How far does your chosen documentary demonstrate elements of one or more filmmaker’s theories you have studied? In this essay I’ll explore how, in terms of style, Asif Kapadia’s documentary method differs from that of Michael Moore and Kim Longinotto, but how, in relation to ideology and objective, his work is ultimately strikingly similar. Asif Kapadia’s unofficial trilogy of documentary biopics – Senna (2010) Amy (2015) Maradona (2019) – construct their narratives exclusively from archive or ‘found footage’. Ostensibly, his movies seem to situate their audience in a privileged ‘behind the sc ..read more

Cambridge International Media Studies – Media Texts and Contexts Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs meaning through: camera, editing, sound, mise-en-scene The sequence opens with a medium long shot of Reese Witherspoon’s character (Madeline) walking angrily towards the camera. Several elements of the mise-en-scene combine to signify that she is a wealthy, confident mother living in an equally affluent (wealthy) area. Her car, her clothes and her well-groomed appearance are typical of the ‘soccer mom’ or ‘helicopter mom’ stereotypes. The camera moves over her shoulder as she confr ..read more

By the 1960’s, the so called Big Five Hollywood Studios were struggling financially and, in some cases, creatively. The mass consumption of TV had resulted in families staying at home for their entertainment and, therefore, away from the cinema. This had a hugely detrimental impact on the studio’s profits. Unlike other studios, Disney had diversified. In 1955 it opened its first Disneyland theme park and was maintaining revenue from both this and its live-action films and TV content. In this sense Walt Disney can be seen as a pioneer of the horizontally integrated business model. Consequently ..read more

Example exam question response Explain how media language in music videos incorporates values and ideologies. Refer to one music video you have studied to support your answer (10) The music video for Emile Sandé’s 2011 track Heaven uses a range of visual codes and signifiers to explore the values and ideology present in the song’s lyrics. Christian values of judgement and redemption permeate the lyrics and visual symbolism of the video. Thematically, the song explores the tension between the desire to do the right thing and the near impossibility of resisting temptation; “I wake with good inte ..read more

PRACTICE EXAM QUESTION Analyse how effectively source C (above cover) uses the combination of elements of media language to communicate multiple meanings (OCR A Level Media Studies – Media messages, Section B Media Language and Representation) The Big Issue from 26th March 2018 was published during a particular moment of global uncertainty. This coincided with a rise in right-wing populism and socially conservative policies. The Big Issue’s target readership is predominantly socially liberal, and so the front cover of this edition is designed to reflect their opposition to the prevai ..read more

OCR Media Studies – Practice Question Media messages – Set Media Product: The Big Issue Explain how The Big Issue uses media language to convey viewpoints and ideologies. Refer to examples from front pages you have studied (10)​ The Big Issue has a very clear set of views that reflect its mission statement. It can be argued that these views span different political ideologies. On the one hand, The Big Issue demonstrates the values of left-wing campaigning and activism. In Issue 1487 (08/11/21) for instance, the front cover m ..read more

Celine Sciamma (2020 France, the late 18th century. Marianne (Noémie Merlant) teaches art to young women. When a student uncovers her painting Portrait of a Lady on Fire a memory is triggered.  Some years earlier at a windswept residence in Brittany, Marianne has been commissioned to capture a portrait of Heloise, recently returned from a convent education. Heloise (Adèle Haenel) is to be married to a wealthy Milanese suitor and the portrait is for him. The charged tension of the story emerges from a central complication. Heloise ..read more

Set in 1970’s West London and focusing on a blues dance house party, Lovers Rock deliberately eschews narrative orthodoxy in order to let the natural rhythm and spontaneity of the party lead us into a series of moments that feel blissfully unbound by time.   The party is seen through the eyes of Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) and her friend Patty (Shaniqua Okwok); the mirrorball friendship at the film’s centre. It’s off this that an  ..read more

Luke Willis Thompson’s autoportrait screened at Tate Britain as part of his shortlisted work for 2019’s Turner Prize. He didn’t win. To say that critical responses – not to mention Tate’s visitor feedback – to LWT’s autoportrait have been polarised, would be to sell the complexity of the discourse around his two 4min ‘Warhol-inspired’ films badly short. Merely taking a position on whether the work is either a powerful reification of human resolve or an exploitative beautification of black suffering, is, in itself, reductive. And that’s before we’ve even broached the thorny topic of the artist ..read more

Pierre Bonnard: The Colour Of Memory (Tate Modern Jan – May 2019) For much of Luca Guadagnino’s 2015 film ‘A Bigger Splash’ the privileged central characters nurse first-world problems beside a pool in a hillside Mediterranean villa. On the island of Pantelleria, where they’re salubriously holed-up, an influx of Tunisian refugees are being held nearby at the port. Occasionally the camera allows these two worlds to intersect and, in a film that operates largely as a vicarious piece of sun-soaked escapism, these brief intrusions of social-realism force both the film’s charact ..read more