Post 5-Audience Theory and My Short Film

In class we looked at 3 different approaches to audience theory. We where divided up into three groups and each looked at a different theory. The first theory that was looked at was by Philip J Hanes, some of his believes were that’s audiences are vital in communication, if it wasn’t for the audience media wouldn’t exist. He also believes that texts have many different possible meanings. The main theories that we looked at were

•  Uses and Gratification model, this is looking at how media affects audiences and the relationship that the audience has with the media. For example person reasons, to look for companionship. 
•  Screen theory, here we are looking at what meanings where made from the text and how it was achieved. For example the use of camera work and shot sizes.
• Mode of Address here we are looking at constructing audience’s thoughts and issues raised about the media.
• Hypodermic model. There we are looking at how the audience is passive and information that is transmitted is processed without any attempt.

By looking at these different theories and approaches before analysing short films was very helpful as I now had a much better and clearer understanding on what I was being asked to do. I now know the different ways, in which the audience receives and holds information for media texts, the ways media texts are used by audiences and the effect different camera work has on an audience.

This is a link to look at the presentation  that we did in groups in class. Our Student PowerPoints


Analysing short films
I will look at 4 different short films and analysing them for the following possible audience receptions
1. Preferred Reading / Dominant hegemonic position
2. Negotiated Reading / Negotiated hegemonic position
3. Oppositional hegemonic position
4. Aberrant decoding
5. Moral Panic
6. Mode of Address
7. Profile the Target Audience (this will be linked into the success of the film so check out how it did at festivals etc, and what these festivals represent, are looking for).
8. Consider the viewing environment

About a Girl
This short film was produced in 2001 by director Brian Percival and written by Julie Rutterford. Its is a short 9 minute film and follows the life of a 13 year old girl, looking at her personal life, dreams for her life and the troubles that she has to deal with.

Dominate Hegemonic
The audience start to understand and recognise the girl’s lifestyle and her background that she comes from, in addition to her lifetime dreams of becoming a pop star with her friends in a girl band. The most dominant message the audience receives is that the girl has been desensitised by her parents, which mean she doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. This is supported when she throws her baby into the water in the last scene.


Oppositional Hegemonic
The audience can understand her feeling of being neglected by her father and sometimes by her mother. She is seen as second best to her father and how his life if more important than looking after his daughter. We understand her ambitions to make something of herself with her life and move away however, the audience won’t understand and agree with her throwing her baby into the water.

Negotiated Hegemonic/ Aberrant Decoding
The audience can both agree and understand with the girl and the actions she has taken due to her life and upbringing. However this could turn the other way and completely disagree with what the girl has done, as it in today society such actions are seen as unacceptable. I also think that it’s exploring teenage pregnancy and what is their ability to become mothers at such young age.

Moral Panic
The closing scene of the girl throwing the baby in the water gives the audience an intense feeling. This is due to the actions being so unexpected meaning that most of the audience would disagree with what they have just seen. The message that is given leaves the audience psychologically asking questions about why she did it.

Mode of address
The relations between addresser and addressee are constructed in this text by looking at the Working class, and what it’s like coming from a poorer background. The messages behind the film are aimed for a Middle class audience, as they wouldn’t have experience of what life it’s like for the girl. The middle class are seen as outsiders and looking in to a different world and way of living. The short film starts with trying to get sympathy from the audience but the final scene instantly changes to shock tactics where its shows that she is no better than her parents. Which shows and reflects she has no regard for life.

Target Audience
This short film won many awards in the 2001 BAFTA for best short film, Edinburgh Prize best short film and the Turner Classic movie shorts top place. The Edinburgh Film Festival aims to present both UK and international movie premieres and to exhibit the work of filmmakers. I think the target audience is for older teenagers and adults directed at the upper class population.

Viewing Environment
I think this short film would be better shown in small groups, as it would make the film more intense and increase the shock tactics that they have used. However in larger groups you could discuss your own reason as to why she would have chucked her own baby away.



Frendo
Is produced by FourColourFilms and is an independent film company from Lincoln.

Dominate Hegemonic

From the short film the most powerful message that the audiences receives is how going out regularly drinking and taking drugs can have a Permanente affect on your life and health. In addition to the ways in which it can be affecting other people around you, which you may not realise.


Oppositional Hegemonic
The audience can relate to the man wanting to go out and have a good time with friends, but the audience may disagree with how much he had to drink and the actions that he took.

Negotiated Hegemonic
From a teenage point of view I think this film is very rateable as it’s seen as common behaviour in today's society, even though we as teenager/ young adults may not think at all about the effects it could be having. However I think to an older adult audience the film would have more of an impact and they would disagree with the way he is treating his body and people around him. This may be due to the fact they have more life experience and now gone through that stage have a better understanding of what its like.


Aberrant Decoding
The audience could get the impression that it wasn't his fault that he was drinking and taking drugs but he was being influenced by his friends to act in this behaviour.

Moral Panic
The audience can get the sense of unease when watching this short film due to the affects his lifestyle has on his body. As well as how his actions have lead to him being left on his own while at the same time driving everyone closes to him away.

