Personal Study
Project
Unit 12 Specialist study in creative media production

Personal Study Project
• You will need to produce
1. A research document
• Collection of quotes and summarised information
based around your topic
• This should include research from a wide variety of
sources (not just websites- this is critical to achieving
beyond a Pass)
• An alphabetised bibliography on the final slide
DEADLINE 03/11/22 in Personal Study Section of website

Deadlines
Date w/c Task[s]
Summer Choose your focus topic and basic research of theories
12/09 Research all 4 theories (4 sources minimum)
19/09 Research theory (2 sources minimum)
26/09 Research product/person/studio (secondary research) (3 sources minimum)
03/10 Research product/person/studio (secondary research) (3 sources minimum)
10/10 Analyse a product/scene/specific pages/photographs/levels etc.
17/10 Final additions and upload to PERSONAL STUDY area of website. Start essay.
Half term

CHOSEN TOPIC
Film

Theories

Auteur Theory
Author Indie film hustle
Book Title What is auteur theory?
Page Reference(s) What is Auteur Theory? - Definition and
Examples | Indie Film Hustle®
Summary of Theory
• To look at films and the director as the
author of the film, the film is a
reflection of a directors artistic vision.
Also says movie directors have their
own recognisable quirks, reoccurring
themes or visual queues. Shows
consistent artistic identity.
• E.g Tim burton, Spielberg, Tarantino
Quotes
• “I liked almost anybody that made you
realize who the devil was making the
picture.” – Howard Hawks
• The term “Auteur theory” is credited to the
critics of the French film journal Cahiers
du cinéma, many of which became the
directors of the French New Wave.
However, according to New York University
professor Julian Cornell, the concept had
been around for a while prior.
The Cahiers critics simply refined the
theory.

Reception Theory
Author Receptiontheory.org
Book Title Reception theory
Page Reference(s) Reception Theory
(communicationtheory.org)
Summary of Theory
• Reception theory is a version
of reader response literary theory that
emphasizes each particular reader's
reception or interpretation in making
meaning from a literary text.
Reception theory is generally referred
to as audience reception in the
analysis of communications models.
Quotes
• “It is unnecessary that the audience
will decode the message encoded by
the author just the same”.
• Stuart Hall developed reception theory, popularly
known as Audience Theory or reader’s reception
theory, in 1973. His essay ‘Encoding and
Decoding Television Discourse’ focuses on the
encoding and decoding of the content given to
the audience no matter the form of media such
as magazines/papers, television/radios, games.
Today theorists who do the analysis of media
through reception theory often derive results
from the experience of an audience created by
watching a cinema, game or books.

Hypodermic Needle Model
Author Lessonbucket
Book Title The hypodermic needle theory
Page Reference(s) The Hypodermic Needle Theory | VCE Media, Victorian
Curriculum, Media Arts, digital literacy, media education,
filmmaking (lessonbucket.com)
Summary of Theory
• Producers messages in their media
influence its audience, audience
interpretations are identical and can
be collectively influenced. Similar to
the “yin” to reception theory “yang”
• developed in the 1920s and 1930s after
researchers observed the effect of propaganda
during World War I and events like Orson Welles’
War of the Worlds broadcast. The Hypodermic
Needle Theory is a linear communication theory
which suggests that media messages are injected
directly into the brains of a passive audience. It
suggests that we’re all the same and we all
respond to media messages in the same way.
Quotes
• The Payne Fund Studies, which were
conducted between 1929-1932 and
looked at the effect movies have on
children, also contributed to this idea
that the mass media has a powerful
and direct influence on audiences.

The Male Gaze
Author Kim leonard
Book Title What is the male gaze? Definition and
examples in film
Page Reference(s) What Is The Male Gaze? Definition,
Examples & Historical Importance •
Filmmaking Lifestyle (filmlifestyle.com)
Summary of Theory
• Women throughout the course of
media have typically been portrayed
submissively and objectified for the
pleasure of male audiences.
Quotes
• “filmmaker and theorist Laura Mulvey
first coined the term “the male gaze”
in seminal 1973 paper visual pleasure
and narrative cinema.
• “Mulvey was talking about how our
society is structured by, and for the
benefit for heterosexual men(i.e, “the
patriarchy”).”

