The 7 camera shots

Extreme long/wide shot (ELS/EWS)

Make subjects appear small against their location and feel overwhelmed by it. It usually emphasizes the location or the feeling of isolation. In the picture below, the shot shows the location of the subject, which is being laid on a table.

Long/wide shot (LS/WS)

Also called a wide shot, is when the subject is in view but not filling the shot, this allows viewers to see the environment and the connection between them and the subject. As shown below, the box is likely a food item as it is put on the table.

Medium long/wide shot (cowboy shot)

In this shot, it reveals the surrounding of the subject but further emphasize the subject itself. Usually, when taken with a character, it is called a cowboy shot as it is filmed from the knees of the character. In the photo below, it is easy to recognize that it is a chocolate box that is located on the table.

Medium shot (MS)

This shot gets closer to the subject, showing more of the subject's features but still keeping a distance from it. As said, much more of the chocolate box details are revealed in this shot.

Medium close-up (MCU)

Even though a lot of the subject's details are shown, the subject is still kept somewhat a distance and does not fill all the frames.

Close up (CU)

This shot fills the frame with the subject, showing clearly the details of it. When applied to scenes with a character, it reveals the character's emotions and reactions.

Extreme close up (ECU)

This is the most you can fill a frame with your subject. Usually, with a character, it shows eyes, mouth, and gun triggers but for an object like the chocolate box below, the name and designs of the packaging are shown.

The 4 Key Concepts: Application

     I have been a K-drama fan since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and "Our Beloved Summer" was one of my all-time favorites. I am more into romantic comedy genres than thriller or action ones. Therefore, despite the series being 'slow' and 'boring' for some, I find it extremely fun and entertaining to watch.

Example - Our Beloved Summer (2021)

Directed by: Kim Yoon Jin

Production company: Studio N

Distributed by: SBS TV (South Korea) and Netflix

Episodes: 16

Audiences

Romance comedy K-drama have recently gained lots of viewers from all over the world with different ages, mostly ranging from teenagers to young adults, from 16-25 years of age. Since Our Beloved Summer talked about first love and youth, it could easily attract audiences experiencing it or wanting to relive their youth. 

    

A survey conducted by Korea Creative Content (KOCCA) has stated that a majority of Korean drama viewers are female, with 88.6%. Their audience includes mostly Asians (29%), Caucasians (24%), and Latinos (18.9%). Another survey conducted in Indonesia showed that on average, 41.3% of respondents watched Korean drama more than 6 times a week. Moreover, the top 20 K-dramas among US viewers were dominated by romance comedy genres and it is clearly people's favorites.

Representation

Our Beloved Summer focuses on the main characters (Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su) who are all students at the beginning of the series who start to develop feelings for one another but later on, due to different circumstances, they break up. In short, the 16 episodes tell the story of how 2 completely different human beings start from strangers to lovers, back to strangers, and eventually in love once again. This is the representation of high school students who are young and always passionate about their first love. Just like us, Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su are also ordinary 17, 18-year-old kids who make mistakes and have emotions that are hard to share with anyone but as they grow up, they learn how to open up about their feelings and become more empathetic.

    

Choi Ung was a last-place student at school who couldn't care less about studying. He enjoys drawing and reading so much that his dream is to lie down under the trees to read books and live a peaceful life. Choi Ung was definitely the representation of people who prefer to live in the moment with a stress-free life, someone who is free-spirited. Completely opposite to Choi Ung's personality, Kook Yeon Su is a girl who was always a top student at school and always strives to be better to have a bright future, just like any other students her age. Kook Yeon Su is also a very competitive girl and always wants to be the best in whatever she does.

In the first half of the series, Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su sat back once again to film a documentary after 10 years since their first went viral. At this stage of the story, the audience gets to know more about the character's personality and how they look in each other perspective. In the first 4 episodes, viewers questioned why Choi Ung hated Kook Yeon Su so much after their break up and was a bit harsh and cold towards her. 4 episodes later, after knowing Ung's innermost feelings, we tend to view Yeon Su negatively as she is the one who decided to end her relationship without giving Ung reasons for it, leaving Ung to experience post-breakup depression which has a huge effect on him after 5 years. In the end, when the full story is told, the audience finally understands the whole situation that both characters have been through and can answer all their wonders throughout the series.