Mode of address
The relations between addresser and addressee are constructed in this text is by the producer showing the audience what effects behaving in such way can have on your life. The producer may hope that by watching the short film it will make the audience think about what they are doing to their health, as well as how it makes people feel to be around them when they are behaving in a way that they don’t approve off.

Target Audience
This short film was the BBC winning short film in 2009. I think the target audience for this film would be older teenagers and trying to make them think about their own lives.

Viewing Environment
I think this short film would have a bigger impact on a large group of people where they can talk and compare their own story's as think of ways as a group they can discuss ways in which they can make sure the same think doesn't happen to them.



The Black Hole

Dominate Hegemonic

The message that the audience is given is that the man has been given this black hole on a piece of paper and now he has the power to take anything he wants by using this black hole. The most powerful message that the audience gets is that you shouldn't take what isn't yours, and to think about as a person how greedy are you really.

Oppositional Hegemonic
From the audience’s point of view we can understand why he is taking the money and chocolate with the new power his has but, we can disagree that he is being greedy and taking what doesn’t belong to him. Asking to ourselves and questioning is what the man is doing right or wrong?

Negotiated Hegemonic/ Aberrant Decoding
The audience can get the message that the man is getting what he deserves when he gets suck in the safe because he is taking what doesn't belong to him or they could get the message that he is being cleaver and wise with his new power by using the Black Hole.

Moral Panic
From the audience’s point of view we get a feeling that something bad is going to happen to the man when he is using the Black Hole, this is reinforced by the music that is continually played. As there is no dialogue the audience will play more attention and watch more carefully. This is shown on the last scene where he gets stuck in the safe by accident.

Mode of address
The relationship between the addresser and addressee are constructed in a text by the producer showing the audience what you could do if you knew you couldn't get caught out but, also makes the audience think about how greedy we as humans, as well as when should be say stop and go no further.

Target Audience
This short film was the winner of the Smalls Award in 2009, which is won by most votes from the judges. I think the film has a wide target audience and would appeal to a wide range of people. This is due to the fact that it’s comical and funny. But I think there is the hidden meaning of greediness that only an older audience would understand. The short film is very popular and has over 7 million views on You Tube.

Viewing Environment
I think that this short film would be better shown in large groups of people as it would become more comical.


DoodleBug
Produced by well know and successful Christopher Nolan as a university student.



Dominate Hegemonic

The most powerful message that the audience is getting is that a man is trying to catch some sort of bug running around his room, and him not being able to catch the bug, which is making him crazy. We see the man on edge and looking quite scared from whatever is making the noise as he doesn’t know where its coming from. Another powerful message the producer could be trying to put forward is don’t do others as you wouldn’t like doing to you, this is from the last scene when the man is shown hitting himself.

Oppositional Hegemonic
The audience can understand how hearing all the noises in his head and how annoying it is not being able to find and catch whatever is running around under him. The audience might not understand why the man would go to so much trouble to try and catch the bug.

Negotiated Hegemonic/Aberrant Decoding
From watching the film the audience might get a different meaning to what the producer is trying to say for example they might think that the man has a mental problem which is making him go crazy and mad trying to look for this bug around his room. The audience may not understand the ending when we see that the bug is in fact a small version of him and is just imitating what he is doing. I also thinking that the audience could be getting the message that you couldn’t like to be killed and squashed so why should you do it to a bug.


Moral Panic
From the music that they have used it creates a feeling that something bad or interesting is going to happen to man during the short film, however the ending is very unpredictable to the audience, which gives the film and edge. The black and white effect that they have used creates a feeling for the building and the bright lights across the room, which draws focus on the man and him moving around the room.


Mode of address
The relationship between the addresser and addressee are constructed in a text by the producer showing the audience that the man is starting to go crazy and lose him mind by the noises he can hear around him. This makes the audience feel sorry for the man as they can understand how he is feeling and how annoying it can be to hear noises and not know where it is coming from. Another meaning into what the director is trying to put forward could be murder, personally you are against murder however do you see killing an insect or bug the same as killing a human. Another example could be how in society the different social classes have an impact on the way people are seen. For example the upper class look down on the working class as so on. This is also seen in everyday life such as a teacher looks down on the children but the children then look down at the younger years. By using the bigger person it brings about may different views and interoperations.


Target audience
I think the target audience for this short film would be an adult audience as they can relate to how he is feeling and get a better understanding of the message the director is trying to put forward. I also think that an adult

Viewing Environment
I think that this film will come across better in smaller audiences or individual audiences as it’s an own personal feelings of understanding on how the man feels rather than something you would experience in a group.

