nelson film television · genres and codes and conventions character15 camera codes and conventions...

NELSON

FILM, TELEVISION &NEWMEDI

COLIN STEWART

KYLIE AGNEW

MATTHEW BEATTIE

AIMEE GUST

DARREN SINCLAIR

QCEUNITS1 – 4

FilmTelevisionNewMedia_CVR_final.indd 1 13/3/18 9:17 am00_ftnm_sb_23601_txt.indd 1 10/6/18 1:44 AM

Film, Television and New Media for QLD

1st Edition

Colin Stewart

Adam Kowaltzke

Kylie Agnew

Matthew Beattie

Aimee Gust

Darren Sinclair

ISBN 9780170423601

Publishers: Lizzie Allmand and Rachel Ford

Project editor: Robyn Beaver

Copy editor: Monica Schaak

Text design: Jennai Lee Fai (Jenki)

Cover design: Leigh Ashforth (Watershed Art & Design)

Cover image: Getty Images/Sean Liew Photography

Project designer: James Steer

Permissions researcher: Wendy Duncan

Production controller: Renee Tome

Typesetter: Q2A Media

Any URLs contained in this publication were checked for currency during the

production process. Note, however, that the publisher cannot vouch for the

ongoing currency of URLs.

Acknowledgements

Film, Television & New Media 2019 v1.2 General Senior Syllabus © Queensland

Curriculum & Assessment Authority.

This syllabus forms part of a new senior assessment and tertiary entrance system

in Queensland. Along with other senior syllabuses, it is still being refined in

preparation for implementation in schools from 2019. For the most current

syllabus versions and curriculum information please refer to the QCAA website

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au

© 2018 Colin Stewart, Adam Kowaltzke, Kylie Agnew, Matthew Beattie, Aimee

Gust, Darren Sinclair

Copyright Notice

This Work is copyright. No part of this Work may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior

written permission of the Publisher. Except as permitted under the

Copyright Act 1968, for example any fair dealing for the purposes of private study,

research, criticism or review, subject to certain limitations. These limitations

include: Restricting the copying to a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this

book, whichever is greater; providing an appropriate notice and warning with the

copies of the Work disseminated; taking all reasonable steps to limit access to

these copies to people authorised to receive these copies; ensuring you hold the

appropriate Licences issued by the Copyright Agency Limited (“CAL”), supply a

remuneration notice to CAL and pay any required fees. For details of CAL licences

and remuneration notices please contact CAL at Level 11, 66 Goulburn Street,

Sydney NSW 2000, Tel: (02) 9394 7600, Fax: (02) 9394 7601

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.copyright.com.au

For product information and technology assistance,

in Australia call 1300 790 853;

in New Zealand call 0800 449 725

For permission to use material from this text or product, please email

[email protected]

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of

Australia.

Cengage Learning Australia

Level 7, 80 Dorcas Street

South Melbourne, Victoria Australia 3205

Cengage Learning New Zealand

Unit 4B Rosedale Office Park

331 Rosedale Road, Albany, North Shore 0632, NZ

For learning solutions, visit cengage.com.au

Printed in China by China Translation & Printing Services.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 22 21 20 19 18

