In japan magazines (manga) are not aimed just at kids like in more western countries. Adults are the main audience and in fact many manga comics aren't suitable for children as the feature violent and pornagraphic material.

3.6billion dollor industry mainly produced in black and white as its cheaper

If the cheap phonebook size copies get succesful then they are reprinted as paperback books asnd then occasionally become anime.

Manga : wimsical pictures

post war country, ultranationalist (bmp type thing), rebuilding politcally, literally, economically and socially after war = explosion of creativity
Osamu Tezuka was big then
boys and men became the main audience : topics = time travel space explosions

in 1969 female artist arrived and wrote shojo which = romantic emotionally intense narrative

Shonen = young boys up to 18, gross humour and action

bishojo girls = porn star style pretty girls

sento girls = heavily armed female warriors


relaxed sensorship = elicit sex scene
Gekiga = dark violent realistic manga that shows the grim realities of life

In the 80's and 90's comics like pokemon and dragon ball z made their debut.
Sales tripled in

however sales have now droped by half from 1995 for many reasons:
Online availability, sold out as it appeals to masses rather than being an art form, fanfic, not in the market in western culture as its seen as nerdy

Even though the popularity has dropped it is still a massive industry

if manga fails then things that grow from that will to and japan will loose a vital culture factor

Essay Question

How far were generic conventions a consideration in the planning and construction of either your As or A2 media production work?

For my A2 media project I chose to create a music video. To define a music video into a certain genre is difficult because surely a music video is a genre in its self. When researching my product I found that there wasn't so much genres within a music video, but that the type of music that was being used effected the conventions of the video. Pop and rap music had very sexual videos with half naked women and big cars. Rock and metal music was focused more on the bands actual performance. When planning my own music video, I looked at the genre of music that my song was and then focused on other things within that genre of music rather than film.

Some might say that genre is dead, however I think that this is a very general term. Nowadays in the film industry it is clear what sort of genre a film is as they are all churned out for a greedy audience rather than having time taken to create a real piece of text. Every now and then there is a gem that defies a a genre and makes a memorable film. I think it is more that conventions of a genre have changed rather than genre itself, by changing the conventions of a genre the genre itself evolves, not dies. Genre itself is a hard term to define as in our modern society it seems to be ever changing and different genres have been merged together to create a sort of hybrid genre, for example documentary style fiction films and lengthy music videos that could questionably be called short films such as Lady GaGa's video for Telephone.

Within my own music video when I gathered audience feedback it was said that "I though it would be better as a short film" due to its narrative nature. This could be seen as an example of the above mentioned merging however I think that I was just following the conventions found in the genre of music I used. It was sort of folky pop and I researched bands like noah and the whale and their video which was a music video for their entire album and followed a narrative through out.

Overall I would say that conventions and genre were considered however, when creating a music video the creator isn't really limited to a genre as much as in other media formats like video and literature therefor generic conventions are not a major point of consideration when creating a music video.

Steph Becker

Land of the Rising Sun

When I first found out that we were going to learn about Japan I was really excited as I have a nerdy obsession with the country. I have wanted to live in Japan for ages and it’s really interesting actually learning about it. I already had a minimal amount of knowledge about Japan, just little facts I've learnt about the country through magazines like Shojo Beat (which is now out of print). The fact the films would be in a different language didn’t bother me at all as I prefer it when a film is in its natural language rather that being dubbed. Because I already had an interest in the topic I was open to learning about it and really looking forward to it. Since studying it I have learnt a lot more facts and been exposed to different types of cinema within Japan. For example I’m not a big horror watcher however within the classroom environment I found it really interesting to watch the different sort of themes and characters there are in J-horror. I also enjoyed learning actual analyses of films by Studio Ghibli rather than just my own interpretation and about all the symbolism and the history behind studio Ghibli