Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to Media Language

Media language is the producer's way of creating meaning within a certain medium. A producer can chose to do this in a number of ways, such as through the inclusion of signs.

Saussure - Audiences can look at texts from a syntactic point of view, just describing what they see, or from a symbolic and representational point of view attributing meaning to what they see. This reinforces Stuart Hall's theory that audiences decode a text that is encoded by a producer, each of them perhaps reading it differently to suggest different meaning.

The media language in a text can be categorised into different micro-elements such as mies-en-scene, camera work, sound and editing using Semiotics. This can be applied to my A2 coursework production, the music video 'festival' .....

Incorporate throughout
Roland Barthes - Semiotics / Symbolic codes- the organisation of signs encodes particular signs and ideologies can

Semantic Codes = suggests meaning by connotation
Symbolic Codes = Acts at a wider level - symbolism (bigger picture) ra


In terms of camera work...

• use of aerial shots allow the audience to contextualise his relative size and suggest isolation
• Frequent use of high angle shots vs low angle shots (positioning himself on a hill after rescue)/ low angle shots when he finds the drums to show empowerment

Editing

• Fast pace (signifier) during climax to express the characters passion and mental state as he escapes through music (signified)
• Slow motion, (shooting in 60fps, slowing to 40% speed) also reflects this and shows his immersion

Mise en scene

• Location - desolate - reflecting context of a post apocalyptic world, no signs of human activity, implying lack of human presence
• Props - presence of bones and fire suggest he is now animalistic and working with nature to survive, blood - working to the bone - reinforcing the theme of a post-apocalyptic world
• Costume - Dirty suggests poverty, lack of substitutes
• purple smoke - connotations of empowerment 

Sound

• Talk about how the song climaxes, with its sombre tone at the start suggesting characters feeling
• Use of non-diegetic asynchronous sound (helicopter) and silence (utilised heavily by acclaimed directors such as Scorsese) when he shouts (representing) his lack of influence and the power of the rescuer
• can't hear his breath after drumming, suggesting he is still powerless 

Narrative

• Narrative driven on music (medium of escape), drums as an instrument of passion