Conclusion

After looking at the four different short films I feel that the films with a shock element behind them have the most powerful message/ Dominate Hegemonic message. About A Girl uses shock tactics in the final scene, I feel that this has an intentional impact on the audience and even after the film has finished the viewers are left curious and asking question. In addition I feel the short films with plots that follows problems and troubles that take place in todays society makes the audience feel they can relate and have a better understanding of the message behind the film. For example About A Girl explores what’s its like to live being working class and the effects it can have on your life and opportunities. Whereas Frendo is exploring the use of drugs and excessive drinking and the effect it can have on you as well as people around you. Both these short films have powerful messages and in turn leave the audience thinking in some way about their own lives. I did enjoy watching The Black Hole as it has a more comical to the audience and didn’t take much concentration to understand, this can also be seen in Doodlebug as its has a easy plot to follow only featuring one character and one problem. Overall I think that all short films have either have clear obvious message they are trying to convey to the audience or a much more serious in depth message that leaves you questioning certain aspects of the film. This is created through the use of different conventions as well as different genres that help reinforce the message of the short film.

When creating my own short film I also had to think about all these different conventions I wanted to use, and the effects they would have on the audience. When the audience was watching my short film I wanted it to be comical and entertaining for them however, I wanted the audience to come away with the message that there is always be someone watching no matter what your doing. In turn I wanted the audience to go away thinking about would they be happy and content with their behaviour, attitudes and outlooks of their selves if they knew someone was always watching. 

Post 4- Genre as a media concept

Genre theory is a concept that is widely used throughout the media world, however it’s not just a plain simple idea but also one that causes much controversy between many critics and audiences. Genre theory and concepts are widely recognised and nearly everyone has their own interpretation of what they think it means and the different ways they can apply it to their work. For example Chandler recognises genre as ‘ways to promote organisation but it has no way to classify works as it is always evolving’ where as work from Robert Symth quotes that genre ‘have patterns of fixity'.

From looking at many different texts it’s clear that genre is seen as a way of putting different media works into categories or lists. This can then be used as a way of analysing a text and making it easier to differentiate between two different genres,  For example in films today there are many different genres such as romance, horror, sci-fi and many more that all have their own conventions.  This is supported by Chandler who quotes that, '...by creating categories promotes organisation rather than chaos'. By creating these different categories (genres) producers can get an understanding of what  audiences are paying to go and see, by looking at box office profits. From looking at the genres that are in high demand by the producers this starts to  create more films of the same genre knowing from research that it will attract a wide audience, bringing in a large profit. McDougall quotes that ‘consider the reasons not only for the success of the genre but the conditions for the genre possibilities: that is, the interest served by it’s labelling’. I agree with this quote completely as within the different formats it gives producers and directors a chance to put their own personal stamp on their work in that genre. However ,McDougall could also be trying to say that producers use genre as a way to help market the film in a way the audience will understand. This is done through the use of conventions as the audience will have an understanding and recognise conventions from previous knowledge. Yet films also have to be creative and stretch the genre slightly to keep it original and interesting for the audience.  


There are many conventions within different genres that producers have to establish so they can become identifiable to the audience. Factors should be analysed to identify familiar conventions such as, narrative structure, themes, location, use of lighting, music and language. These conventions are quoted by Altman who says ‘the text in a genre share key characterises’. As long as a producer follows these conventions the film genre will become recognisable to the audience. Another quote from Altman said ‘the genres are defined by producers and are easily recognisable to audiences’.  This shows that as long as these conventions are seen throughout the film it should be appealing to a wide audience. However if all films had the same story lines, lighting and characters the genre would become boring to the audience and the genre would soon die out. To prevent this from happening genres have to be adapted and changed, meaning directors have to become creative and put a twist into the storyline to keeps people attention.



Producers have to be careful in what they would like to produce/direct, as they have to try and predict what they think the audience will want to see, yet, still keeping the traditional conventions. This statement is backed up by Neale whom quotes ‘genre theory is to do with circulation between industries, media texts and audience. This leads to regulated variety’. 


I can relate to this quote to when we created our opening sequence during the course work last year.  Our group tried to involve two different genres Horror and Mystery as well as promote it to two different audiences. The two different audiences where older teens as this was the age of our main character and could find it relatable, our second were adults who could have an interest in murder mystery stories.


The genres are 'ideological’ this is a quote from Altman which I agree with.  If I think of ideology, as have three points on a triangle; the idea, people and power, the people in the triangle have to be in a high class and have large amounts of power for example the producers or directors.  These people have the power and money to push their products to the biggest audience they can. In many films today we see many different genres combined in just one film. This is a very clever thing for a producer to achieve, as it will be appealing to a much wider audience and will bring in a much larger profit.
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After looking at many different approaches to genre theories and the different ideas that people have towards this concept, I now have much more in depth knowledge of how genre can affect a film production. When it comes to starting to think about my own short film that I will be creating I will think carefully about what genre I would like to produce and what kind of audience that will appeal to. I will have to think about the different conventions I will be using as well critically thinking about ways in which I can twist and change them to make the story line my own and not be copying any previous films of that genre. From thinking back to my previous task last year to create and opening sequence, I feeling that as a group we didn’t spend enough time thinking about what conventions we should be following and what kind of audience it will appeal to. If we had thought more carefully about these things I think our opening sequence could have been a lot stronger.