GCSE XMAS TASK: ADVERTISING ANALYSIS

Find 2 colour adverts, at least A5 in size.
Using the sheet “ How to read any AD” to help with planning and structure, write an analysis of both adverts.
Your final version should be between one and a half and three side of A4
Title: Final Advertising Task: module one
         Sub-headings: Advert one

                              Advert two

The adverts must be handed in with the analysis.
Work to be handed in on Monday, Jan 12th.

Here's another celebrity and the tabloid press essay. This one was given full marks by the examiners!

1. Attempt a similar analysis using ONE article on a celebrity taken from a national tabloid of your choice. You may use the photocopied Daily Mirror article on Michael Jackson's acquittal if you wish.

TASK ONE

Using the five areas of study, do an analysis of the first few minutes of Die Hard. Remember, when analysing a film sequence, you will receive little credit for the ability to merely identify the following techniques. Rather, you should be concentrating on their function or effect within the sequence. What meanings do they create for the audience?

Techniques for Study:

· Camera Angle, Shot, Movement and Position.

· Editing

· Sound

· Special Effects

· Mise-en-Scène

Clicking on this cover links to Die Hard stills.


Clicking on this cover links to Terminator stills.

The following notes were taken by the class on the FIVE AREAS OF STUDY in the above Terminator sequence.

You might also find the following DIE HARD SUMMARY useful. The Action/Adventure Cliche list is both amusing and it might also offer some insight into the function of the filmic techniques used.

To answer this question, you could focus on how male and female magazines arguably offer a "template for gendered living" - showing how these male and female 'templates' differ, and looking at their unrealistic aspects.

The following article: A Semiotic Analysis of Teenage Magazine Front Covers by Sian Davies, may be useful.

You should also use a range of Audience Viewing Theories, such as the Hypodermic Model, and the Uses and Gratification Model, in your response.

Alternatively, you could also explore how the link between magazine funding and advertising influences the content. (Remember the argument, that women's magazines in particular "trade on a sense of lack." In other words, in order to encourage their readers to buy the products advertised in the magazines, it is essential to create a sense of inadequacy in the reader which only the advertised product will alleviate.)

TASK ONE: A2 Essay Title:
Analyse the function of the opening credits of at least two soap operas.

TASK TWO: A2 Essay Title:
Arguably, Soap Opera is an evolving genre, and any attempt to understand the popularity of the medium must look at the way that the traditional generic conventions of Soaps have been adapted to suit a more broadcast audience, accustomed to filmic production values.

In the light of the above comment, analyse one or two Soap Operas in detail, looking at how they reinforce or subvert traditional generic conventions.

In your answer, you may choose to focus on a single episode, or look more broadly at a series of episodes and a range of programmes. You might find it useful to examine the Essay Plan for this question before you begin.

Notes on Soap Audiences

TASK THREE: A2 Essay Titles for over Christmas: Choose ONEof the following titles:

1. What strategies are used by soaps to sustain their popularity?
2. How do soaps represent particulare social groups?
3. What is the relationship between soap opera and other media?
4. How is realism constructed in soaps?

· Write a list of aspects of the film that you both think appeal to an audience and made it successful

· Write down the names of 3 other films that share those aspects. Were they successful films?

· You now have a recipe for a successful film. Write a 100-200 word plot summary for a new film of your own that follows the recipe.

At the end of this task - next lesson - you will present your findings to the rest of the class.

A2 Essay Title One: Using "Public Enemy" and "Bullets or Ballots" examine in detail how early gangster films establish the conventions of the genre.

A2 Essay Title Two: Using at least two films, examine how modern gangster films develop or alter the conventions established in the 1930s. Deadline: Wednesday, 15th December, 2004.

A2 Essay Title Three:What aspects of a film determine that it belongs to the horror genre. Refer to films studied. For Mon Feb 9th

Aljazeera: Arab News Network

Saddam's Statue: What really happened when it was pulled down! (According to Aljazeera, anyway.)

redhotcurry.com :News for the British Asian Community.

BBC Asian Network: The website for Radio Asia, where you can listen to the latest News Bulletins.

A2 Task Two: "It is naïve to believe that television and/or radio news is "a window on the world." It is as much a result of selection and construction as a work of fiction."

Referring to specific examples, show the extent to which this statement is justified. [30]

ESSENTIAL READING: Richard Armstrong's article on the TV News coverage of the Iraq War:
A Window and a Weapon.

Terms Relating to News and News Journalism

Sample Essay Plan which uses the Delimar Vera story as well as a range of other examples.


A2 Task Three: Compare and contrast the mise-en-scene of three different news programmes. The following site will be usuful for ITV's 'Theatre of News' approach:

THEATRE OF NEWS LAUNCH.