Discussion concerning our Project

My partner (Bea) and I had a discussion that addressed the idea of extending our short film into a TV programme, we both took an interest to this idea and so now our documentary is an episode in a series called 'Speaking Out'.

This episode belongs to a 6 part series, and is called 'Speaking Out - We Could've Been Anything'. This episode is the first in the series, and explores the question "If you could be anything what would you be and why?"

We decided that 'Speaking Out' would be broadcast online, as we believe that is the future of TV. This makes the series very current and so it will appeal to a wide audience, every one has easy access to online TV Channels such as BBC 3 and Channel 4 as well as BBC iPlayer. This accessibility and the length of the episodes, approximately 15-20 minutes long episodes provide a quick-fix of entertainment ideal for viewers who have busy lives, as well as for those who have time.

Examples of the platforms we would broadcast on are these:

BBC 3 is an online channel, we think it would be ideal for our TV series because of similar documentary series we have found on this website such as 'Men Who Sleep in Trucks'. BBC 3 also has a large and young audience, this relates to our target audience of young adults. 




BBC iPlayer is a combination of all the TV shows on the British Broadcasting Company in one place, including all BBC 3's programmes. You can watch anything on the website at any time, meaning you can stream the shows that are currently playing and watch them online, or catch up later, this is also an ideal platform for our series because it is already used by our target audience. 

Genre Theory Lesson

How can we identify genre?

Conventions: 

Narrative 
and

Cinematography 

Mise-en-scene (props costume, lighting, set, character performance) language, production techniques 

(editing, camera angles and movement, structure, filters, effects, sound etc.)

Narrative structure (linear, non-linear, abstract, narrative, etc.)

Symbolic codes (e.g. a cowboy hat)

Action codes (body language, hand gestures etc. 

Why is genre important?

For Producers of media texts:

It gives them a pattern for construction, a template,

genre pieces have an established audience who are easy to market to

certain personnel can develop their skills working within a particular genre (e.g. horror make up specialists)

Stars can associate themselves with certain genres e.g. Will Ferrell is known for a certain type of slapstick comedy, and his face on a poster instantly tells audiences what kind of movie they are likely to see if he is in it. 

Fans of the genre know the codes, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time, so you don't have explain everything the audience knows the codes

Distributers:

Clear channels for marketing and distribution - easily targetable audience

concentration of distribution resources - no point in trying to get football matches to a non-sports audience because they will not want to watch it.

Fans of a genre as a whole can easily be persuaded to buy other texts in the same genre e.g. action movies which provide a structure for the retail outlets like HMV, amazon etc. 

Steve Neal

'genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations' - he is saying that genre is something that gets repeated and repeated just with slight differences each time. 

and

'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre'

 Two ideas can be explored using this quote:

1. How you have used obvious codes, iconography and techniques that are evident in existing media texts that conform to the genre.

2. How you have made some subtle changes to these genre expectations (challenging the conventions?)

point: "Steve Neale suggests that genre is 'a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations'

evidence: What evidence do you have from your chosen piece of coursework that supports this?

[be specific and describe in detail]

Refer to professional examples that have inspired you; being specific.

Analysis: Why did you do this?

What was the purpose?

What was the effect of this on the audience?

Do you agree with Neale? Why?

Conclusion:

Using Steve Neale's ideas concerning genre I believe that our documentary is 'a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations' which makes his theory incredibly relevant to 'The Big Question'. Of course there have been other productions similar to ours but none are exactly the same, each detail makes the media text separate from the other.

John Hartley 

Argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given text'
In other words, genres limit what you can do.

John Hartley notes that 'the same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times'
Here he is saying that if something can belong to different genres it becomes a hybrid, this can come into different terms, 
a hybird genre - serenity, firefly

Conclusion:
I think that this is an interesting concept because, ultimately, it defies 'the norm' but at the same time genre should not be a limit unless the producer makes it one.

John Fisk 

Defines genres as 'attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences.' 
He is saying that genre is for our own convenience, we are lazy, its about us not caring enough to label things properly. 

Conclusion:
I completely agree with this, when coming up with ideas for our production it is so much easier to think in terms of genre and develop a typical story line from that. However in the future I will try and bear this theory in mind, pushing myself to come up with more original ideas.

Laura Mulvey 'The Male gaze' theory

The camera is masculine. The camera is used to observe women from the perspective of a male. This often results in fragmented shots, close ups or tracking shots of the female form. 

This happens in some genres more than others, typically the male genres such as action, e.g. James Bond.

Conclusion:
Laura Mulvey's theory is true, and it is a perfect representation of how the media presents women today.
Similarly, I think that we are now also developing a 'female gaze' similar to that of the 'male gaze' pushing stereotypes onto us.

