Audience Theory

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Cinema was only discovered early in the 1900's, which means it hasn't actually been around that long. But it took the world by storm. It was a revolution. Film companies could make these representations of reality to entertain people in an innovative way. Cinema was rapidly developed, giving us what we have today. However, in the beginning, it was seen as a weapon.

 

Many people were skeptical about media, and still are today. The hypodermic theory is a common belief. This is the idea that the audience of media texts passively absorb all of the information fed to them; therefore they consume all of the information. This has lead people to the idea that if people watch violent films, they will become violent; if people play violent games, they will become violent; if people watch films with mentally unstable characters, they could follow in the footsteps of the character.

 

We disagree with this idea. Our film is a psychological thriller which in turn means there are twists in the plot and distressing scenes because of the psychological issues our character has. There is also the violent father character who has made his daughter this way. But through our audience research we've recognised that people don't necessarily watch violent, action or scary films etc because they idolise the people in them - it's for the rush people get from the thrilling atmosphere. Our first questionnaire also showed that people would prefer to see things from a victims point of view which shows they want their connection to be with the victim  so they can empathise and understand. I don't believe that because computer games and films are more violent than they used to be, that people are any more violent - anger is released through playing the games and the world used to be much more violent. It was the norm to have swords and for men to beat their wives and also punishments were much more brutal. Violent games and films are tame in comparison.

 

We specifically chose our audience to fit the uses and gratifications of our film. Our film has a very tense atmosphere which means there are scenes which would make the audience 'jump'. Because of these, people within the demographic we chose tend to watch thriller films as a group. Thrillers are watched in a group so that the audience can share the experience, feel the fear together and support each other. The hypodermic model tends to suggest that media texts are consumed alone, without thought or intelligence. However our film raises many social issues that people have opinions on, they don't just consume the ideas, they think about them and relate to them. This also proves the two-step flow theory. The audience watch the films, and then discuss them, and if they enjoyed them, they will encourage other people to watch them. There needs to be a unique, surprising depth to films to make people talk about them. Hense why we used the psychological side to our film, the idea of an unstable mind will interest the audience and take their thoughts to a new level.

 

Award ceremonies also boost the idea of the two-step flow. They give the film recognition and people think people liked the film so much it got awards, therefore they will think it's good too.

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Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Immediately when we began the main task we put so much more thought and time into it. Each part of our main task has been crafted and fine tuned to the genre we chose. We have done a lot of research int the issues shown in our film and also thought so much deeper into the mis-en-scene. We spent more time creating the right atmosphere on our film using Premiere Elements and select days for filming.

After our Preliminary Task we were given some feedback. From this we learnt that we needed to put more thought into the sound and lighting. We also knew we needed a strong genre and plot which reflected this.

Although the main taks was much more work, it was easier in a way because we weren't restricted with the shot types that needed to be used. In the prelinary task we had to use shot/reverse shot, match on action and the 180 degree rule. This limited our choice of location and plot ideas. Our main task could be basically whatever we wanted, with very few restrictions.

Our first thoughts on what needed to be changed at the beginning of our main task were:
-Better acting
-Stronger plot
-Smoother camera work
-Better editing

We were much more professional about our main task and took it much more seriously. We made our film based around what we'd want to watch, thinking an audience similar to us would be the same.

Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is a screen print of the programme we used to edit our film: Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0
We had a lot of issues with this programme. We didn't feel it was professional enough for the standard at which we wanted our film. The computers were also too slow to run it properly, it crashed several times every lesson which meant we lost work. It also puts the film into a format that only a very small number of other programmes recognise.

For our filming, we used a Sanyo Xacti camera and a tripod for to keep the flickering minimal. The only issue we had with the camera was that it had a very jerky zoom.

We also used:

Blogger - to record our work

Paint- to edit pictures

Youtube - to evaluate and distribute

VLC player - to play the film and play the music

Facebook - to ask permission to use the music

Evaluation 5

How did you attract your audience?

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We basically based our media product on ourselves. We made it around what we know people in our age group like. Arguably, the age range of 30+ would be better because they are the wealthiest, but as a young person, the things we can do are limited, so we spend a lot of time watching films and going to the cinema. We are also tend to use technology more, like iphones and laptops, so advertising is easy and we have more access to the films. We chose an age range of 14-18 because older than 18, they'd probably want something over the 18 certificate. They'd probably also want more action and more gore - something more exciting and not so deep. The main character is also 17 therefore 17 year old people can relate the film more.

 The two-step flow is more fluent through the 14-18 age range. 14-18 is a very social age, there are many ways that 14-18 year olds communicate and they have less going on in their lives, therefore they're more likely to converse about the films they've watched. Also 14-18 year olds also use film watching as a way of unwinding.

Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A production company is responsible for every aspect of a film, from the filming to the distribution. Sophy, Alice, myself, the I.T team and Ms. Hammond make up our production company. Sophy, Alice and myself were responsible for every aspect of the film, with guidance from Ms. Hammond and the I.T team.

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). A distributor may do this directly or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors. Paramount Pictures would be a suitable film distributor as they have distributed other films from the same genre as our, including 'Shutter Island'. Our film could also be exhibited through film festivals such as the Slamdance Film Festival or Screamfest Film Festival. This is where 'Paranormal Activity' was distributed which is classed as a horror/thriller. Our film would be suitable for a film festival because we are amateur producers without power. We therefore view our film as institiutionally similar to Paranormal Activity.

Sophy, Alice and I could also be seen as distributors as for our project we had to show people our film and get feedback. We did this through the use of dvd burning and youtube. Therefore youtube can also be seen as a distributor. These means helped us get a little recognition for our film.

We actually didn't spend any money on our film. We used resources we already had. If we were to make the whole film we would need much more money. 'Kidulthood' had a budget of £600,000. 'Kidulthood' is a film with no more action than ours, located in Britain therefore I think we would be looking at a similar budget to this film. This emans we also view 'Kidulthood' as institutionally similar.

We haven't actually put any titles on our film that show who did which jobs because we all did everything, Alice, Sophy and I are the production company.