Essay criteria

Here is the criteria for a top mark essay. In your conclusion, you need to make sure that you have referred to some of these things in your essay.

Television Comedy Research Task

Here is a good example of the research task.
Media: Sitcoms from alwebley1707: Sitcoms from alwebley1707

Television Comedy

How many different examples of television comedy can you list?  You may find there are a variety of comedy shows that appear on the schedule of British television stations. There are many celebrity panel shows, situation comedies,  and comedy stand-up shows.

Task: Do some research into these programmes, initially focusing on the situation comedies.

1. What is the title of the situation comedy? Make a list and find a marketing image for each programme.
2. What channel is the programme broadcast on? Terrestrial channels include the BBC channels, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Satellite channels include Sky, Dave etc.
3. What time is the programme scheduled to appear and has this changed as the show has become more popular? How long has the series run for?
4. Who is the target audience for the show?
5. Why do you think people watch television comedy?

Tomorrowland clips

Consider how the director ensures Casey is represented in an appealing way to the audience in these action and narrative sequences from the film. How do they meet the conventions of action adventure and show the film to be a hybrid crossover with the sci-fi genre?
Choose your own clip to include in your film analysis section in your essay. Remember to make notes before you write up your ideas under the headings:

• Camera movements
• Sound
• Editing
• Mise-en-scene

Student Voice

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Essay.

You have to write a comparison essay, using your notes about the Action Adventure films we have analysed in class. Write the title on a Word document. You are going to write your essay in controlled assessment conditions.

Compare how teenagers are represented in action adventure films The Maze Runner and Tomorrowland.

Tomorrowland - Representation Of Teenagers (Casey)

Consider the ways that teenagers are represented in Tomorrowland (this will really help with your coursework essay).
Make notes on the representation of  Casey.
Consider things such as what she wears, hairstyles, body language and attitude.
Is she a stereotypical teenager or is she more realistic (a countertype)? Explain your conclusions.
Find images that illustrate your points.
This example on The Hunger Games has the sort of detail you need.

The Hunger Games: Representation Of Teenagers

What are the codes and conventions of Action Adventure Film? (Tomorrowland)

Narrative
12/15 certificate, maximising youth audiences
Often hybridised with Sci Fi/Adventure/Romance
Major Hollywood studio produced and distributed
High production values including CGI FX. Fast paced editing
Classic Hollywood 3 act narrative structure
Predictable chain of events – cause and effect
Single stranded, linear, closed narrative
Dramatic non-diegetic sound (soundtrack music)
Clear binary oppositions (good v evil)
Star Marketing: Audience identification/expectations (Cruise/Pitt/Johnson/Thurman/Jolie/Tatum/Craig/Di Caprio)
Generic Typecasting and Secondary Persona apply (stock characters)
Romantic sub-plot, humorous dialogue
Relationships with new technology (youth audiences)
Use of close ups
Dominant representation of gender: male/female action hero.

Narrative led films contain tightly woven story arcs, where the dialogue drives the plot rather than builds character.
An action adventure film is essentially one long quest with a succession of different chase sequences, each one more death defying and seemingly impossible than the one before. The trick for the producers is to ramp up the tension as the film progresses to a storming end sequence. Will our intrepid explorers make it, or will the evil antagonist get there first.
A strong story ark of a quest for treasure, or an incredibly valuable object, or an item which has occult power.
Love interest that both hinders and supports the main quest.
A fast moving narrative with constant set backs that are overcome one by one, leading to fairly complex plots.
In many respects this genre of films derive their energy from being more exciting, more adult and much more dangerous versions of children’s stories of adventure such as Enid Blyton’s Famous Five or Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons.
Thrilling action where the protagonist saves his fellow travellers through a variety of non realistic but apparently logical escapades.

Characters and locations
These are not realistic films, although the characters must be believable. They are set in a stereotypical world of the not too distant past e.g the 1930s, or the fictional world of storybook adventures e.g. A high tech, futuristic maze.
A main protagonist who is a seen as a 'normal' person and who just happens to have amazing powers of endurance in the face of extreme danger, and is also very clever. James Bond is a Secret Service agent. Captain Jack Sparrow is at first an ordinary good for nothing pirate with incredible agility and luck, although he later takes on supernatural powers.
There are always helpers who are a team of innocent characters who happen to get caught up in the action.
Humorous dialogue often diffuses taught and sometimes frightening situations.
The characters take the twist and turns of the plot very seriously as they are often in mortal danger from an assortment of unusual animals, machines and monsters orchestrated by an evil antagonist.
Exotic locations where the characters have to contend with extremes of climate, as well as evil forces.
The aim is to please the audience by keeping them on the edge of their seats through a series of mind boggling chases, exotic locations and hair raising adventures in historically inaccurate but somehow elementally possible settings.
Action Adventure films are designed to create an action-filled, energetic experience for the audience who can live vicariously through the exotic locations, conquests, explorations, struggles and situations that confront the main characters

Task: Having read through this description of the action adventure genre (characters and locations), can you think about how this applies to Tomorrowland?



