Theories and their meanings

Theory  1:   Hypodermic Needle Model

Theorist/s: Harold Lasswell

When did the theory start? The theory started around World War, 1927.

What is the theory? The theory is basically about injecting thoughts and values and beliefs in the audience. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour.  Several factors contributed to this “strong effects” theory of communication, including: the fast rise and popularisation of radio and television the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children Hitler’s monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.

Does this theory see the audience as active or passive? Why do you think this? They see the audience as being passive as they basically absorb everything in and believe everything you see. The model was used for years to convince us that the media could have such terrible and dangerous influence over our lives. The theory works around the idea of “copycat” – that is to say that it assumes the audience will copy whatever they see on screen.

Apply the theory to a film of your choice. If the theory is correct, what will be the response of the audience to the film? An example of this part of the theory been put into use is the James Bulger case in 1993. His killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, aged ten, had seen a very graphic scene from the film ‘Chucky’ and decided they would re-in-act some of the graphic events from the film on a young boy. He was subjected to such awful and sick violence from two ten year old children, who should not in themselves be subject to such violence through the media. However, the two boys were passive when watching ‘Chucky’ and were less sensitive to the violence, meaning they thought it was acceptable to carry out such violence in reality.

Theory  2:  Reception Theory

Theorist/s: Stuart Hall

When did the theory start? The theory started In the late 1960s.

What is the theory? The theory is about when media texts encode messages and then the audience decode them. This depends on the responses and mainly the cultural background.  Reception theory provides a means of understanding media texts by understanding how these texts are read by audiences. Theorists who analyse media through reception studies are concerned with the experience of cinema and television viewing for spectators, and how meaning is created through that experience. An important concept in reception theory is that the media text—the individual movie or television program—has no inherent meaning in and of itself. Instead, meaning is created in the interaction between spectator and text; in other words, meaning is created as the viewer watches and processes the film.

Does this theory see the audience as active or passive? Why do you think this? This theory sees the audience as active as you are making up your own mind.

Apply the theory to a film of your choice. If the theory is correct, what will be the response of the audience to the film? The movie ‘Toy Story’, in 1995, allowed for both children and adults to connect to the movie.  Pixar targets both active audiences because without the adults taking the children to the movies, they wouldn’t be able to go at all.  The movie must be worthwhile for parents to take their time to bring their child to the movie and so the reception theory is put into place.  By making the scenes polysemic it allows for negotiated meanings, which means, "In reception studies when an audience member creates a personally meaningful interpretation of content that differs from the preferred reading in important ways"  ‘Toy Story’, brings the childhood memories back to adults of playing make believe games with their toys and action figures,  allowing them to reminisce on prior experiences and behaviours to the make the movie entertaining which in turn helps them derive their own interpretation of the film.  Children see the movie as their present day experiences, relating to the movie first hand.  Their imaginations’ are stimulated and the actuality of the film, (talking toys), becomes a fantasised reality for the kids allowing them to make their own interpretations, different from their parents.  Overall, children see the preferred reading, "the meaning the producer intended to make", and parents see a negotiated meaning allowing both audience groups to be entertained by their own interpretations. An example scene from the movie that properly illustrates a good example of the reception theory is the scene where the toys from the movie confront the physically abusive kid, Sid, about treating Woody and Buzz along with his other toys better.

Theory  3:  Uses and Gratifications Theory

Theorist/s: Laswell Blumer & Katz

When did the theory start? The late 1960s.

What is the theory? Most of the theories on media explain about the effects media has on people. It is the theory which explains how people use media for their need and gratification. This theory states what media does to people and not what people do with media. Theorists argue that people's needs influence how they use and respond to a medium. Uses & Gratification can be seen as part of a broader trend amongst media researchers which is more concerned with 'what people do with media', allowing for a variety of responses and interpretations. However, some commentators have argued that gratifications could also be seen as effects, for example thrillers are likely to generate very similar responses amongst most viewers.

Does this theory see the audience as active or passive? Why do you think this? Its an active audience as it chooses for different reasons: and the reasons are: To be informed and educated, to be entertained, to gain personal identify example the character traits as you are or the ones you gain while you watch as well as you can match  your identities with characters Integration and social interaction and escapism from reality as to be someone or something your not. Levy & Windahl (1985) provide a good description of what it means to be an "active consumer" of media: "As commonly understood by gratifications researchers, the term "audience activity" it suggests that media use is motivated by needs and goals that are defined by audience members themselves, and that active participation in the communication process may facilitate, limit, or otherwise influence the gratifications and effects associated with exposure. Current thinking also suggests that audience activity is best conceptualized as a variable construct, with audiences exhibiting varying kinds and degrees of activity.

