Post 10

Script

Brainstorm of our initial ideas

Analysis of our title

Feedback on our idea for a short film

Post 9

Short Film Research

Why short films are made and why it could be a useful tool.

After reading the two Telegraph articles which talk about the process of production distribution and exhibition they have given me inspiration as to how I will design the making of my short film.

The long history of short films (Click to follow this link)

This article from The Telegraph displays how short films have come about and developed over the past few years. In the beginning of film making all films were short. The short films that succeeded, where "one-shot 'actuality' or 'interest' film depicting celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life". From this I can see that audiences preferred films about everyday life and current affairs. This is mainly because audiences are able to connect with the film as it will be about something they have experienced. However 'shorts' didn't last long. "In the early 1900s, improvements in recording and editing technology allowed film-makers to produce longer, multi-shot films". The fact that technology has developed means that it is to produce longer, better, multi-shot films. This will benefit us when we come to create our films because we will have the facilities to experiment with the camera and camera angles. However because we are using the school equipment we would expect that it will be a real step down to the equipment that major film companies would use. In the article Chris Hilton is mentioned. He is a general manager at the Odeon and says that he "began working in cinemas in 1966 and recalls the unpopularity of some of these documentary shorts 'In the Sixties, you would still occasionally get short films in the programme, things like the Rank Organisation's Look at Life series (which depicted scenes of 'Swinging Britain'). But most of these were pretty boring and the audience used to use them as an excuse to pop to the loo or get some more popcorn"'. From this we can seen that the short film documentaries were unpopular and audiences like films were they can escape from reality and be part of a different world out of their experience. However they also like films to be believable with issues they can relate to but on a much wider scale. This means that I will base my short film on issues that the audience are able to relate to but also include parts which help the audience to escape reality and to include themselves into a new fantasy world. The article also states that 'With a music video, the narrative follows the rhythm of the song so there's much less freedom'. From this statement I have learnt not to try and fit the film around the music as we will have much less freedom to experiment with camera and editing and our short film will consequently turn into a music video. This article has helped us considersbly with the distribution of our film

Who are the target audiences for short films?

The target audience for short films is seen to be quite specific. There are two main groups of people that will be familiar with these short films, these are unemployed students looking for a career in this industry and the people that have already become successful within this industry. These people that have been successful within the industry will be looking at the short films to find a potential director, producer or writer that they can employ to work with them. Whereas the unemployed students will be viewing the work for inspiration.

The audience for short films again could be considered different to that of mainstream films because: 

• They are succeeders, they are driven by their income wanting to get to a high status within the industry. Once they have achieved this powerful position they are then the audience looking to invest in a director to bring money into their company.
• They are aspirers, these are the students who have finished their degree and are now looking for a job so that they can break into the industry. These people are driven by the motivation of a better life meaning that they will be doing a lot of research into short films to get a better understanding and to possibly get inspiration for their own amateur short films.
• They are individualists, they like to express their opinions and views through film

Who are the target audience for the short films I have watched
Most of the short films I have watched are set in a teenage school and often tackle issues that this age group face, these include violence and bullying. The large sector of the audience watching these films are around the same age as the characters however these are split in two, the first half is for the children who are victims of bullying. The children will feel alone until they watch the short film and realise that this is a popular issue found within schools. The second will be the bullys themselves so that they will realise the damage they cause to their victims. The other audience of these films may also be the parents of these school children as they are able to experience the reality of school.

How are short films distributed?
Short films have a very different strategy when it comes to the distribution of their films compared to the theatrical (cinema) films. Up until recently short film producers have been trying to replicate the feature film way of distribution by taking 4 simple steps

1.    Take their short film out onto the circuit

2.    Try to communicate with a sales agent to try and get your short onto the television

3.    Look at possibly trying to get your shot onto a DVD to sell, either through yourself or through a sales agent

4.    Put your short film onto the internet, but only if every other solution has failed

The differences between the distributions of feature films compared to short films

·         The first difference between the two distribution techniques is that short films don’t tend to make money theatrically or in festivals as the economic motivation to screen short films theatrically in cinemas and festivals is missing.

·         Despite the point above, festivals are very important and you shouldn’t ignore them. Through these your short could win awards and could reach committed audience. Through these film festivals you may be able to secure a sales agent who may consider your film if it has been successful at the festival.

·         Short film festivals realise that they are in competition with DVD sales and online delivery of short films, it is a battle that they most likely will not win.

·         Festivals used to reject short films mainly because they are online, on television or on DVD meaning festivals may be coming to an end. However festivals won’t disappear so they will learn to work with other media.

