Halloran, Richard Dyer and Stuart Hall- Audience and Representation

 

Audience is the people who engage in a media text for example watching

television. So when creating my film I had to research into whom my target

audience would be. I conducted questionnaires and did internet based

research. I am targeting a niche audience as not many people watch short films

and also the subject of the film is more specialised to a niche audience. It’s hard

to define a particular person who would watch my film as everyone is different.

But the stereotypical demographics and psychographics of the type of person

who would be interested in my film would be young adults around the ages

of sixteen to twenty-five. They would be quite indie and diversified. They

would be typically students at sixth form or university. At this age students are

very independent and as I want people to independently make a change for what

they believe in, this is the right kind of person who wouldn’t be too affected by

change and not too fix in their ways either. Being independent gives a sense of

freedom and not being tied down by the expectations of society or from peer

pressure to dress, eat, act in a certain way. So even though society is pretending

dairy farms and refugee camps are ethical, my audience would be able to not

blindly except that. As the theme of my film is slavery they would be able to

relate to the main character and feel how she does and want to make a difference.

 

I want the film to make the audience active and after watching want to find out

and research more into the issues addressed in the film and be passionate to

make a change. The theorist Halloran quotes “We need to get away from the

habit of thinking in terms of what the media does to people and substitute it

for the idea of what the people do with the media” As a society we are

becoming more and more active and not taking things for face value. This

makes my subject quite topical.

 

Blumler and Katz created the theory that media consumption is motivated by

the individuals desire to satisfy certain wants and needs that are present in

their lives. There are voids in life we need to fill with media uses and gratification.

Information is their term to describe how the audience watches films as they

want to find out information about the character and personal identity is their

term meaning that once they see similar characteristics in the main character

they then want to become like the character. In relation to my film I feel my

audience would get a sense of purpose after watching it and also be able

to relate to the character in terms of passion to stand up for what they believe

in. Leah in the film finds it hard to not act and tries to set a sapien free.

I want my audience to feel the frustration and realise they can do their bit

too. Integration and social interaction is Blumler and Katz term for sharing

what they have seen to their friends. I also want people to recommend my

film and show there friends to make sure more people are aware of the cruelty

that's happening. This personal identity with the audience and main character

means they may share the same values making it easier for the to relate to

the character and understand how she feels. Their last term is entertainment;

the film has to be entertaining so they enjoy watching the film too.

 

I also researched into Stuart Hall’s theory of ideologies. He created the idea

of preferred, negotiated and oppositional. I want my ideologies to match the

audience’s ideologies. I also want a preferred audience who accepts the

values and ideas encoded in the film.

 

Richard Dyer created the theory of the paradox of the star. Paradox one is

that the main character has to be like the audience but special. For example

in my film Leah is an everyday girl but when she sees what is going on at

the farm, she has the confidence to sneak out and set one of the sapiens

free. Paradox two is that the main character is present in the audience’s life

but also absent. We think we know them but we don’t. As Leah has

similarities to the target audience it will give the audience a sense that

they know her better than they think but really they have never met her.

 

Representation is to look like or resemble. To re-present reality, within that

decisions are made which impacts on meaning encoded in the film.

I represented my main character in many ways for example shy by being

quiet and wearing dull coloured clothing. Leah is ordinary with struggles

she has had to face in life, like her father walking out when she was young,

but also extraordinary as she stands up for what she believes in.

 

Making sure my main character is represented correctly to the target

audience and understanding my target audience means they are more

likely to be active and try to make a change and be passionate about

the message in my film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Todorov, Propp and Levi Strauss- Narrative

 

The definition of narrative is a chain of events in a cause and effect

relationship occurring in time, which effectively results in the narrative

being the primary focus of stories. When writing my script for Sapiens

it was clear how fundamental narrative is.

 

The narrative in my film is structured to be linear as it is in chronological

order as you follow and learn as Leah does about how the sapiens are

treated. This helps the audience become apart of the story as the

audience feels as if they are the main character experiencing the same

things. Todorov said that narrative is exposition, disequilibrium and

denouement. This simply means that at the beginning of a film there will

be equilibrium, meaning a peaceful time where everything seems to okay

and tranquil. Then there is disequilibrium where everything seems to be

chaotic and stressful, with everything going wrong. Then new equilibrium

is the ending showing that everything is okay and everything comes

together. In my film the story starts out mysterious but still like everything

is okay as Leah goes to help out at the farm and then disequilibrium

happens when Leah discovers all the cruelty and she can’t just ignore it.

However the ending of my film doesn’t have the new equilibrium as would

be normally expected. I don’t want to conclude everything to have a happy

ending and all be fine, as the cruelty still exists in todays society and I don’t

want my audience to feel satisfied that everything worked out and now they

don’t have to act. Leah manages to save the sapien from death but there are

still millions more around the world who need help. I want them to be frustrated

and want to make a difference themselves. I used this theory of narrative to

structure my film so that I had a foundation to start my ideas with, but still

making it my own.

 

Vladamir Propp had a theory that in any story there are always going to be

seven main characters. These characters are the villain, the donor, the

dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and the hero. The hero

is the person who restores the narrative equilibrium. Leah is the hero as she

manages to save the sapien; she is also the protagonist or lead character.

