Audience & Institution Essay Targets

• Remember that the focus of this section is on the British Film Industry, therefore British examples must be used. In order to do this, I will need to learn further examples from Working Title in order to give more references.
• Always refer back to the essay question, in the most recent case 'Impact on the Film Industries'. A way of achieving this is through rephrasing the question within your answer, in order to address it.
• Use correct terminology. It is important, as marks are rewarded specifically for this. For example, instead of 'people' the term 'audience'. I therefore need to learn more terminology and put it into practice.
• Give more detailed points. Explain, don't describe. I need to implement the method of PEE into my work more, in order to achieve the full marks.

Representation of Age

Representations of age

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Audience Questions

Task 1

1. Do you think the audiences for most media texts do come 'from all walks of life' or do different kinds of people watch very different kinds of programme? Are there any examples of media texts that you can think
of that do seem to have audiences of all kinds of people?

  Most media texts come from all walks of life because they are trying to achieve the largest, most varied audience possible. Once this is achieved, they can manipulate the audience and dictate their message. Examples of these universal media texts are the news, soap operas, and such shows as the Simpsons.


2. How much of your media experience occurs when you are on your own and how much when you are
with others? 

I feel when you are alone, you tend to be more 'passive' and absorb more of the content - whereas when with others, there are more distractions. Therefore, more experience is gained when alone, and when with others the experience is less detailed - as attention is somewhat focused on the others. 

4. Are there any ways in which you share your experiences of the media with other people who weren't
around when you experienced the text? List as many ways as you share experiences (e.g. msn etc)

Msn
Facebook
Twitter
Blogs
Reviews
Myspace
Conversation
Telephone



TASK 2

Can you think of any examples where the media have been seen to influence public
behaviour or have been blamed for an individual's behaviour? 


 The E4 series 'Skins', which displays graphic drug use along with sex, alcohol and smoking scenes of underage teens. This was said to have sparked a negative influence on teenage viewers behaviour. Similarly, rapper 'Eminem' uses a lot of obscenities, mysogeny and homophobia - as well as political challenging lyrics - which have been blamed for aggressive behaviour in listeners.



Is this influence always negative?

 No, there are positive moral messages depicted to audiences, such as romantic films and awards programmes. Also, a good example is 'Russell Howard's Good News'; at the end of each show, there is a piece of inspirational, 'nice' news.
 

Let The Right One In

The film is set in Sweden, presumably in the middle of winter – due to the heavy snowfall. It begins with the first piece of dialect ‘squeal like a pig’, initially it is unclear as to the significance of this phrase, as the boy speaking is alone. He is the first character introduced, and from first impressions seems to be fairly strange. For example, he is shown holding a knife, in his underwear – talking to himself. The music at this point is fairly sombre, indicating that something is not right. This is reinforced with strange perspective camerawork – portraying two different male characters suspiciously, perhaps foreshadowing. This introduces the equilibrium (supporting Todorov’s narrative theory), in this case – Oskar living his everyday life with his mother, and occasionally visiting his father. Oskar’s father is an alcoholic, this adds to the theme of men in the film being represented as bad people, such as murderers and alcoholics. There is rarely a positive representation featured, besides the school teacher.

The earlier ‘squeal like a pig’ repetition is put into context in the school scene, as ‘Oskar’ is represented as a victim of bullying – with his name being ‘piggy’. The following part is a murder scene. The killer appears to be one of the characters previously shot at the very beginning, and again preparing some sort of equipment just before. This correlates to the use of sound as he is introduced – and supports the earlier foreshadowing. It also explains his suspicious behaviour, and perhaps immediately places him in the role of ‘villain’ in the audience’s mind - according to Vladimir Propp’s theory. Use of sound is again significant in this scene, as the effect of the throat being slit is enhanced for dramatization. Oskar then meets ‘Eli’, and initially they seem very distant from one another – and almost nervous or awkward. The camerawork presents this well, with mainly long, perspective shots being used. All of these scenes become the ‘disruption’ of the equilibrium, as following Todorov’s theory – as they disturb Oskar’s life and routine in one way or another.