·         Producers and directors of short films need to promote their films across all different types of media in order to get the biggest audience and profit to produce potential.

Film Festivals
Film Festivals target to audiences who seek out new and fresh short films and some festivals also offer awards. Film festivals are also a good way of distributing your film because producers, distributors and various other members of the film industry will be at these film festivals looking for short films to catch their eye. However you need to careful when distributing your film because some festivals only accept feature films or films of a certain genre. Finding a film festival can also be difficult because many target certain categories, for example some target feature films whereas others only target shorts. When entering your short film into a festival there are also awards to be one, an Oscar, Jamieson European Short Film Award, BAFTA, Scottish BAFTA, Scottish BAFTA New Talent Awards and a Jim Poole Award.

Sales Agents/International Distributors

Sales Agents, either a company or an individual are in an agreement with you, the holder of your short film to try to sell your film as widely as possible to the agent’s contacts universally.  Agents attend festivals to look for new short films that will be able to sell. Sales agents won’t be able enter your film in an international film festival but will however have a wide range of contrasts and expertise because their profession is to sell short films.

Digital Distribution – Online Downloads and Streaming

Digital Distribution is appealing to short filmmakers as you are able to digitise your film, register and upload it to various websites and potentially universally people will be able to watch it streamed, or download it to watch at audience demand. In some cases filmmakers will be able to make money from this method of distribution.

Conclusion
The most common ways to distribute a short film is to send a DVD to film festivals. They are receptive to short films and sometimes awards are given for the best short film. Major distributors attend film festivals meaning that promoting your short film is easy. You could also contact film distributors directly. Small, independant distrubutors are sometimes more receptive to short films and may suggest options for you releasing it on DVD in conjunction with other films or as part of a collection. To distribute your short film you could also talk to film reviewers, this will help promote your short film and make it well known widely. Lastely you could post parts or the whole of your short film on websites, for example YouTube or a blog to help promote and distribute it.

Source:  You’ve got it made, Short Film Distribution Guide by Nigel. R. Smith
My research on short films on homosexuality

Fair Play

•  The film makers of this short film clip used the idea of soccer/football as this is seen as a masculine trait, he uses this sport to fool the audience into believing he is with the woman. We have used this idea in our film with James and Ashley where we use the character of Roxanne to trick the audience into believe he is straight.
• Within the film the audience are told that 'he had hurt his knee', this is showing that he is quick to be in pain, whereas the masculine stereotype is to be butch, whereas this character is showing his feminine side by showing his emotions.
• In this short film clip one of the homosexual couple is in denial, 'I'm in love with Marie' yet it is clear to the audience that there is a relationship between the two male characters, but when told this he states that he is 'different' showing that he wants this homosexual relationship but isn't ready for it to be openly broadcasted.
• The writers of this short film also use the statement 'me time' which the gay character in denial uses as an escape route. An escape from the woman to see his boyfriend and an escape from his boyfriend when things start to get difficult.

Who we are

• Homosexuality is wrong- (based on religion where it is unaccepted)
• Convention could be that the guy character would hang around with groups of girls
• Father trying to force him to play baseball when he was younger, he is almost forcing him to be straight which is something you can't force people to do. 'You may force him to play baseball but you can't force him to be something he's not'.
• Unaccepted by school friends as he is beaten up and called 'queer'.

Research into your target audience
Target audience for short films is more specific compared to mainstream films. There are only two types of audience that are interested in short films these are unemployed students looking for a future in the film industry and people who are already professional in this industry.
Demographics
People employed in the industry are placed in the demographic social groups A to C1. These professionals are looking to find potential in the director, producer or other member of this film group to work for them in their company. The section made up of students would be placed in group E because they are unemployed but their background is most likely to be A to C1. This category would be viewing these short films for inspiration for their work as they are still an amateur film maker.  Most of these short films will be viewed online so the audience will be familiar with the internet therefore supporting the reasons behind the audience being from the media background.
Psychographics
The audience is again different to mainstream films. The audience is therefore split into three categories the succeeders, the aspirers and the individualists.

