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.