Post 5: Audience Theory & My Short Film

The first short film I watched for my independent study was “Mister Green” by Greg Park. “Mister Green” is a preferred reading; the plot is encoded by producers to sets a parallel regarding change through delicate and political events. The plot elaborates upon a variety of procedures that are vital in today’s society; global warming is present and has moved from theory to fact. Critic David Morley explores the idea that “meaning is considered to be what audiences make of the text, taking away most of the power of the producer and the text”. This reinforces upon the suggestion that texts have many different possible meanings which are interoperated mainly by the audience.  Within “Mister Green” it is the audiences who do in fact inchoate the initial theme and enable responses regarding their interpretations of the specific media text. With this in mind, there is a direct link to the point mentioned above that “Mister Green” is a preferred reading.

 

After watching the slightly complex and heavy “Mister Green” I followed by watching and analysing the poignant and optimistic “The Other Side” by Amyn Kaderali. The film opens in a destitute, deserted town in the year of 2040. A radio report in Spanish gives us a glimpse of the situation present with the characters on screen: The redundancy rate is at 86%, gangs are running rampant and food and water is to a great extent scarce. Whilst watching the film as well as analysing the structure of the journey through the countries of different wealth, I noticed there was an deviant decoding representation through the journey and relationship between father and son. Amyn Kaderali seeks to provoke American audiences into considering a different perspective.. What if we American’s were one day immigrating ourselves? Similarly to “Mister Green” “The Other Side” had a noticeably small cast and crew, this reflects on the idea that they are primelarly organised by a smaller institute due to a small and strained budget.

“Plastic Bag” by Ramin Bahrani focuses on a story line with two interpretations. The original plot includes the story of a literal plastic bag and as the film develops, so does the audiences relationship with the bags journey and where abouts. This short film also appeared to have a more oppositional hegemonic position, due to this as an audience you begin to question the actions of the bag’s owner and follow in depth in hope of a "happy ending". The expedition of the plastic bag has the voice of Werner Herzog. It is obvious that every viewing environment would scrutinize this film in diverse ways. This reinforces the idea that the producers have tried to look at the Uses and Gratifications to see what appeal to audiences and whether the plot line had potentional.

The final short film I watched was “Celebration” by Daniel Stedman. The film was only 4:49 minutes long and primarily focused on the relationship with the mother and child. Daniel Stedman follows the stereotypical role of the mother and son and demonstrates this through chosen character movement. With very limited dialogue the production has a noticeably negotiated reading, meaning readers will adapt the preferred meaning so it fits with what we as the audience want it to. As the film comes to a close, the message is delivered to the audience that the boy is a homosexual, this then obliterates any stereotypical images presented and explores a hidden path. For audiences, this can be seen as a perilous method, but in this case it can be affective. The message audiences see and the message that the producers intend on us seeing appears to be decoded in most cases throughout this short film. The mode of address of the film is from the boy’s point of view and his journey to telling a selection of people about his sexuality and the film terminates with them being happy with his decision and applauding him.

The following link opens up a variety of power point presentations based upon the class notes on audience theory. They all include different opinions and critic evaluations, the majority of the notes have been simplified by students so we ultimately get a better understanding of the theory and all that comes with it.
audience-theory-student-powerpoints.

Post 4: Genre as a Media Concept

For our exam preparation and pre-production work we had to analyse Robert Altman’s views on genre theory and the variety of points he considered. When doing so we had a class discussion and took down notes on each slide presented to us. With relation to the notes, I have specifically linked them directly to my opening sequence made last year, as well as ideas regarding the short film we are planning on making.


 First Slide. KLS Media Department

Throughout the opening slide, point was made referring to films that could be seen through a variety of genres. Altman quoted “that texts belong clearly to a particular genre in each case” With this in mind; the majority disagreed with the fact that every film is just one particular genre. It is virtually impossible for a film to be one specific genre, this was highlighted throughout the use of the example film of Little Miss Sunshine. The film uses a  hybrid of genres; this gives them a chance to bring in more than one selected audience encouraging a wider spread of their films and ultimately making more money in the long run. Similarly, the first point Altman made was “That genres are defined by producers and are easily recognised by audiences”. Whilst noticing that the majority of films were simple to define, there did how ever appear to be the occasional film which left audiences in confusion. In relation to our short film produced last year, their appeared to be a variety of feedback regarding the genre specified. As producers we had a set genre in mind, but portraying this to audiences appeared to be more difficult than anticipated. Criticism told us that our films genre was “hard to understand” or “not obvious enough”. With thus in mind, when developing upon our short film we plan to make we need to ensure our genre is specific enough for audiences to relate to and acknowledge. 


Thirdly, Altman said “That genres develop in predictable ways” this does in fact refer to the specific genre we chose to establish when making our opening sequence last year. As a group we followed the codes and conventions of a romantic comedy. It did fulfil the genres potential and show implications of a fairy tale stereotypical “happy ending” but still to some became unrecognisable as to what precise genre it was. Although, this is not the case for all films, some films effectively make audiences shocked or include a twist of events that occur when you are least expecting them to do so. With this in mind, it depends initially on the plot of the film rather than the genre when referring to it developing in predictable ways.


Following the previous point, Altman said “That texts in a genre share key characteristics” this implies that what Altman calls “characteristics”, we know better as the name conventions. Whilst making our opening sequence of a film with a specific genre, we had to be cautious that we followed the codes and conventions of that specific genre carefully. If we followed this successfully it would ultimately lead to a more positive response from audiences.


Slide Two. KLS Media Department
Next is a comment from J McDougallregarding a division of films into set genres and subgenres. Due to this, he developed upon the point that as the audience we do have a habit of putting films into logical natural patterns. With this in mind, it is clear that films of a psychological comedy, wouldn’t match so this wouldn’t appeal to audiences nor be popular.



Finally, the last quotation from R Altman reinforces a lot of questioning about the word ‘genre’ itself. Seeing genre as a noun is possible as it is a quality a film has, the actions that take place reinforce the quality which appears to be the genre. This also can be looked at from the contrasting side: a genre would normally be judged as an adjective. “Genre” is a word that expresses an attribute of something. Whilst doing and being both, it also will be an object or quality, not to the extreme that a genre is an object like a table, but it does have object like qualities. Concluding, defining genre is more difficult than expected and with regards to media texts there is no specific answer.

Third Slide. KLS Media Department

This slide related to tomato puree created a lot of questions with regards where you do in fact place different genres. This idea was demonstrated with a variety of questions with regards to thinking about the location of tomato pure. This left us to compare its existence with the genre theory. It is not always as easy as it seems! Some suggested that tomato pure would belong in the tinned food section, or with pizza’s or pasta.. Just like genre’s, some may suggest that James Bond is action and adventure, but others might see it from the romantic side of James Bond’s love affairs. Not every question is as easy as it seems and this became very clear by the end. Applying this to a variety of films was popular and made us question the basic genres in today’s society. The packaging of the tomato pure does determine where it is sectioned; this similarly links to the packaging of a media text. The target audiences can depend on what you highlight to be the most vital point of your advertisement.

Fourth Slide. KLS Media Department

On the final slide I chose to elaborate upon J McDougall commented about when considering the genre it is not about how the genre works, but why the genre works in the way it does. With this is mind, and after making an allowance for all the points made it is understandable that the expectations of films raises along side the popularity. For example, when Star Wars first began, the special effects were amazing, but now they appear to be basic in comparison to what the ability of special effects have developed to within time. Movies running with special effects today have a much higher expectation that they need to meet to please their demanding and ever growing audience