A2 Media Studies

G324: Advanced Production Portfolio

Connect

• Have a look at the Purposes of music videos on your cards

• Can you sort them into the order of importance to a successful video?

• Think carefully!

Codes and Conventions

• Codes and Conventions are a really important part of studying and producing Music Videos!

– What do you already know about Codes?– What do you already know about Conventions?– Are there any other Key Words relating to Codes

and Conventions that you know?

Codes• Codes in a media text are the established way of

creating meaning in a text

– technical codes - all to do with the way a text is technically constructed - camera angles, framing, typography etc

– verbal codes - everything to do with language -either written or spoken

– symbolic codes - codes that can be decoded on a mainly connotational level - all the things which draw upon our experience and understanding of other media texts, our cultural frame of reference.

Codes

• In media studies, a message is often described as being "encoded" from the sender and then "decoded" by the receiver.

• The encoding process works on multiple levels.

• For semiotics, a code is the framework, a learned and shared conceptual connection at work in all uses of signs

Watch The Following• These artists all use CODES in their videos:

– Can you identify them?– What is the Denotation and Connotation?– What do they mean to you?

• D12- Purple Pills• Carly Rae Jepson - Call Me Maybe• Christina Aguilera – Dirrty• Tynchy Stryder & Dappy - Spaceship

Conventions

• Conventions are the commonly understood ways of doing things in a media text

• Conventions are probably the easiest points to use to identify the Genre of a media text

What is Genre?

Conventions• The use of Conventions in a music video help the audience

to identify the genre of the song and the artist.

• This allows the producers of the song to “sell” the song and the artist as the audience will recognise common imagery quickly!

• Watch the following videos – what are the genres and conventions used:– One Direction - Kiss You– Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way– N’Sync – Bye Bye Bye

On Your Blog

1. You need to define the terms Codes and Conventions – Use PEA and Images to help you

2. You need to analyse and compare 2 videos in the same genre:– Identify the Codes used– Identify the Conventions used– How successful is the video in promoting the artist?– Is one more successful than the other? Why?