Audience Theory

The Cultural Studies Approach to Audience
This was developed within the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies by David Mortley. According to Morley audiences aren't just passively affected by media task as, they take an active role in reading a text. This approach tries to understand the intended effects of media texts but also sees audience as active, stating that different audiences adopt different standpoints in relation to the values expresses within a media text.

These three standpoints are

• 

  Preferred (or dominant) reading (Morley), the audience recognize the values being offered by the text and accepts them as natural and correct.
• Negotiated reading (Morley), the audience recognize the values in the text as legitimate and accept them in general, but adapt their reading of the text to fit in with their experiences and interest.
• Oppositional reading (Morley), the audience understands the values in the text, but disagrees with them and rejects them.

I am going to apply this theory into our music video:

How might audiences read the values expressed in your video and print work in a preferred negotiated and oppositional way?
Audiences who read our video in a preferred way we feel sympathy for the soldier who's lost and disagree to how he got abandoned to find his way home. Audiences who will read our video in a negotiated way will understand the concept behind the video and maybe relate it to their personal experience of missing their loved one who's been in the army or still is. Audiences who will read our video in an oppositional way will maybe not understand the whole concept of the narrative for the music video and thinks its not realistic to what would happen in real life.

What are you going to do to encourage the target audience to take a preferred reading?

We are going to have a lot of close ups of the soldier to show emotion and encourage our audience to feel what hes going through and his journey.  The fact that hes camouflage trousers will connote hes a soldier and will be more realistic for the target audience. We want our video to have a strong concept of courage and a fight for some you love which will probably attract our target audience with their relationships.


What kind of person might take an oppositional reading?
The type of person who might take an oppositional reading to our music video could be one that has been affected by a loss of loved one in the army which may be upsetting for them. This kind of person would think its unrealistic that this could happen and is inappropriate to show a soldier journey to try and find his way home as it just wouldn't happen.

Filming photographs

This is some of the photographs we took from filming on Thursday the 25th. I took them as i thought it would demonstrate our filming process, plus it makes my blog more visually interesting

 

 

Time management update

Currently we are on track with our time management and  we our going ahead filming this week on Thursday the 25th which we originally planned to happen. I have completed all my work for production planning so this will not take place as planned on the 25th, this means we can just focus on filming this week. This shows we are sticking with our plan on the calender.

Filming notes for Thursday 25th October

Narrative theory in our music video

In this post i am going to outline the narrative theory that has influenced us with our decisions for our music video. From researching similar genre to our chosen song  of narrative theory it has given us some interesting points to think about when creating our video.

Propp

Propp developed a theory that within each narrative there are a set of stock characters which reappear. Our storyline will be based on a 'Hero'. This hero will be a soldier who is on a 'quest' to find his way back home which we will film his journey. The person who is playing the hero in the narrative will also be the main singer. We plan to have a lot of close ups of him both in the narrative part and throughout the performance which will connect a link.

Barthes

Barthes identified 5 different codes by which a narrative engages the attention of the audience.


The enigma code - The audience is intrigued by the need to solve a problem
The action code - The audience is excited by the need to resolve a problem
The semantic code - The audience is directed towards an additional meaning by way of connotation
The symbolic code - The audience assumes that a character dressed in black is evil or menacing and forms expectations of his/her behavior on this basis
The cultural code - The audience derives meaning in a text from shared cultural knowledge about the way the world works.

We intend to use Barthes theory by using the Semantic code. Our audience will be directed through a journey of heart break in which hes trying to reconnect his heart with his girlfriend. We will create this connection by following the male narratives movement throughout the video in till the end when he gets reunited with his girlfriend.

Narrative Analysis of Pop/rock genre

In this post i am going to analyze 3 videos which are similar to our chosen song.

The first video I will be looking at is Simple Plan - Your love is a lie

This video uses some of Propp's theory of having a set of stock characters. There is Hero (Person on the quest) which is based on the main singer throughout the video. The audience can tell hes the main singer due to him having alot of close ups.

