Cut down prezi of audience types & theory's;

Assessment Criteria;

All of this information is from the OCR website: OCR Specification

0. Research and planning 
   Level 4 16–20 marks 
• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed. 
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience. 
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. 
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. 
• Time management is excellent. 
• There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. 
• There are excellent communication skills. 
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. 
2. 
   
   Evaluation
   Level 4 16–20 marks
• There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
• There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
• There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
• There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
• There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
• There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
• There is excellent ability to communicate. 

0. Production
   Film 
   Level 3 
   The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: 
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene 
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects 
• recording and editing sound with images appropriately.

0. Level 4
1. 
   
   
   

   The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: 

   • shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene 
   • editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects 
   • recording and editing sound with images appropriately.

   
   

   Print

   Level 3

   The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: 

   • awareness of conventions of layout and page design 
   • awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size 
   • accurate use of language and register 
   • he appropriate use of ICT for the task set 
   • appropriate integration of illustration and text 
   • raming a shot, using a variety of shot distances as appropriate 
   • shooting material appropriate to the task set; selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting 
   • manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing. 

   
   

   0. Level 4 
      The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: 
   • awareness of conventions of layout and page design 
   • awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size 
   • accurate use of language and register 
   • the appropriate use of ICT for the task set 
   • appropriate integration of illustration and text 
   • framing a shot, using a variety of shot distances as appropriate 
   • shooting material appropriate to the task set; selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting 
   • manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing.

Audiences;

 

Theory?	Definition
Cultivation	As audiences watch more and more film and television, they gradually develop certain views about the world, some of which are ‘false’.
Desensitization	If we are exposed to too much violence, or too much blatant sexuality, we will become less sensitive to real life violence and sexual behaviours.
Copycat	This approach suggests that people will imitate what they see in the media – e.g. if young people watch Natural Born Killers, they will go out on a killing spree. This is not so much a ‘theory’ as an assumption perpetuated by the Press!
Reception analysis	Audiences are seen as active producers of meaning, rather than as merely consumers of media meanings. They make sense of media texts according to their social position (in terms of their identity) – and their gender, race, class etc.
Uses and Gratifications	Instead of researching what the media do to the audience, this approach studies what the audience does with the media. This approach also takes account of people’s personalities and personal needs.
Hypodermic Syringe	Just like the syringe used to inject a drug into a body, the media ‘injects’ messages directly into the minds of the viewers/listeners/readers; and they can be as addictive as heroin ...

This box method has really helped me understand the different types of theory's for audiences in a clear and memorable way. I think that all of the theories above are true and agree with the impact they can have on society, as my short film will contain violence i believe the 'Desensitization' theory fits in to it. This is because there is a murder but to an outside audience watching this it wouldn't seem like a big deal as they are so used to seeing murders in films that it has become a common thing. 

Audience pete buckingham what people go to see from Elaine Humpleby

Audiences;

Understanding audience theory;

Audience behaviour / patterns of consumption

Active - the audiences reacts and engages with the film positively and actively.

Passive- the audience is watching but they are not fully engaging with the film, for example a women is watching a film but glancing as a magazine at the same time.

Traditional- a person that will go to the cinema to watch films which are usually the same genre or that have the same actors/actresses starring in them.

Hedonist-

Post-modernist- someone who loves the arts and will view films in various modern ways, not only at the cinema. e.g; streaming, on t.v, online etc..

Main lesson focus:

defining audience – starting with Pete Buckingham article/ new audience groupings

Activities

1. Analyse the following terms and discuss until there is genuine understanding

Industry and institution ways of identifying

a. Preferred- a preferred way of hearing about and viewing a film.

b. Oppositional

c. Negotiated

d. Two-step flow- being told from another person who has already seen the film if it is good or not, if good this usually will persuade you to see it.

e. Distribution processes & exhibition

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

direct influence via mass media

Or: Magic Bullet Theory

History and Orientation

The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.

Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:

- the fast rise and popularization of radio and television

- the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda

- the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children, and

- Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.

 

I think that people will look at examples of this theory in different ways depending on which genre of films they enjoy, such as for me i would used Harry Potter as an example to remember what effect the theory has on audience even though it was not in the time of the theory. This is because the film has a mass audience which react directly and with power to the film straight away, in which you would with an injection so to me it is a good rememberable example. 

The genre of my short film is thriller/horror, this could slightly fit in to the theory in that the audience will react straight away to the murder within it.

Through researching i feel i understand the focus of the lesson on;


Media Languages, Forms & Conventions
I feel that i understand the forms and conventions and i know what to put in to my short film so it fits the conventions of the genre which i have chosen, i need to use these so it is effective to the audience like other films in the genre.

• Media Institutions Introduction

I feel i know how the institutions use these theories to help make their films successful as well as using the different audience groupings to market the film so it attracts the correct audience which i will also do for my short film.

•  Media audiences

I have broadened my knowledge on media audiences through researching and looking in to Pete Buckingham's article. This has made me realise how much institutions look into many different aspects to research which audience is suitable for their film/media product. 

