Textual Analysis Miss Brookes

Textual Analysis Mrs Field

• explore the way that different groups of people are represented in Stranger Things and Deutschland 83

   -  audience
   - media language

• P: In Stranger Things, we see a counter typical of women representation (especially considering the 1980s setting) in that we see empowered women  
• E: we see the "social worker" murder Benny, Eleven kills two men, and although Nancy isn't aggressive, she does control the scene with her and Steve. 
• E: It is an interesting subversion of stereotypes - the 1980s setting lead us to expect submitting powerless women, but the 21st century construction transfers ideologies and values and empowers the women. 
• CEMS: when we first meet the social workers we view her from a high angle shot, from the point of view of Benny. This reinforces the patriarchal hegemony which track us into thinking that she is a typical  submmisive woman. However, when she shoots Benny, she is elevated onto an equal level with the other government official, and is even empowered through a low angle shot.  This is reinforced by the editing - the screen time she is given compared to the (silent and nameless) male officials is significant greater, therefore empowering her. 
• A: This shocks the audience, which is important for the narrative, but the Duffer Brothers are also trying to highlight the everyday sexism in society, even though we are a modern audience, we feel into the trap of putting sexist assumption onto the scene. 
  

Assessment and Feedback

2B assessment Film, Radio, Video Games DIRT sheet

Grade A	Grade B	Grade C	Grade D	Grade E	Grade U
17-20	14-16	11-13	7-10	6	0-5

Q1 Explain the impact of evolving digital media on film production, distribution and exhibition. Refer to Jungle Book 1967 and Jungle Book 2016 to support your answer (20)

(In this question compare and contrast the two productions, the way they were marketed and the different ways audiences can access them).

Level	Mark Scheme Film Explanation/Analysis/Argument, Examples and Terminology	Mark
3	A comprehensive demonstration of knowledge and understanding of the Film industry. ● Comprehensive, detailed and accurate knowledge and understanding of the Film industry. ● Clear and precise and balanced explanation of the impact of evolving digital technology on the production, distribution and exhibition of film. ● Answer is supported by detailed and accurate reference to The Jungle Book (1967) and The Jungle Book (2016)	14-20
2	An adequate demonstration of knowledge and understanding of the Film industry. ● Generally accurate explanation of the impact of evolving digital technology on the production, distribution and exhibition of film. ● Answer is supported by generally accurate reference to The Jungle Book (1967) and The Jungle Book (2016)	7-13
1	A minimal demonstration of knowledge and understanding of the Film industry. ● knowledge and understanding of the Film industry is minimal. ● Explanation of the impact of evolving digital technology on the production, distribution and exhibition of film. Answer may only focus on production, distribution or exhibition. ● Reference to The Jungle Book (1967) and The Jungle Book (2016) is minimal and inaccurate	1-6
0	No response or no response worthy of credit	0

Q2 ‘The BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show depends as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as it does upon good production processes.’ To what extent would you agree with this statement (20)

(Focus on the ways the breakfast show has tried to appeal to its audience, all the new things Cooper has introduced and the BBC remit for good production processes).

Level	Mark Scheme Radio Explanation/Analysis/Argument, Examples and Terminology	Mark
3	A comprehensive demonstration of ● knowledge and understanding of Radio 1 industry/audiences practise ● evidence and examples from Radio 1 Breakfast show distribution or exhibition. ● terminology relevant and accurate	14-20
2	An adequate demonstration of: ● knowledge and understanding of Radio 1 industry/audiences practise ● evidence and examples from Radio 1 Breakfast show distribution or exhibition. ● terminology, mostly accurate	7-13
1	A minimal demonstration of ● knowledge and understanding of Radio 1 industry/audiences practise ● evidence and examples from Radio 1 Breakfast show distribution or exhibition. ● terminology, some inaccuracies	1-6
0	No response or no response worthy of credit	0

Q3 How does media ownership have an impact on the successful distribution of Minecraft. (20)

(Define media ownership, discuss video games and quickly narrow to Minecraft. Different owners. how this has developed the game and how it is marketed and accessed by fans.)

Level	Mark Scheme Video Games Explanation/Analysis/Argument, Examples and Terminology	Mark
3	An comprehensive demonstration of ● knowledge and understanding of video games industry ownership/audiences practise ● evidence and examples from Minecraft distribution and exhibition. ● terminology, relevant and accurate	14-20
2	An adequate demonstration of ● knowledge and understanding of video games industry ownership/audiences practise ● evidence and examples from Minecraft distribution and exhibition. ● terminology, mostly relevant and accurate	7-13
1	A minimal demonstration of ● knowledge and understanding of video games industry ownership/audiences practise ● evidence and examples from Minecraft distribution and exhibition. ● terminology, some inaccuracies	1-6
0	No response or no response worthy of credit	0

Identify a strength or strengths in your assessment: Film:  to talk about the technology Radio: the news thins Cooper has introduced on R1BS Video Games: impact of the owner What are the areas you need to improve? Film: to talk more about the technology, focus more on the questions. Radio: talk more about how is the show. Video Games: to talk more about the impact the owner of the game has on What do you need to focus on for your next assessment?  To focus more on what the question is really asking, and do comparisons and giving some examples.

