Radio Project Media Studies

 This term we are doing a radio project, my team consist of me and Nadine. I chose Nadine because I already know her personally and we have similar ideas and concept hence making it easier for us to proceed with the project. Both of us are also great communicators making it ideal and more fun to work with in this radio project. We also find it more comfortable to work in smaller groups to be able to make progress with project even faster.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

What We Do In The Shadows (201

Binary Opposites and 5 Narrative Codes

This is an American comedy horror television series created by Jemaine Clement which premiered on March 27, 2019 in FX. This series is focused mainly on 4 vampires and 1 familiar in Staten Island. Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) serving the vampire Nandor (Kavyan Noyak) who lives with Laszlo (Matt Berry, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin (Mark Proksch). 

The first episode introduces the main characters of the series with the plot having a documentary styled take where they take us around the house and showing us their personalities. They also took us on their daily life routine around Staten Island. 

Using the first episode, we can identify the key binary opposites and narrative codes that has been used to convey meaning.

Binary opposites

Owner vs Slave

This opposites were mainly portrayed by Nandor and Guillermo who openly reveal their roles as owner and slave (Nandor being the owner and Guillermo as a slave). We can see this from how they act around each other as well. Guillermo respects him and does anything he told him to do, not only due to him wanting Nandor to change him to a vampire but because Guillermo himself want to serve Nandor as a familiar (slave) and taking care of him for around 10 years or more. Nandor also acts very egostistical and dominant around Guillermo, ordering him around, making him do even the smallest things also shows how his hierarchy is above Guillermo. 

Supernatural vs Natural

This is basically shown in the entire episode, where vampires had to live among humans in a human city so it basically shows the difference of humans and vampires. Vampires first and foremost is immortal and having unique superhero vampires and basically advantages over humans. This is shown in the hierarchy of humans should serve and fear vampires and the fact that humans are seen as food by vampires enhancing the fact that humans are helpless and much weaker than vampires.

Other binary opposites includes: loyalty vs unfaithful, good vs evil, hunger vs greed

5 Narrative Codes

Hermeneutic code

The codes that were featured throughout this episode includes  “What’s in the letter?”, “Who is in the basement?” and “Who is this feared Baron?”. These codes mainly revolves around suspense and mystery of the episode that was analyzed.

Proairetic code

There are a lot of action involved, these may include how the vampires constantly bicker and argue with another. Nadja and Lazslo hunting, Nadja stalking Jeff and others. These codes are used to move the plot forward by leading to unexpected scenarios which may build up more proairetic codes. 

Semantic code

This code can be seen when the vampires are talking with heavy accent which is used to convey how they are not from there and how they are not in their natural environment which further prove how they can be deemed as outsiders of Staten Island.

Symbolic code

We can see these codes quite consistently throughout the episode which includes the somewhat fancy attire which may catch attention, vampires eating humans and sucking blood for energy, fangs, hissing, turning into bats and vampires being nocturnal - cannot be with sunlight. This soon become the norm and makes audience more used to these characteristics and behaviours of vampires.

Cultural code

This code may include a prior knowledge of the concept of vampires and to know the stereotypes and the culture revolving vampires. Audience may also refer vampires from other medias such as the Twilight, Hotel Tranyslvania, Vampire Diaries etc. With that concept, audience will already be familiar with vampires hence can understand the plot and characters of the series.

 

Jump Cuts

 This week, we learned the basics of jump cut where it is used to convey meanings such as emotion, style, energy and pacing. We also tried making our own jump cut video.  

There are 5 different applications of this technique:

Style

The first jump cut example is to simply create a stylish presentation. Think of the opening character introductions in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch and how the jump cuts create a rhythm and style that lures us into this darkly comedic yet dangerous criminal underworld. We can also look at Terrence Malick’s films like The Tree of Life, a film presented as more of a memory and/or dream. In this case, we can see how to use jump cuts to create a lyrical or poetic narrative that isn’t beholden to strict and rigid structures.

Energy

The second jump cut example is used to create energy. Consider Run, Lola, Run and how our main character’s frantic race against time is accelerated by jump cuts. Or what about Mad Max: Fury Road where the action is adrenalized by cutting out nearly imperceptible frames.

Emotion
Closely related to this jump cut technique is when they are used to accent a particular mental state or emotion. Usually, this is a frenetic or fragmented frame of mind, which is a perfect opportunity for some creative jump cut tricks. Think of the moment in The Departed when Billy realizes his cover may have been blown. He packs his go-bag in a fit of panic and with some extremely subtle jump cuts, we can better understand his urgency.

Montage
The montage is also an opportunity to use jump cuts. As one of the primary benefits of the montage is to condense time and what better way to do that than with a jump cut? In Spielberg’s bleak Holocaust drama Schindler’s List, we have a short montage constructed solely with jump cuts. As Oskar interviews new secretaries, we use jump cut editing, along with blocking and staging, to tell the whole story.

Axial Cut
Finally, in our last jump cut example, we have the axial cut. An axial cut is more of a subtype of the jump cut as it doesn’t jump forward in time but rather towards or away from the subject along the same axis. Alfred Hitchcock used this technique often including the first moment of pure panic in Psycho as Marion is attacked in the shower.

News Agent

Agenda setting - the news media shows, Media gatekeepers - those who chose the media.

1. Negativity	‘Hard’ News - bad news will almost always be prioritised.
2. Proximity	Things that happen close to home (domestic news) or that involve people from a local area.
3. Recency	“Breaking News’
4. Currency	The ‘value’ of a story. If it is useful for people.
5. Continuity	Stories that are likely to continue for a long time.
6. Simplicity	The easier the story is to understand, the better.
7. Personality	Often ‘soft’ news surrounds personalities in whom the public has an interest eg. Royal family, celebrities, athletes
8. Uniqueness	If a story is unusual or surprising
9. Expectedness	Includes diary events - things that happen at a particular time of the year.
10. Elite nations/people	Western societies such as European countries and the USA will tend to dominate the news.
11. Exclusivity	When a news channel has footage or information that is not yet in possession of others.
12. Threshold	How many people are impacted on by an event.

Detik, Transmedia

Mengenal Pulau Pasir di NTT, Australia Sebut Pulau Cartier

This news talking about an island in Indonesia that has been claimed by Australia falls by the following categories: negativity, proximity, simplicity.

negativity - although a bit implicit, i believe it falls here as what we rightfully own is being claimed by another country which what i’d say is negative

proximity - this news involve Indonesia which is more close range

simplicity - the whole story is easy to understand, like we understand the issue

Identity Theory - David Gauntlett

 Young women and material consumption

Billie Eilish - Gucci (Vogue Australia - Condé Nast Publications News Corp)

How has the identity been constructed?

A young celebrity artist called Billie Eilish wears expensive, branded outfit. Known as the brand ambassador of the brand Gucci. By 2022, she is 20 years old which gives the inspiration of young women to be materialistic and dress luxuriously to be able to be like the women they idolize. 

What are the readings of the text?

Preferred: girl power, independent, successful young women

Negotiated: materialistic girls

Oppositional: mismatched outfits, doesn’t look great

Effect this have on the audience

Good - inspire women to be successful and to be able to buy luxurious brands.

Bad - pressures women to buy expensive, luxurious products and may make them feel left out.