00_ftnm_sb_23601_txt.indd 2 10/6/18 1:44 AM

iii

9780170423601

CONTENTSPreface v

About the authors vi

How to use this book vii

1 INTRODUCTION TO FILM, TELEVISION & NEW MEDIA 1

What is meant by ‘moving-image media’? 2

UNIT 1: FOUNDATION 9

2 LANGUAGE CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF MOVING-IMAGE MEDIA 10

About language codes and conventions 11

Genres and codes and conventions 15

Camera codes and conventions 18

Mise en scène 32

Editing codes and conventions 38

Sound codes and conventions 45

Music in moving-image media 49

New media codes and conventions 52

3 INSTITUTIONS AND MOVING-IMAGE MEDIA 55

About media institutions 56

Global media organisations 59

Regulation of the media 63

4 TECHNOLOGIES OF THE MOVING-IMAGE MEDIA 69

About technology 70

Evolution of technology and audience engagement 72

Technologies and the medium 80

5 MAKING AND RESPONDING – FOUNDATION 87

Part A: Production – the basics 88

Part B: Producing film trailers 114

Part C: Producing music videos 117

Part D: Film reviews 121

UNIT 2: STORY FORMS 124

6 LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS IN MOVING- IMAGE MEDIA STORIES 125

About story 126

Cause and effect 128

Three-act structure 131

Point of view in stories 139

Character 142

Setting 148

Multiple story lines 150

Structuring time 151

Digital games and story 155

Digital games and movies 157

7 AUDIENCES AND MOVING-IMAGE MEDIA STORIES 159

About audience engagement 160

Audience expectation 164

Audiences and different platforms and contexts of reception 167

Ways audiences ‘read’ texts 172

8 REPRESENTATIONS IN MOVING-IMAGE MEDIA STORIES 177

About representation 178

Realism and representations 183

Representation and real life 185

Representation of gender 187

9 MAKING AND RESPONDING – STORY FORMS 194

Part A: Production – for story 195

Part B: Producing genre stories 214

Part C: Australian stories on film 226

Film, Television and New Media for QLD

1st Edition

Colin Stewart

Adam Kowaltzke

Kylie Agnew

Matthew Beattie

Aimee Gust

Darren Sinclair

ISBN 9780170423601

Publishers: Lizzie Allmand and Rachel Ford

Project editor: Robyn Beaver

Copy editor: Monica Schaak

Text design: Jennai Lee Fai (Jenki)

Cover design: Leigh Ashforth (Watershed Art & Design)

Cover image: Getty Images/Sean Liew Photography

Project designer: James Steer

Permissions researcher: Wendy Duncan

Production controller: Renee Tome

Typesetter: Q2A Media

Any URLs contained in this publication were checked for currency during the

production process. Note, however, that the publisher cannot vouch for the

ongoing currency of URLs.

Acknowledgements

Film, Television & New Media 2019 v1.2 General Senior Syllabus © Queensland

Curriculum & Assessment Authority.

This syllabus forms part of a new senior assessment and tertiary entrance system

in Queensland. Along with other senior syllabuses, it is still being refined in

preparation for implementation in schools from 2019. For the most current

syllabus versions and curriculum information please refer to the QCAA website

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au

© 2018 Colin Stewart, Adam Kowaltzke, Kylie Agnew, Matthew Beattie, Aimee

Gust, Darren Sinclair

Copyright Notice

This Work is copyright. No part of this Work may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior

written permission of the Publisher. Except as permitted under the

Copyright Act 1968, for example any fair dealing for the purposes of private study,

research, criticism or review, subject to certain limitations. These limitations

include: Restricting the copying to a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this

book, whichever is greater; providing an appropriate notice and warning with the

copies of the Work disseminated; taking all reasonable steps to limit access to

these copies to people authorised to receive these copies; ensuring you hold the

appropriate Licences issued by the Copyright Agency Limited (“CAL”), supply a

remuneration notice to CAL and pay any required fees. For details of CAL licences

and remuneration notices please contact CAL at Level 11, 66 Goulburn Street,

Sydney NSW 2000, Tel: (02) 9394 7600, Fax: (02) 9394 7601

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.copyright.com.au

For product information and technology assistance,

in Australia call 1300 790 853;

in New Zealand call 0800 449 725

For permission to use material from this text or product, please email

[email protected]

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of

Australia.