Use of mise-en-scene, such as costumes, help to reflect both character roles and storyline within the film. For example, Oskar and Eli initially wear very dull, often dark colours when they first meet. Throughout the film, this progresses and changes – to colours such as red, indicating potential love, danger and passion. This tells us more about Eli’s character, and the relationship between her and Oskar – perhaps placing her in the role of ‘Princess’ within Propp’s theory, as after all, Oskar does go out of his way in order to ‘seek’ her. Also, when Eli tells Oskar to fight the bullies back, it gives her the role of ‘helper’ as she aids Oskar, who is the ‘hero’ in this film. However, the mise-en-scene never distracts from the storyline, as it always fairly subtle – this allows for the drama to be more gripping and adds an element of social realism, as it as true to life as possible. Binary Opposites are a constant theme throughout, as with Oskar and Eli being opposite sex, and Eli being young and her victims old. This supports Levi-Strauss’s theory, and Tomas Alfredson has perhaps purposely played on these opposites in order to make the film more effective. An example of this is the unusualness of a grown man being portrayed as weak against a young girl – which gives uniqueness to this film, as it does not follow traditional horror conventions (I.e. the object of horror being a strong force).

A lot of the film is shot at night, with low levels of lighting. This gives the traditional horror look, as the dark is always viewed as ‘scarier’ than day. There are several close-up camera shots throughout the film, which work to good effect in many cases. For instance, the camerawork gradually becomes closer and closer between Eli and Oskar as the film progresses, in order to represent their relationship. They also allow us as the audience to read facial expressions easily, meaning less dialect is needed to explain emotions – allowing the film to have an eerier feel due to long spells of pure ambience or silence. As well as this, many of the shots are taken from a character point of view, and this is represented through the height level in many cases. Scenes involving Oskar or Eli are often shot from a low level – as they are naturally smaller than others. Also, the editing in some scenes – such as the school lesson – reflects emotion, as the use of fading and blurring display lack of attention span in their mind. Another feature of camerawork is long shots, these are used in parts such as the throat slitting scene, and the bridge murder scene. Both give the effect of a witness perspective, which adds to the social realism – making the film more effective in its aim to thrill or scare, as it seems more real. This effect is amplified by the inclusion of trees, partly blocking the view, as it appears as if you are actually witnessing a murder.

Binary opposites are continued when Oskar visits his father. The juxtaposition in experience between his lifestyle with him in the countryside and his city life with his mother is clear. With his father in the peaceful, picturesque countryside he almost seems care-free, away from the troubles of the city – along with its dark and mysterious vibe. As well as this, there is also the contrast between day and night – as besides the bullying, the days are much less eventful than the nights, due to the murders all occurring at night.

By the end of the film, we can establish all of the character’s true personalities and qualities, and Levi-Strauss’s theory almost becomes less significant – as the roles seem to reverse in ways or cancel out, and the characters are not as definable as good and bad. For instance, Eli is a serial killer, yet she is also ‘the helper’ and protects Oskar, suggesting many cases are too complex for the simplistic ‘good and bad’ theory – as there is a combination of personality traits. This applies to Propp’s theory as well, as many characters have several of the roles. Eli’s father figure for example is classed as ‘the donor’ (as he aids Eli in her need for blood),  as well as ‘the villain’ due to his murders and perhaps ‘the father’, however, he does not fit this convention entirely as he does not reward the hero. Similarly, Eli is also a villain, simply because she takes lives – however, she does have good sides, such as ‘princess’ and ‘dispatcher’ (as she directs Oskar to stand up for himself). The ending of the film marks the restoration of the equilibrium, as all of the bullies have seen the wrong in their ways, and have been killed by Eli. Also, she has ‘moved away’ so there is an overall lack of conflict within Oskar’s life, and he can return to normality.