The Target Audience for the short films I have looked at
The short films I have looked at are mostly set in a school, some clips are of the same subject matter as mine, others are just for research of what a short film should look like and what it consists of. Most short films I have watched are about social realism (socio-realism) and deal with tackling issues. All the short films I have researched also have in the common the setting of the film and are all set in school. This therefore means that the films I have researched look at the tackling issues and problems that are faced will at school. This therefore means that the target audience is split into three sections. The first section is the kids that are going through these issues, for example being bullied or even being gay. This section of the audience are watching these types of film because they are watching how others are dealing with these issues themselves. The second section is the ones bullying or causes disruption, these are watching these short films as they are almost looking at them as a lesson, seeing what trouble they are causing and what they are putting people through. The last section of the audience is the adults and parents of the children, watching what goes on within a school enviroment and looking at the film from a different perspective and looking at how they may be able to help their child.
The target audience I am making my film for
The target audience I intend to make my film for is for children going through secondary school and maybe even parents. The short film I intend to make is going to look at issues students at secondary school go through and because it is set in a secondary school this therefore leads to the target audience being students going to secondary school. I may also make my target audience parents because as I said above it will help them to remember there childhood and how hard life can be when your young.
How I will measure how successful my short film will be
To measure the success of my short film when it is finished I will firstly put it on YouTube, this way I can then see what audiences think of my short film from the comments the audience will hopefully leave. I could also screen it at my school and get feedback from fellow pupils to see what types of results I get.

Post 8

Media Language

Media Language could be seen to be the understanding of the micro elements of film including camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing and a deeper analysis of shot sizes, match-on-action, rules of continuity, framing and how they are pieced and edited together to create a sentence and therefore a language of communication. The language of film arguably the language can’t be used separately from genre, narrative, representation and audience as the knowledge of each of these influences the decisions you made throughout production.

When constructing the plot of our short film we were led by the conventions of the short film genre, for example, depicting an underlining message and constructing the story around the development of one character. This is shown in my opening sequence last year where we started to develop the film around the character of Liam and the story of his mixed up life where he turns to drug dealing.  You also want your film to be successful with its target audience and therefore the constraints of the conventions of that genre need to be acknowledged, used or diverted from, so that while audience expectations are fulfilled at the same time you are offering up a film that will be remembered for its ‘creativity’.  

Film has a seperate language known as the media language, its a way of communicating using images which is known universally. Like other languages it has rules and conventions, which we can deconstruct and understand. The narrative world of the film is also known as the diegesis which can be divided up into two areas, the mise-en-scene and the mise-en-shot. The mise-en-scene is the things we find in the scene. Most things we will find within the scene are all or mostly significant however nothing is accidental because film is not reality it is a representation of it. This includes the actors, set, costume and lighting. The mise-en-scene could reflect the production values of the films. The mise-en-shot is the process of translating mise-en-scene into shots and the relationship between the two, this includes the camera position, camera movement, shot scale (long shot/medium shot/close up), duration of the single shot, the pace of the editing and the depth of focus.

Post 7

Audience Theory

When looking at audience theory we looked at four short films and from using our background research on audience theory we analysed these using some of the following possible audience receptions:

- Dominant Hegemonic Position
- Negotiated Hegemonic Position
- Oppositional Hegemonic Position
- Aberrant Decoding
- Moral Panic
- Mode of Address

Audinece theory in existing short films
About a Girl

The first of the four short films I watched was About a Girl. This short film looks at a teenage girl who is experiencing her dreams of the average working class teenage girl. The Dominant Hegenomic Position in this short film was that it was intended to shock the audience with its ending and leave the audience with an enigma. Throughout this short film whenever the audience sees the young girl start to build up emotion it cuts to the next scene therefore to some we see that the audience won't sympathise with this young girl till we see the end scene. At the end of this short film we see her drop a baby into the canal, to begin with we see this girl is mixed up and reinforces the point that she has not got a strong relationship with her family as they would have realised this. The fact that she drops a baby into the canal shows that she can't hide these things from her mum which she claims she could. The Negotiated Hegemonic Position that the audience could see from watching this short film is the effect that teenage pregnancy would have had on the young girl. There is a short mention of the girl talking on the bus of when she 'grows up' and the fact that she has had a baby could have in some way made her feel that she is 'grown up' and seen as an adult. The oppositional hegemonic position from watching this film is that initially the audience may agree with the message coming across however there are parts of the short film clip that in some peoples opinion are wrong. One of these segments within this clip is when she throws the baby into the canal. Parts of the audience, including religous viewers would feel that someone killing a life is wrong. Some would also blame the death of this young baby on her parents as she is obviously isolated from them and if they had made more of an effort to get closer to her and look after her they would have known she was pregnant and would have been able to put it up for adoption. After the audience have finished watching this short film clip it will lead them into a moral panic. They will leave wanting to know more background on the girl and to get more of an insight into her interesting life. It will also leave the audience with unanswered questions, they will wonder why she is pregnant at such a young age and what she has done to create such a tense atmosphere and a distant relationship from her parents, whether her pregnancy has caused this.