Media language

Our Beloved Summer is light-hearted, humorous, and emotional. The mise-en-scene in the series shows the world surrounding Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su which includes their high school, Ung's house, Yeon Su's house, and their neighborhood. Even though there are a lot of different scenes throughout the 16 episodes, only a few locations have impacted the main character's love story. Overall, the world that the main character lives in gives people a peaceful feeling but at some stages in the series, viewers could feel the loneliness through the scenes.

Choi Ung's world on screen was surrounded by drawings of architects near his parents' home and places where he has special memories. In contrast to Kook Yeon Su, his place was mostly dark and cold as he was mostly alone in the studio, working on his drawings as an illustrator. Despite having a best friend, a close assistant, and parents side by side, the absence of Kook Yeon Su in Choi Ung's heart was hard to describe in words and could only be presented through his workspace.

    

Kook Yeon Su works as a Public Relations Expert in a small company which is directed by her close senior in the university. She works in an office, surrounded by her coworkers and they work together to satisfy clients' needs and wants. In the series, the office was only filmed in the morning when there was natural light with colleagues around, and in general, the space was a lot warmer compared to Choi Ung's studio.

One of my favorite media languages that is used in the series is the use of colors. The audience was informed by the colors that represent Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su in the first episode of the series. Choi Ung's color was blue, while Yeon Su's is yellow, these color schemes were applied throughout the 16 episodes. When both the characters are alone in the frame, the scene will look either blueish or yellowish. The combination of the 2 colors creates green and that is the color that will appear when both Ung and Yeon Su are together in 1 frame. In a scene where they recount the memories of the last day of filming the documentary, they remember each other's shoes as blue and yellow, while in reality, it is all white. Overall, I love the way they use colors and shades to fully show Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su's love for each other.

   

The use of camera angles in Our Beloved Summer was mostly medium close up as it could show the emotions of the characters but also the feeling of the space surrounding them. To create a connection between Choi Ung and Kook Yeon Su with their workspace, some wide shots were used, like the scene on the left. Choi Ung and Yeon Su are visible with the scenery that gives a youth feeling.

Since Our Beloved Summer is a romance comedy series, not a lot of abrupt sounds are heard, instead, the sound effects only include daily sounds like leaves in the wind, rain, and others that are very familiar to us. This sound effect gives Our Beloved Summer a peaceful feeling to it. 

Industry

The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion

The pre-release stage first started in March 2021 when Choi Woo Shik (Choi Ung) and Kim Dami (Kook Yeon Su) were confirmed as the main cast for Our Beloved Summer. The rest of the cast was also revealed on July 8 of the same year. The series' filming started in July 2021 and ended in December 2021. Before the official release of Our Beloved Summer, it gained a lot of attention due to the main cast as they worked together for a project in 2018, The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion.

    

On December 6, 2021, the first episode of Our Beloved Summer premiered on SBS TV at 22:00 (KST) and is also available to watch worldwide on Netflix. The series releases new episodes every Monday and Tuesday until January 25, 2022, when the 16th episode was released.

The 4 Key Concepts: Theory

 Audience

  In Media Studies, audience is defined as a group of people who consume the media products such as TV shows, films, or advertisements. There is a wide variety of different media; each could have its own audience. It is essential to understand the audiences to be able to produce products that satisfy their wants. Without an audience, no media could be made. Some factors that could be used to segment the audiences are demographics, geographic, and interest.

    Demographics is segmenting the audience by their characteristics such as age, gender, race, or ethnicity. Some media such as football is mainly watched by men while fashion or cooking show mostly have female viewers. Depending on the country or region, people will have different likings and that is geographic segmentation. Reality shows that are popular in Vietnam might not have the same hype in Europe. Creating media products could also be based on the habits and interests of the audience. Therefore, we have a variety of shows and movies with different genres to suit everyone's interests. 

2 Ngày 1 Đêm (2 Days 1 Night)

    In Vietnam, media producers fully understand what the majority population wants to see and therefore, there are multiple reality shows on YouTube with different topics to satisfy the audiences. For example, shows like 2 Days 1 Night (Vietnamese version) have huge success due to their content that could attract young adults and gain recognition from it. While reality shows are mostly targeted toward younger generations, elders prefer to watch television and therefore, most TV channels in Vietnam are more suitable for older people. 

Representation

The way media portrays particular groups of people or communities is called representation. The way media represents people could have a big impact on viewers' attitudes, beliefs, and feelings toward that significant community. Due to that reason, representation is crucial in media as it could shape and form the way we see others. 

