ASY1 A Level Media Studies (Eduqas) Compoenet 1 Section A Advertising & Marketing Kiss of the Vampire Media language and representation

1. Component 1
Section A
Advertising & Marketing
Media Language &
Representation
Case Study 3:
Kiss Of The Vampire

2. What type (genre) of media
product is this?
How can you tell?
What are the codes (and
genre conventions) that are
present?
Which decade is this media
product from?
Which clues suggest the
decade to you?
Kiss of The Vampire: Language

3. Kiss of The Vampire
Product Context,
 Produced by Hammer Film Productions and
distributed by J. Arthur Rank and Universal,
 Kiss of the Vampire was intended to be the
second sequel to 1958’s Dracula, although
the film’s script actually makes no reference
to Stoker’s character.
 This is perhaps to distance itself
from unfavourable comparisons to the
superior Christopher Lee who starred in the
original film.
 In addition to Dracula, Hammer had, by
1963, success with other ‘monster movie’
franchises such as The Mummy and
Frankenstein.
 Distributers Universal also saw early
success with films in this genre.

4. Kiss of The Vampire: Historical
Context
The film was released in 1963.
What other significant cultural and social
developments were happening at this time?

5. Kiss of The Vampire: Historical
Context - 1963
The early stages of ‘Beatlemania’ and
The ‘swinging sixties’,
the assassination of JFK and
the Soviet Union launching the first woman into space.
The (contraceptive) pill (1960)

6. Kiss of The Vampire
Cultural Context,
 The 1960s audience for this
advert could be assumed to be
familiar with the codes and
conventions of ‘monster movie’
film posters – such as its
composition, fonts and
representations of ‘the monster’
and its (usually female) victims.
 Consider the following posters.
Identify and note down the genre
conventions of horror film
posters at this time.

12. Defining Genre
 Write down what you understand by the term genre
on a post it note and stick to the board at the front.
How do you think genre benefits media
industries (producers) and audiences?

13. How do audiences benefit from genre?
• Enjoy the familiarity of genre texts, we like to know what to expect.
• We know certain texts will fulfill different gratifications, expectations &
evoke different response.
• BUT variety is needed or we will become bored.
• Can exploit a winning formula & minimise taking risks
• Helps institutions budget & plan
• Can find out what audiences currently enjoy & offer something
similar.
How do producers benefit from genre?

14. Professor Stephen Neale &
Genre Theory
Credited with the following ideas:
• Genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also
marked by difference, variation, and change
• Genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from
and overlap with one another
• Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and
industrial contexts.

15. Kiss of The
Vampire
Genre?
 What are the genre codes
and conventions for this
media text?

16. Kiss of The Vampire: Textual Analysis
How has the text been constructed to create meaning?
Remember – use denotation/connotation.
Apply the following terms:
 Visual Codes (colour, gesture, costume, design and
layout, iconography, etc)
 Technical Codes (Camera - framing, angle, image
editing & composition).
 Verbal Codes (Lexis, mode of address, rhetorical
devices, typography, etc.)
 Narrative: Barthes’ Codes (Hermeneutic, proairetic,
semantic, symbolic, cultural), Characters –
archetypes, protagonist/antagonist, audience
positioning
 Representation: Stereotypes –
reinforced/challenged, simple/complex

17. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
The capitalised, serif font of the title
creates connotations linked to the
vampire film genre with its ‘wooden’
styling (referencing the vampire’s coffin
or the stake needed to kill him perhaps)
and the blood dripping from the letter
V’s ‘fang.’

18. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
The use of a ‘painted’ main image is highly
conventional of films of the period and links to
the poster for Christopher Lee’s Dracula, but
the fact that it’s in colour (anchored by the text
“In Eastman Color”) connotes that this is a
modern telling of an older story.

19. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
The gloomy grey, black and brown colour
palette reinforces the film’s dark, scary
conventions while the red highlight colour
draws attention to the attacking bats, the
vampire and the blood – all key visual
signifiers for the genre.

20. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
Conventionally, the stars are listed with the
more highly paid male actors first and in order
of fame, Clifford Evans having starred in
Hammer’s 1961 hit Curse of the Werewolf.

21. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
Suspense is created through the
enigmas surrounding the
connoted relationship between
the male and female vampires
(emphasised by the “kiss” of the
title) and the fate of their two
victims (Barthes’ Hermeneutic
Code).

22. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
Barthes’ Semantic Code could be
applied to images of the bats and
their conventional association with
vampirism and horror in general.

23. Kiss of The Vampire: Semiotic
Analysis
The Symbolic Codes (Barthes) of
horror, darkness and fear are more
widely reinforced through signifiers
such as the moon and the male
gesture code.

24. Kiss of The Vampire:
Representation

25. Kiss of The Vampire:
Representation: Social and Cultural Context
The 1960s is often seen as a period of societal
change including the start of women’s sexual
liberation, aided by events such as the
introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1960.

26. Kiss of The Vampire:
Representation: Social and Cultural Context
More women than ever were entering the paid
workforce and sixties feminists were campaigning
for equal pay, an end to sexual harassment
and more equality between men and women in
wider society. In America, equal pay legislation
was passed in 1963.

27. Kiss of The Vampire:
Representation: Social and Cultural Context
‘Older’ stereotypes of women as passive victims
of men and more modern ‘male fears’ of women
challenging male dominance could both be seen
to be encoded in this film poster.

