Film & TV assessment: Learner Response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

WWW: good coverage of the key points for Q3

EBI: very little understanding/application of Postmodernism, more revision needed of CSP's especially 'Chicken' 

2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment (even if you got full marks for the question).

Q1) A range of different genres are suggested on the poster – e.g. the background is almost

space (sci-fi); the silver symbol in the background alludes to comic books/Marvel universe;

the woman on the left suggests martial arts or kung-fu movies – this is reinforced by the

faint images in the background (man in mid-air kick on right-hand side); the helicopter in the

top right hints at the war movie genre.

- The poster arguably provides a good example of pastiche: media products that imitate the

style of another text, artist or time period. Although an argument can be made that

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a parody (there are definitely suggestions of comedy) the

poster as a whole asks to be taken seriously. In a parody, audiences would likely expect a

tagline that confirms the comic nature of the film. The only text appearing here is: ‘From the

director of X Men: First Class’ which would suggest the film is trying to attract an audience

looking for serious, action/superhero-based entertainment.

Q2) Some points I missed out include:

- mentioning the fact that 'Chicken' is a micro-budget independent film in a global market dominated by major conglomerates and that it took two years for the film to be made (2014).

- I mentioned the wrong festival instead of these: Film festival awards included Edinburgh, Busan, New Hampshire, Palm Beach and Julien.

Q3) Some points I missed out include:

- The postmodern visual aesthetic draws on pastiche, using exaggerated popular culture
references and stylized mise-en- scene. Therefore representations do not reflect the genuine social and cultural context but a nostalgic view of 1980s culture.

- The series is likely to be interpreted differently depending on national contexts – the
reception in Germany was different to other European countries or the USA.
Representations may be more recognisable to international audiences and therefore not
reflective of social and cultural context (perhaps a reason for lack of success in native
Germany).

- Capital has been accused of left-wing bias for negative representation of wealth/upper
middle class white British people and positive representation of multiculturalism and illegal
immigrants.

- The drama uses narrative realism (use of recognisable places, people, cultures, events) to
create a representation of London in 2015 that is designed to appear authentic but perhaps
subtly reinforces capitalist ideologies (e.g. reward for hard work).

3) The first question demanded a response using postmodern terminology. Write a definition here of the three main terms:

Bricolage: The juxtaposing of old and new texts, images, ideas and narratives to create new meanings.

Pastiche: media products that imitate the style of another text, artist or time period. Pastiche is an example of intertextuality and takes a positive view of the original source.

In contrast parody is similar but ridicules the original source (e.g. Scary Movie parodies horror).

Intertextuality: refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. In other words Intertextuality essentially means for a type of media(film,television,music etc) to pay homage to another media text.

4) The second question was on the film industry. Write down two points from the mark scheme about Chicken's promotion and distribution that you didn't include in your answer.

- Construction of the Chicken branding on the poster/DVD packaging etc. effective in
communicating the genre and key selling points of the film – arthouse, social realism,
beautiful cinematography, theme of nature etc.

- Small cinema release in arthouse cinemas appropriate distribution for the film – a British
social realist drama. Similarly, Film4 was a good home for TV premiere in April 2017. It was
also selected for the curated film subscription service MUBI aimed at more discerning,
educated film fans. 

5) Look over your mark, teacher comments and the mark scheme for Question 3 - the 25 mark essay question on your TV Close-Study Products. Write a complete essay plan for this question based on the suggested answers in the mark scheme. You can either use something similar to your actual answer or alternatively start from scratch. Make sure it is an extensive, detailed plan focused on the question (representations) and offering specific references to Capital and Deutschland 83 for each section. Try and cover the two texts equally if you can and aim to plan around 5-6 paragraphs in total.