Apply the theory to a film of your choice. If the theory is correct, what will be the response of the audience to the film? Most films are produced as entertainment for this is what audiences most want and therefore the film is most likely to make money. Any film that becomes much talked about (social interaction) can be considered an 'event movie'. If you have not seen the 'event movie' then you are likely to be left out of certain conversations. An example of this can be found in the movie, The Blair Witch Project (1999). Handheld footage. Non-diegetic sound of the ‘Doom’ when introducing the credits which explain ‘The project’ and also when the ‘Witch’ is near, almost simple but tense music. The use of silence when listening to important dialogue presented by the initial characters. Diegetic sound of the teenagers dialogue, screaming, interviews with local people who tell us (the spectator) about what they know of the 'Blair Witch’ and use of footsteps and branches snapping.  this film as a whole is not really mainstream and the actors within this film aren't heard of so this makes the movie more realistic and believable for the spectator because of the non recognition the characters.       The plot of the movie is introduced and it gives us initial ideas of what has happened, and what is going to happen within the movie without giving away the key scenes.    The use of editing in the movie is not really that advanced and the pace is slow as it involves hand held shots performed by the ‘characters’ within, the use of cutaways aren't as intense however they still have strong effect on the audience and the use of the black cutaway to introduce the credits are involved to keep the audience interested and to keep them on track.

Theory  4:  Two Step Flow Theory

Theorist/s: Paul Lazerfield, Bernard Berelson & Hazel Gaudet Lazerfield & Katz

When did the theory start? Started around the presidential elections, 1944 as it impacts on the ways they worked.

What is the theory? Mass media communicates with people, opinion leaders as the rest of the audience. When you’ve got someone between you and the original message and the opinion leaders choose what they show you and then what the influence is. This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay full on close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviours and are quite similar to those they influence. The two-step flow theory has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behaviour, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes on behaviour. The two-step flow theory gave way to the multi-step flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of innovation theory.

Does this theory see the audience as active or passive? Why do you think this? Semi passive audience as they passively take in the information of what the media say. Social network choose what you show. Whilst this model still suggests that we rely on others to help us understand messages, and that others influence how we consume; it is treating the audience as active and not passive.

Apply the theory to a film of your choice. If the theory is correct, what will be the response of the audience to the film? a movie which this theme is applied to is the film Mean Girls (2004), where the social system is greatly influenced by “opinion leaders” who forms others’ opinions. Mean Girls, loosely based around Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes, audiences embark on a narrative that contains the generic clique system ‘The Plastics’ and the outsider straight from Africa and home schooled, Cady Heron. Mean Girls has these archetypes in many forms such as Karen the ‘bimbo’; however there is an element of subversion in characters, as they will have traits that do not conform to the archetype characters, as seen in the main protagonist, Cady.

  

Theory  5:  Cultivation Theory

Theorist/s: George Gerber.

When did the theory start? Mid 1960s

What is the theory? The theory is about how TV influences people and what gradual long term affects it has on the people watching it as well as how the people could be influenced, but it happens over time as it reinforces opinions by not changing it as it just matches your thoughts and reinforces your own views.

Does this theory see the audience as active or passive? Why do you think this? Passive audience as it generally fits into what you believe in.

Apply the theory to a film of your choice. If the theory is correct, what will be the response of the audience to the film? The Dark Knight Rises (2012) One majortheme is the concept of resurrection – Batman rises from “hell” the placed called “hell” on earth” in the film is a literal pit where people die, but it is extremely uncommon that people make it out alive. Jesus on the third day got up from the grave with all power in His hands. Interestingly, Batman was only in the pit for a little bit of time just like Jesus. Throughout the Gospels Jesus’ boldness about Him returning is prevalent. While talking to His disciples Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19, King James Version). In this passage of scripture Jesus is talking about His body, not the literal temple. While in the pit, Batman’s body went through transformation he became stronger and faster while being cast down. “Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, King James Version). He is determined to rise up even though there is a battle ahead of him, he allowed his own body to be bruised and broken for his people just like Jesus did.

   

The Context of Production: Report

Brief

I was asked to find out about how the Contexts of production can affect the final product, in this case, Films. Contexts I was asked to investigate were: Historical, Technological and Cultural.

Historical context refers to the moods, attitudes, and conditions that existed in a certain time. Context means the  "setting" for an event that occurs, and it will have an impact on the relevance of the event.