Cengage Learning Australia

Level 7, 80 Dorcas Street

South Melbourne, Victoria Australia 3205

Cengage Learning New Zealand

Unit 4B Rosedale Office Park

331 Rosedale Road, Albany, North Shore 0632, NZ

For learning solutions, visit cengage.com.au

Printed in China by China Translation & Printing Services.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 22 21 20 19 18


CONTENTSiv

9780170423601

Glossary 441

Index 452

UNIT 4: IDENTITY 328

14 REPRESENTATIONS AND IDENTITY 329

Introduction to identity 330

Expressive film movements 335

Documentary film movements 339

Cult films 345

Auteurs 349

15 LANGUAGES AND IDENTITY 354

Expressive productions and media artists 355

Creating expressive moving-image media artworks 365

Documentary productions and media artists 367

World cinema 371

16 TECHNOLOGIES AND IDENTITY 387

Narrative film movements and technologies 388

Directors and technologies 399

17 MAKING AND RESPONDING – IDENTITY 404

Part A: Ideas for stylistic film 405

Part B: Production for stylistic film 413

Part C: Writing reflective statements for stylistic film 433

UNIT 3: PARTICIPATION 237

10 TECHNOLOGIES AND PARTICIPATION 238

Technology and participation 239

Platforms and participation 242

Interactivity 251

Technologies and contexts 254

11 AUDIENCES AND PARTICIPATION 259

How contexts and purposes affect participation 260

Uses and gratifications theory 263

Fans and participation 266

Audiences and participation in multi-platform media 270

Audience participation – individuals and groups 273

Emerging interactive moving-image media 276

12 INSTITUTIONS AND PARTICIPATION 283

Institutions and the economic context 284

Public and private media organisations 286

Australian television organisations 288

Big data and media institutions 292

Citizen journalism 297

Barriers to participation 300

13 MAKING AND RESPONDING – PARTICIPATION 303

Part A: Production – for multi-platform 304

Part B: Making pilot productions 311

Part C: Writing case studies 317


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ABOUT THE AUTHORSDr Colin Stewart is Head of Department Visual Arts and Media at Kenmore State High School. He has taught senior secondary Film, Television and New Media and related junior media subjects for more than 30 years, and tutored pre-service media teachers at two universities. Colin has a doctorate in media curriculum, and has been involved in media syllabus development and curriculum writing at state and national levels for more than 20 years, including for the 2019 FTVNM syllabus.

Kylie Agnew is currently a QCAA panellist and senior Film, Television and New Media teacher at Mansfield State High School. She has taught in regional and metropolitan areas, and has been involved in curriculum resource development for the Australian Curriculum: Media Arts strand. Kylie has also acted in a curriculum advisory role in the development of the 2019 FTVNM syllabus.

Matthew Beattie is senior Film, Television and New Media teacher at Indooroopilly State High School. He has worked in various roles in the media industry for almost 20 years including film criticism, content production, and editing, advertising and motion graphics design. He is currently studying a master’s degree in Film and has also been a presenter at Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) conferences on numerous occasions.

Aimee Gust is acting Head of Department – The Arts at Brisbane State High School, District Panel Chair for Film, Television and New Media, and an executive member of ATOM Queensland. She has been involved in several curriculum writing teams, including for the 2019 FTVNM syllabus.

Darren Sinclair is senior Film, Television and New Media teacher at Kenmore State High School, bringing industry experience from documentary and feature film, television series, advertisement, education and corporate productions, along with freelance experience in camera, sound, editing and set construction.

AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe authors would like to thank their families and friends for their help and support during the writing process and all that it entailed. The incremental learning from colleagues in Media Studies, other disciplines and past careers is also gratefully acknowledged as contributing to the knowledge base we have attempted to share with others. As authors, we want to thank the Cengage staff involved in the project for enabling us to publish this book as a compilation of the most relevant content for the implementation of the Film, Television and New Media syllabus. Thanks to them, we can deliver that content to our students. To our current and future peers in the statewide ‘media faculty’, we thank you for meeting the challenge of media literacy for the wider population at a time when global economics, democracy, and the value of individual thought may depend on it.


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HOW TO USE THIS BOOKNelson Film Television and New Media is a complete, two-year course book written specifically for the QCAA Film, Television and New Media syllabus. It is the first textbook specifically written for the Queensland Film, Television and New Media syllabus. This authoritative text delivers content knowledge for deep understanding and skill building for students who wish to learn about the key concepts of both production and theory.