Bro
The second film I watched when analysing audience is Bro. This short film consisted of a teenager coming to terms with his brother's disability. From the beginning of the clip the audience see that the teenager is his brothers main carer, this is shown when the teenager and his brother are making a cup of tea together and from that moment we see their main bond and how distant they are from their mother, shown through how hard she is having to work. As an audience we also see that this family come from a lower class background due to the council house they are living in and the area around it, this is also shown through the mise-en-scene of the characters clothing and items in the house, but also through the plot as the mum is working nearly every day to get money to support her family and is rely on her son to look after his disabled brother. From this as an audience we can feel sympathy for the family as not only do they have to work hard to earn some money to keep their family afloat but they also have to work hard to support their disabled child/brother. Not only do the audience feel sympathy for the family as a whole but we feel sorry for the teenage boy. He is struggling to come to terms with his brothers disability and with a family that cannot support him on a constant basis because they are busy earning their keep he is unable to learn how to deal with it at his own pace and therefore resorts to putting his brother through danger and hell to impress a girl, which makes us feel sympathy for his brother because he has been left to fight for himself and do things that menatlly he is uncapable of doing. At the end of Bro the audience sees a resolution as the teenage boy realises that his brother's disability is accepted within the community and he shouldn't be ashamed by any part of his life.

Pop Art
Pop Art is a short film about a young boy who is struggling with life and has no relationship with his father until we see a real insight into this boys feelings when a new 'blow up' boy enters his school. The preferred reading into this short film is the fact that the 'blow up' boy is bullied this is 'preffered' because from the position of the audience this is a common and familiar situation. The fact that this boy is bullied puts the audience in an uncomfortable position as it brings back memories to the audience of times when they may have been bullied or bullied others and feel guilty. Other parts of the audience may not concentrate on this out of place 'blow up' boy they may focus on the young boy who is isolated from his family and classmates, we see this primarily through the bad language, 'shithead' but also through the mise-en-scene of the shabby home he lives in and his scruffy uniform. The reason this rough background could be important is because the audience are able to have a nice relationship with the 'blow up' boy because he is helping the young boy to stay on track and his bad attitude has now turned into a better one. The audience will leave this short film feeling sad because the blow up boy has been deflated but has gone for a better life up in the sky and has succesfully changed the young boys attitude towards life.

Jade
One of the short films I watched when analysing audience is 'Jade'. In the opening of the film the audience have no connection with this girl. We can tell by her expression she is not happy and the blue atmosphere of the swimming pool, water and the pregnancy test being positive comes out blue, the colour blue is a cold colour and could show her insular attitude and when comparing the colour blue to warmer colours like red we see that she doesn't bring a warm and friendly atmosphere towards the audience. It's not till later on in the film that the audience start to connect with the girl when we realise that she is in a difficult situation as the audience we know she is in a relationship with an older man but we also know she has a relationship with someone her age. We are left with an enigma at the end of the short film as the audience don't know which one the dad is we are just left with a shot of her and her boyfriend in the car with her expression being sad.

Post 6

Representation theory

Representation

• Describes the signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. It is through representation people know and understand the world and reality through the act of naming it. Signs are manipulated in order to make sense of the world.

What does this mean?

• This means that media texts are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artifical versions of the reality we percieve around us.

So why do we pay attention to these biased interpretations of reality

• It is important to remember that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artifical texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two way process, producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.

Signs

• Signs help us to decipher what exactly is being represented. Signs are the smallest piece of meaning we can use to decode meaning. Almost anything can act as a sign and more than one sign makes up a code. For example glasses and a bowtie makes the audience think of a nerd.

Why is understanding representation important?

• Ideologies
• Cultural beliefs or a way of looking at things.
• Often thought of as common sense
• Things we believe as true but aren't necessarily true.
• Media creates and nurtures these ideas creating possible false truths for us to identify with.

Representation of Gender
The representation of men and women. Gender could be seen to be the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation. Essential elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender, what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine, particularly in advertising, and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics for each gender.

Representation of Women
Feminism has been around for over 30 years yet media representations of women have not dramatically changed. Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:

• Beauty (with narrow conventions)
• Size/physique (within narrow conventions)
• Sexuality
• Emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
• Relationships (as opposed to independance/freedom)

Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood. Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories. The representations of women that do make it onto our screens tend to be stereotypical in terms of conforming to the communities expectations, and characters that don't fit into these expectations are therefore seen as dangerous or deviant. Discussions of women represented in the media tend to focus on their physical appearance rather than to the reality experienced across the world.