Claude Levi-Strauss - Binary opposition

The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts or things that creates conflict and drives a narrative
e.g. good/evil or knowing something and not knowing something, like in 'Finding Nemo', they don't know where Nemo is and they're trying to find out.
The route of all drama is in conflict.

Conclusion:
Without binary opposition a story line would be boring, the whole point is to attract attention, an audience. I will use this in the future to make sure I am constructing interesting and engaging pieces of media.

Roland Barthes - Enigma code

A question that is not immediately answered and thus draws an audience into a text.

 A discovery is made at the beginning of a music video. The truth behind the discoveries is an enigma. 
Is there a decision that is made in the video that we don't know the answer to?

It is a puzzle for the audience that keeps them interested, again using 'Finding Nemo' will Marlin be able to find Nemo?

Conclusion:
Enigma codes are something that I will use in 'The Big Question'. The audience will be drawn into thinking and guessing at what the subjects would be, making it more successful.

CHANGE OF PLAN

'Hope is a Waking Dream' was a lovely idea, but whilst planning our audience research I came up with the idea of 'Don't Get Me Started...' a way to find out what our audience for 'Hope is a Waking Dream' were passionate about. 

But after discussing this idea with teachers and Bea, we decided that this would be a better idea for our short film, making a documentary on peoples passions. 

The plan now is to choose around 20 people to film with the starting line 'Don't Get Me Started...' and continue from there as they talk about their passions and what really gets on their nerves.
Our back up plan is called 'Speaking Out' when we ask people 'If you could be anything in the world what would you be and why?'

I find this idea so much more exciting than 'Hope is a Waking Dream' because we have no idea where it will go, it is impossible to do a complete storyboard or script and we rely completely on the people we choose, to express themselves. 

Audience Research

By looking at these following short films I am identifying what potential audiences already have out there in material form. Our idea of 'Don't Get Me Started' will hopefully follow some of these short films in that the people we choose to speak, will speak the truth, freely and without judgement.

The opening shot in 'Fifty People, One Question: London' is similar to the shots we are hoping to create, this is justification for making them, clearly it is something our audience is familiar with and they will associate it with our type of documentary.

The fact that this video is so popular leads us to believe that element like the shots and the soundtrack (simple piano) are codes that appeal to our audience and engage them, it satisfies them.  

The fact that this form of documentary is out there being viewed is conformation that our audience will like what we produce if we follow what they are expecting, because they want to see a documentary, we have to produce one. 

The genuine responses in this video such as "I don't want to say it though" even though the subject does tell us, it is engaging. As an audience member myself, watching a documentary like this is very personal, you get to know a tiny part of a person you will never meet.

Often in documentaries like this one there is a time when the subject on camera is thinking, this engages the audience through Barthes enigma code theory, they want to know the answer, what will they say?!

This more interview style documentary focuses on just one subject, but it is still daring in that it speaks out against Hollywood. 

The video starts off with a voice over and subtitles, which I find slightly confusing as I do not understand which I should be focusing on. However, this leads on to be a much more eye opening documentary/interview in which some shots still have the voice over but they feed into shots with the subject talking. 

Something that she addresses is the male gaze, patriarchy and equality, which appeals to an audience of our target audience, those who believe in what she is saying. 

Our documentary will explore all different kinds of different issues, from all sort of people, widening the subject, and therefore interesting more people. 

I know Sophie personally, and when she posted this on Facebook with the link to her YouTube it was all people would talk about at school. 'Don't Get Me Started' really correlated with this as Sophie is using spoken word to communicate how she feels and to spread a message. 

This is a perfect example of something uplifting that could potentially end up being in the documentary.

"The word beautiful has been tainted"

By looking at these short films I have been able to identify what our target audience may have viewed before, what appealed to them and what I should avoid doing. 

Theory Lesson

Narrative 

The narrative is about the structure of the story, how it is put together. 

Its a way of interpreting it. 

Structuralism: A belief hat there is structure in all things - that items within a certain paradigm (a class of elements with similarities) follow specific patterns 

- Ferdinand de Saussure 

Equilibrium Theory - Tzvetan Todorov

Equilibrium, disruption, recognition, attempt to repair, new equilibrium

Equilibrium: the setting is established, key characters are introduced and the story is set up.

Disruption: oppositional characters appear and the story takes a particular direction.

Conflict: the lives of the characters and events are interwoven. Tension builds.

Climax: highest point in tension where things begin to get sorted.

New Equilibrium: matters are sorted out and problems are solved. 