Explain your points, using the film as evidence to support your ideas.

Creating a Blog

Create your own blog to share your media work. You need to create your own blog and check that the link works on the class blog.
Upload your media products:
1. Film Posters
2. Magazines
3. Upload your research and evaluation work by using the following links.
For Powerpoint documents use SlideShare
For Microsoft Word documents use Scribd
To link your uploaded documents to your own blog, you need to share the document and find the embed code. Copy the embed code and past it to a new post on your blog as HTML. Give it a title and publish.

Preparing for the essay - Tomorrowland

Explore the film ready for writing your essay.

How are you going to show detailed and thorough knowledge of the texts studied?

Action Adventure Genre:
You need to make notes on why Tomorrowland meets the conventions of the action adventure genre. To do this consider the narrative sequences in the film alongside the main action sequences.

Narrative sequences

• Casey's background and belief in Space travel and innovation. Her link to this through her father and her rebellious streak.
• The adventure or quest to find out the truth about the pin.
• Relationships with the other two main characters
• Comedy tone

Action sequences

• The pin revealing the futuristic city
• The shop explosion
• Frank's house

Social and Cultural Message:
What could you consider about the social and cultural message behind the film? Why are Casey amd Frank supposed to be special?

Institution:
This is film is produced by Disney and is linked commercially to the Disney theme park. How does the film link with the ethos of the Disney company?

Representation:
The main protagonist is a female teenager with a sibling. Does this mean the film is only designed for a younger target audience? Her relationship with her father would appeal to teenagers as they can relate to to her life and relationships. What other rlements makes the film appeal to a broader target audience when compared with The Maze Runner?

Film analysis:
How are you going to use film terminology to explain how the film achieves all you have commented on above. You need to use the film as evidence to support your points, Use your film analysis skills to discuss the evidence confidently and in a sophisticated style,

Tomorrowland film analysis

Watch the trailer and make notes on a grid.
Remember to cover the four key areas:

• Camera Shots
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene

Using your own notes from the trailer, write a film analysis in your exercise book. Remember to use media terms and write in detail, explaining how the director has presented the film to the audience. Refer back to the analysis you did of the Maze runner.

Here is the criteria from the mark scheme for the film analysis section of the coursework.
Top marks are awarded for:

• detailed and thorough knowledge and understanding of the texts studied
• thoughtful and insightful analysis and interpretation of the texts
• very good understanding of how texts represent social and cultural messages and values, including proficient identification and interpretation of those messages and values
• very good understanding of how texts use media language and areas of representation
• very good knowledge and understanding of the codes and conventions according to generic categorisations of media texts
• accurate use of technical terms and medium-specific terminology, as appropriate
• very good understanding of the effects of techniques on texts and audiences
• confident comparison of media texts, as appropriate
• appropriate use of some examples to support points made
• personal insights and engagement with objects of study and concepts.

Tomorrowland Trailer

Original Trailer from first lesson.

Year 11 Magazine Evaluation

You need to answer the following questions in as much detail as possible. This is a very important part of this project. The evaluation is worth 30 marks, which is 25% of the final mark.

Answer each question in as much detail as possible. Add examples from all parts of your work.

1. How effective was your research into similar magazines and relevant target audiences. What did you learn from your research into these two areas? In what ways did this shape the creation of your magazine?
2. What creative decisions did you have to make at the different stages of your magazine production? How did your magazine change as your work progressed?
3. How closely does your magazine follow the forms and conventions of existing magazines? Gives examples of real magazines you reference.
4. How successful is your finished magazine? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Complete all work in Word and then add to your folder.


The best evaluations will have these things.

• There is a detailed evaluation of the monitoring of decisions and revisions.
• There is a detailed discussion of how the brief related to research into similar media texts and
target audiences.
• There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the production.
• There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
• There is excellent ability to communicate.
• There is a thorough evaluation of the success of the finished media text in meeting the original
brief.
• There is an accurate command of appropriate medium-specific terminology