Technological context looks at the technical components of film, this can include editing, sound, camera, lighting and colour and Mise-en-scene.

Cultural context looks at the society the characters live in and at how there culture can affect their behaviour and their opportunities. In any cultural context, deeply embedded values and attitudes can be difficult to change.

Methods

Firstly, I watched a documentary called The Birth of Hollywood narrated by Paul Merton, which explored how the early pioneers there laid down the blueprint for today’s cinema industry. He retrieves cinema’s founding DNA to provide a fitting and unique tribute to Hollywood’s movie – making history.

Then I explored a PowerPoint called Film Language, which outlined the basic elements of film language, including Cinematography, camera shots, camera movement, editing, lighting and colour, sound and special effects.

From these I constructed a leaflet and a short silent film. The short silent film that I produced was called “When strangers meet”. This film showed two strangers who meet accidently and become friends. it was influenced by the style of the Lumiere Brothers.

The leaflet that I produced contained the texts and contexts of film production. I included information on the work of Edward Muybridge, Louis Dagurre, Lumiere Brother and George Méliès.

I investigated how ideology and culture can be represented through a country’s film output. This involved looking at some clips from different countries and conducting further secondary and primary research into the films of one particular country of my own choice from which I constructed a PowerPoint presentation, the country I chose was India. My presentation covered a brief outline of the country, and analysed 5 Bollywood films of how they encompassed power, ideology and culture in the film. I also compared representations made to my own experiences.

I researched 4 films and their remakes noting similarities and differences between them. I films I chose were Prom Night, Charlie and The Chocolate factory, Freaky Friday and Pyscho.  This included points about their production, technology, narrative and setting.

Secondly, I focused on Back to The Future II and looked at the historical contexts to construct moodboards then chose a scene and planned how I would remake it 10 years in advance to reflect the changes in the world as well as society.

Historical Findings:

The Lumiere style brother short 1 minute movie stills:

This is the leaflet that I have constructed for my research; I used all the information from this leaflet while I did my one-minute Lumiere brother style film. All the information on this leaflet was very necessary for me and it had helped me choose what I needed to do for my short movie remake.

My short Lumiere style movie remake is under one minute, this is because of the fact that the Lumiere brothers did short movies themselves, which were all under a minute. After filming the movie I edited the colour on the mac and turn the scenes black and white, this was because of the fact that the Lumiere brothers movies are all black and white so therefore I did the same because I wanted my movie to be the as similar as it could be so it would look the same.

The movie that I did has no dialogue, this again is all because of the fact that the Lumiere brothers do not use dialogue in their movies. The movies however do contain music so I also decided to add music too. The music I have got in my movie is quite upbeat and funky it goes really well with the film because of what’s been going on in there and I think it goes really well.

The movies, which I watched, by the Lumiere brothers are all French titles so therefore I French titled my movie, the movie is called When Strangers Met and in French it is called “Lorsque des étrangersréunis.” My film is basically about two people who just randomly encounter each other at a quiet area and just become friends as they start talking to each other because of the fact that one of the characters has a new game and he asks the stranger if he wants to play the game with him.

Findings about the leaflet:

The leaflet, which I had created, is the leaflet based on all the information I had found out about the birth of cinema.

I also found out about the Lumiere brothers by watching the clips, researching the history about them and watching a short film about the birth of Hollywood. These findings gave me a great insight on the birth of cinema in general and how cinema had developed overtime and how it is still developing today. I learnt about the techniques they used to make the films, the cameras they used to film, and how long the films were and the processes the films used to go through in order to make them what they are.

Cultural identity findings…

Below is the mood board which I have made about India, this is a stereotypical mood board because I conducted this mouldboard on opinions of others as well as my own, I decided to do this in this way because I believe that it’s the best thing to do to show what people think of India and to see what they think is right or not.

Above is the mood board of Bollywood that I have made and this mood board is what I already know about Bollywood and what I associate the industry with.

For my cultural identity project I decided that I wanted to focus on the Bollywood film industry which is in India, the reason why I chose Bollywood is because I am a huge fan of these movies so I thought it would be great for me to find more research on them and add the information I know already to create my Prezi’s on the Bollywood film industry.

These are the cultural findings that I did about the Bollywood film industry, which is in India. I decided to research the country India because I am very closely connected within my culture and I feel as tough its great for me to research an industry which I know about as well as which I watch a lot of films from.