1. Equilibrium is when the first bird is sitting on the wire by itself.

2. Disruption is when another bird appears next to it, and ruins the peace because it takes up space and interferes with the other bird. 

3. Conflict when another bigger bird comes along and is competition for space.

4. Climax, in this case the bigger bird is going to catapult all the other birds into the air. 

5. The new equilibrium, the result of the climax. 

Binary Opposition - Claude Levi-Strauss

Contrast or opposites

Binary opposition: Focusing on the different sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of the media texts. light and dark, good and evil, right wing and left wing. 
All drama comes from conflict, conflict happens when you have two opposite things. 

Linear/non linear 

Chronological vs Non

Linear comes from the idea of a straight line, so when it comes to storytelling it has a beginning, middle and an end.

A flashback is non linear because you jump around the time frames. 

Deadpool is non linear. 

Open Structure: The audience are left to wonder what happens next and makes sense of it themselves. This often happens in marvel movies so they can make a sequel. 

E.g. "Inception" leaves people talking about it, engaging the audience because the story is not closed. 

Closed Structure: Definite ending - clear conclusion for the audience. This is a typical Hollywood structure because they audience leave satisfied. 

Circle Structure: The narrative begins at the end events (often with the Beginning

Abstract, narrative, performance and hybrid 

(music video)

Vladimir Propp

 7 characters

Hero: traditionally the hero is a male protagonist whose role it is to restore normality or equilibrium. He does this by defeating the villain(s) and winning the love of another character. 

Villian: the villain is the cause of the disruption and the enemy of the hero. The villain may ask be a threat to the safety and the well being of the love interest. 

Dispatcher: The dispatcher sends the hero on a journey to restore equilibrium. The dispatcher may also be the father or a father figure of the love interest, sending the hero on a quest to see if he is worthy of winning.

Donor or mentor: gives the hero something to help them along on their journey. This gift may be a piece of advice, a skill or an object such as a weapon. 

Helper: the helper assists the hero in restoring equilibrium. The helper may be a sidekick, friend or someone else who helps in any way.

Love Interest or prize: usually a passive and vulnerable character, threatened by the villain and needing rescuing by the hero. 

False hero: a character who initially seems to be on the side of the hero but who turns against him or deceives. 

Roland Barthes 

Enigma codes, semiotic, action, cultural, symbolic

Codes are about what the reader understands about what the producer means. 

Codes activate the reader to makes sense of 'narrative' or meaning within a text:

Action code - meaning of specific words, actions or looks

Enigma code - puzzles set up to be solved by audience

The Semic code - the connotations of a character/place/object

The Symbolic code - metaphor or figure of representation

Cultural code - connections to the world outside the text 

These theorists will help me in my future production because thinking about what they have said encourages me to consider these ideas when coming up with ideas for my production. Using these different concepts I can create a solid piece, that has meaning behind it. 

Audience Profile

Who am I aiming my short film at?

Our target audience is between the ages of 15 to 21. This age group is ideal for our audience profile because our short film will be appealing to them, they will be able to connect with the characters because they are of similar ages, or have recently been of a similar age. They will also associate with our short film because of the idea that 'this could happen to me'.

Below I have two examples of my target audience, as our short film appeals to both males and females. 

People will be drawn to 'Hope is a Waking Dream' because of its relevance and underlying political values. This shows the truth about the childcare system, what happens when families can no longer be supported and how that impacts the children. Late teens and young adults are now challenging taboo's more and more and this short film does just that, attracting these young opinionated individuals. 

When involving my target audience in surveys and the like I will be sure to ask them what they are passionate about by asking them to talk with the beginning sentence "don't get me started..." This way I can find out about what they as an individual want to be heard talking about. 

Audience Research

Audience research is a way to identify our target audience and what will appeal to them thorough questionnaires and interviews, along with other research such as looking at other short films that are similar and what they look like, how they addressed the requests of their audience. 

We also need to make sure that our initial ideas are interesting so as to capture our audiences attention. There is no point coming up with a bad idea for our short film and trying to continue with it, a bad idea will not gain as much positive feedback and enthusiasm as a good one. Therefore, before we present our content to possible audiences we need to be confident that although we may not have the final idea, it is engaging for the public.

Viewers of our short film often want to get something out of it, whether it is enjoyment or a deeper, meaningful concept depicted in our story. To look at this idea we must consider what our ideas could give the audience, but also ask them personally what they want to get out of the short film.

Audience research is important because without it our short film wouldn't appeal to anyone and may not be as good as it could potentially be. It is important to use others ideas when creating something that requires an audience to secure its success because its achievement depends on them. Using their input in the creative process not only involves them but makes them more interested to witness the final piece, creating a buzz connected to our short film.