This is our first weekly report on what we have learnt during the first week of AS media studies.

Audience Research

Audience research is important because without knowing an audience, people would not know what content to fill their media texts with and also without audiences, media texts wouldn't have been created.

A multiple of things define an audience like self image, age group, class, ethnicity, politics, location, gender, family, nation, education and religion. These things are used to determine a media text's Demographic.

The key key audience theories are :

The hypodermic needle theory which basically means that the audience believes what it sees and thinks that what it sees is acceptable in society.

2 Step flow : This suggests that mass media is channelled to the masses through opinion leaders : people with the most access to media and people that have more understanding of media content then they tell other people about it then they watch or take a look at the media text because someone with a higher knowledge of media told them it's good/bad.

This shows how the 2 step flow works.

Uses and Gratifications : This suggests that the audience has needs that the media need to meet for the text to be successful.

The needs are : Diversion - Divert oneself from everyday life.

Surveillance - People want to know news about the world.

Personal Identity - People want to compare people lives in the media to their own lives.

Personal Relationship - So people can talk about media texts and gain friends from talking about similar interests.

Reception Analysis : Audience will interpret the meaning of the text based on cultural background or life experience. It suggests that the programme is encoded by the producer and decoded by the audience.

Effects debate : This a debate on the effects of media on people. It suggests that there is a moral panic then the response to the panic or person/ group is defined as a threat to society just like the Mod's and Rockers in 1960.

Another example of this is the Jamie Bulger murder where 2 10 year old boys kidnapped a 2 year old child and re-enacted a scene from a horror film (Childs Play 3). People blamed the film for what the children did to little Jamie Bulger.

Genre Analysis

In Media, putting films into genre's or subgenre's is catergorizing them based on similar codes and conventions of the film. The word Genre is the French for "kind" or "sort".

These are some of the genre's used in media texts:

Action
Adventure
Comedy
Crime
Documentary
Drama
Family
Fantasy
Horror
Musical
Mystery
Romance
Science Fiction
Sport
Suspense
Thriller
War
Western

Click on one of these genre's to see lists of film in this genre.

Reservoir Dogs - Opening Scene

The genre text is a gangster film and the genre conventions of this genre are a robbery, gun fights and police chases. The key codes for this genre are music - to help built up tension, formal dress code to show importance within the group and lots of close camera shots to show the emotions of the character. These create a much more intimate feeling within the film.

The key images in the sequence are the suits and the slicked back hair to show the decade it was set in and to show that they mean business. The part where they are all walking in a line is key signifier in this sequence because it shows that they are a unit and it is a famous sequence in media.

The sequence tells us that the film is going to be violent and have a sense of friendship throughout. I would expect fast paced gun fights, police chases and a killing or 2 from this movie.

I think that men from the age of 20-50 would be the key audience because there is loads of action and a lot of swearing involved in the film.

Click picture to enlarge

Wikipedia Reveiw

Saving Private Ryan - Omaha Beach Opening

This is the opening to Saving Private Ryan. It is a war film and the conventions of this film are: retelling stories of past battles, gun battles, grenades going off and plenty of blood. The technical and symbolic symbols of this opening are low key lighting because they are trying to keep the lighting as natural as possible and theyare trying to create a battle like mood by using the lighting.

The key signifiers in this opening are the water and gun fire. The hard waves smashing on the boat tell the audience that there is a big battle on the way and when the first gunshots are fired, the audience can tell that there will be chaos.

This sequence tells us that there is going to be a lot of fighting with plenty of lives lost, also it may be about brotherhood in the army because soldiers were carrying the wounded to safety. I expect this movie to be a high action army movie with lots of blood included.

I think the demographic for this film are male's aged from 18 - 50 because it is a very intense movie that young and middle aged men would love.

Click picture to enlarge

Wikipedia Review

Scary Movie 4 - Dr. Phil and Shaquille O'Neal Opening

This is the opening of Scary Movie 4, it is of the horror parody genre. In this genre you are expected to see breaks in the tension and loads of comedic gags.

The technical and symbolic codes in this sequence go against the horror genre because it's a parody. The opening uses high key lighting to show everything that is going on whereas a horror film would usually use low key lighting to keep parts of the set mystery. In this trailer you see Shaquille O'Neal and Dr. Phil in a toilet with their leg chained up, from seeing them trapped in this setting automatically makes the audeince think that it is going to be something to do with the Saw films. Also by having a basketball hoop there, as well as a basketball player known for not being able to take free throws, this tells us that O'Neal is going to have problem taking on this task and adds comedy to the scene.

The sequence tells me that this film is going to be funny yet slightly gory. I expect there to be a lot of comedy and a few horror film baddies to appear in it but in a comedic way.

I think that the audience for this is film is 16 - 30 year olds because they will see the funny side to the film and find the simple toilet humour very funny yet they will know all the horror bad guys in the film.

Click picture to enlarge.

Wikipedia Review

Denotation And Connotation In Media

The genre for this movie is a horror parody. I would expect there to be a break in tension, people making fun at famous horror films and lots of gags.

The key signifiers for this film are the killer from the Scream movies eating popcorn with a smile on his face, this shows that this film will be a parody and will be funny because people are used to seeing the killer from Scream with a simple expression on his face and killing people and not having fun in a cinema.

The poster shows that the film will be a parody because they have characters from scary films shown in a comedic way like the killer from Scream is. Also having the Wayans brothers in the picture show that the film will be a parody because they are famous for making them.

The connotational meaning from this poster are that they are in a cinema; an unusual place for a scary movie, the expressions on people's faces in the poster are melodramatic to show that they think everyone in horror movies are over the top and by having all the girls in low cut tops with cleavage out shows me that the directors think that horror's always have girls in films with big breasts. Also, by having the killer holding popcorn instead of his usual knife shows me that the film is going to be a parody. The reason the film makers have showed them this way is to make the audience laugh and show them the genre of the film without telling the audience what it is.

Symbolic Code Analysis

The low key lighting in this picture shows that there is a sense of unknowing. Having it from a waist view gives the audience of sense of actually being there and by using a meduim close up you can see the emotion in their faces.

Also by having the child looking pale and with dark eyes makes him look scary but by the woman holding a lighter beneath his hand breaks the fright factor of this screenshot, which is typical in the parody genre.

Also by having the characters close creates a sense of intimidation and/or intimacy. Also by having her in the top she's in makes the audience feel like she's just an everyday girl.

Camera Shots And Angles

This is a shot from Scary Movie. It is a medium close up at an eye level veiw. This makes the veiwer seem like an observer to the action and makes them feel involved with what is happening in the scene.

Scary Movie 4 - Broekback Mountain Parody

A scene from Scary Movie 4, making parodies out of other, more serious films.

Group Information & Ideas

My group consists of :

Me (Dean Harding)
Ryan Knight
Matthew Cartwright
Thomas Youster

We are going to a comedy.
We would like to make something along the lines of Scary Movie, Stan Helsing and Dance Flick.