Y12 Written Task 1

In preparation for our first assessment, you will need to do some research to determine what media works you would like to reference as examples. Your examples must be of media works that are regarded as “Art” or directed by an auteur. 

The following syllabus points are assessed in Task 1:

• artistic and cultural benefits of media work
• manipulation of narrative elements and narrative structures
• how representations are constructed in media work
• how cultural contexts and values influence the interpretation of media work.

The following questions could be used in preparation for your response. Use examples from relevant media works to support your answers.

Artistic and cultural benefits of media work:
a) Investigate the impact of innovative cinematography and visual storytelling techniques on the artistic and cultural value of contemporary films. 

b) Assess the role of film festivals in promoting and preserving culturally significant media works, considering examples from different regions.

Manipulation of narrative elements and narrative structures:
a) Examine how a specific film auteur manipulates narrative elements, such as time, space, and character development, to create a unique storytelling style. 

b) Compare and contrast the narrative structures employed by two different film auteurs and assess how these choices contribute to audience engagement. 

How representations are constructed in media work:
a) Analyse the construction of gender representations in the films of an auteur director, considering how these representations contribute to or challenge cultural norms.

b) Examine the use of visual and narrative techniques in constructing representations of social issues, such as race, class, or inequality, in media works of an auteur figure.

How cultural contexts and values influence interpretation:
a) Analyse how the cultural background of a filmmaker influences their storytelling choices and the reception of their works both within and outside their own cultural context. 

b) Explore how cultural contexts and values influence the reception and interpretation of media works, focusing on the cross-cultural impact of a specific film or auteur. 

Task 1 - MEDIA TERMINOLOGY & LANGUAGE

It is important to use media terminology in your media responses. It is recommended that you study the following relevant terms from the MPA Glossary and practice incorporating it into your writing in the lead-up to the in-class response.

Auteur Figure
Traditionally in film, auteur refers to a director who has a distinctive and personal style that is reflected across a body of work (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock, the Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino). More recently, the term has been expanded to also include other members of a production team (e.g. cinematographers, editors, script writers) who exhibit a stylistic signature throughout their work.  

Commercial and Non-commercial Media
This refers to the industry context of media production.

• Commercial media are privately owned organisations in which a financial profit motive is a major influence in the production process. (e.g. Channel 7, News Corp, Warner Brothers)

• Non-commercial media are publicly owned and generally have a smaller scale of production where financial profit is not necessarily the priority (e.g. the ABC, SBS).

Context
Because media work is created in a particular time and place, its production and consumption are influenced by the social, cultural, political, historic and economic conditions of that time and location. The context will influence the content of media work and its interpretation by the audience (e.g. a 1950s sitcom may feature a stay-at-home mother while one made in the 2000s may feature a working mother). The viewing, listening and interacting context may also have an influence on audience response. 

Mainstream Audience
This is a term used to describe large, commercially based, intended audiences who consume popular media work, such as Hollywood films and reality television programmes. They share a dominant value system when interpreting media work.

Media Aesthetics
These are the ways codes and conventions have been artistically combined and/or manipulated to create an emotional or intellectual response by an audience to a media work.

Media Theories
These have been developed to help explain the interrelationship between audiences and media work (e.g. Reception Theory suggests that media work is encoded by the producer to reflect his/her values and messages. The text is then decoded by the audience and different people will decode the media work in different ways according to their context).

Niche Audience
This is an audience with more specialised and focused interests than a mass audience (e.g. film goers who prefer festival films or foreign language films, readers of gaming magazines, people who listen to classical music radio stations). 

Style
The organisation of media techniques by the producers of media work, to create a distinctive appearance, mood or tone, through the choice and manipulation of all elements of construction, including techniques, codes and conventions. Producers may create an individual style (auteurs) or a recognisable group style (e.g. film styles include film noir, German expressionism, classical Hollywood narrative). 

Theme
An identifiable central message created by the media producer that regulates all production aspects (such as narrative, character development, conventions etc.) within a media work. 

A media work may have more than one theme, though one theme is often more primary (e.g. the subject of a media work may be love, and its theme could be how love involves sacrifice or love can conquer incredible obstacles).