Representations of Men

• Masculity has more rigid stereotypes compared to femininity
• Representations of men in the media tend to focus on physical and intellectual strength, power, sexual attractiveness, physique and independance
• Male characters are often represented as isolated, and not needing to rely on others, (the lone hero) . If men are seen as being part of a family, it is usually part of the resolution of the narrative
• Men are starting to find it difficult to live up to their media representation as women are to theirs mainly because of the increased media focus on masculinity, for example the growing market of male lifestyle and health magazines. 
• As media representations of masculinity become more specifically targeted at audiences with product promotion in mind, men are encouraged to aspire to be like their role models. This is an unrealistic target and there is growing unawareness of this.

Representations of Age

• As the audience we are quick to judge people on their age. We criticise all ages for all different reasons including the way they dress. This is because of the media, we live in an age obsessed world and all ages are subject to some of the most rigid stereotypes. There are a few common representations of age including the rebellious teen, senile old women or man, male in a mid-life crisis, middle age woman clinging to her youth and silly old men.

Representation - further detail 
Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. These representations may be in speech or writing as well as media products.

Representation is a key concept in Media studies, much debated and discussed, examples including the riots. This means that some critics highly rate the way media representation affects our world, 'Representational values in the media shape our understanding of the world we live in and shape ourselves as individuals'. Critics debate as to whether representations in the media reflect cultural climate or do they create it. Who affects the representation?

All media texts are created in a particular institutional context, as film companies need to make money and so they therefore don't break away from conventions. This context will modify the representation. There is an interplay between the target audience, the institution and the generic conventions.

The target audience has expectations which are influenced by inscription in texts. The target audience will find representations aspirational, for example Jordan or the representation will link to the values of the target audience.

The institution will require the biggest audience for its product, unless it is the BBC or a non profit organisation, which can affect the type of representation we get.

The generic conventions provide the framework that we expect and thus the representations we expect. Genre has a big impact on representation, limiting the kinds of representation involved by the use of stereotypes or archetypes and by certain values being representation.

The micro elements of texts create larger meanings and values which construct representations. The types of codes vary depending on media form (film, tv, magazines etc)

• Camera angles, shots, framing, shot composition
• Editing
• Sound and dialogue
• Mise en scene
• Narrative

Representation in three existing media products
Representation of gender in Doctor Who
Doctor Who represents the idea of men being in more power than women, this is shown when the Doctor gives Rose commands like 'off you go' showing the authority he has over her. However a few seconds after the "ditsy blonde" Rose is then portrayed as being clever as she is able to work out where she is, while her boyfriend stands there looking dazed and is therefore seen as "not just a pretty face". Rose is also seen as the strong female instead of the meek stereotype as her boyfriend faints at the sight of outer space whereas she is able to cope with it showing how strong she is. Women are stereotypically seen as sex objects and this is portaryed through the woman Rose who flicks her hair towards The Doctor and says 'I'll do anything'.

Representation of gender in Halloween
In the film 'Halloween' women are seen as having stereotypical domestic roles this is shown through the scene where the girls are seen baby-sitting, cooking and cleaning, which stereotypically would be seen as a role that the women would fulfill. Annie and Lynda are alson seen in a sexual way and portrayed as sex objects as Annie takes off her clothes and changes into a shirt and when Lynda flaunts her body. There is also references to social status and men being of a higher status, shown through the character of Annie's dad being the sheriff. Annie and Judith are also driven to be with their boyfriends. However Laurie is not seen as a sex object or in a sexual way as she isn't concerned with her appearance and is not driven by the thought of having a boyfriend.

Representation of age in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
In the film 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we see the representation of old-age as being ill and sick and them being a 'sickly old person'. The majority of the adults  are not presented as greedy or desirous of worldly things so much as they are as enablers of their children. Mike TV’s parents gladly serve him TV dinners so they don’t have to tell their son to come to the dinner table. His dad even says Mike need only be 12 to get a real gun. Veruca’s father shuts down his factory to have his employees unwrapping candy bars. Augustus’s father eats a microphone. Violet’s father is so busy trying to shill his car dealership he barely notices what’s going on. Grandpa Joe is supposed to be the kindly loving grandparent we all did or wish we had. Grandpa Joe is supposed to be the kindly loving grandparent we all did or wish we had.

How will representation affect the designs for my new short film
When designing my short film I will research into the representations of characters concerned, looking at gender, age, ethnicity and sexuality.