Nhà Bà Nữ (2023) - The House of No Man
Directed by Tran Thanh

In my country, there are several films that represent a stereotypical Vietnamese and portray the image of a part of our population. A famous actor, comedian, and possibly a director named Tran Thanh has been producing a few projects that directly portray the Vietnamese lifestyle with meaningful lessons. Despite the controversies around the films, personally, I think that the image of Vietnam and its people was very accurately described in all of the films that Tran Thanh directed.

Normally on screen, Vietnam's citizens will be represented as loud, mostly poor, behind the times, and overall, very boorish. To be honest, this is the image of Vietnam decades ago and takes up a small part of the population now. However, our country has changed a lot since then and has become more polite, friendly, and updated with trends so the representation of our people on screen may not be as accurate as how we are.

Media language

The definition of media language is the way the message is conveyed to the audience. Media language is very important as it brings more depth to the media and helps viewers to understand the content better. Moreover, different interpretations could be made based on the media language and could help to attract more audiences. The media's message could be conveyed by different codes like visual, technical, verbal, and narrative codes. 

    

Visual code is the look of the media including the color, lighting, and composition. Technical relates to all the techniques used in the process of creating images and sound in a media such as camera shots, editing, and sound effects. Verbal codes include dialogue, narration, and caption. Narrative codes are the story that is told through the media. It includes the plot, character, setting, and conflict which are all used to tell the story and attract the audience to their content. 

Mắt Biếc (2019) - Dreamy  Eyes
Directed by Victor Vu

In 2019, a film based on the book of a famous Vietnamese writer, Nguyen Nhat Anh, called Mat Biec was released and it is one of my favorite Vietnamese films. The film captures the beauty of Vietnam and the visual codes that are used really help to bring out the emotions that the director wanted to convey.

Industry

Industry contains all the behind-the-scenes processes of creating media which include production, distribution, and consumption of the media content. Therefore, there is a range of business that stands behind the process such as broadcast media, digital media, advertising, marketing, newspaper and magazine, and public relations. The industry plays an important role in media as they will have the decisions to produce and distribute the media to the public to gain back success. Since media is an industry, it also has media ownership and is classified into 3 main groups: public, private, and non-profit ownership.

    

Vietnam Television (VTV)

 Public ownership is media that belongs to the government, is funded by taxes, and serves the public interest. Media owned by an individual or a corporation have private ownership, it is funded by advertising or subscription with an aim to make a profit. Media that are created with the aim to serve the social or community purpose is non-profit ownership and is funded by grants or donations. 

In Vietnam, an example of public ownership media is the Vietnam Television (VTV) which is a state broadcaster under the Vietnam government's direction and with the aim to propagate the views of the Party, policies, and laws of the government. Unlike public ownership media, there is a wide range of private ownership media in Vietnam. For example, a broadcasting channel in Vietnam named K+ which broadcasts mainly football matches, is part of the Vietnam Satellite Digital Television and is considered a privately owned media. 

About me

Hi! Welcome to my Media Studies Blog!

👋Hello! My name is Nguyen Thuy An and I like to go by the name Anna to avoid mispronunciation. I am an AS Level Media Studies student at Vinschool Central Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

💬Media Studies is an entirely new course for me as I have never encountered it in IGCSEs and at first glance, it seems to be a very interesting subject. Similar to my other AS Level subjects, I have done some research beforehand in order to get to know more about the course and have in mind a brief idea about it. Upon my research, I found out that I would be able to learn about film, music, print, radio podcasts, and video games. Besides, media texts, technical elements, and media contexts were also the subject contents that I looked for. 

📽️After a quick look through the course syllabus, film, and music was the media area that I had the most interest in. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had a lot of time to spare, and watching movies, specifically Korean dramas has become my habit ever since. Slowly, as my love for movies grew, I wanted to dive further into the meaning that the director wanted to convey and to be able to analyze the technical elements of it. As for music, I was mostly interested in the meanings of the songs and the way the message is portrayed through sound.

📸Furthermore, I have a passion for photography, and capturing life through camera lenses has always been one of my dreams. Now that I am studying Media Studies, I hope that I will be able to express myself through my work and capture my last few years of being a student at Vinschool Central Park.

🎬Aside from the content of the course, Media Studies also requires coursework with creative work such as producing a media product. I consider myself an artistic person and prefer subjects that require creativity over science-related ones, therefore, I believe that Media Studies is a totally suitable course for me. Overall, I am very excited about all the new knowledge as well as the experience I will be able to gain throughout the course and I will share all my journey here! Enjoy!