TIGA, IDGA homework

Tiga(The Independent Games Developers Association)

• Non-Profit association representing the UK's games industry
• There members include independent game developers, in house publisher-owned developers, outsourcing companies, technology businesses and universities.
• Tiga's vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business, they do this by government lobbying and maintain a voice in the corridors of power at both Westminster and Scottish parliments
• Tiga is the  network for games developers and digital publishers and the trade association representing the video game industry. There core purpose is to strengthen the game developing and digital publishing sector. They achieve this by campaigning for the industry in the corridors of power, championing the industry in the media and helping their members commercially.
• TIGA is intent on building an enduring organisation which continually improves; a business that will make a significant impact on the games industry and so benefit our membership and the wider economy. Since 2010, TIGA has won 24 business awards, an achievement which reflects TIGA’s drive for improvement and to meet best practice.

IGDA(International games developers association)

IGDA is the professional association for over 12,000 video and computer game developers worldwide. It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization. Its stated mission is "To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community

• Independent company
• Non-profit organization for game software developers
• Is the largest non-profit membership organization in the world serving all individuals who create games.
• Their core values are, Community, Professionalism, Innovation, Impact, Leadership and Fun.

Section 3.2: Narrative

Narrative Theory

Narrative

1. 1. NARRATIVE A Media Studies Key Aspect
2. 2. What Is It?  Narrative is the media term for story telling.  Narrative is the way the different elements in a story are organised to make a meaningful story. Some of these elements can be facts as in a documentary, or characters and action as in a drama.
3. 3. What Is It?  When we look at narrative we see that stories throughout the media share certain characteristics. This often links them to genre.  Different media tell stories in a variety of different ways.
4. 4. Narrative Structure(s)  This is the way the story or plot unfolds.  Is the story an open or closed structure?  A closed structure means the story ends satisfactorily as in most films – this is known as closure.  An open ending means there is no final conclusion to the story – a television soap has no final ending, it just has minor endings.  Some texts have an interactive structure e.g. Big Brother.
5. 5. Narrative Structure(s)  A multi-strand structure means there are several narratives running at the same time. This is very common in television, such as Holby City, and The Bill.  Other narrative structures include point of view (POV). (Documentaries often do this)  A popular narrative device is the enigma. The plot constructs a puzzle that the audience is asked to solve while the characters act out the story.
6. 6. How it is informed  Narrative is informed by character, action, and location.
7. 7. How it is informed  Characters have functions such as heroes or villains, or someone who assists the hero or villain as a helper or messenger.
8. 8. How it is informed  The action determines how the events in the narrative occur and the influence they have.
9. 9. How it is informed  The location of a film or television programme is an important ingredient in how the story unfolds. A horror film about Dracula must have a castle.
10. 10. How it is informed  Narrative is often delivered to the audience by expectation, suspense, tension and closure.  The audience is led to expect certain things to happen which leads to tension and excitement.  Expectation, suspense and tension are created by the use of Media Language,
11. 11. Our Job  Directors and producers use many techniques to get a story to an audience in an involving, interesting, exciting and entertaining way. Our job as media students is to find out what these techniques are, and see where and how they are used and what they mean in media texts. This is known as Textual Analysis.
12. 12. Questions to ask  How is the narrative organised?  What is the audience’s role in relation to the narrative?  How are the characters used in the narrative?
13. 13. Questions to ask  What techniques of identification and alienation are used in the text?  What else does the filmmaker do to engage our attention and tell the story?  What are the major themes of the narrative and what values and ideology are evident?
14. 14. Run Lola Run  1998 German thriller.  Dir. Tom Tykwer  Franka Potente (Lola)  Moritz Bleibtreu (Manni)  Dist. Sony Pictures  Budget: $1,750,000  Gross: $7,267,585
15. 15. Narrative Theory  There are four main theorists to consider:  Tzvetan Todorov  Vladimir Propp  Roland Barthes  Lévi-Strauss
16. 16. TODOROV  Todorov’s theory has three main parts: 1. The text begins with a sate of equilibrium – everything appears to be normal or calm. 2. There is some kind of disruption or disequalibrium – this is often a threat to the normal situation or it could be just a setback. 3. A new equilibrium is produced to end the narrative. In the best narratives there is some kind of change for the better perhaps in the main character’s behaviour or outlook on life.
17. 17. TODOROV  Todorov suggests there are five stages to how the narrative progresses: 1. The equilibrium has to be carefully shown (otherwise the disruption may not be dramatic enough to create a strong plot) 2. There is a disruption 3. There is a recognition that a disruption has happened. 4. There is an attempt to repair the damage done by the disruption. 5. A new equilibrium is achieved.
18. 18. TODOROV  Here narrative is not seen as linear, but as circular.  The narrative is driven by the characters’ attempts to restore the equilibrium, although the end result is not quite the same as the beginning.
19. 19. PROPP  Propp studied folk tales and he proposed ways of grouping characters and their actions into eight broad character types or ‘spheres of action’.  N.B. One character may occupy more than one sphere of action
20. 20. Spheres of Action  1. The villain  2. The hero, or character who seeks something, usually motivated by a lack of something (money, love etc.) The hero doesn’t have to be heroic in the way most people would understand it – heroes can be male or female, brave or cowardly.  3. The donor, who provides an object with some magic property.  4. The helper, who aids the hero.
21. 21. Spheres of Action  5. The princess, reward for the hero, and object of the villain’s schemes. Again, this is not necessarily a beautiful damsel in distress – the princess can be male!  6. Her father, who rewards the hero.  7. The dispatcher, who sends the hero on his way  8. The false hero, the character who also lays claim to the princess but is unsuitable and causes complications.
22. 22. Star Wars  Match them up
23. 23. Star Wars - An Example  Villain – Darth Vader  Hero – Luke Skywalker  Donor – Obi-Wan Kenobi  Helper – Han Solo  Princess – Princess Leia  Father – The Rebellion  Dispatcher – R2D2  False Hero – Darth Vader
24. 24. Levi-Strauss  No, nothing to do with jeans!  He introduced the notion of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the production of meaning within narratives.  He argued that all construction of meaning was dependent, to some degree, on these oppositions.
25. 25. Examples  Good vs Evil  Male vs Female  Humanity vs Technology  Nature vs Industrialism  East vs West  Dark vs Light  Dirt vs Cleanliness
26. 26. Roland Barthes  A name you’ll become very familiar with soon. In the meantime, in terms of narrative he suggested five codes:  The hermeneutic code (the enigma)  The proairetic code (the action)  The semic code (the images)  The symbolic code (the subtext)  The referential code (the cultural influence)
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28. http://www.slideshare.net/andywallis/narrative-5865177

