Audience theorists

Within our theory lesson, the class was divided and we researched different narrative theorist and the theorists. After doing so we reported back to one another and collected a plethora of notes to ensure we had a selection of theories to put into our narratives. Here are the theories and theorists that were researched:

Theodor W. Adorno

Adorno was a German philosopher, sociologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work had been associated with such thinkers as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the works of Freud, Marx and Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society. his main interests were social theory, sociology, psychoanalysis, aesthetics,epistemology, musicology and mass media.

Upon his return to Frankfurt, Adorno helped in shaping the political culture of West Germany. Adorno worked on the intellectual foundations of the federal republic and was a professor at Frankfurt University until his death in 1969. Whilst he was there he taught his students "contemporary problems in the theory of knowledge" and the "concept of knowledge". He also wrote about critical theory, literary criticism, aesthetics, music, political theory and sociology.

Adorno also did a lot of work on fascism as he took a particular interest in this. He created a series of influential works to describe psychological fascist traits. His work contributed to the Studies in Prejudice performed by multiple research institutes in the US, consisting of 'qualitative interpretations'. Adorno's books have had a major influence on sociology and remain highly discussed and debated.

Famous Adorno quote:
"Probably no important artwork ever corresponded completely with its genre".

David Gauntlett
Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. His earlier work concerned contemporary media audiences and has moved towards a focus on the everyday making and sharing of digital media and social media and their role of these activities in self-identity and building creative cultures.

Platforms for Creativity is a concept created by Gauntlett and it is meant to encourage creative conversation and foster the creativity of people. These 'platforms' can be in the form of an event, environment or tools. They give the opportunity to think creatively expressing themselves and also to help with the connection of people and sharing ideas to contribute better ideas.

He believes that the traditional form of media studies teaching and research fails to recognise the changing media landscape in which the categories of 'audiences' and 'producers' blur together. This was published in "Media Studies 2.0". Another popular study of Gauntlett's is "Web 2.0". This states that, as an audience, we can become our own producers. It allows us to create our own identity that doesn't follow the traditional forms and conventions of gender. Web 2.0 gives freedom for people to express themselves and makes it far more acceptable to be different.

Gauntlett blows apart the image of 'couch potatoes' and uses the term 'prosumers' for the audience who are doing their own production.

Famous Gauntlett quote: 
"Making is connecting".

Stuart Hall
Stuart Hall places high value on the responses of individuals and groups because of their specific personal contexts. Audiences are seen as active producers of meaning as opposed to consumers of media meanings. His interests were in dominant, negotiated and oppositional reading. Hall was a cultural theorist, political activist, sociology professor at the open university and a Marxist. He created the Reception Theory because he was concerned that the power of the media would create a dominant ideology of social values.

Hall's theory of audience positioning refers to how different social groups interpret mass media text which the producer encodes a message they wish to convey.

Decoding:

• Dominant reading- the reader fully accepts the preferred reading. This is where the audience reads the text the way the director intended them to. The code seems natural.
• Negotiated reading- the reader will partly believe the code and accepts the preferred but may modify it to reflect their own experiences and interests.
• Oppositional reading- the reader will reject the reading as their social position places them in an oppositional relation to the dominant code.

Some researchers think that looking at the lifestyle of an audience is much more effective and has more authority than a sociological approach.

How audiences take the meaning

Factors affecting how individuals decode media texts:

• Life experience
• Mood at the time of viewing 
• Age
• Culture
• Beliefs
• Gender

Blumler and Katz

Uses and Gratification theory: approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. It's an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. The main question of their theory is "Why do people use media and what do they use it for?"

Blumler (born 1924)- American-born theorist and author of communication and media.

Katz- American and Israeli sociologist and communication scientist, usually associated with uses and gratifications theory.

Basic model:

• Identify- being able to recognise the product or person in front of you and an aspiration to someone else.
• Educate- being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding.
• Entertain- what you are consuming should give you enjoyment (forgetting worries in everyday life).
• Social interaction- the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people and spark debates.

What does the audience do with the media? This approach moves away from the idea that audiences are passive. This theory can be used in cases like personal music collection and selecting music to fit a particular mood.

Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky is an American Professor who looks at the economic effects of social media. His 'end of audience' theory links into the work of David Gauntlett. It argues a chaotic landscape where consumers are producers (or "prosumers"). Shirky felt it had previously been fragmented activity however it has changed; now people operate as groups. He has identified new audience groupings as follows:

• crowd funding
• crowd funded businesses
• collaborative projects 
• publicity campaigns (volunteers)

Shirky believes that organisations have to understand and respect the motivations of the billion new participants in the contemporary media eco-systems. 

Shirky quote: "Every consumer is also a producer and everyone can talk back"- he states that the evidence for this is devised from simple maths and the connections in a networks.

Shirky also became part of the development of the 'Long tail Theory' which is about there being life beyond the initial appearance of the product. Amazon are a company that recognise this theory and understand how reviews express emotions of people. They have embraced the world of social media  and their reviews now serve a purpose of making audiences feel good.

Audience theories

It is necessary in media studies to ensure you are aiming at the correct audience thus I have decided to use thorough research to reach the most accurate target audience I can. Each and every media product distributed has a target audience in mind which is significant; it makes it easier to promote and advertise the product and generally achieves higher profits. I am going to carry out questionnaires, research audience theories, implement secondary research and look at existing media products in order to gather the right information for the target audience of my short film.

Theories I found:

Psychographics
Psychographic information is your buyer's habits, hobbies, spending habits and values. Demographics explain “who” your buyer is, whilst psychographics explain “why” they buy products. Demographic information includes gender, age, income, marital status, etc. You can only effectively reach your target audience when you understand both their demographics and psychographics. The combination of both sets of data starts to form your consumer persona. Below is a psychographic table and this is a table that divides people into groups depending on their social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. This table reflects the belief that consumers are influenced to purchase particular products because of their own personal characteristics.

Psychographic Table

I will be analysing the psychographics of those completing my primary research questionnaires to see if this data has any impact whatsoever on the sort of short film they choose to engage in. If there is any correlation, I will be sure to look carefully at the pyschographics of those featuring in my short film and how they will appeal to the specific target audience.

Demographics

Simply put, demographic data information is used in media marketing to classify an audience into age, gender, race and other categories. In media, demographics are used to pinpoint potential audience growth and to spot under-performance. Using the demographic table, the population is split into 6 groups which are labelled A, B, C1, C2, D and E. This is what describes each member's status in society. The working class are those people in the agriculture, farming or mining industry. The middle class covers the majority of the population in the UK currently, and the upper class are those who inherited wealth and power.

Demographic Table

Abraham Maslow

Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" is a motivational theory in psychology consisting of a five tier model of human needs. This is often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. He stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival which is the first thing that motivates our behavior. Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is what motivates us. This can be considered a useful method of research, however, after careful analysis of this theory I have decided that it is outdated and will not be useful in the search for my target audience.

Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" Pyramid

Through researching these theories I have learnt a lot and found it interesting analysing the breakdown of society and why the media promote to their target audience in the way they do. By doing so I have realised how dissecting the audience into categories can make the research process much simpler.

Importance of choosing the correct target audience

When selecting the target audience of the media product you want, it is extremely important that you get it right. This is because the message that is then conveyed is in the name of your company and reputation is everything in a competitive advertising world. Brands cannot afford to get it wrong as there are always companies looking for gaps in the market, ready to take any spotlight of the larger companies making mistakes. A prime example of this would be a Dove Moisturiser advert that came out earlier this year that conveyed a potentially racist message to the mass audience of all ages. Below is a screenshot from the advert.
                                                                                                                                                                                           
My first reaction to seeing this advert was:
This advert conveys a racist message to the audience; it is implying the before and after effects of using Dove body lotion. It is suggesting that the black woman is 'dirty' and that after using the Dove moisturiser, she will be 'cleansed' and 'white'. This portrays black people in a negative light with pejorative connotations in contrast to the white woman being advertised. It may not be intentionally racist however this is the subliminal message that is coming across in this image.

Other ideas from members of my class included:

• indirect discrimination- implying a change of skin tone after use
• could lead to more casual racism in society 

Big brands can be heavily impacted by complaints of adverts and the wrong message being portrayed because of the mass audience they publicise to. Everyone has the power to contribute their opinion about media products by reporting it to the ASA- Advertising Standards Agency and sometimes it's even just other companies waiting for others to make mistakes so that they can capture the audience and portray a big brand in a negative light to gain millions of pounds.