The villain is the person who brings the catalytic moment and in my film the

villains are the farmer and the slaughter man. However the farmer is also the

helper, the helper is the person who aids the hero. The farmer allows the

sapien to get the treatment it needs. The princess is the sapiens who needs

saving and that who is threatened by the villains. The doner is the person who

gives the hero something. I see the pregnant sapien as this character as her

pain gives Leah the confidence to act. I don’t have a dispatcher or a false hero

but this is mainly due to the fact I’m making a short film so wouldn’t have the

time to include all the character types. I will encode these character types by

directing the farmer to eat his meal animal like by putting too much food in his

mouth and talking with his mouth open. This also makes you question who the

real animals are the sapiens or the humans who are behaving inhumanely? The

sapien is also very vulnerable shown by her skin coloured thermal costume

making her appear naked and exposed to cruelty. I will use the camera to

portray the sapien by have high angles looking down at the sapien making her

appear defenceless. Also Leah is the first character to be seen, this shows she

is the main character and this helps the audience relate better to her.

 

The Theorist Levi Strauss spoke about the narrative journey. Binary opposites are

usually the basis of our understanding of a story as it is a conventional narrative

and enables equilibrium. They are used in films to help plots. The binary opposites

are used in many films like Twilight, the vampire and the werewolf are opposites

shown by for example skin colour and temperature. The binary opposites in my

film are entrapment and freedom. The sapiens are trapped where as the rest of the

characters are not. The journey in the narrative is Leah making an important

realisation about herself that she is not too different to the sapiens, she realises

they have feelings and just because they can’t speak doesn’t mean they have

nothing to say. She also realises that she can empathise with the sapiens as her

father left when she was young and that caused her a lot of pain and upset, so

she can relate to how the sapiens feel being taken away from their mother. The

internal journey is the literal movement to a new place. Leah moves from being

in the car to the farm and all the places within the farm where she gains her

understanding of the sapiens lives.

 

My film has a restricted narrative range, as there are many enigma codes making

the audience question what is going to happen. For example at the start what the

sapiens are aren’t fully revealed and you see the farmer suspiciously coming out

of the barn and locking it then they arrive. This makes the audience question what

is happening in there?

 

These examples show how I have used theories of narrative to create my film’s

narrative. These theories work well and can be applied to many media texts and

help build a bases for my ideas as they can work interestingly together, creating

an entertaining film narrative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ferdinand De Saussure, C S Peirce- Media Language

 

Media language is making meaning. In my film I am going to use technical

codes, cultural codes, language codes and conventions such as stereotypes,

conventional narrative structures and generic conventions to represent the

themes and characters.

 

The theorist C S Peirce said ‘Signs can work in three ways’, icon (the sign

resembles the thing they signify closely), index (the sign is linked to the

signified in as a cause and effect) and symbol (The sign has no direct link

with what it signifies, but the associations are conventional, which must be

learned and are cultural signs).  In my film an icon I use is a loud scream.

The index is something is wrong the symbol is that someone is in danger. 

 

However the theorist Ferdinand De Saussure wrote about semiotics or signs,

it is something we see and what’s important is how we read them. He said

‘Signs are made up of two parts’, signifier and signified. The signifier is the

physical thing in the real world and the signified is the mental concept evoked

by the signifier. In my film a signifier or physical thing is a dusty happy family

photo and the signified or mental concept is past happiness and loneliness

that is absent in Johnny’s life now.

 

I used these theories in many ways throughout my film. The cameras high

angle looking down at the pregnant sapien signifies she is vulnerable and

helpless. The colour grading and lighting will be dark and dull representing

the dull truth of slavery and that something is wrong. The sound of the gunshot

connoting a loss of life and the loudness of it shows how shocking it is for Leah,

the sapien and also the audience.

 

The cultural codes in my film are the skin coloured thermals the sapiens wear.

This represents them as exposed and defenceless as if they are naked.

The action of the farmer eating horribly creates a twist in that he’s the one eating

like an animal and treating the sapiens inhumanely and the sapiens are more

human than they appear. This creates a role reversal and shows the audience

he’s the ‘villain’. The dark, old, creaky barn reminds the audience of horror

connotations that something bad is going to happen.

 

The language codes in my film hint to the characters backstories and adds more

depth to the characters making you understand why they are making their decisions.

For example a subtle hint at the start that Millie and Leah don’t have the same father

is when their mother says ‘Leah’s going to be helping her cousin Johnny’ by saying

‘her’ and not ‘your’ shows it isn’t Millie’s cousin, so they must not have the same

father. Leah has the same mode of address that would match the audiences. The way

she talks for example she is quite polite and says please and thank you. This shows

she is a kind person that is respectful but she is also quite quiet showing she is visually

taking things in and learning which is similar to my audience as they will be quite indie

and reserved.

 

I found Ferdinand De Saussure and C S Peirce theories useful to help me think deeper

into my film and create new ways to add clues and hints that will add more depth to the

narrative for the audience. It also helped me make sure I was creating the correct

representation to make meaning within my film.