/costumes; camera shots; colour/light; editing/transitions).
As groups' make brief report backs, introduce the idea of television as constructed reality.
TV advertisements
Students are shown a range of advertisements taken from TV. Each group is allocated one advertisement about which they provide a general analysis:
1. What product is being advertised?
2. What audience does the product target? How do you know?
3. What emotions, instincts or desires are being appealed to? (fear? sex? wealth? security? health? popularity? vanity?)
4. What are the main ways the advertisement uses to convey those emotions? pictures? music? acting?
5. Can your group identify any specific techniques (eg. camera work, editing and pace, use of music, background, costume, special effects, voice-over) used in the advertisement? Are you able to say why these techniques have been used?
6. If you were a television programme scheduler which TV programme would you want to run this advertisement with? Why?
7. Is this an example of a fair advertisement? Why or why not? Consider:
* Who is represented in the advertisement? Who is not represented who perhaps should be?
* What are the people doing? Do you think they are stereotyped in any way?
* Does the advertisement put any groups under pressure to act in a certain way?
Look closer
Now look more closely at a teacher-selected TV advertisement (the more sophisticated and textually rich, the more useful it will be for this exercise). Watch the advertisement a few times then complete the TV Advertisement Group Analysis:
The aim of this lesson is to equip you with the strategies to analyse the ways the makers of TV advertisements construct advertisements to create a particular feeling toward their product using a variety of techniques.
Form groups of 2-3. Each group will be allocated one of the following areas to focus on very closely and report results back to the class. Watch the advert once. As a group decide on:
- The target audience
- The feeling or mood of the advert.
Now watch the advert, again concentrating on your allocated aspect. Whatever features you report back to the class must be explained in terms of the mood the feature helps create and/or how it helps target the audience. In other words you must be prepared to discuss the effect of the features you mention.
GROUP 1 - SHOTS AND ANGLES
* What kinds of shot are most common (eg. close-ups of faces, mid-shots from waist up, long shots from head-to-toe, long long shots of distant things or people?) Why?
* Is there any use of high angles (looking down on the subject) or low angles (looking up to the subject)? Why?
* Is zoom used? When and why?
GROUP 2 - SOUND AND MUSIC
* How would you describe the music? How does it work to create a mood/target an audience? What is the pace of the music? Does the pace change? Why?
* What about the words of the song - what effect do they have on the audience?
GROUP 3 - EDITING (how it is put together)
* Count the number of cuts in the advert (changes of shot). How many cuts per second? What is the effect of this?
* Does the pace of the cuts change? When and why?
* Look for contrast (different people or things placed close together in the advert) for effect.
GROUP 4 - SPECIAL EFFECTS, SYMBOLS, LOGO AND COLOUR
* Are any special effects used? When and why?
* What colour(s) dominate the advert? Why this colour?
* Is there a logo? How is it presented?
GROUP 5 - PEOPLE AND ACTION
* List all of the different types of people in the advert. (young, old, formal, casual, Maori, pakeha etc.) Is there a greater representation of one group? Why?
* What sorts of things are people doing? Why these actions?
GROUP 6 - GENERAL
* Is this a narrative advert (telling a story) or is it meant to simply give us an impression of the product?
* Can you tell where the advert has been made? How?
It is useful for both teacher and students to have a shared metalanguage with which to discuss the film to help students understand the language of film.
Credit sequence
View the credit sequence from a popular television programme eg. Frontline, an Australian satire on current affairs television. Complete the analysis of the title sequence:
(NB Media Studies or English teachers wishing to use this excellent programme for more advanced study should read the article Critical Thinking: Using Frontline
from the Australian Association for the Teaching of English). NB this approach would apply equally well to other title sequences.
Part A
In this section the teacher ascertains students' initial reaction to the sequence and gathers data for a more informed reading.
Show the sequence a couple of times uninterrupted.
Brainstorm onto the board all the words students come up with to describe the effect/feeling they get the sequence (eg. at this stage you might expect "excitement", "tension", "action", "current", etc.). Try to arrive at a consensus on the two or three words which best describe the sequence.
Then allocate to individuals or groups the responsibility for gathering data for an analysis of particular aspects of the construction of the sequence. In brackets after each aspect are some of the responses students might come up with.
Group A - Shots
Look at the type of shots used (mostly close-ups, especially at the beginning but more use of mid and long shots as we get to the point of Mike Moore (the presenter) introducing Frontline.