Times have changed and gradually society has become more aware of racism, sexism, homophobia etc. This can be seen when looking at ads from the past and comparing them to ads currently in the media. Issues are looked over much more carefully in recent times since filtering and censorship has become relevant. Here is an example of an old advert published in attempt to advertise soap. This would not have been flagged up as racist back when it was published and people may not have even noticed the discrimination present in it, despite the blatant derogative connotations surrounding the image and the caption.

I want to ensure that when I am carrying out my ancillary tasks and creating my short film, that I have chosen the correct target audience and that I do not portray any of the demograph in a bad light. This is significant because I need to make sure that my message is displayed well, however this can not be done using pejorative connotations as that would put my short film in a negative light for doing so. No good marketing/advertising companies should feel the need to cause offence to anyone if their product is good enough. If not then it should be rethought as, being disrespectful to people of any age, gender, race etc is no longer tolerated in today's society and it will be rejected.
                                                   

Narrative Techniques

After missing out on a few of the media lessons, I decided I would take a look at what research they carried out whilst I was gone. It included further development on knowledge about narrative techniques in the media.

Here is what I discovered
There are different ways in which texts tend to tell the story. An example of this would be from a particular view point and here are two kinds of these:

• Omniscient narration- Like the definition of the word itself, this is narration when the audience has the opportunity to be "all seeing" and they know all of the action taking place, including dramatic irony when the audience knows more than the characters.
• Restricted narration- From the word restricted it is already clear that there are going to be limitations of some form. In this case it is that the story is only told from the point of view of one of the characters.Thus the audience is unable to find out any more than the characters themselves.

Another technique used by filmmakers is time manipulation and this is done in order to make a more interesting story line. There are many ways to create this effect. Mise-en-scene can be used to represent specific time periods, for instance period clothing for the characters to wear, or clock hands and calendars changing to create an illusion of time passing. This is particularly useful in short films; it allows producers to compress time on screen. It is critical that producers are consistent with continuity when showing time passing as it can easily become confusing and hard for the audience to follow therefore ruining the overall appeal of the short film. Some other available techniques are flashbacks and flash-forwards which show events from different perspectives. Tight deadlines additionally create suspense and tension within a plot therefore producers can manipulate audiences by doing so.  

Looking at resolutions in short films, the conventional approach is that there is always a resolution to the problem. An alternative approach to this would be that not all problems that occur have a solution, however this may lead to the audience feeling unsatisfied. Leaving problems unsolved can also lead to further short films or series thus can be successful if done well, as you then already have an audience waiting on the next production.

Research and Planning- Notes to Look Back Upon

Looking further into creating a more organised blog I decided to write up a brief for the research and planning stage which also features questions that I can look upon for inspiration on what to do next.

• Mark out of 20- based on quality/teacher's impression
• As much detail as possible
• Research= theory driven- show informity of theorists and how they are going to be implied
• Start with identification of target audience and what you want them to get out of it
• Audience?
• Who?
• How?
• What?
• Issues?
• Genre?
• Budget?
• What institution will promote the short film?
• Key convention of short films- what do you expect to see in a short film?
• Plan equipment to use
• Skills evaluation- strengths, where is support needed?
• How have your skills in digital technology improved in your production work?

What things you might NOT be PERMITTED to do in your coursework

1. Use copyright music/ideas 
2. Not perform risk assessments
3. Glorify alcohol/drug use
4. Plagiarise

Permissions must be gained from everyone/everything featuring in the short film and the school do not hold responsibility for filming and other risks taken outside of the school grounds. Situations must be implied as opposed to performed- no use of guns/weapons etc. 

In research you need to think about the kind of research you are undertaking- primary and secondary.

Primary= found out by self

Secondary= looking at other ideas

Focus group filling target audience

Evidence for research

Codes and conventions

There is a lot of research that goes into creating a short film and some of the vital work that must be looked into are the codes and conventions of the film type in which you are choosing to produce. This is because you need to identify what the target audience of that genre typically enjoys. You can either choose to conform or subvert to this for your particular genre but it is best to research before you select either; it is important you are making the correct decision for what you would like to get out of the film.