Levi-Strauss's theory dictated that in every media text there are binary oppositions or a conflict between the two opposites. There is definitely a theme of love and hate in this video with the women cheating on the man.







Barthes theory who identifed 5 different codes by which a narrative engages the attention of the audience also works in this video with it having more of the cultural code where is classic meaning of todays society not being loyal to their partner which goes against the traditional ideology of being in love.


The second video I will be analyzing is The Fray - Heart Beat

   

Again it uses Propp's theory of having a hero which the main singer with him having alot of close ups.

 

There is also a princess within the video, although we don't see him with anyone in the narrative, the narrative storyline suggests that the men have their prize which is their girlfriend.





This video uses the semantic code which directs towards an additional meaning by way of connotation. The chorus lyrics are 'I feel your heart beat' which connotes they are emotionally connected


The final video i will look at it The Script - You found me

Again there is Propp's theory of their being a hero, which is the artist. He has alot of close ups and low angle shots which signifies his importance in the music video.

There is again a princess who is a prize for the hero.









This video uses Barthes code of the semantic code of directing the audience over an additional meaning of connotation, in this video it denotes that the male is in love with the girl but hes in pieces and heart broken. This is along the lines of what we want our music video to follow of a the storyline the soldier is heart broken as he misses his girlfriend and wants to find his way home.

Facebook Group

As a group we decided to create a facebook group so we can all communicate with each other outside of college. This will come useful in our planning and organizing our film and keeping on track to how each person is doing on their assigned task. This group will allow us to upload photos, comment on ideas and share what we have found easily and quickly. This group will particularly come in handy in time when we cannot meet up which means we can communicate when we are at home. This will help with our time management and making sure each group member is ok with what they are doing.

Choreography

Costumes and Props

Costumes/Props.

Costume/Prop Item	Source	Potential Cost	Person In Charge
Camouflage trousers	Tom Bond	Nothing	Tom Bond
Toy army soldiers	Alice Roe	£2	Alice Roe
Camouflage Jacket	Alice Roe	Nothing	Alice Roe
Jeans and vests	Everyone	Nothing	Everyone
Guitar	Jade	Nothing	Jade
Guitar	Tom Martin	Nothing	Tom Martin
Drum kit	College	Nothing	Everyone
Torch	Tom Bond	Nothing	Tom Bond

We will use a torch like this size to use as an extra feature in our video which we plan to use to pick up extra details when doing close ups








We are planning to use army soldier toys at the start of our video to add an entropic element to our video. This will be played as the beginning of the video before the narrative starts, this will be up to the audience to interpret what they think it connotes.

Tom Martin who is playing as the male in the narrative will use camouflage trousers which will boost the style of the character and signify hes a soldier.

Locations and Risk Assessment

	Potential Danger	Potential Outcomes	Actions to avoid potential Outcomes	Further comments
Woods	Tripping over tree roots in woodland area	Serious injury	Make sure pathways are clear of roots and are safe to film on
	Getting lost	Not being able to find our way back	Make sure at all times you know where you are filming
	Getting attacked by animals	Minor/serious injury	Stay clear from wildlife
	Ditches	Minor /serious injury	Be aware what is in front of you and watch where you are stepping
	Fall in pond	Minor /serious injury	Don’t walk to close to the edge
General	Hit by a vehicle	Very serious injury	Be aware of other vehicles when crossing the road and act sensibly. Use pavements when filming etc.	Very unlikely this event would happen
	Getting Equipment damaged	No injury but serious damage to equipment	Take safety precautions when filming with equipment	We will use a tripod
	Pedestrians tripping over tripod	Medium Injury	Have someone from the group to keep an eye out for passers-by, place in a quiet location
Drama Room	Tripping on cables and equipment	Minor injury	Clear the space you are working in, place wires out the way etc.
	Tripping off stage	Minor injury	Be aware of the stage edges
	Electrical equipment	Minor/serious injury	Make sure you don’t bring any fluid into the studio

Storyboard

To make a good music video you should plan a rough idea of what you video will look like rather than it being messy and unplanned. To do this we have created a storyboard where we have some brief rough ideas of the typical shots we will be doing throughout the song. This will result in us being able to film more quickly and we can plan our time effectively. We have photographed some images and placed them in a rough idea which helped us to visualize the whole video which has been extremely useful.