Post 5

Narrative Theory

Key facts about Narrative

1. Narrative is an aspect of film making, or story telling, that is essential to the experience of viewing or reading a media text and central to the desire of media producers to create pleasure from the viewing and reading experience.
2. Narrative, also an element of genre, is so much a part of story telling that it almost seems to reflect life itself, and in many senses we understand the world through narratives. This means that we could say that narratives are at the heart of the human experiences.
3. Narratives usually have the structure of a clear beginning, middle and end.
4. Many critics argue that genres share the same narrative and this can be seen with many narratives.
5. Narratives provide a framework that similar to genre lends a structure and provides key signposts that we understand and respond to. We understand how our characters exist within these narratives and also how they react as the action takes place
6. As an audience we predict the outcome, often based on the notion of order and disorder, the known and the unknown or the concept of the quest which will involve the unknown and the disorder
7. Usually despite the set backs and the oppositional forces the quest is met and by the end of the film the narrative closes, the closure providing satisfaction and pleasure.
8. One critic who has analysed how narrative works in media texts is Christopher Vogler who claimed that there was 'a universal story form - a mythic structure, in all stories, across all cultures, throughout human history'. He said that story elements were repeated through narratives based on a series of actions and situations. Media texts will start with an 'ordinary world' before there is a 'call to adventure', a 'refusal of the call' before a 'mentor arrives'. This model fits the majority of films perfectly, an example of this is Tomb Raider.
9. Another critic that talks about narrative was Todorov, he formulised one of the best known and useful structual theories when he wrote about equilibrium and disequilibrium that is found in all mainstream Hollywood films. The journey the actors have from balance to imbalance is easy to define.
10. Propp wrote aboout the binary oppositions found in narratives, that good will face evil and we will feel threatened by the world of disorder and narratives work because of the tension between the opposites.
11. Roland Barthes stated that narrative contains a shorthand that we are able to analyse and understand. The unanswered questions set up through the narrative create audience interest, the proairetic code builds tension causing the audience to expect what turns out to be what we originally expected, this is helped along by the micro elements of the film, for example the camera shots.
12. The narratives the audience are most familiar with are the linear structure with continuity editing, however many film makers play around with the structure of the narrative by inserting flashbacks and moving the narrative backwards for a dramatic effect and to help the story telling. 
13. Most narratives will have a high level of closure, a happy ending so that the audience will return to the cinema. However this is different in European films compared to American films which is displayed through the film 'The Vanishing' which in the European version the characters were buried alive and the murderer was not found compared to the American version where everyone is rescued and saved and the films narrative ends in a happy ending.

What does Narrative mean?

Some Definitions of Narrative

• "We can consider a narrative to be a chain of events in a cause - effect relationship occuring in time and space" Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art
• "...Narrative is a way of organising spatial and temporal data into a cause- effect chain of events with a beginning, middle and end that embodies a judgement about the nature of events" Edward Branngan
• "Narrative refers to the strategies, codes and conventions employed to organise a story" Susan Hayward
• "Editing is the means by which the film develops in time and through different physical spaces from it's beginning to its end" Patrick Phillips
• "In a movie you don't tell people things, you show them" William Goldman

The 5 Action codes of narrative

1. Hermeneutic code: an element of the story not explained- unanswered questions which make the audience think
2. Proairetic code: Builds tension- an indication something is going to happen- the reader/viewer starts to guess.
3. Semantic code: Connotations, extended meaning
4. Symbolic code: Symbolism
5. Cultural code: Things that we believe in our culture   

Narrative theory in an existing film
One narrative theory is Volger's The 12 Steps of the Hero's Journey which can be applied to The Wizard of Oz shown in the table below:
The 12 steps of the Hero's Journey: Wizard of Oz

Narrative in existing short films

Todorov's theory of equilibrium/disequilibrium is displayed in the short existing film Silent Things by Rob Brown. Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction. This is shown in this film clip as at the beginning the two autistic friends are happy silently being in each others company, meaning that the film starts on an equilibrium. The two friends then get split apart by a 15 year old girl leading the film to a disequilibrium until the man with autism becomes unwell and the two friends are brought back together again.

The film Barry by John Michell is an example of a simple linear structure which could simplify her rabbit, Barry's simple lifestyle unlike hers as her and her father look after their disable mum/wife. There is an indication however of a flashback when she had started contemplating running away

Influences my research has had on my short film
After researching and looking at the different types of narrative, I have found that this has had a big influence on the way I begin to pllan out my film, this is because the only type of narrative I was really familiar with was the linear structure however after looking at the different types of narrative and the theories of other media theorists, I now see that narrative can play a big role in the planning and creating of my film. I do not neccessarily have to stick to the usual convention of the linear structure and media producers tend to fiddle around with the structure of their film to create audience interest. For my film I therefore feel that I will take into account the theories of Todorov and Barthes to create audience interest within my short film. 

