Audience Theories

Hypodermic Needle Effect

direct influence via mass media

http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory.doc/

Two Step Flow

The 'Multistep Flow Model' says that most people form their opinions based on opinion leaders that influence the media. Opinion leaders are those initially exposed to a specific media content, interpret based on their own opinion and then begin to infiltrate these opinions through the general public who then become "opinion followers"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-step_flow_of_communication

Uses & Gratifcations

The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion. It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.
There are three main paradigms in media effects: hypodermic needle (i.e., direct, or strong effects), limited effects, and the powerful to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-step_flow_of_communication

Reception Analysis

 This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for "negotiation" and "opposition" on the part of the audience. This means that a "text"—be it a book, movie, or other creative work—is not simply passively accepted by the audience, but that the reader / viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader.

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Reception-Theory-RECEPTION-STUDIES-AND-CLASSICALFILM-THEORY.html

 

Accessed on 01/12/11

Three Act Structure..

Act One:

It starts off blurred and focuses properly as it zooms into young David’s (Thomas Knight) face whilst he is working on his science project. He is struggling to work as he keeps having thoughts of weird & terrible events in his life, these will be shown as flashbacks. These flashbacks will represent the abuse that David suffered as a child, and will show his parents arguing, fighting, crying and the slamming of doors will give the audience an insight into David’s mind. It will also give the audience a bit of knowledge into what he had been through. He will then leaves the room for some air and time to think- this will be a medium shot.

Act Two:

The second scene will show a series of clips which build up a montage to signify David growing through time. The trailer goes from black and white to colour which will indicate change in time. The next shot is where David is sat on an empty bus, and see's himself walking past, this will be a point of view shot-reverse-shot of David on the bus and himself walking past the bus- the two personalities collide, and come together in a clever transaction. The next shot will be a medium shot of David walking to the park which will follow a shot-reverse-shot of him walking towards isolated bench. The sense of being alone and vulnerability needs to be indicated, so the shot of the park late at night will give of a lonely vibe. A long shot will then show a girl walking a dog in the park which will be followed by a close up shot showing them both talking.

Act Three:

In this section, we will show the effect of what David went through as a child, as his anger and frustration begins to show through his strange behaviour. This act is going to be very upbeat with a fast tempo of shots, aswell as music to set the scene, ensuring suspence for the audience. There will be flashing images to show confusion and the mental aspect of the film. The final shot of this act will be a shot of david looking into the mirror, he see's his younger self in the mirror as he turns to leave the reflection stays the same, it fades into a black out, with end credits. We will do this to show David's state of mind and split personality as well as insuring interest from the audience. 

Audience Analysis

Age:

• The age range for our film is 15-25 the reason for this being the characters in the film are of a similar age so therefore it can possibly be relatable the issues show in the film and allow them to grow feelings towards the characters and understand there emotions.
• While trying to decide the age range for our film, we watched a few film trailers on YouTube to see what films were similar to ours, we found Orphan. Orphan contains sexual content, violence and a lot of blood and gore. The overall rating for films that contain this content is 15/18.

Ethnicity:

• Our trailer includes Caucasian cast but it will appeal to to a wide range of ethnic groups as many mainstream productions continue to sideline mainstream talent but dont seem to suffer commercially for this.
• Our trailer will be release in the UK, but also released in several UK speaking countries, as now the UK is a very multicultural society, so it has a variety of different races who will are normally used to seeing a dominant caucasian cast.

Gender:

• The lead role is a hetrosexual male named David. His characteristics are; mousey brown, quiet, reclusive in nature and he doesn't find it easy to interact and socialise with others, as they don't understand him and find him weird and mysterious. This character will be hard to understand until the audience actually know what happened in his past and why he is the way he is.

Nationality/Religon:

• Our characters are from the West Midlands, Birmingham, it may not be as successful as it is not based in London, and most successful british films are filmed and produced there.

Sexuality:





Orphan/Juame Collett-Serra/2009

Draft Treatment

Davis is 11 he’s never been very popular and likes to keep himself to himself other kids at school would tease him for the simple fact that he is different, they would also tease him about the past of parents he wouldn’t speak to anyone and wouldn’t leave his bedroom except for when he had to go to school. His parents would shout at him and ask him why he couldn’t be normal like the other kids they would often beat him whilst under the heavy influence of alcohol and wouldn’t sometimes leave him on his own to fend for himself. He lived in a world were violence, drinking, abuse, shouting and the slamming of doors was a regular occurrence- he had nobody but himself. Davids parents passed away when he was 13 years old in a traffic accident, it is believed that they were both highly under the influence of drugs and alcohol. David didn’t have any family that he knew of therefore he was sent to an orphanage where his life took a drastic turn.

It started on a cold winter night, David was sitting in his room working on a science project, but how could he concentrate- with everything happening? All he could hear was screaming and shouting coming from downstairs so he decided to go for a walk to clear his head and get some space. As he was walked over to a isolated bench he wondered if anyone would ever befriend him or even take a little time to ask him if he was alright, suddenly he hears footsteps coming towards him, a middle aged man was walking his dog and the dog wondered towards David, conversation struck between the man and David which was regretted shortly after by the man 

My New Media Technologies Presentation.

Mood Board

The one above is our mood board and the ones above that are examples of other people's mood board. The main character in the trailer has a mental disorder which is a split personality to show this we have put a picture of a face in the center, we have given him to different eyes, one being bad and the other good. All over the board there are different words to do with the characters two sides and the story, mainly the characters mind. The lines from each picture and words are us to split the page into segments as if it were to represent the mind and its different segments. There is also a crossword on the paper that has different words on it but you cannot see what the words are but all the different words are words to do with everything that is going on in the characters mind and head. We also stuck an actual mirror onto our mood board we thought this would represent realism and the fact that some people may not be who they seem by looking into a mirror the person may not actually be what they see themselves as.

Silence of the Lambs.

Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs.

Silence of the Lambs
Director: Jonathan Demme
Release Date: 31/05/91(UK)

• The trailer starts with creepy music and quick flashing transitions of hannibal lectors face.
• Throughout the whole trailer a deep male voice over is heard describing what is happening and what may be yet to come.
• Quite a few bangs and loud noises are heard in the trailer, making it quite jumpy.
• A couple of dead bodies being carted off appear in the trailer.
• When the title comes on screen, the words come in seperately and 'silence' is in red possibly signifying blood and death.
• Creepy and mysterious music is heard throughout the whole trailer building up and building up for something to happen leading to a close up of lector and he whispers 'thank you clarice, thank you' then the titles & credits appear with more louder and more creepier music.
  
  
  

  2001/Silence of the Lambs/Jonathan Demme

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/

  
  

  Accessed on 20/11/11

‘Genre Codes and Conventions Research’

We chose to do a pyscholgical thriller.


Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller and Horror genres. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre.


The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative, this often results in the films core or the films twist.

Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative, such as visions, nightmares ect..

Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.

Existence/Purpose – The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.

Identity – The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.

Death – The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have an interest in death and murder.

We're the Average Joes!

After last lesson we were finally sorted into 2 groups, I am in a group with Nasema Khanum and Matthew Cartwright. We were fairly happy with our group and thought something good could come of it. We called our group, well our teacher decided we're called 'The Average Joes' for obvious reasons...

Decisions...

Today, we have tried to discuss what groups we want to be in for this year's project. We're finding it really hard as we want different groups from what we normally choose. We tried names out of a hat and picking ourselves but for some reason it was too difficult. So hopefully by next lesson we'll have selected our working groups and be ready to work.