CHOSEN THEORY
Reception theory

TOPIC

Topic Research 1
Author oasisacademyisleofsheppey
Source PowerPoint Presentation
(oasisacademyisleofsheppey.org)
Page Reference(s) N/A
Details about topic/Quotes
• Stuart Hall suggested that media texts contain a variety of messages that are
encoded (made/inserted) by producers and then decoded (understood) by
audiences. Therefore what we see is simply a ‘re-presentation’ of what producers
want us to see. Hall also suggested there's 3 ways the audience can interpret/
decode the messages media puts forward:
• dominant/preferred reading - the audience accepts and agrees with messages
put forward in the media
• Negotiated reading – the audience agrees with some of the text but rejects /
disagrees with other parts
• Oppositional reading – the audience disagrees with the messages that are trying
to be put across or conveyed

Topic Research 2
Author Media-studies.com
Source Stuart Hall's Reception Theory | Encoding
and Decoding the Media (media-
studies.com)
Page Reference(s)
Details about topic/Quotes
• Stuart Hall, presented his model of communication in his essay “Encoding and Decoding in
the Television Discourse”. His reception theory describes how producers use various signs
to encode a programme’s meaning, according to their ideologies and resources, which is
then decoded by the viewers, who have to interpret the message through their own
framework of knowledge.
• This approach emphasised the importance of the social and cultural context behind the flow
of “meaningful” discourse.
• The relations of production refer to the different crews involved in the
programme. “Hall is drawing our attention to how messages are encoded by the
producer, newscaster, content editor, camera operator and other technicians who
help broadcast the news.”

Topic Research 3
Author Beverlyboy.com
Source What is Reception Theory in Film? - Team
Beverly Boy
Page Reference(s)
Details about topic/Quotes
• According to reception theory, a film does not have inherent meaning in and of
itself. Instead, meaning is the result of the various classes and how they decode
the film. This takes place through contextual factors more so than through textual
factors.
Which influence the way in which the audience views the film and decodes the
elements of the story. Reception theory in film essentially states that most film
spectators fall within one of several preconceived notions.
Based on their age, gender, political views, etc. And this plays a key role in how they
receive the story.

Micro Analysis
Source Fight Club - You are the all singing, all dancing crap
of the world. (10) Fight Club - You are the all singing,
all dancing crap of the world. - YouTube
Analysis
• In this scene of fight club Tyler Durden is present
and is seemingly having a self talk or breakdown of
some sort which is represented by how to scene
flickers like an old film reel which also ties into that
Tyler makes film reels on a night for cash. This also
hints to that Tyler and the narrator are one in the
same as Tyler's face distorts slight hints of the
narrators face is visible and meshes together.
• With this scene I think its effective to show the
mental strain and breakdown the Tyler persona is
having on the narrator as he is trying to take away
more and more control from the narrator, I want to
recreate something like this as I feel it is the perfect
balance of giving a hint to the viewer that the main
character and the other persona are the same
person but it may just also be that characters so
called mental state and breakdown within their self
making the viewer speculate and bring their own
idea into the concept

Micro Analysis
Source Fight club - Letting Yourself Become Tyler Durden
(10) Fight Club (5/5) Movie CLIP - Letting Yourself
Become Tyler Durden (1999) HD - YouTube
Analysis
• In this scene towards the end of the movie the
narrator is scrambling around different city's looking
for Tyler as he has seemingly left the narrator, he
eventually ends up at a hotel room after he finds out
he is Tyler but is still confused in which he calls Marla.
Tyler then appears out of nowhere and has a talk
about why people believe him and Tyler are the same.
With the wide angle of this shot showing both of them
sat opposite one another I feel it represents how him
and the Tyler persona are completely different and a
total opposite with the way they dress, carry their self
and talk.
• I think it was a effective decision to show the narrator
recalling all the things he did as Tyler as it really brings
the story to its ultimatum but not the climax which
gives the narrator a choice and grabs the viewers
attention significantly as the viewer is only just
learning about this stuff the same time the narrator is
making it more human too. I also feel that putting the
narrator alone in the room in the middle of this scene
truly shows that the narrator is alone in his actions and
the cause of it all but this could be interpreted in
multiple ways which gives the movie its replayability

Personal Research Project
• You need to produce an exploration of an element of media that you are
passionate about and is directly linked to the style of media you will make
in your FMP.
• This could be centred around a specific director, product, specific genre or
a social/historical/cultural context.
• You will need to write a minimum of a 1500 word essay exploring the
topic.
• You will also need to complete a bibliography of sources directly used in
your essay.
• The final section of your essay will focus on how your findings link to your
own work and your intended outcomes on your FMP this year

How is reception theory relevant when analysing
fight club ?
• Person or Studio Focus
How is [THEORY] relevant when analysing
the work of [PERSON/STUDIO]?
• Specific Product Focus
How is [THEORY] relevant when analysing
[PRODUCT]?
• Choose your person, studio or product that you will
focus on related to what you will make as your FMP
• Choose one of the theories from the

Essay Plan
• Your study should be structured using the following
– Select a director/designer/producer/studio/etc
[dependent on your area of interest] that you consider a
strong influence on your work and that you can do the
necessary analysis and investigations into, both from a
technical focus and academic focus
– Undertake macro analysis, this would be looking at the
wider context of their work [this could be historical
backgrounds, the world they operate in, influences, where
their work is seen, etc]
– Undertake micro analysis, this would focusing on specific
films/scene/levels of a game/photos/graphic designs etc
– Link this investigation to your own work and your intended
outcomes on your FMP

