Post 5: Audience Theory & My Short Film

For the first part of learning about audience theory we had to read some texts explaining what audience theory is. We then was put into groups and had to create a presentation on power point to show our understandings of one of the three texts. The text we produced a power point on was The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies by Philip J Hanes.

This is the Power Point we made:

http://klsmediadepartment.blogspot.com/2010/09/audience-theory-student-powerpoints.html

Next we had to watch four short films and using our knowledge from learning about audience theory analyse them using these possible audience receptions:

- Dominant Hegemonic Position
- Negotiated Hegemonic Position
- Oppositional Hegemonic Position
- Aberrant Decoding
- Moral Panic
- Mode of Address

The four short films I decided to watch analyse were About a Girl, Wasp, Cubs and Does God Play Football.

ABOUT A GIRL:

The first film I watched was About A Girl. The film lasted 9 minutes and 52 seconds. About A Girl was ironically about a girl telling a story about herself.

Dominant Hegemonic Position - About A Girl was intended to shock people with its ending and ask questions to the audience. Throughout the film whenever the girl builds up emotion it always cuts to a different scene for example with her Dad. At the end when she drops the baby into the canal it shows she can hind anything which she said she could from her mother. This makes the audience think into how she has a baby and why her Father and Mother had been so distant from her.


Negotiated Hegemonic Position - The negotiated hegemonic view that other people could pick up from watching About A Girl is what could the effect of teenage pregnancy of had on this girl. Could the pregnancy of been caused because she was so isolated from the rest of her family and as well as this when she is on the bus with her friends they talk about growing up and maybe this could of influenced it.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position - From watching this short film many people would agree with the message that comes across but there are areas where the audience could disagree with it. For example the message of the baby being thrown into the canal at the end was quite clear but people might have disagreements with it. They may look into the fact that more should of been done to help the girl to deal with teenage pregnancy and why she was so isolated from her parents.

Moral Panic - The moral panic of this films leaves the audiences wanting to know more about the girl. The audience are left questions they want answering for example why she is pregnant and why is she so isolated from her parents?

WASP:

I then went on to watch another social realism film. It was called Wasp. It lasted around 20 minutes. Wasp was about a mother living with 3 children struggling to make ends meet with money. She eventually meets a man and goes on a date with him to the pub. But not being able to find a babysitter she takes the children with her and leaves them outside. Her youngest child eventually gets stung by a wasp. 

The short film can be seen below:

Dominant Hegemonic Position - Wasp was designed to show the struggle of single parents in council estates. It shows how the lead character is living in poverty and struggling to get by with her kids. From where  the main character Zoe makes all her child swear at another mother you get the impression of poor living conditions and the roughness in working class council estates. This is also shown when Zoe does not have enough money for a babysitter so allows her children to play outside the pub. The audience would feel that Zoe is not bringing up her kids not in the correct way.

Negotiated Hegemonic Position - The negotiated hegemonic position that other people may pick up from watching Wasp could be how wrong it was for Zoe to attend her date at the pub. As she could not find anyone to look after her kids. The audience could of felt that her baby getting stung by the wasp could of been punishment for Zoe and will teach her a future lesson.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position - Some people may disagree with the message that this short film is showing because the audience may feel sorry for Zoe rather than against her. This is because it is clear that she is struggling with her kids and  maybe there should be more support for people like Zoe when times are tough.

  

CUBS:


Cubs is another short film I watched. It was another social-realism film and lasted for around 10 minutes. Cubs focuses on youth gang culture and how pier pressure is common in youths nowadays.

Cubs can be seen below:




Dominant Hegemonic Position - Cubs shows to great effect the effects of pier pressure in teenage life in British society. As an audience you see the main character Ben trying his best to fit in and impress. The audience would also feel sorry for Ben as you can see he just wants to be accepted into the gang and would go to any means possible to be so. This is shown when he shoots the fox.


Negotiated Hegemonic Position - From watching Cubs the audience would feel sorry for Ben's friend Davis. Davis says to Ben they wouldn't get picked and which they don't so. But after the idea of pier pressure is show with Ben he is persuaded to go and shoot the fox. The audience feel sorry for Davis as she is upset and disgusted with Ben's behaviour.

Oppositional Hegemonic Position - Throughout Cubs the audience is always intrigued to see what goes on next. For example when Ben is being persuaded to go with the gang the audience is interested to see if he goes with them or not. Also when he about to shoot the fox the audience wants to know what is going to happen.   

Moral Panic - Cubs always keeps the audience intrigued the short film. With Ben falling into pier pressure and seeing whether he will shoot the fox or not. There is always interest for the audience to keep watching.

Post 4: Genre as a Media Concept

Post 4: Genre as a Media Concept:

In class we discussed Genre as a Media concept and looked at some of the issues that are highlighted when discussing genre. We then compared our thoughts and views to our opening sequences that we made for our A-S projects.

We first looked at Robert Altman's views on what he believed is genre. His views are that genre's are easily recognised and are predictable to audiences. For example a recent film called The Expendables features actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. From this you expect this film to be full of high action showing big explosions and a fast paced storyline. This is what the audience expects and gets when witnessing the film. He also argues that genres are ideological, this could mean that producers and audiences have the power to decide what a genre consists of and how they want the film to be portrayed. Comparing Altman's views to my opening sequence I believed my sequence "Thug Britain" can compare to some of Altman's views as the name of our film is basically what goes on in the film with two drug dealers trying to get through life.

We then looked at whether genre would be classified as a verb or an adjective. We had a group discussion about what we thought you would class genre as and each of us gave our opinoins and views about it. As a group we came to a conclusion that genre would be classed as an adjective.

After we classified genre we was asked a philosophical question. The question we was asked was:

Where Would You Find Tomato Pure In A Supermarket?

We discussed this question in a class debate and each said where we would expect to find tomato pure. Some of the places where my fellow class mates would expect to find tomato pure in the supermarket is next to the tomato's, with the pizzas, with the packet sauces and above the freezer section. The actual place you would find tomato pure is at the freezer section. This all links to genre because if the tomato pure was stored in a different place would the item be any different. This is similar with genre as would a comedy and romantic comedy be different?

Finally we looked at Neale's and Hartley's opinions on genre. Neale says that genre is dictated by industries, media texts and audiences and believes all three have the ability to decide what a genre consists of. Hartley believes that a contract between the audience and producers discipline choices and reduces desires. I agree with these statements as I feel us as an audience can dictace what we want to see.