The highly visual text has been written by an experienced team of teachers who have been involved in every stage of Film, Television and New Media curriculum and assessment. All syllabus unit subject matter, objectives and cognitions, and key concepts are matched and addressed in detail throughout the text. Comprehensive, yet flexible in design, the text is suitable for a variety of individual school teaching plans.

StructureChapter opening imagesThe chapter opening images help to navigate the students through the text. Teachers can use the images as stimulus for class discussion and pre-testing of knowledge and understanding. Each chapter heading refers to the key concept that is foregrounded within each unit.

Within the textThe content has been broken into manageable chunks of information for students and comprehensively covers the syllabus unit subject matter. This suits a variety of teaching and learning styles, but in particular the ‘chunk and chew’ approach, shared in-class reading and independent exploration via the flipped classroom approach. Important information and relevant quotes feature in breakout boxes. Icons on the page indicate a weblink (as a hot spot in the NelsonNet book and on the weblinks page on NelsonNet).

9780170423601

8Representations in moving-image media stories

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In the past 30 years there have been big changes in the media depictions of both men and women. A post-modern kind of feminism called third-wave feminism is a strong influence.

Thelma & Louise (1991) cast two women in the leading roles as fugitives in the traditional road-trip movie genre – the villain in the story being sexism. This had not been seen before. From the 1990s, films such as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) cast women in leading roles in action movies. On television, crime dramas such as Law & Order (1990–2010) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–15) have both male and female leads.

A content analysis of magazines has found that women’s bodies are still more often objectified than men’s and more often shown as body parts. A recent analysis of prime-time television has found only 3 per cent of women were portrayed as housewives during prime time. Direct comparisons are not available, but in the 1970s 30 per cent of women were portrayed as housewives in daytime television.

In a 1995 content analysis of British television ads, men were shown for the first time cooking more often than women. Following a backlash from female consumers, advertisers were reluctant to

‘It could be said that in the 1990s, to a certain extent, program makers arrived at comfortable, not-particularly-offensive models of masculinity and femininity, which a majority of the public seemed to think were acceptable.’

David Gauntlett, Professor of Media and Communications, University of Westminster

show women doing housework. Only 7 per cent of ads showed women cleaning. However, many other aspects of gender representation were unchanged. Women were nearly always young and attractive. Only 10 per cent were aged over 40. Men were still more likely to be in paid employment.

A study by Jim Macnamara of the University of Western Sydney found that in the 2000s, 69 per cent of representations of males were unfavourable compared with just 12 per cent being favourable. When men were represented positively, it was often because they had ‘embraced their feminine side’, says Dr Macnamara.

Male and female stereotypesMale stereotypesThe following male stereotypes were identified in a report called Boys to Men: Media Messages about Masculinity by the Children Now organisation:• The joker. This type can be seen in movies such

as Ghostbusters (1984) or Back to the Future (1985).• The jock. Often seen in horror movies as

among the first to die, the jock demonstrates his power and strength to impress women.

8.4.1 Gender Bias without

Borders 2015 report

8.4.2 Boys to

Men: Media Messages

about Masculinity

Table 8.3 Upward trend in women’s share of prime-time TV characters in the 1970s and 1980s

YEAR PERCENTAGE

1971 18.3

1974 27.8

1987 35.0

Men’s representations also began to change after nearly 60 years of very narrowly limited depictions. The film Three Men and a Baby (1987) showed men in nurturing roles. Some action-movie heroes seemed to show greater sensitivity as well. But hyper-masculine action heroes such as Rambo also appeared in the 1980s.

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Figure 8.11 The character of Ripley in Alien (1979) and its sequel Aliens (1986) marked a turning point for the representation of women in film. As the protagonist of the films, and a fearless warrior, Sigourney Weaver’s character battled on an equal basis with the men. Ripley set a trend for female characters in science-fiction films that followed.