Apply theories of narrative to your coursework productions

Relapse

The narratives the audience are most familiar with are the linear structure with continuity editing, however many film makers play around with the structure of the narrative by inserting flashbacks and moving the narrative backwards for a dramatic effect and to help the story telling. This is revealed in our film through the opening sequence almost being ‘pulled out’ of the middle of the film. We have played with the simple idea of a linear structure and made the film more interesting for the audience.

Our film does not stick to Todorov’s theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium. Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction. This is not shown in the narrative of my opening sequence as there is disequilibrium from the beginning and throughout the narrative of the opening sequence this is not restored.

Our opening sequence goes against Propp’s theory of binary oppositions because good doesn’t go against evil and in our opening sequence the audience are unsure as to who is good and who is evil and in some cases the mise-en-scene of the guns can position the audience to think that both characters are immoral.

The narrative of our opening sequence could be compared to Roland Barthes theory that narrative contains a shorthand that we are able to analyse and understand. The unanswered questions set up through the narrative create audience interest, the proairetic code builds tension causing the audience to expect what turns out to be what we originally expected, this is helped along by the micro elements of the film, for example the camera shots. This is similar to our film text as we are able to create tension through the unanswered question of ‘who will shoot who’, ‘who is going to die’, however this question is unresolved in the opening sequence and therefore the outcome cannot be what is the audience expectation however if we had made the rest of the film then this question may have been answered.

Most narratives will have a high level of closure, a happy ending so that the audience will return to the cinema. However this is different in European films compared to American films which is displayed through the film 'The Vanishing' which in the European version the characters were buried alive and the murderer was not found compared to the American version where everyone is rescued and saved and the films narrative ends in a happy ending. If we were applying this to our film production then the closure of our narrative would be compared to a British film because at the ending of our text someone gets shot resulting in a bad ending which would not be found in an American film text.

Post 4

Genre as a Media Concept

Genre is an ancient concept that has been in existence since Aristotle's time.

When we approach a film text we come across a pre-defined set of tools and conventions, both producers and audiences categorise and thus the encoder, also known as the film maker can be decoded by the audience easily and gratification will be achieved. Genre allows media products to be packaged and targeted at an audience so they can then select products according to previous experience of the genres. Audience preference clearly affects the genres available, therefore getting the dead genres.

What is Genre

Below is a spider diagram showing what I think genre means:

The Formal characteristics of genre

Genres work through their formal characteristics. These are know essentially as codes and conventions, these include stylistic characteristics, iconography, mise-en-scene, and narrative structure

Stylistic Characteristics

When looking at film, stylistic characteristics are camera work, lighting, sound effects, speech, music and editing, these can also be called technical codes.

Iconography

An icon is a key type of sign, and is something which resembles the object for which it stands but which has meaning beyond its psychical form. A stetson hat is an icon for a western film, and a butchers knife for horror. Particular styles of knives are very 'iconic' in some horror films, that for both the film producer and audience the icon acts as a sort of shorthand saving them time filling in the background of the character and action. If we see a butchers knife the audience automatically takes a series of assumptions to the characters. Genre works because it does not let our assumptions down. In reality there is no link between big knives and murderers, most of the population have bread knives at home , but when this is used in film this will immediately have significance.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene includes everything within the frame: location, image, set-design, the kind of characters, lighting, the camera's position, and the angle of view. All these elements generate mood, atmosphere and the general 'feel' of the genre. The same aspects of mise-en-scene are used in certain genres and the audience will be able to spot these over and over again. Genre usually provides crucial visual clues, these visual cues stimulate our expectations and when these are met, the audience are then working with the media producer, successfully decoding his encoded meaning. 

The codes of genre

The ingredients of a certain genre and the elements that make it recognisable are called conventions, these provide a common link between types of films, and these then become the visual elements that we expect when we see a film.

There are seven codes that are used in genre these are

• Technical codes - Camera, lighting techniques, sound
• Symbolic codes - body language, use of colour, mise-en-scene
• Character codes - costumes and make up of a particular character
• Written codes - captions,anchorage
• Narrative codes - the shape and structure of the narrative 
• Enigma codes - a sense of mystery that intrigues the audience 
• Action codes - action that make us realise where we are in the narrative and that the story is developing.   