• Media representations

I have seen how media is represented differently by insitutions and producers.

Alan Cameron; modular narrative

     

This is my narrative idea changed to fit the modular theory.

The main characters are still a male and female, but their life's will be shown in separate scenes and link together in different ways in which they meet.

I could have scenes showing the female character arguing with her parents which shows the audience the lead up to her being kicked out of her house and why it has happened.

Also scenes of the male character either trying to or killing other women so the audience knows what he is like before he meets and murders the female character but this could lose the short films element of suprise.  

Rather than meeting for the first time when the girl is upset, although this will still happen. They could walk past eachother in normal situations such as down a street or in a shop and maybe bump in to eachother showing they have seen and ignoliged eachother before. Then when they actually meet properly in the alley way they will recoginise eachother slightly which will give the girl more reason to go with him.

Settings such as these would fit in this narrative idea;

Narrative idea 2; Toderov's theory

A state of equilibrium; 
A shot of a house which we expect is a family home, the shot travels across the windows and door then to a long shot of the whole house.

A disruption; 
A teen girl gets kicked out of her house by her mother which is the opening scene of her slamming out of the door. Also another scene is shown of a male character strangling a women to death.

A recognition of a disruption;
The next scene is of her sitting crying in a dark alley way which makes the audience realise there is a problem in her life. This is from the male characters point of view as he is walking up to her, he asks if she wants to go for a drink and as she is vulnerable and wants help and company so she accepts.

An attempt to repair the damage;

They have a drink and chat then he offers for her to stay as his for the night and with him until she can find other family or friends to stay with. The audience are un sure if he is the male from the earlier shot as it was not completely clear what he looked like, they will start to think this character will look after the girl.


The girl starts to realise the man is acting strangely and that he is a psycho. He chases through street into the woods trying to get to her. This is all from the male characters point of view.

He gets hold of her at one point but she fights her way out and carries on running.

A reinstatement of the equilibrium;
The man starts shouting that the girl left her bag at the bar, she stops and realises he is a normal guy and they end up falling in love.

This is clearly not a narrative i would choose to create as it is not interesting or good. I have changed it to this to fit in to Toderovs theory. 

Narrative Structure;

This is my first initial idea which i like and it follows Propp's character theory.

Theory's;

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Tzvetan Todorov suggested there were 5 stages to a narrative:

1. Equilibrium – A happy start
2. A disruption of this equilibrium by an event – A problem occurs
3. A realisation that a disruption has happened
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption – the problem is solved
5. A restoration of the eqilibrium – A happy ending.

I believe that both of these theorists are correct, each theory may not suit every single genre but they do show clearly which ones they fit in to. I think that Propp's theory fits in to the fairytale/action and adventure genre really well as from the experience i have had from watching films within that genre they near enough always use each one of the characters that he stated but it will also fit in to other genres with similar character roles to. 

Todorov's theory fits in to a wider range of genre as it is more about the set narrative of a film rather than the characters within it which completely vary depending on the film genre and type. His theory is less pacific to a genre which is why many can apply to it, some films may mix up the order of this theory but it can be clearly seen in blockbuster films such as James Bond which is the main film i think of reading Todorov's theory as it sticks to each 5 ideas.

I think my planned short film has aspects of each of these theory's such as using 'the false hero' and 'the princess' from Propp's theory as my two main characters. I have used a typical 'princess' character as the main women role in my short film as i think it works well with my narrative and creates a connection with the audience as they feel sorry for her when she is victimised from the 'false hero'.

The reason i chose to have a 'false hero' is so that there is a huge twist within the plot to make the short film more interesting mid way through the running of it. The audience will think that the man is a hero helping the young women but as he starts to act oddly they will question his character and realise he was putting on an act all along. 

Research and planning; Narrative

-critical theory

the basics:

Narrative

Narrative is defined as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in

time” (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980).

Diegesis

The internal world created by the story that the characters themselves experience

and encounter.

Story and plot

Story – all events referenced both explicitly in a narrative and inferred (including

backstory as well as those projected beyond the action)

Plot – the events directly incorporated into the action of the text and the order in

which they are presented.

Narrative Range

Unrestricted narration – A narrative which has no limits to the information that is

presented i.e. a news bulletin.

Restricted narration – only offers minimal information regarding the narrative i.e.

Thrillers

Narrative Depth

Subjective character identification – the viewer is given unique access to what a range of characters see and do

Objective character identification – the viewer is given unique access to a

character’s point of view such as seeing things from the character’s mind, dreams,

fantasies or memories

then it can be more complex:

Modular Narratives “articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation”.

Cameron has identified four different types of modular narrative:

 Anachronic

• Forking Paths

• Episodic

• Split Screen

Anachronic modular narratives involve the use of flashbacks and/or flashforwards, with no clear dominance between any of the narrative threads. These narratives also often repeat scenes directly or via a different perspective. Examples include: Pulp Fiction and Memento.