1990s–2020s



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End of section activitiesMarzano’s cognitions and the syllabus underpinning factors are structured into the student activities. Each activity is based around one of the key cognitions used in the syllabus. The activity sentence stem begins with the cognitive verb. The activity then pushes students to explore the full potential of the cognition by taking them through the enabling aspects of the cognition and key supporting concepts as listed in the syllabus. Each activity is also designed to reflect the syllabus underpinning factors of literacy, numeracy and the 21st-century skills (such as collaboration or critical thinking).

The activities sections take two approaches to supporting students in acquiring and developing the knowledge and skills they will need to be successful in Film, Television and New Media.

The ‘vertical’ approach moves students along the question and the cognition. In this approach, the cognitive verbs are stacked vertically as separate skills to be developed through a task that has several independent components. Enabling aspects and key supporting concepts are identified in brown. This ensures students explore all aspects of the cognition.

The ‘horizontal’ approach, usually in a table, moves students in a logical progression across the page. The cognitive verbs are interrelated in a developmental way to the core task of the activity. Students perform developmental cognitive tasks on the same ‘umbrella’ concept. As with the vertical approach, enabling aspects and key supporting concepts are identified in brown, ensuring the cognition is fully explored.

CHAPTER 8: REPRESENTATIONS IN MOVING-IMAGE MEDIA STORIES 179

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with the lawyer hero, for example, but will ask us only to recognise the law-breaking young thugs.

• The media make categories of people, events or ideas. Categories include labels such as ‘the unemployed’, ‘the aged’ or ‘businessmen’. The war in Iraq, for example, becomes ‘another Vietnam’. Representations are generalisations about categories and why events, ideas or people belong in them. These categories then become part of our thinking processes.

• Representations contain a point of view. The meaning in a representation will be selected and constructed, already containing built-in value judgements. All representations contain the point of view of the people who made them.

• Representations have a mode of address. Hidden behind the apparent naturalness of the representation will be some assumptions about who you are. For example, a news item about youth may address you in a manner that assumes you are a middle-aged businessperson rather than a young person.

Selection, construction and omissionRepresentations are presented to an audience after a process of selection, construction and omission. Selection of some elements over others means that only certain aspects of the chosen actuality are depicted. Omission of other elements means that different sides of the story are not presented. Omissions are sometimes referred to as ‘silences’. It is the choice of the people producing the representation whether or not to leave out certain elements. Often they do this because those elements do not support the point of view they want to convey.

• individual people as characters (such as the US president in the 1996 film Independence Day)

• social groups (such as age groups, gender groups or racial groups)

• institutions or organisations (such as the government)

• ideas (such as law and order or unemployment)• events (such as European settlement of Australia

or the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001).A representation can be a single image, a

sequence of images or a whole program, written words, spoken words or song lyrics.

How representations workRepresentations invite audiences to understand them and agree with them in certain preferred ways. However, depending on the audience, different interpretations are to some extent possible.

Representations work in the following ways:• A representation consists of repeated

elements. The more we see these elements repeated, the more the representation will appear to be natural or normal.

• We are invited either to identify with or to recognise the representation. Producers of the media representation may have a view of the world that is similar to our own. If their representation fits in with our view of who we are, we may choose to identify with it. This happens, for example, when a movie invites us to imagine ourselves in the role of an appealing character. On the other hand, the producers may see a person, idea or event as somehow foreign or different from them. We will then be invited to recognise the representation from our own experience. A program might invite us to identify

Figure 8.2 (a) The representation in this image of a family from the 1950s suggests the woman’s place is in the home. The man’s role is to provide financially and allows a minimum of involvement in family life. (b) A 1990s image of a family includes the father within the family circle and suggests through body language and clothing that the mother is an equal partner in all things, probably including employment. However, the family is still represented as a conventional nuclear family. (c) This modern image of a family suggests that single parenthood may be a likelihood, while maintaining the possibility that the rest of the family is elsewhere in the house. The portrayal of the father as a potential single parent is an innovation on the typical portrayal of a woman as the single parent.

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1 Use the Bechdel test to assess some of the top films released this year. Respond to the areas of investigation in the table below.