28. Kiss of The Vampire: Representation
What parts of the ‘world’ (i.e. groups of people,
places, ideas, etc) are portrayed?
Are these representations stereotypical?
Do they go against stereotype in any way?
How is media language used to construct these
representations?
What values and beliefs (ideologies) are present
within the representation?
What factors do you think have impacted upon this
representation?

29. Kiss of The Vampire: Representation
Older’ stereotypes of women as passive victims of
men and more modern ‘male fears’ of women
challenging male dominance could both be seen to
be encoded in this film poster.
Stereotypical:
Both women wear pale dresses made of light
materials and these dress codes serve to reinforce
their femininity by highlighting the curves of their
bodies and revealing the flesh of their upper chests
and arms.
The gesture code of the woman on the left is that of
the stereotypical passive victim of the ‘monster’.
His power highlighted by the fact that he’s holding
her by just one arm.

30. Kiss of The Vampire: Representation
Non-stereotypical:
Baring her teeth and with her arm almost fist-like as
she’s being bitten by the bat, the second woman’s
gesture codes are more aggressive, and the
submissive pose of her male ‘victim’ (including being
on his knees with his head back and throat exposed)
represent her in a non-stereotypically dominant
way.

31. Kiss of The Vampire: Representation
What values and beliefs (ideologies) are present
within the representation?
What factors do you think have impacted upon this
representation?

32. Kiss of The Vampire: Applying Theory
Stuart Hall & Representation
Credited with the following ideas:
Representation is the production of meaning through language, with
language defined in its broadest sense as a system of signs
The relationship between concepts and signs is governed by codes
Stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few
simple characteristics or traits
Stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power,
as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or
‘other’ (e.g. through ethnocentrism)
How might you apply these ideas?
How are signs and codes used to produce meaning?
What codes form part of a ‘shared conceptual road map”?
Are the representations stereotypical?
Does the use of stereotypes reflect the power held by groups in
society?

33. Kiss of The Vampire: Applying Theory
Stuart Hall & Representation
Credited with the following ideas:
Representation is the production of meaning through language, with
language defined in its broadest sense as a system of signs
The relationship between concepts and signs is governed by codes
Stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few
simple characteristics or traits
Stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power, as
subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or ‘other’
(e.g. through ethnocentrism)
How might you apply these ideas?
The images of a castle, bats, the vampire’s cape and dripping blood form
part of the “shared conceptual road map” that give meaning to the
“world” of the poster. The audience is actively encouraged to decode
this familiar generic iconography.
Stereotypes of sexualised, female victims are familiar to audience but
also challenged by stronger, countertypical representations, reflecting
the rising power of women in society at this time.

34. Kiss of The Vampire: Applying Theory
David Gauntlett & Identity
Credited with the following ideas:
The media provide us with ‘tools’ or resources that we use to
construct our identities
In the past the media tended to convey singular,
straightforward messages about ideal types of males &
female identities The media today offer audiences a more
diverse range of stars, icons and characters from whom we
may pick and mix different ideas
How might you apply these ideas to this text?
Are there examples of ‘role models’ within the text audiences
could base their identities on?
Are these identities straightforward and singular or diverse
and complex?

35. Kiss of The Vampire: Applying Theory
David Gauntlett & Identity
Credited with the following ideas:
The media provide us with ‘tools’ or resources that we use to
construct our identities
In the past the media tended to convey singular,
straightforward messages about ideal types of males &
female identities The media today offer audiences a more
diverse range of stars, icons and characters from whom we
may pick and mix different ideas
How might you apply these ideas to this text?
The female vampire could be seen to act as a role model for
women struggling against male oppression or desperate to
be seen as the equals of men, whatever the narrative or
environment.

36. Kiss of The Vampire: Applying Theory
Stephen Neale & Genre
Credited with the following ideas:
• Genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked
by difference, variation, and change
• Genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from and
overlap with one another
• Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and
industrial contexts.
How might you apply these ideas to this text?
What are the generic repetitions which are used across the
posters (images, text, character roles, themes etc)?
What does Kiss of the Vampire offer to audiences which is new?

37. Kiss of The Vampire: Applying Theory
Stephen Neale & Genre
Credited with the following ideas:
• Genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also
marked by difference, variation, and change
• Genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from
and overlap with one another
• Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and
industrial contexts.
How might you apply these ideas to this text?
Neale argues that audience pleasures are derived from
generic repetition and difference.
This film poster repeats much of the symbolism associated
with Hammer and Universal horror films and the wider
‘monster’ and vampire genres, but adds difference through
the connoted power of the female protagonist and the
implied romantic narrative.

38. Professor Stephen Neale &
Genre Theory
Credited with the following ideas:
• Genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also
marked by difference, variation, and change
• Genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from
and overlap with one another
• Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and
industrial contexts.
How might you apply these ideas to this text?
What are the generic repetitions which are used across the
posters (images, text, character roles, themes etc)?
What does Kiss of the Vampire offer to audiences which is
new?

39. Professor Stephen Neale &
Genre Theory
How might you apply these ideas to this text?
What are the generic repetitions which are used across
the posters (images, text, character roles, themes etc)?
Familiar horror genre conventions: iconography (bats, castle,
blood), vampires,
What does Kiss of the Vampire offer to audiences which
is new (variation/difference)?
Varied representations of gender – women both as victim
and threat, men both as vampire and victim – reflective of
changing gender roles in society