  Memento is a 2000 American neo-noir psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his younger brother Jonathan Nolan's short story "Memento Mori".

Memento is presented as two different sequences of scenes: a series in black-and-white that is shown chronologically, and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order. The two sequences "meet" at the end of the film, producing one common story


Forking-path narratives juxtapose alternative versions of a story, showing the possible outcomes that might result from small changes in a single event or group of events. The forking-path narrative introduces a number of plotlines that usually contradict one another. Examples include Groundhog Day and Run Lola Run.

Run Lola Run (German: Lola rennt, literally Lola Runs) is a 1998 German film, written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 German marks (50,984 Euro) in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life.

 

Episodic narratives are organised as an abstract series or narrative anthology.Abstract series type of modular narrative is characterized by the operation of a nonnarrative formal system which appears to dictate (or at least overlay) the organization of narrative elements such as a sequence of numbers or the alphabet.Anthology consists of a series of shorter tales which are apparently disconnected but share a random similarity, such as all ‘episodes’ being survivors of a shipwreck.

Lost is a drama series containing elements of science fiction and the supernatural that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. The story is told in a heavily serialized manner. Episodes typically feature a primary storyline on the island, as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life.


Split screen narratives are different from the other types of modular narrative discussed here, because their modularity is articulated along spatial rather than temporal lines. These films divide the screen into two or more frames, juxtaposing events within the same visual field, in a sustained fashion. Examples includeTimecode.

The film is constructed from four continuous 90-minute takes that were filmed simultaneously by four cameramen; the screen is divided into quarters and the four shots are shown simultaneously. The film depicts several groups of people in Los Angeles as they interact and conflict while preparing for the shooting of a movie in a production office. The dialogue was largely improvised, and the sound mix of the film is designed so that the most significant of the four sequences on screen dominates the soundtrack at any given moment.

Short film research; Coming of Age

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00pb7wj

This hard hitting drama shows a young boy struggle with his new responsibilities in a brutal post-apocalyptic future.


Mise-en-scene;

The mise-en-scene is what we expect to be the area that the young boy lived in before the apocalypse happened which looks like the countryside and farmland. He is obviously lonely with his only company being his sister who looks ill. They are both not looked after which shows on his clothes and because he is covered in mud. The settings are really strong shots and all of the areas fit really well in the atmosphere and feel to the short film, they are large landscapes that are empty showing is loneliness. Using the setting of the woods when he is running away from the men creates a lot of tension because it is crowded and confined so it doesn't look like he will get away.

Character;

A young boy who has been left alone to look after a girl who seems like his sister who is ill after a huge problem happened, he is only just coping and looks very rough and unhealthy.

Sound;
The sound is quite but begins to get tense and rushed when bad things are happening, such as when the men come in to their camp and kill their friend and steal all of their belongings. There is no real sound of voices and if there is at all they sound blurred, the main sounds that have been emphasised are shocked noises and the sound of running footsteps when the boy is being chased. Simple sounds in this short film really makes a difference and creates tension because if there is a small noise it means someone else is there. The music at the end fits in well as it has some blurs in it which sounds the same as how the characters speech was blurred. 

Plot;
The plot is very hard hitting to the audience and i personally think it works really well showing a glimpse of what people would think an apocalypse would be like, using a young boy and girl makes the audience engage more as they feel for them being left alone fending for themselves. The audience feels sorry for the characters as there is a risk of death for them around every corner, the boy has to steal to get food and medicine for the girl but is risking his life doing so. When the boy reaches the house we expect that he is safe but seeing the men who where chasing him appear shows otherwise. The fact that he kills one of the men and the other man has a chance to kill the boy but doesn't is a big twist in the plot. 

Camera shots and angles;
There is a variation of shots and angles that work well in this short film, the quick flashes of what is happening at the beginning looks really good because it creates a tension and shows the horrible circumstances they are living in and that young children have to see death. When the boy is running away from the men the shots and angles look like they are from a handheld camera of someone chasing him so it feels as though we as an audience are to. Also when he is running the camera is sometimes on his face which shows his scared expression. 

Editing;
The editing works well to create tension, when the boy is walking off somewhere to find resources the shots are much longer to let the audience think of where he is going. When he is running away the shots are short and quick which create a tension of what is going to happen. 

Conventions in my swede film;

The conventions i have used in my swede film are a key to the plot, that it is about characters who's hobby is to drive cars with dramas happening in the middle. The title is at the begging which is a common convention but i do not have my name for who it was created by which if i created this project again i would definitely add in. I have shots of the characters legs which similar to the se7en ots gives the audiences a glimpse of part of their body which makes the audience wonder what they look like until they see a full shot of the characters. I also have music which fits in and works with the genre and swede, the setting is on a street which also fits in the genre. I did not include the cast members name in my ots which i would include if i were to add to it, my ots shows the props of cars which were needed for this swede. If i were to create my ots again i would use much more of a variation of shots and angles to make it more interesting. 

Fast & Furious 6 Sweded from Lucy Easton on Vimeo.