Audiences

Audiences are identified for what they are watching, and why, this is known as uses are gratification theory. This looks at the idea that people watch different media texts for certain gratifications. An example of this is people watching horror films to be thrilled, as an example.
Audiences can receive media in different ways, and according to Stewart Hall's Coding Theory, there are four categories :
Preferred Reading: How the media is intended to be seen
Opposite Reading: Opposite to what it intended to be seen as
Negotiated Reading: That it is understood how it is intended to be seen, but is not agreed with
Aberrant Reading: When there is no understanding of how it is suppose to be seen

In this day and age, this is heavily applied to adverts, who often produced surprisingly simple adverts which often do viral. It is more likely entertaining adverts go viral. And example of this is a T mobile advert which was launched during the Royal wedding in 2012. The advert was satirizing the royal wedding. This gathered a lot of attention as people found it amusing and it rapidly became viral. However, there was a small minority of people who mistook the advert as real. This shows that media such as adverts have great sway over people

 Audiences are generally categorized into different stereotypes for the purpose of marketing and generalization. One stereotype that has emerged in the past 20 years has been metrosexuality which over time has become more and more normally for the average person to pursue. During the time it first emerged, it was parodied in various forms of media.  

Applied to horror films, audiences are great and varied, are there are many different types of horror, such as Hammer Horror, as an example. The opening sequence I am producing is a more modern take on horror, it being more mysterious than more straight to the point horror films such as Friday the 13th. The sequence we have produced however is aimed at a similar if not slightly older audience, as it does not flow completely as a traditional horror would do. However it does keep the convention of that there is often a murder in the beginning of the film, such as in Halloween.

Representation in Horror Films

Horror has been a long running genre ever since the beginning of the film industry the representation of Horror has evolved over the years. In modern times, from the 70's onward, representation has changed drastically. From here, it went on to represent teenagers and young adults. This opened up various different ways Horrors are represented

There were often two lead roles in Horrors, the Antagonist, who was often the murderer or the spirit, and often the case a One female Protagonist, who would be one of the few characters not to be killed, and often deals with the antagonist, an example of where this can be seen is Nightmare on Elms Street.

Representation in Film Noire

Representation of the Femme Fatale

The Femme Fatale is a common sight in Film Noire. They are represented in a vastly different way to what was seen in society at this time. The Femme Fatale is dangerous, manipulative and selfish character, only out to benefit herself, nomatter who's strings she has to pull. However, Hays Code which was pushed into films during the 30's onwards, made it so the Femme Fatale or any other villain of the film has to suffer punishment at the end. Throughout the genre, it is always the femme fatale who always manipulates the main character to do has she wishes, be that to steal or kill. This is interesting as it takes a spin on the power balance which was seen in American society in this time. Women were suppose to remain within the household to do chores while the male of the household works. This is different in Film Noire, as the Femme Fatale is strong and independant, doing her own thing for herself.

Feedback November

Your script shows much promise and an awareness of the codes and conventions of the genre.

You are working at level 2 for research and planning but can achieve level 4 if you publish all your posts as your group work is very promising.

 

To reach level you must publish your;

• Maltese Falcon analysis
• Analysis of the opening sequence of 'Seven'
• Discuss the codes and conventions of film noir in more detail
• Preliminary task
• Storyboard

Targets for November

Film

Risk assessment

Edit

Consider sound and titles to add meaning and atmosphere

Manage your time effectively

Ensure that the web-log reflects your planning and research fully

AS Media Production Research

A good media production must keep to a certain set of rules in order to have good quality. I have watched productions done by other students and picked out various strengths which help the film and weaknesses which hold the film back.
Some strengths included suitable costume. This is very important to make your film seem like effort is put into it. An example of this that if you were filming a Film Noire, it would be expected that the character playing a detective should have a costume that fits the genre. If you had a detective in casual clothes, it would be outside of the genres conventions.
Another strength I noticed was use of setting. Similar to the costume, the setting must match the type of film. In the one of opening sequences I watched, the setting went very well with the film, and did not seem out of place. Setting can often be set in the wrong location, which takes away from the illusion, such as filming a horror film in a busy park.