Some facts about genre as a concept

1. It is an ancient concept that has been in existance since Aristotle's time.
2. Writers learn by imitation and should observe the codes and conventions of genre.
3. "Genre can be defined as a structural patern which embodies a universal life pattern....Genre is universal, basic to human perceptions of life"-John Cawelti
4. Genre also has the advantage of developing a process already in existence.
5. Genres work as a kind of formula that the industry can use, a 'blueprint' for production. This is supported by the vertically intergrated Hollywod Studio System of the 1930s and 1940s
6. Genres also saved time and money within the system, as everybody knew how to do their specific job.
7. Genre's work as a 'label' they exist as categories central to decisions made in their marketing by distributors and exhibitors. They are a way of informing the audience the audience about the basic format of the film. 
8. Genres act as a 'contract with their audienc, who enjoy the repetition of certain conventions, yet find pleasure in the novelties of new ideas
9. Emily Atenhol believed that different types of film appeal to various segments of the audience, for example, males and females prefer different genre films.
10. Genres change over time. The pattern of development, growth, maturity and decline seems to relate to changing political, social, artistic trends. For example Westerns have been in decline but Westerns may again become popular and provoke the same feelings of patriotism. However the horror genre, for example follows a less linear life cycle. Genres do appear to reflect the times in some way and this has the advantage of making genres seem current despite being an old concept.
11. Hybribds and crossovers, are films that combine two or more genres which have existed in the early days of Hollywood and blur the boundaries between catergories weakening the concept.
12. Some films dont belong in any genre at all, this generates the issue that genre is perhaps not universal.
13. Frank McConnell, for example, sugests four genres, the Epic, Adventure Romance, Melodrama and Satire that correspond to the four-stage historical cycle of culture.
14. Schatz on the other hand offers just two genres, the 'genre of order' such as Westerns and Science fiction and the 'genre of integration' which are Musicals and Comedies.
15. Todorov's view is that there is just one genre, that is presented or dressed differently each time
16. A disadvantage of genre is the fact that there is no agreed list or even number of film categories and the ideas can be very contrasting, this suggests that genre is harder to negotiate and is hard to find one strict definition of genre.
17. The existence of film genre depends mainly on the recognition by the mass audience.
18. The terms 'western' and 'musical' were initially used as adjective, describing one aspect of a film rather than a category of a film and looking back we can see that most films are assigned to categories. This means that the way film genres exist could depend more on a critics labelling than the actual audience recognition.
19. Big film companies like Paramount and Warner Bros avoided making genre films and decided to make encompassing fims that attract a bigger audience. It tended to be the smaller, independant studios that created the genre films.
20. Studio's lost control of the monopoly in 1949, after Paramount lost its case with the American Government, this also means that studios are not run in the way they used to and this means that genres may not be appropriate. This could be mirrored by our increasing 'postmodernist' society that favours hybrids, intertextuality and bricolage, where it is harder to talk about 'simple' genre films.
21. Patrick Philips suggests that 'A 'genre-world' is one in which there are a limited and predictable range of features'. This is because all film makers use the same codes and conventions but with a twist to gain audience satisfaction.
22. Genre can be thought of as dynamic, meaning that something will change, like the society and culture it exists in, over time. This then means that no one idea or theory about genre as a concept will always be true
23. The advantages and disadvantages of using the concept of genre and indeed the understanding about what it's strengths and weaknesses are, will also change in relation to the society around it.    

Review of Genre from my opening sequence
When creating our opening sequences last year me and my group opted to go for the crime genres, at the beginning of the task we took in as much information about the types of conventions in this genre. However at the time we had very little knowledge of how genre's worked and the history of the different genres. Subsequently this meant that when we did pick the crime genre we weren't very aware that this was a less popular type of genre and isn't as established as a genre like a rom-com. As a group we also did the stages of the planning of the fim in the wrong order. This happened because to begin with we worked out the narrative of the story before we had a genre in mind. This then meant that we had to find a genre to fit our narrative, which meant that this ended up being the crime genre, because at this point we had only just worked out the genre of our film, this then meant that we had to find conventions to fit into the narrative so that it made sense. This resulted in our group not really sticking to the task of making a genre film. The genre related parts of the film were also very strict and as a group we didn't play around with the different genres and sometimes subvert them or give them a bit of a twist.

Conclusion
Now after taking a proper look at the concept of genre, for the next media task we do, which is our main films, I will design my narrative around the genre I pick, so I will be sticking within the task. I will also try to use the genre concept of repetition and difference. If every film stuck to the same conventions of their particular genre, then all films would be very similar and would all be very boring. This concept was created by Neale and he states that 'difference is absolutely necessary to the economy of genre': mere repetition would not attract an audience. And this is what I am going to do for my short filml, as I am going to stick to the conventions of my genre but in fact subvert them and give them a bit of a twist.