Overview of Our Music Video

Our Music Video:

We will begin with a shot representing childhood. This shot may be of a child playing with toy soldiers and the audience can make their own interpretations about the character of the child. He may be seen as the son of the soldier or possibly the soldier as a child. However, it may not be suitable or possible to use a child so we have another plan of using lego and toy soldiers to make an animation.

Our next shot of the narrative will be a shot of the soldier as the audience begin to see his journey.

For part of the narrative in our music video we hope to have a small child playing with Lego. this will add greater depth and meaning to the narrative and will also give it an entropic element. the child that will be playing with the logo will be the son of the soldier but we are not going to make this obvious because we want the audience to make their own interpretation.

The rest of the shots will be going back and forth between performance and narrative ,we will film the band performing on a stage and also narrative of the soldiers journey of his way home.

The music video will end with him being reunited with his girlfriend

Performers and Casting

This week our group has been talking and organising  the actors who will be invlved in our music video. As a group we discussed who would be better for each role and who would be realistic enough to suit that part. Our group has now decided what actors we are going to use in our video. We have chosen people right for the parts and that we think are confident with the role.

I also made a list of casting information which it shows whos playing which role and their contact details if we need to get hold of each other.

Tom Bond has agreed to play the role of the drummer. He is quite laid back and we think he has the characteristics to be the drummer in the band and the style which would appeal to our audience. We thought he wouldn't be best to play within the narrative as hes quite shy at performing so this role would be best for him. We think Tom will appeal to our target audience as hes quite stylish and has the right attitude as they would be at thats age which they can connect with.

Tom Martin has agreed to play the role as the main singer and play the male in the narrative. We chose Tom as both of these roles require a lot of confidence and we think Tom wouldn't be shy to stand in front of the camera for long lengths of time. Tom also has studied AS Drama so has the experience of acting which makes him suitable for the main role. Also hes available to film in our media lessons and will fully understand what we are looking for within our video. Because Tom has experience in drama he will be played as the main role which will appeal to our target audience as it won't be bad acting.

Jade will play the guitarist within the band. We thought Jade has the attitude and style to appeal to our target audience. This also balances out and is not just a male only band which might appeal to more of our target audience. Jade is confident and would be good at playing in front of the camera. Jade will be available most of the lessons time as well which means we can rely on her to be there for each film shoot.

Alice has confirmed she will play as the female in the narrative as well as filming. We thought she would play a suitable role of the story and will be able to achieve the style we are looking for within our videos this would appeal to our target audience as we can achieve a better look of our video and the layout will be more professional which our target audience would definitely like as it would be more enjoyable to watch.

Below is our table which confirms who is playing which role and provides their contact details if we need to contact them.

Role	Who?	Contact Details
Main Singer	Tom M	tommartin@hotmail.co.uk
Drummer	Tom B	tom.bond@orange.net
Guitarist	Jade	EJadeMl@yahoo.co.uk
Filming	Alice	aliceroe@live.co.uk
Male Narrative	Tom M	tommartin@hotmail.co.uk
Female Narrative	Alice	aliceroe@live.co.uk

Time management

After creating our pitch we decided to create a time management plan for the upcoming weeks so we can keep track what we should be doing weekly. This is what we are planning this month

Audience Feedback From Pitch

Our Pitch

The pitch from Alice Roe

Initial Ideas for music video

Audience profile