Exam examples

Exam Examples

Case study 1 - Moone Boy

'Moone Boy' is a television show about a young boy who has just started secondary school and has an imaginary friend who is a much older adult.
Using dialogue and mise en scene, a general representation is formed and presented to the target audience.
At 0:44, the mise en scene displays two bullies attempt to beat up the main character Martin and give him a 'Chinese burn', a very typical thing that children threaten one another. This displays young children as argumentative, violent and as bullies, which is a negative representation of young people.
At 0:49, one of the young boys offers to help Martin but for the price of 'feeling [his] sister's boobs'. This displays that young boys are only interested in the sexual side of girls and women, which is a negative, stereotypical representation of young boys especially.
Also, the main character of Martin is represented very stereotypically as an incompetent and as someone who doesn't fit into his surroundings. This is a very typical representation of young children - often presented as 'mentally too old, physically too young.'
Adults - Imaginary friend is atypical representation. Older adult, we expect him to be someone who gives advice and wisdom but is instead very childish, at 1:20 we see the imaginary friend tell him that he needs a combination of destruction and caution. He is also wearing red high heels - something that we wouldn't expect an adult to do around a young child.
Parents - protective, typical of older generation w/ children. At 0:50 the father threatens to take things personal with anyone who bullies his son.

Case Study 2: The Inbetweeners 2


The Inbetweeners 2 is a film about a group of teenage boys on a gap year.
Age is represented in the trailer in several ways that are mostly negative. Firstly, at 0:11, the characters begin to talk about how much they purely want to just have sex whilst on the gap year. This displays young people as sex mad, which is generally a stereotype used throughout the media and is a negative portrayal.
At 0:34, there is a portrayal of young people as adventurous, we can see this through the mis en scene used where the characters are doing extreme sports. This is a fairly positive representation of young people as it displays them in a fun and youthful light.
The mise en scene at 0:37 is a large, open space that has a zip line. This suggests freedom and adventure, which adds to the representation that young people are fun and daring.
The lighting at 0:30 is particularly significant as it is high key and presents the feeling of positivity, youth and holidays, which the characters reflect within the story. This helps to create a positive representation of young people.
However at 0:16, the dialogue used contains a lot of foul language and swear words. This displays young people negatively, as it suggests that they use bad language that is almost cringeworthy.


Case Study 3: Meryl Streep 'Fairlady' magazine cover

The representation here of Meryl Streep has been created in order to suit the target audience of the magazine, 'Farilady'. This audience is women who aged between third to fifty. Because of this, the people used on the cover are usually between the same ages.
The focus is mostly on Streep's face, so a mid shot has been used to present this. The lighting is high key which suggests gentleness and purity, which adds to the representation of Streep as she is older and so is presented as 'classy.'
The main headline on the magazine supports this by labelling her as a 'class act'. This helps to create a positive light of older women as Streep displays them as classy and successful. This is a positive representation of older people as the magazine displays older women as successful and classy.

Film Magazine Article Analysis

Production Research

I studied film magazines such as Empire and Total Film in order to help decide how I wanted to create a double page spread for my own film posters.

Empire tends to choose image over article. In their double page spreads, the main image usually dominates the article. 

Space is filled using small banners containing facts and/or other little pieces of information. In other articles, the image is large enough to have the article take up the rest of the space left. Some articles also included a bold introduction paragraph. The image is also a still from the movie rather than the cover, which is something I will note. This layout appears more professional as there are less images that need to be used as enigma codes, only one needs to be used to draw in an reader. This gives the spread a less crowded look and appears more formal and official.

Magazines like Total Film use a selection of images in their double page spreads that take up the majority of the page. Much like Empire, the main image seems to spread most of the ay across both pages and the article is organised into clear columns.

Both spreads contain captions for the photographs and stills from the movies. 

Total Film contains quotes from actors that have been interviewed and enlarges them. This acts as an enigma code to draw the reader in. There is also the name of the section in the magazine in the top corner, in Total Film this is the top left and is the 'Buzz' section, and in Empire this is 'The Slate' section. There is also page dividers such as the black lines along the top and the side of the pages. The page numbers are indicated at the bottom.

The magazines have chosen the stills rom the movies because they have certain connotations. For example, the still from The Hobbit shows an image of the main character Bilbo Baggins looking frightened in a huge pile of golden coins. This has connotations of fantasy, danger and adventure which connects to the context of the film as it is a fantasy/adventure film.

The next film is Heartless, and the article describes that the character depicted is a 'demonic youth'. This image used connotes the idea of evil because he looks menacing and has an obvious physical deficiency, which is often a feature of villains in movies. 

The placement of the photos resembles a photo album. This gives the spread a more casual and informal layout as the images are oread out and scattered. The use of speech bubbles also gives a more informal aesthetic to the piece as speech bubbles are considered chatty and casual.

Using this, I will ensure that I include these typical features of the magazine articles in my own double page spread in order to meet the conventions of film magazines.