The five films I chose to talk about are below and I feel that these movies show Bollywood very well; the films to each other are very different as they are not similar in stories. These movies below show the culture of India really well because of the traditions the characters go through that are in the movies but some of the movies also show how the Indian culture is very diverse and how it has changed and how it is changing through time.

Characters:

From the four films I have chosen I believe that some of the characters from the movies are actually quite similar to me especially the one in the film Cocktail. The character Meera (Diana Penty) is her name, she's quite simple and family orientated and I believe I am like this. I would fit into being and playing this character well because her personality similarly matches mine, even the clothing she wears is quite similar to what I would wear and the way she is as person in terms of the way she acts with people and talks to people is definitely similar to me. The characters in the film are also quite similar to my family in ways especially the ones who do live in India because of the way there lifestyle is in terms of living in the village and being quite loud and vibrant in both ways personality and clothing, they are also quite outspoken too.

Experiences:

Some of the experiences that the characters go through are quite similar in terms of what  I have been through and probably will go through at different stages of life and this connects with others  in all cultures because the feelings and events could happen to anyone and it doesn't really matter about the culture in this sense. The way that the characters are quite independent in terms of the fact that they have travelled alone that is definitely similar to me because I have been to India by myself and therefore I feel quite connected to this character and I know how she felt when she got there and what sort of feelings she had been going through. Other experiences which are similar are the relationships they share with their friends, the way that most of the characters are in trims of with each other as well as there family is what I am like and how I am treated too because I am quite open minded and sincere.

 Place:

The places in which the characters have lived in these movies re quite similar to the ones I have been and lived in. I have been India many times I know exactly what the places are like and what to expect in the certain areas they area at. 

Time:

The events in the films are quite similar in terms of what I have been through as well as what I have seen in life worth other people. The stories are quite common and I think happen to a lot of people in every day life and people genially know a lot of people who are experiencing these events.

Main characters age and gender

The ages in most of the films are roughly 20+ so the characters are quite young. The movies generally have a lot of females in them more than males and the males in the movies seem a lot older then the females. Overall the main gender is female.

Languages:

The languages in the movies, which are spoken, are Hindi, Punjabi and English. I also can speak those three languages. The characters however are very fluent in the ways they speak the languages and are quite fast paces in terms of the way they articulate. Some of the characters in the films are quite philosophical and I feel site connected to that because I feel as a person I am quite sentimental, also one of the films the character is a writer so I feel quite connected because of the poetry which is read in the movies.

Frequency:

A lot of British and Hollywood film are quite similar to these Bollywood movies that I have analysed because they are quite modern in terms of the stories. The movies I have seen which have similarities are Love Actually, The Wedding Planner and Red Eye.

Remakes

The remakes I chose to do some research uponwere Prom Night, Psycho Charlie and The chocolate factory and Freaky Friday. I chose these re makes because these are the ones which I really enjoyed watching. I think this re makes show the difference of time and place really well and its good because it shows you clearly how time has changed.

The three re makes I have spoken about are Prom Night, Charlie and the Chocolate factory and Freaky Friday and this is what comparisons I found it.

1)Prom Night

The setting of this 1980's Prom Night is set in the school, which they have graduated from. The prom is a disco theme and you can tell that’s their is nothing really that fancy about it, the clothing of the students is quite simple and plain but the dresses what the females wear have a quite flare but not as much as what you would see now. The trailer starts off with a voice over and disco music, which was quite popular in the 80s. 

In the era of the 1980's America it was noted as the highest unemployment years and by the end of the November month over 11 million people were unemployed in the USA, this to me shows quite clearly in terms of this movie trailer as   the prom in this movie is quite limited, as they don't have much going on in terms of the venue because its set in the school, this shows to me that money was a big issue and that shows because it was set in there school so they've saved a lot of money as they generally didn't have a lot to spend on the event and go out of their locality. 

Remake: (2008)

The setting as you can see clearly is more glam and red carpet style prom event. The prom is set in a nice expensive flashy hall and you can tell that the students of this time are quite wealthy. The clothing is definitely a good element to show the wealth of the students as both male and females are wearing expensive designer wear, the dresses are all puffy, sophisticated and flashy and are complimented with jewellery. The trailer starts off with rock music, which is quite popular in this time and a lot of people, listen to it, there is no voice overs in this trailer apart from the voices of the characters when they are talking.

2) Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (1971) 

This trailer to the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that was released in the year of 1971, you can see a lot of difference to this one and the recent one at the time of 1971 there was a lot of inflation and money was a big issue, lots of families were living in bad conditions and its clearly shown in the trailer as you can see that 4 people are in one bed. Money was a big deal and not a lot of families had it so work was something not to be missed even though they didn't receive much they had to make it expand in order for them to get enough food for the family for a day. 

Props used in the video are hats, walking sticks, cloaks, ticket and newspapers. 

Remake: (2005)

This is the trailer for the 2005 Charlie and the chocolate factory and it stars Johnny Depp. 

The trailer starts off with a voice over telling us about the character Charlie, and how he won his ticket.  The setting is very different to the first one as its a different director completely and the director of this movie is Tim Burton and to be honest you can tell due to the fact that its quite dark in terms of colour as well as story and it has a very whimsical look about it. The story of the movie is also quite deep and dark too as it goes into the story of Willy Wonka and his past more then Charlie himself, I do think it works well still because it is generally quite nice to know more about him as a character. The props used in this film are the same as the ones in the 1971 movie as hats and cloaks are used too.

3) Freaky Friday(1976)

This movie shows us a mother and daughter and how they are so different to each other but end up turning into each other due to a body swap because of  a fortune cookie, the clothing they wear in this movie to me seem quite retro, as they are quite bright looking. The hairstyles of the characters are quite vintage as the hair is quite short but very big in terms of volumisation. 

The re make of the 76's film and its a lot different to the original as you can see the characters in this film are much more modernised in terms of the clothing they wear as well as there personalities. From this trailer you can see that the daughter seems very gothic, and her mother is very different to her as she is quite modern but in a way which is subtle as she has a casual sense about her. The characters in this movie compared 

 to the first film seem definitely more exaggerated and I think this is good because it makes the film more fun to watch as the event that has happened to them in the movie is quite interesting so the way they handle the situation will be fun to watch as we would know it will be quite over the top. 

After doing this research we focused on re making a scene from the movie Back To The Future II and I focused on the movies historical context and did research about the 80s era. I then conducted a few mood boards about the year of 1980s where I noted all my ideas of what I thought and knew about the 80s. I also researched about the 1980s fashion, music, important events, clothing, TV and film and did separate presentations on them.

( ADD MOODBOARD + PREZI OF THE 80S)

Back To The Future II – Scene remake.

Original scene: Outside: Marty has just put on his 1985 Nikes back on. He looks around and sees a dog being walked – by a robotic lead. Marty stares at it and then gets up to have a closer look at it. He walks down the street. Biff gets into the DeLorean and unseen by Marty, takes off, although he crashes into some boxes first.

My version of this scene would be like this.
The scene would be set in the year of 2045 and instead of Marty putting on his Nikes, he would instantly just look at his shoes and then the shoes will tie themselves to his feet. When he sees the dog being walked by a robotic lead instead what he witnesses is the dog in a little car driving himself down the roa

Conclusion

In my opinion I think that the effects of context of production have a huge impact on ideology, culture, identity and power as ideology is a s set of beliefs which people believe in so therefore I think that the way there beliefs should be portrayed is important because if its shown in a way which is similar to someone the audience watching the movies will feel a strong and close connection and the film will be something which they’ll remember. Whether it is a positive thing or a negative thing that’s just individuality as that will entirely depends on how the person watching the film takes the situation.

Culture is just as important because depending on the films the certain cultures will be different and they will be catered to the way the culture is at the time the film is made for example the re make of prom night, the original was 1980 and the fashion, music and venues were all very different compared to the re make of the movie which was 2008 and that was more glitzy and glamorous because since then time has changed and so has lifestyles, so has fashion so has music. Culture is important too because if this was the same movie made in Bollywood it would definitely be similar but very different as the Indian culture is different so the differences would be the music, fashion, clothing, peoples lifestyle and the way they celebrate.

Power is also important because it’s the ability to make you think, and these movies do make you think certain ways and the are very believable in terms of characters, places and events and because of the technical aspects such as the visual affects and lighting is much more advanced compared to earlier again it seems more realistic to watch these movies as it seems more believable.

The best film I think that’s shows culture very well is the movie Amelie that was written and directed in France. As it shows you Paris the way you exactly want to see it. The culture and context of the way the film is portrayed is giving the audience a very attractive impression on the city Paris as its shown to look very perfect as it has that certain stereotype that it is a city of love and dreams can come true.

Back To The Future II (Remakes)

Back To The Future II

This is the trailer of the movie Back to the future 2:

This is a Prezi presentation which i have created to give you a brief outline on what life was like in the 80s and what events took place: