Long essay notes

These are some things I have been saying repeatedly on students’ long essays they particularly relate to essays on films

In introductions you need to say what you intend to do in the essay not write a press release for the text

The structure that you use needs to be clearly based on the durational side of the essay and not just follow the key concept list in order.

You should actually use terms like narrative image and enigma, prototype, countertype etc.

You can mention previous films made by the these actors but only in terms of what they do to create a star persona and to enhance the film's narrative image.

You shouldn't write about the film itself unless it is actually specifically in your title -- you should stick to writing about its publicity. An exception to this is if you want to comment briefly on the differences between the narrative image of the film and the film itself.

The essay needs to be based around detailed analysis of different media texts e.g. the individual posters, trailers, interviews etc. which make up a campaign -- from this you will be able to make points about the key concepts.

You need to show that you understand the different levels of control the producers of a film may have over the narrative image i.e the difference between publicity materials which are created by the film's producers, things such as interviews and "making of" programs where the producers have only partial control and word-of-mouth and reviews where they have very little -- all of these form part of the narrative image of the film, but the different institutions involved mean they work in very different ways. All of this is also very relevant if you want to bring in theories of audience and effects.

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