Essay Plan
1. Introduction to your topic (~100 words)
– Who/What did you research? What do you plan to discover through your discussion? How will you go about
doing this (macro, micro and application of theory)?
2. Introduction to your theory (~100 words)
– Explain what your theory is and its origins. What are the main beliefs of the theory? What are the criticisms of
the theory?
3. Macro analysis (400+ words)
– Context of a person: Reference their history with media. What products have they made in the past? What is
their production signature? How are they critically regarded? Any criticisms of their work?
– Context of a product: Reference the production process. Discuss the studio/company that made it and their
history. How is the work critically regarded? Any criticisms of the product?
4. Micro analysis (400+ words)
– Analyse the product/scene/specific pages/photographs/levels etc.
– Discuss the technical construction of what you are analysing (colour, composition, content etc etc) and reference
what impact each aspect discussed on the audience .
5. Application of Theory (400+ words)
– Apply your chosen theory to your chosen product/person/studio with frequent examples.
6. Your own work [~200 words]
– Talk about specific elements of the study that you will incorporate into your FMP this year;
– Link specific research outcomes to elements of your planned FMP, whether it be technical aspects, conceptual
elements or creative inspirations
– Be specific and aim to talk about 3-5 areas that you can link forward into the FMP
7. Conclusion (100 words)
– Reference general theory and your focus statement when making your concluding points
– What have you discovered from your study?
– Answer the question from your title

Academic Media Theories
• You should make specific reference to at least
one of the following media theories:
1. Auteur Theory
2. Reception Theory
3. The Hypodermic Needle Model
4. The Male Gaze
• You may find other relevant theories in your
investigations for your research document

Learning Criteria
Task 2
Essay
Task 1
Research
Document
Task 2
Essay

SUPPORT & GUIDANCE SLIDES

Micro Analysis Checklist
• Mise en scene
• Colour, costume and props discussing their subtext/connotations
• Binary opposition where appropriate
• Camera
• Shot type (Extreme long shot, long shot, medium long shot etc)
• Angle (High angle, low angle, eye level etc)
• Movement (or lack of movement with a locked off shot)
• Focus (shallow or deep focus)
• Composition (who is higher in the frame, closer to the camera).
• Editing
• Compare a minimum of two shots and discuss their relationship (are the shots the same or different? Why?
• Pace (fast or slow paced shots edited together)
• Any specific editing techniques (match on action, jump cut, montage etc.).
• Sound
• Diegesis (Diegetic, Non-Diegetic)
• Location of sound (internal, external, simple, displaced)
• Visibility of the sound (synchronous, asynchronous)
• Music suitability (parallel, contrapuntal).
• Lighting
• Key (high key, low key)
• Colour/temperature (warm, cold)
• Harshness (soft light, hard light).
• Text/Font
• Serif/San Serif
• Colour
• Font style
• Hierarchy
• Text/Dialogue
• What is being said/written

Quotes/Sources
• Reference and foreground your focus
statement regularly.
• Include your sources regularly and throughout
– Quotes, statistics, analysis, film dialogue etc
• Include a referenced source directly in your
discussion every 250 words (as a minimum).
• Update your research document as you
include additional sources (if necessary).

Types of sources
• Chosen products (films, art, magazines, TV shows, games etc)
• Books (written by or about your director/theme) [Google Books]
• Academic articles (Google scholar)
• Interviews
• Documentaries
• DVD extras
• DVD commentaries
• Reviews/Popular Articles
• Journals
• Questionnaires (survey monkey/MS Forms)
• Focus groups

Bibliography STYLES FOR DIFFERENT SOURCES
1. Film Title (YEAR) Directed by DIRECTOR [film] Location of Distributor:
Distributor.
2. “Episode Title” (YEAR) SHOW NAME. Series and Episode numbers.
Channel. Day or broadcast.
3. Game Title (YEAR) Console [game] Studio. Studio Location.
4. Artist surname, artist first initial. (YEAR) Title [details of its materials]
Location where it is. City where it is
5. Artist surname, artist first initial. (YEAR) Title
6. Author surname, author first initial. (YEAR). Title. Publisher Location:
Publisher.
7. Author surname, author first initial. (YEAR). Title. Available:
WEBLINK. Last accessed DATE YOU LAST VISITED SITE.
8. Author surname, author first initial.(YEAR) “Article title”, Magazine
(Issue Number), PAGE REFERENCE
9. In writing
“QUOTE” (INTERVIEWEE cited in AUTHOR, YEAR, PAGE REFERENCE)
In Bibliography
Author. (YEAR) “Article title”, Magazine (Issue Number), PAGE
REFERENCE
10. Anon (n.d.) Title Available: WEBLINK. Last accessed DATE YOU LAST
VISITED SITE.
1. Film
2. TV show
3. Game
4. Art
5. Photography
6. Book
7. Website
8. Magazine article
9. Citation
10.Unknown
author/date