Minecraft: Marketing, Promotion & Franchising

• The cultural impact of Minecraft is significant. We know that much of Minecraft's  success was due to word of mouth but also audiences sharing their own mods and game footage across web forums and video sharing sites such as YouTube. 
• Different versions of Minecraft were released, moving away from creation only narratives to include story modes, spectator modes, educational mode and multi - player functionally  across Minecraft Realms. Also, now that Persson no longer has a stake in the company plans to works on a virtual reality version of Minecraft have been renewed.  

Intertextuality

• Culturally, other developers and games studios have made Intertextual references to Minecraft across games such as Run escape and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to name but a few: there are also Lady Gaga, South Park and The Simpsons parodies. All of this benefits the game by heightening its exposure to audiences. 

The Minecraft Franchise 

• A Lego set based on Minecraft called Lego Minecraft was released on 6 June 2012. Two more sets based on the Nether and village areas of the game were released on 1 September 2013. A fourth Micro World set. The End, was released in June 2014. Six more sets became available November 2014. 

• Mojang collaborates with Jinx, an online game merchandise store, to sell Minecraft merchandise, such as clothing, foam pickaxes, and toys of creatures in the game. 

• In Minecraft 2013 Mojang signed a deal with the Egmont Group, a children's book publisher, to create Minecraft handbooks, annuals, posters books, and magazines. 

Minecraft the Movie 

• In 2009 there will be a joint venture with Warner Brothers to release Minecraft the movie, this will be anticipated as having as much commercial success as The Lego Movie, also a Warner Brothers Movie. No doubt, there will be several spin-offs as a result of this. 

Minecon 

• Minecon is a convention for the video game Minecraft, hosted by Mojang. 
• The first gathering in 2010 was known as MinecraftCon 
• Mojang announced that MINECON was taking the form of an interactive 90-minute live stream on 18 November 2017. It was lilted MINECON Earth. 

Minecraft Essay

• Write an introductory essay to Minecraft 
• Explain what it is, give an outline of the game's history and explain why it has been a commercial and critical success 
• Approx. 700 words or 2 sides 

Minecraft is a sandbox computer game created and designed by Swedish programmer Marcus “Notch” Persson in 2009 and fully and published by Mojang.

A sandbox game is one with an open structure where the player is free to plat without specific objectives – the allusion is to a child’s sandbox. Players in sandbox games are free to explore an environment, to choose which takes they do, and often they have the ability to express themselves creatively within the game.

In Minecraft players build structures out of textured in a 3D world. They key activities are mining and crafting. Other activities in the game include exploration and combat.

When Notch started Minecraft, in summer 2009, he was on his own. He wrote a basic game, which mashed up others such as Dwarf Fortness and Infinimer into something entirely its own and mentioned it on the TIGSource forum – a site for independent games players and creators. A month later, he charged people €10 (£8) to download the game, Minecraft sold 40 copies that first weekend. Every Friday, Persson would update it, adding features. He had always been an active member of the TIGSource discussions and now he engaged with Minecraft’s early players, on the forums, on Twitter Notch has 660,000 followers and on his Tumblr page.

In summer 2010, Persson set up Mojang, along with Poser, with whom he had worked at Flash-games developer King.com, and Manneh, his former CEO at jAlbum, a photosharing site.

Since the release of Minecraft in 2009, it has been a commercial success. It is estimated that 55 million people play Minecraft every month, and is therefore the second best-selling game ever made, coming after Tetris. The company is worth around £1.09 billion, as it was brought out by Mojang in 2014.  

Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade web comic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version.  In 2014, Mojang sold Minecraft to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion). Since this deal, Minecraft has been spread onto many different platforms. In 2019, a Minecraft movie is set to appear in cinemas.  

There are many reasons as to why it has become such a commercial success, including its popularity; Minecraft is played all around the world, in around 8 different countries including the US, Norway and Australia. This means high volume sales, which could be due to its availability and easy accessibility. Continuing from this, another reason that Minecraft is so commercially successful is due to its spread onto different platforms. These include, Xbox, Windows 10, Windows phones, Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation and Android phone. This makes it more easily accessible for a wider audience meaning more people are able to play, therefore resulting in more sales and then higher revenue from sales. Finally, another reason that is credible for commercial success, is the spin off games and merchandise created since the release of Minecraft. Spin off games include “Minecraft, story mode” and “Minecraft, Education Edition”. Both of these games will appeal to a specific demographic, which will commercially benefit the business as they are targeting a wider audience, rather than just focusing on the original demographic targeted by the original Minecraft game. The merchandise that is created and sold across the world, will catch the eye of gamers, and also promotes and advertises that game when people wear the merchandise, which will increase profit which makes it commercially successful.

The popularity of Minecraft has later been showed through spin-off games such as Minecraft: story mode and Minecraft: education mode. This brings a fun way of learning to children and influences them to want to expand their knowledge. Popular forms of social media such as Facebook and YouTube have also played a significant role in helping to popularize it and advertising to others to play.

On top of this the game has received millions of dollars in merchandise revenue from T-shirts to toys, and spawned its own convention, Minecon, which began just 2 years after the game was created. The convention has taken place in Las Vegas, Disneyland Paris, California, London and Orlando which expands their global marketing and attracts even more customers to get involved.

In think the reason Minecraft is so successful is that a video game with no story line sells very well because you can do whatever your hearth desires.