Section 3.2- Genre

Critical and theoretical analysis of media texts

A genre has characteristic features that are known to and recognised by audiences. The same formula is applied time and time again.

Examples of genres for TV shows:

• Westerns
• War films
• Soap operas
• Crime drama
• Game shows
• News
• Reality

There is also subgenres within genres. Spaghetti westerns, Hammer horror and James Bond films are examples of this.

What makes a genre attractive to audiences? Expectations are fulfilled and they can predict what will happen next.

Why do producers like to work within a genre?  Communication with the audience is instant as key components are easily recognised, this also means there is no need to set up characters and plots as the audience already recognise.

For a genre to become established, certain conventions need to become identifiable in general consciousness of the audience.

Key Components:

• Stock characters
• Stock plots, situations, issues and themes
• Stock locations and backdrops
• Stock props
• Recognisable music
• Generic conventions (What all the above make up)

Disadvantages of Genre:

• Formulaic media texts
• Texts that do not fall into line have problems getting shown
• Texts that are not easily categorised are difficult to sell

Summary:

Genres function according to rules and conventions. They respond to these rules and conventions by developing formulas and patterns. Over time, these formulas and patterns may begin to dominate the way we see.

A brief history of Horror movies: Horror movies began in the 1890's by a film pioneer called Georges Melies. Horror movies were inspired from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. The horror genre often overlaps with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres. Horror movies started as silent short movies, one of the first horror films was Le Manoir du Diable which was made by Georges Melies and is still considered as one of the best horror movies of all time. Though the word "horror" to describe the film genre would not be used until the 1930s, after Universal Pictures released Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), Hollywood dramas often used horror themes.

Rules to making a horror movie: 

• Pick a main character
• Pick a sidekick and make them bicker and compete
• Pick a universal moment
• Pick a location
• Pick a inciting incident
• Pick a ghost
• Pick a nightmare
• Pick a trap
• Pick the moment the sidekick dies
• Pick the confrontation

Section 3- Audio

Radio began in the 1920's, the first radio broadcasting was on the 27th of August 1920 in Argentina. Different forms of broadcasting are, Commercial Broadcasting, Non-Commercial Educational and non profit varieties as well as student run campus radios, community radios and hospital radio. FM, DAB and online are all different platforms of radio. Ofcom regulates radio.

https://www.wisebuddah.com/jingles/jingles?genre=13

BBC and Sky Taskl

The PSB company I have chosen is BBC and I have decided to choose Sky to compare it with.

Sky and BBC are both conglomerate companies because they both own smaller businesses inside their own ones, for example Sky own Sky Sports, Sky Movies and Sky Atlantic and BBC have Cbbebies and CBBC

BBC use synergy by using BBC iPlayer online they are merging with the internet. Sky also use synergy they have the sky go app so you can watch sky on your phone while you are out and you can also watch on your laptop

Magazine front cover conventions- Section 3

Front cover needs to have a purpose as it entices the reader to buy the magazine. Front covers of magazines can make a big impression to customers and they will want to choose the front cover that looks the most appealing. The front cover is made up of a number of different features and conventions. Masthead, this is the name of the magazine, it will always be at the top and will stand out as that's what people see first as it's the biggest font for a word on the page and it will have a stand out colour. The masthead can also give the reader an impression of what the magazine will be like. The tagline is under the masthead this may indicate what the magazine is about and who it is aimed at. The central image, this is crucial to the front cover as this is really what will catch the customers eye before they even look at the printed text. The central image will be relevant to the magazines purpose and audience. The cover model could bring in many customers as famous people will make a magazine more popular. Anchorage this is a term that refers to how images are referred to. In magazines, images will be anchored by captions. Secondary images are any other image used that isn't the central one. Coverlines are located at various points on the front cover, telling readers about the magazines contents and articles they will find. Mode of address refers to the way that magazines communicate with their readers. Puff, this is a device which helps to draw attention and promote certain elements in the magazine. They are often set against colourful backgrounds. Pugs are the "ears"of a magazine and are in the top corner they usually are a promotion for something. Barcode, price and edition will all also be on a front cover of the magazine.