Unit 1: Audience Theory & Regulation

Films in the UK are regulated by BBFC. Regulated by age rating films.


Three theories of the effect media has on people:

1) The Effects Model (Hypodermic model - media 'injected' into you, you can't stop it, like a drug):

• Consumption of media texts has effect or influence upon the audience. 
• Negative effects are always more considered. 
• Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence. 
• Evidence: The Bobo Doll experiment. Very controversial. 
• This theory is still the dominant theory used by politicians and media today. 
• Some suggestions that some texts were related to 'copycat crimes', no evidence ever linked. 

2) Uses and Gratifications Model:

• Audience is in control. 
• Audience uses the text for there own gratification, they are NOT controlled by it. 
• They can reject the ideas in it. 
• Films are used for: Diversion, Escapism, Information, Pleasure etc. 
• Films do not harm as audience, they help people in education. Violence in films (or games), allows people to see these things without happening in real life. 
• Helps combat real life issues?

3) Reception Theory:

• A film is encoded with a meaning by the film creator. 
• It is decoded by the audience. 
• Each viewer will decode it in a different way (whether correct or incorrect) so we all take something different from film. 

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) regulates the film industry. Uses 'The Effects Model'. It is non-governmental and is funded by the film industry. The BBFC used to regulate films by censorship (cutting or blocking bits out of it), whereas now age rating is simply used as society is a lot more open minded (accept more as normal). 

The main focus of the BBFC is to protect children and vulnerable adults from harm from seeing certain content.

It is getting more and more difficult to regulate films as more and more people are using Amazon, Netflix and YouTube etc. There is little regulation or here and where there is this can easily be bypassed by young people. 

Unit 1: Theory of Genre

Critics that write about the theory of film/genre:

Daniel Chandler - codes and conventions of the content of the film, how it looks and how it is mades is what makes up genre.

Steve Neale - genre is as much about difference as it is similarity. If all genre films were the same then no one would watch them. They have to be unique within a genre. Films are exciting to us when we stretch the genre (move into different genres). ATB - Hybrid: Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy etc.

John Hartley - a film can be categorised as different genres in separate countries and in different times. E.g: A film in the 1960s that was a horror, may now be classed as a thriller. Genre is not fixed, it can change.

Audiences 'use' films for specific reasons: to laugh, adrenaline etc. This is why we like specific genres as we know what to expect, we know we will like them.

Debrah Knight - we know what is going to happen in a film within a specific genre, we watch it to find out how they get to that point.

Rick Altman - two categorise make up a genre:

• Semantic: guns, cowboys in western films, music used etc.
• Syntactic: ideologies & narratives (themes, mood etc).

To the producers of films: Genre is a template of the film they are going to make. 

Distributor/promoter: Who the film should be targeted at. 

To the viewer: categorises a film to whether they may like it or not. 

Films within a genre can become cliche, however films that stretch this tend to be more interesting. 

Unit 22: Final Screenplay

My final screenplay with all improvements from teacher and classmates made:

Unit 1: Narrative

A narrative is the way that stories get told. Books, songs, pens, cave paintings! There is a beginning, middle and end. 

In terms of film, the story is the events that happen, the narrative is the way the story is told. For example: when a film has a plot twist, this is where something in the story is withheld until a certain point for effect. 

Two completely different films could be made about the same story because of difference in narrative. Example: 100s of films about World War 2. Same thing, portrayed differently, because of narrative.

Linear narratives present stories in a logical manner. Non-Linear may be where events or portrayed in a non-chronological manor (flashbacks etc). 

Torodov is theorist who studied narrative, he said you could break all narrative into 5 sections:

1) Equilibrium (everything is balance, normal - calm before storm). 

2) Disruption (The point where story changes such as death, event, situation).

3) Recognition (of disruption). 

4) Repair (of disruption). 

5) Restoration of a new Equilibrium (order is restored, it may be new order, different from beginning).


Propp is another theorist who had his own ideas about narrative

• He discovered that there were similarities in the stories of thousand Russian folk stories. 
• Villain - struggles with hero [ATB - Villains/Hi-Hatz].
• Donor - Prepares and provides the hero with a magical agent [ATB - Samantha?].
• Helper - assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigures the hero [ATB - rest of gang?].
• Princess - a person who exists as a goal for hero who often marries hero/punishes villain. 
• Dispatcher - sends off hero. 
• Hero - departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to donor and weds at end [ATB - Moses, his tansformation/quest].
• False Hero - claims to be a hero, often seeking and reacting to real hero [ATB - N/A].

Strauss is another theorist. Idea of binary oppositions in film, e.g:

• Good vs Evil
• Boy vs Girl
• Peace vs War
• Democracy vs Dictatorship
• Domestic vs Foreign/Allien
• Young vs Old
• Man vs Women
• East vs West
• Humanity vs Technology
• Action vs Inaction
• Ignorance vs Wisdom
• Doing Right vs Doing Wrong
• etc...

Architypes - recurring character types

• Hero
• Shawdow
• Outcast
• Devil
• Mother Nature

Unit 3: How To Film

Things to do with the camera to get a cinematic looking film:

Aperture - how much light is let onto sensor.

Smaller F Stop - lens more open, more light.
Larger F Stop - lens less open, less light.


Depth of field - focus 

Smaller F Stop (wide aperture) - shallow depth of field.

Large F Stop (small aperture) - long depth of field.


Frames per second of video (FPS)

FPS - shutter speed should be twice frame rate. E.g: Shutter Speed 1/50. FPS 25FPS.

Use shutter priority video mode.

ISO

ISO - changes how sensitive camera sensor is to light.
High ISO - more sensitive. Evening when light fading.
Higher ISO - gets more noise. Always use lowest ISO possible.


White Balance

White Balance (WB) - different colours of light.
Daylight - blue.
Artificial - Warm.
Set WB for different climates.


Zoom

Always below 18mm zoom for best quality, move camera instead of zoom.