Blog Task 6 - Radio Trailer Practice Task

Radio Trailer Analysis

For our radio trailer of The Outsider we concentrated on the genre of horror.

When narrating the trailer we used a sombre tone in order to relate to our chosen genre. At the beginning of our trailer, we added “From the makers of Frankenstein” this is a cultural code as it refers to a popular horror/monster film. Once the music stops the slogan, “Be careful who you hurt” is whispered which creates an enigma.

Throughout our trailer there is a total of 5 music tracks. Together they create a sense of disorientation.  As it progresses, the music heightens and becomes more dramatic. This is an example of an action code. We used the sound effect of someone walking at the start of the trailer. This correlates to the narrative containing the main character walking through the woods at the beginning of our film. However, as the audience doesn’t know whose footsteps they are, it creates an enigma and semantic code.

To improve the trailer we could add more narration to give the audience more information about the film, and add reviews and ratings.

Blog Task 4 - The Outsider

The Outsider

For this task, we were give a simple narrative involving key scenes, and had to adapt it to fit with a specific genre.

Narrative example:

1. A character is outside in an uninhabited area.
2. S/he cannot decide which way to go. Something makes him/her head towards a settlement.
3. S/he sees something that indicates that this settlement is troubled and dangerous but carries on.
4. S/he is set upon by a group who mock him/her make sure s/he has no transport and try to make him/her leave.
5. S/he gets up and another comical character comes and explains that there are two feuding gangs killing each other and that outsiders don’t last long and the only people making any money are the funeral directors/coffin makers.
6. S/he goes into a bar/ seeks refreshment where the bartender further explains the situation and the leaders of the gangs and says it would be better to leave town if s/he doesn’t want to get killed.
7. The character is an assassin though and just goes into the street shouting for the gangs to come out and offering his services.
8. The gangs come out and s/he kills a load of the gang despite being outnumbered.
9. S/He then encounters the first group of people who set upon him/her  when s/he first came into town and kills them all and orders a coffin for them.

Horror Genre Adaptation:

1. A character arrives in town - Freak person walk through the wood to find a small town.
2. The character is ambushed - People laugh/ bully the character because of his features.
3. Goes to a bar - The character then finds a bar/ hotel to check into for the night, where he is told by the bar man that the people who ambushed him are very dangerous, and to not bother them.
4. Steps out of bar - The character sees the people who earlier had ambushed him in the corner of his eye, the people begin to throw rocks at him and call him names.
5. Ambushers die - The character then turns into a monster and eats the ambushers.

Audience Theories

The Hypodermic Syringe Model:
This theory implies that the media has a direct effect on the audience, as the theory suggests that the audience is passive, and just accepts the media's messages that are 'injected' into them. The model believes that there is a direct correlation between violent behaviour shown on television, computer games etc., and criminal behaviour in real life. An example of this theory in action, would be the Bandura experiment, as he made a film of  a young woman beating up a bobo doll, then showed the film to groups of small children, then the children were put into a room with several toys, and the same doll shown in the film, the children imitated the actions that the woman had previously shown on the doll.




Uses and Gratifications Theory:
This theory is focused more the audience and what they do to the media, rather than what the media does to the audience. It suggests that the audience are active and not passive, as they interpret media in their own way. It also implies that the audience choose media that meets their needs, suggesting that people use the media to fulfil specific gratifications.
It is suggested that Uses and Gratifications Theory has to fulfil one of four needs when we choose a form of media:

• Identify - Being able to recognise the product or person in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours.
• Educate - Being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding.
• Entertain - What you consume should give you enjoyment and some form of escapism.
• Social Interaction - The ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people.

An example of Uses and Gratifications theory taking place, is personal music selection, as we select music that will fit a particular mood.

Two Step Flow Theory:
Two Step Flow theory is based upon how the audience receives their media. The theory suggests that before an audience receives their information, it will pass through two stages;

• The first stage is when an Opinion Leader obtains information from the Mass Media.
• The second stage is where the Opinion Leader passes on the information along with their own interpretation/ opinions to others (family, friends colleagues etc.)

The Opinion Leaders are usually very influential, and are similar to those whom they influence, they also tend to pay close attention to the mass media and the message. The Influentials usually look up to the Opinion Leaders, and therefore will listen and copy what they say. Examples of this theory taking place, would be elections and advertising.

Reception Theory:

Reception theory is the idea that a specific audience type of a piece of work is an essential part in understanding the overall meaning and its importance. This means that the true purpose of the work can’t be understood unless the audience or viewer is considered. The theory suggests the idea that when a piece of text is produced, it is constructed in a way in which it has a hidden or meaning behind the words. In some circumstances, with the correct audience type, the audience will be able to correctly decode the hidden meaning and understand the texts true purpose, but in some occasions, the audience will fail and reject the hidden meaning.

Film Audience Questionaire

Creating Shadows- Lighting experiment

Lighting Practice

Second attempt

First attempt

We had been given the task of experimenting with lighting by creating a shadow that would imitate a meeting, as this would help us when creating our short film, particularly if we decide to make a horror film.
Our first attempt at creating a shadow was to test the lighting in the college building, although the lighting had created a clear shadow, it was difficult to produce a shadow on the floor, which were our intentions for the task . Our second attempt was to show a person walking, to do this, we thought we would get a better result by standing directly under the light source, however due to the light source not being bright enough, the shadow was not as clear as it could be.

Barthes Five Codes

Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic and semiotician. He said that texts can be opened or closed, and he narrowed down the action of a text into five codes, which can be woven into any narrative:

• The Hermeneutic Code/Enigma Codes (HER); This refers to any element in a narrative that is not explained, and therefore creates an enigma for the audience, leaving unanswered questions and creating a mystery.
• The Proairetic Code/ The Action Code (ACT); This applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.  
• The Semantic Code (SEM); Any element in a text that suggests a particular meaning by connotation.
• The Symbolic Code (SYM); Organising semantic meaning into broader and deeper sets of meaning.
• The Cultural Code (REF); Points out a shared knowledge of how the world works through codes.

Analysing using Barthes Codes:

The Cultural Code: This is evident when the television is showing the news, and there has been a terrorist attack, and the news reporter says that Islamic people are to blame.
The Hermeneutic/Enigma Code: This is apparent when there is a meeting being held over the terrorist attacks, as the viewer is asking how can they stop these attacks?
The Proairetic/Action Code: This is shown when the government are talking about killing the man who is most likely in charge of the attacks, this leads to more narrative, as it involved trying to find the man, and how to get rid of him.
The Semantic Code: This is apparent when the clip starts, as there is a low key lighting, as it relates to the sequences being shown.
The Symbolic Code: This applies when the man is shown getting on to the bus, the passengers think he is a terrorist dues to his skin colour and his backpack.