Group B - Shots
List the things which are the subject of the close-ups (often hands or fingers manipulating hi-tech equipment but also manipulating other things in a fairly effortless manner; cameras and other studio equipment; autocue screen).
Group C - People
Who is the only person we see during this whole sequence? (the presenter -towards the end plus faceless studio assistants)
What are the people doing (Mike Moore is being made up and then assisted into his presenter's seat).
What is our final image of Mike Moore as the show opens (a slow zoom to a close-up of him).
Group D - Editing
Time the sequence and count the number of cuts (shot changes in the sequence). How often are we presented with a new image (once every XXXX)
Can you describe any shots which have movements within them - eg the subjects move or the camera is moving in a pan or tilt (there are a number of these).
As Mike Moore prepares to take his seat what else do we see (intercuts of the video tapes rolling).
Group E - Sound
Come up with a list of adjectives to describe the music (fast, strident, action packed, important, tense, repetitive).
What other sounds and voices do we hear?
Group F - Special Effects
After the programme introduction we are presented with a series of images of world events? What are they framed in?
Part B
Now that students have the analytical raw material it is useful to see if their initial impressions have changed eg. by asking:
- Brainstorming onto the board a new list of words to describe the impact of the sequence (this will include some of the original list but by this stage, perhaps with some guided questioning, we might also expect words like "made-up" "manufactured" "fabricated" "created" "built". However if the words don't come from brainstorming the teacher could move straight to 2.)
Students now watch the sequence again and use the raw material they have gathered to demonstrate that an important reading of the sequence is the "constructedness" or "made-up" quality of television, including current affairs and news television. Some of the answers they might come up with are included in brackets.
Group A and Group B - Shots
The use of close-ups, especially of hands and fingers manipulating hi-tech equipment gives a sense of the ease of manipulation of information.
Group C People
The fact that we don't see any people attached to the hands provides a sense of the faceless people who "make" the news for us. The only time we see a whole person is towards the end - when the construction has already taken place. He is simply there as a front-person, carefully stage-managed by faceless assistants who guide him to his seat in front of the auto-cue. Our final view of Moore is a slow zoom to a close up as he introduces the programme with "sincerity" and "authority".
Group D - Editing
There are 25 frames per second and even within those shots there is often panning, tilting or people moving. This all gives a sense of breathless action which lends weight to the "reality" of the construction. As Mike Moore prepares to face his audience the intercuts of the tapes rolling communicate that whatever is coming has been carefully pre-packaged.
Group E - Sound
As with the fast paced editing the repetitive, fast and dramatic music helps establish the authority of the construction as it reminds us of the music we are so used to in this genre. The ambient sounds and faceless voices help establish the "reality" and sense of focused action but the voices, like the hands belong to the faceless creators of the news.
Group F - Special Effects
The images of world events are framed inside a circle which we discover in the O in Frontline.
Readings of this could include:
* the world can only come to us through Frontline
* the world is presented to us through the Frontline "prism"
* the only view of the world we get is that brought to us from Frontline.
By this stage students should have the analytical framework and metalanguage necessary to analyse a sequence from a programme with which they are more familiar. In small groups students choose a programme popular with their age group, record a sequence from the programme, then present it to the class as mini seminar:
Record a sequence from a programme popular with people in your age group. Allocate roles within your group so that the following responsibilities are covered:
1) A general introduction to the programme which:
- places the programme in a genre (eg. crime, soap, sitcom etc.)
- talks about the specific situation upon which this programme is based (eg. crime programme focusing on the personal and professional dilemmas of the policemen and women involved).
- the recurring themes which arise in the programme (eg. the harshness of the inner city)
- the plot outline of the episode your group is focusing on
- where the particular sequence for analysis fits into the story-line.
2) An analysis which:
- discusses the target audience for the programme and your group's evidence for picking that target audience (eg. storyline and preoccupation, dialogue, music, themes, scheduling, products advertised the programme breaks and before and after the programme).
3) A specific analysis of the scene you are presenting in which:
- the sequence is played to the class
- the main mood/atmosphere of the scene is identified
- the way that mood/atmosphere is achieved is discussed by using examples from the sequence of how acting and dialogue, camera shot, editing, costume, background setting lighting and colour, music, special effects all contribute to establishing that mood or atmosphere.
