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).
Grade: CWWW: Some insightful comments, especially in Q3
EBI: More detailed knowledge of industry: eg 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.

Q2: 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.

Q3: 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).

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: This refers to 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.

Intertextuality: The term Intertextuality refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via 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. 
-Social media was important in marketing the film – Chicken did not have a marketing budget
beyond the creation of the trailer and poster so Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were vital in
broadcasting and sharing trailers and information about the film.
Digital distribution in USA/Canada followed in January 2018 and the film is now available on
Amazon Prime in the UK. 
-The distribution of Chicken was challenging but ultimately quite

effective for a niche micro-budget film.

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; social and cultural contexts of production) 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.
Capital has a vast range of characters with their own views and story to tell as capital focuses on social and cultural context. For example the middle and upper-class are shown to be greedy, inconsiderate and obsessed with money as a bonus but doesn't appreciate it, instead wanting more, whereas someone lower classed would gladly accept. This plays into the aspect of realism as in London the upper classed/elite take a lot of what they have for granted, being very out of touch with society and instead being self absorbed.

Immigration is also part of the story as the story of Aventina is followed. She fled from Zimbabwe to London in order to find work. This too offers realism as she becomes very oppressed and not given any real opportunities that will benefit her in the long term which is very common in London and so this shows the harsh reality immigrants have to go through even though they are trying to better themselves. On the other hand numerous people have argued that Capital has a left wing bias because of the way they negatively portray the upper class which makes the show less authentic.

In Deutschland 83 the main focus is the conflict between East and West Germany which was a real life event, allowing younger audiences to educate themselves in a fun, immersive way, and allowing older audiences to feel nostalgic as they may have lived through the time period. Recognisable settings play a huge part in the social and cultural contexts as these settings would be very nostalgic to them. For instance the scene where Martin is running through the supermarket offers a sense of realism because of the fact that the supermarket will be recognised by German audiences as thats how things were back then. The music in the scene is also relevant to the time period, which audiences will recognise easily.

Furthermore, real life clips were used, the most noticeable one being Ronald.R's Evil Empire Speech. Deutschland 83 does this because they know it'll continue to gain the interest and support of audiences. However, many argue that the representations of East and West Germany are negatively portrayed to make Germany seem worse than it is.