I have chosen to produce a short film so I have looked into what codes and conventions this entitles me to include, which are the following:

• Characters- this is an obvious convention for any form of production however the significant part of a short film is that is sticks to 2 or 3 main characters. This is due to the duration of the film and how there is minimal time to create a deep back story or history for the characters. By keeping the numbers low it allows the viewer to relate to the characters in the small amount of time the characters on screen. After analysing various short films I have decided that I agree with this convention and I shall be conforming to this technique. It will allow the film to be much more relatable and concise in the time it will be shown.
• Twist- in short films there is often a twist that features within the plot that changes the story line. This element is used to make the film more interesting because of how short it is. A short film would no twist would be boring as there would be no main piece of action to intrigue the audience. For my short film this is another convention I would like to conform to as I want to keep my target audience excited about the events of my short film.
• Budget- short films tend to have low budgets as their directors are independent and therefore have no back up funding. To keep to a low budget, short films tend to stick to minimal locations and actors. I intend to conform to this convention as I will be an independent director with no back up funding.
• Length- as the name suggests, short films are typically 'short'. Usually they have a maximum length of around 35 minutes; if they were longer they'd be called feature films. The brief we were given instructs us to make a short film that is around 5/6 minutes thus I shall be conforming to this convention.
• Situation- generally short films take everyday situations to ensure that it is relatable for the audience in the short time it is on screen. By creating a normal situation in the film it makes it intriguing and relatable. For the plan I have for my short film it both conforms and subverts this convention; the main story line is a cliche situation however the 'twist' included makes it more intriguing. 
• Technology- in short films there is not often CGI, explosions or fantasy magic. There is basic technical equipment like SLR s and tripods. Another common element of short film is voice over and/or narration. Like other short films I shall be conforming to these codes and conventions.

Short films are not very big in the US but they are fairly popular in the UK and are often shown at film festivals and released by independent companies. The most popular form of short film is animation or live action. No expensive titles or soundtracks are ever used. The actors featuring in short films are often those who are young (16-25) and starting out therefore there are no big names for the film's advertisement and no star appeal. Those acting in my short film will also be within that age bracket and feature no full-time actors/actresses.

Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin is an extremely iconic film in terms of media and its production. It was produced by Sergei Eisenstein in 1925. The most memorable scene is called 'The Odessa Staircase' and it is very significant for media research and influences.

Here is an example of some of the montages shown in the Odessa Steps sequence. Montage is a popular artistic choice in movies and television. It enables the filmmaker to emote a feeling while using minimal to no dialogue. A montage is a series of shots edited together to drive a point and advance the plot in a way dialogue couldn't. It is useful when abbreviating time because weeks and months can be condensed into seconds and minutes on screen. The audience then have to use gestalt to logically piece together the missing, unrevealed information.

Eisenstein is often considered to be the "godfather of montage" because it was him that, as a filmmaker, thought montage was the essence of the cinema and he believed that editing went beyond exposition. It was Eisenstein who believed that a "collision" of independent shots could manipulate audience emotions through a montage of images. This was an exciting technique in the 1910s and 1920s as it was new, however it was primitive so this made it more difficult to create effectively. This was during the silent era. Battleship Potemkin is credited to this day as opening filmmakers' eyes to montage. This Russian propaganda film was directed by Eisenstein and it was something unlike anything seen in the cinema at that time. In the scene of The Odessa Steps a group of soldiers march down an outdoor flight of stairs while villagers attempt to flee the army by going up the stairs. As they run up the stairs, the soldiers begin opening fire on the villagers. As those unhurt attempt to escape, another group of soldiers meets them at the bottom of the steps and opens fire. The filming and editing techniques in this sequence are what made it so groundbreaking.

When watching this sequence in class I noted down some of the factors I found most interesting about it:

• No narrative
• Music controlling the pace and emotions
• Mass of people emphasises importance of battleship returning- support of country
• Teamwork
• Elation
• Celebration
• Contrast of classes, ability and ages
• Turn around in action- enemy arrives- no mercy
• Emotion displayed through leading female for her child
• Tension rises
• Music drops- moment of hope

I found this hard-hitting despite how long ago it was produced. It was interesting to see a completely unique film type. Additionally I can see where filmmakers have been inspired and used ideas from this film originally for their more modern adaptations. For my film I think that I will find Sergei Eisenstein's technique useful in particular sections as it is good for evoking emotions from the audience. I plan to experiment with this technique to drive and advance the point in my short film. Whether I use montage within my short film will depend on how effective the footage I take is, but I shall definitely be considering it.