ANALYSE APPRAISE EXPLAIN

Analyse the films, dissecting and interpreting the speaking roles to evaluate them using the Bechdel criteria.Make a judgement as to whether or not the films pass the test – and whether they pass the test fully or pass just some or none of the criteria.

Appraise the films according to whether they have worth independent of the Bechdel test, and whether women still play significant roles on-screen or in production.

Explain the reasons for your decisions, giving additional information that demonstrates the process you went through, and illustrate with examples.

2 Try conducting a ‘reverse Bechdel test’ in relation to the portrayal of males in films, television programs and video games. Analyse current movies, but also consider the following movies as possibilities: Psycho (1960), The Terminator (1984), About Last Night (2014) and Juno (2007). Appraise the worth of the Bechdel test as a tool that can work in a variety of situations by systematically examining its applicability.

3 Construct a collage charting changes in either the male action hero character in films or the representation of the housewife/mother figure in advertising. You will need samples from each of the key eras of media development: the pre-feminist, feminist and post-feminist eras.Explain the changes in labels attached to the collage, giving additional information about each stage.

4 Choose one of the following topics and discuss it in pairs.• Has the advertising industry overreacted in its portrayal of men? Consider representations of men in

the kitchen, men as sex objects and men portrayed in beer ads.• To what extent has the exploitation of women’s bodies in advertising decreased since the pre-feminist

era? Or has it become worse? Explain your viewpoint to your partner, clarifying your perspective with additional information and specific examples. Present the outcome of your discussion to the class.

5 Write a report on the representation of gender in a specific medium of your choice, such as television, film or new media. Explain the representations you have chosen, identifying key features and recognising the qualities that each of them has. Analyse how each of the representations operates, breaking them down into constituent parts and separating out the codes and conventions used. Interpret the connotations of each part of the representation. Appraise the status of the representation by collecting real-world statistics to compare actuality with the media representation. Draw conclusions about the accuracy and worth of the representation. Synthesise an edited montage of the representation of males and females over time, using imagery from a collection of movies, and solving conceptual, creative or technical problems as they arise. Scan DVD covers, create movie stills using a capture program or download images to build the moving-image media production.

8.4 ACTIVITIES


Key concepts and subject matterChapters are based around the five key concepts of the Film, Television and New Media syllabus and they cover all the required subject matter in each unit of the syllabus. The key concept approach enhances flexibility and allows the textbook to provide suitable content for a wide range of individual school programs. It also allows for easier access by students when they are studying by themselves.

Images as a learning channelNelson Film, Television and New Media features a range of up-to-date and relevant images. Each image is accompanied by an extended caption that provides the students with additional information to enhance and deepen their learning experience.


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Making and responding The ‘Making and responding’ sections address student assessment outcomes. These sections are designed to provide students with the practical information they need to complete formative and summative assessment tasks. Information about both written, pre-production and production tasks is provided.

Using the book for exam study The exams can be a stressful time for Year 12 students. Doing well in an exam depends on several attributes:• having good subject understandings within the five key concepts• being able to flexibly apply those understandings in processes related to unseen exam questions• developing good organisational skills• enhancing memory skills through spaced repetition.

This textbook provides a comprehensive subject knowledge and helps to develop skills in each of the syllabus objectives. It is ideal for private study.

NelsonNetNelsonNet is a protected portal to the premium digital resources for Nelson textbooks located at www.nelsonnet.com.au. Once your registration is complete, you will have access to digital content to supplement and complement each chapter, including activity sheets and weblinks. Icons in your NelsonNetBook will link you to these resources.

Teachers will have access to these resources plus teaching programs in Word and PDF formats, stimulus material for helping students develop their work and a PDF version of the student book.

DisclaimerPlease note that complimentary access to NelsonNet and the NelsonNetBook is only available to teachers who use the accompanying student book as a core educational resource in their classroom. Contact your Education Consultant for information about access codes and conditions.


nelson film television · genres and codes and conventions character15 camera codes and conventions...

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