Bibliography STYLE EXAMPLES
1. Jaws (1975) Directed by Francois Truffaut [film] Universal City,
California: Universal Pictures
2. “Gone” (2001) Spaced. Series 2 Episode 5. Channel 4. 30th March
3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) Nintendo Switch
[game] Nintendo. Kyoto.
4. Goya, F. (1819) Saturn Devouring His Son [mixed media mural
transferred to canvas] Museo del Prado. Madrid
5. McCurry, S. (1984) Afghan Girl
6. Greene, N (2007). The French New Wave - A New Look . London:
Wallflower Press.
7. Hitchman, S. (2008). A History of French New Wave Cinema .
Available: http://www.newwavefilm.com/about/history-of-french-
new-wave.shtml. Last accessed 11th Mar 2022.
8. Smith, J. (2014) “French New Wave Cinema”, Total Film (Issue 332),
p34-35
9. In writing
“QUOTE” (Truffaut cited in Smith, 1994, p25)
In Bibliography
Smith, J (1994) “Interview with Truffaut”, Sight and Sound (issue 67),
p24-25
10. Anon (n.d.) The French New Wave Available: www.realwebsite.com
Last accessed 11th Mar 2022.
1. Film
2. TV show
3. Game
4. Art
5. Photography
6. Book
7. Website
8. Magazine article
9. Citation
10.Unknown
author/date

• When
writing your
bibliography
you need to
alphabetise
the sources
• Ensure you
prioritise
books and
articles over
websites.
Bibliography

Z Library
• https://z-lib.org/ is a really useful website to get
online PDFs of almost any book in existence.
• You can look up keywords and find quotes really
easily

York College Library
Access to
ebooks online
following links
on the Opac
Use the CLASS code to
find the physical book
in the library
https://elibrary.yorkcollege.
ac.uk/opac/opacreq.dll/ne
w

Google Books
https://books.google.co.uk
/
Look for ones that
have a preview

Amazon
Can’t find the publisher information? Use Amazon as they list
everything you need for a bibliography beneath the listing.

Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/
Similar to google
books but includes
journals, academic
papers and articles

Zlibrary
Some will let you
access online, some
you may need to
download as a PDF
(you can get zlibrary to
send a copy to your
Kindle or ebook
reader)
Some features only
unlock if you have an
account. But its free.
https://cc1lib.club/
You can access both
books and journals.

YouTube TRANSCRIPTS
Access
transcripts by
clicking here
You can copy and
paste the transcript
into a word doc for
ease.
This will need
proof reading as
occasionally it gets
things wrong.

MyBib
https://www.mybib.com
/
Stores your
bibliography online
for you to copy and
paste off when your
ready.
Generates a
bibliography from a
URL- no effort
required
You will probably
need to refine this a
bit as author names
don’t always seem to
come across.

Neil’s Toolbox
http://www.neilstoolbox.com/
bibliography-
creator/reference-book.htm
Fill in the required
boxes and it will
generate the source
for you.
Different tabs for
different types of
sources
If you don’t want to
include page
numbers- just put a .
and delete once
generated.

Cite them right
You can find additional support on referencing on
https://www.citethemrightonline.com/

In text references
• Comes in 3 Flavours;
1. Regular
• Include a quote and then out the author’s surname and year of release
– Films such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), which employs the post-modern narrative focus
of an oppressed minority and applies modernistic Silver Age comics visual style through “Ben-Day Dots,
hard facial lines, and misaligned color palettes” (Cardenas, 2021),
2. Front-load it
• Mention the author, title of the book/article and year of publication before jumping into the quote
– Luke Turner authored the Metamodernist Manifesto in 2011, formalising his beliefs of the core
principals of the movement. Turner states metamodernity is “an oscillation between positions, with
diametrically opposed ideas operating like the pulsating polarities of a colossal electric machine,
propelling the world into action”.
3. Citation
• If someone was quoted in something else (like someone being interviewed in an article) you “cite”
them
– For it to have been universal across all homo sapien societies (as it is suggested) then “it must have a
social purpose” (de Waal cited in Ambrosino, 2019).

Including sources
• When including a source in your script include brief information from your
bibliography with a page reference where relevant.
Example
Truffaut uses long shot durations throughout the 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959).
Truffaut references this stating “It was an accident” (Truffaut in Smith, 1994,
p34).
12. Truffaut, F (1959) The 400 Blows
13. Truffaut, F cited in Smith J (1994) Interview with Truffaut (Sight and
Sound, issue 67)

Examples for including sources