Bobby Boucher Analysis

Production Flow Chart

Flow Chart

This Is England '86

A sequel to the film 'This Is England', a Channel 4 drama series again directed by Shane Meadows. It features many of the original cast, with the addition of some new actors. The funding was over 10 times as high for this project, with £20 million to spend. The rationale of the series was the directors left over ideas from the previous project were still enough to produce more work of this theme, and also the fact that it is very topical - due to the current recession and high unemployment rates. This means it appeals to the current British audience. The majority of the production crew were the same, and this meant the sequel still had a similar feel to the original. The added budget however, meant lots of aspects could be improved - such as the use of lots of settings (however still pre-fabricated), more props, improved cinematography (lack of handheld camera use), add post-production enhancements, artificial lighting and a bigger cast. This means that the overall finish was of a higher quality, due to all factors.

This Is England

Produced by Warp Films, on a relatively small budget of £1.5 Million - mainly funded by the National Lottery, with £90,000 of funding coming from the UK Film Council. It was released in 2006, and directed by Shane Meadows. The inspiration for This Is England was from the director's personal life experiences, growing up as a child in the 80's in Staffordshire. He experienced first hand many of the issues raised in the film, such as bullying, unemployment, anti-social behaviour and racism.



The genre of the film is social-realism, and many attributes of the production add to this theme. For example, many of the actors used were amatuer, with little to no experience - creating realism through the fact that they were just normal people. A lot of the camerawork is handheld, also creating a real-life atmoshpere as the camera almost becomes like a seperate person, and the shot is their perspective. This Is England was filmed on a pre-fabricated set, (due to the budget being too low to produce one), however it had not been changed at all since the 80's - so had a real authentic feel, again adding to the construction of the social realism element. The majority of props used during the filming were authentic 1980's items, resourcefully obtained by Shane Meadows by using the internet, and then sold on again in order to reduce the money spent. This included cars and clothes, and again gave the film a real vintage feel - making it more realistic. Also, the use of entirely natural lighting not only saved money, but again made the film more true to real life - fitting in with the genre.

Many features of the film make it appealing to a British audience, such as the involvement of real-life issues at the time - unemployment for example. Audience members who were around at that time can relate to the issues, as they had their own experience of them, whilst the younger generation can learn about the culture from those days and compare it to now. I feel the target audience is working class people, as they can probably relate most to many aspects and thus will enjoy the film more. I also think that the film has a strong message to teens, with the use of Shaun (played by Tom Turgoose) as this has a positive influence, with the way he turns his life around.

Film Technologies

Some of the latest features used in the film industry today are 3D, CGI and camera and editing software improvements. I will now compare the use of these technologies, across 3 different industries.

• Warp Films use limited amounts of technology due to their lack of funding. However, there are still examples of the use. For example, in the short film 'Rubber Johnny', the majority of camerawork is shot in infared night vision via a digital camera - showing that they have the use of modern cameras. Also, it is edited a lot, with fast transitions, colour correction and sound effects - displaying the use of editing software and possibly up to date software, due to the complexity. It does not appear that warp films have ever, or intend to in the near future create any 3D films. This is probably due to the fact that it is such an expensive process, and Warp cannot afford it - or fear they will not make enough profit.
• Working Title also do not have extensive use of new technologies, as they also have no 3D films, or revealed plans for the future involving 3D. They also do not use a lot, if any CGI - perhaps due to the majority of their films being drama and comedy, which don't need added extras to be effective. However, editing software is evidently used - with examples such as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of The Dead. This is shown by their fast paced, transitional editing - possibly by software such as 'Avid'.
• Hollywood have by far the biggest budget, and therefore make the most ground breaking advances in cinema. For example, 'Avatar', the most expensive movie ever made was filmed specifically in 3D over a period of 10 years. Unlike other 3D films, it was actually recorded using a 3D lense, and not just a post-production effect. Also, it was edited using a whole range of software - from 3D modelling programs such as 'Maya', to Photoshop, Premier Pro and Avid. The amount of resources available to the production team are superior to other industries, showing why these films receive huge funding. This film, along with others is almost entirely composed of CGI.