Post 5: Audience Theory & My Short Film

Audience Theory & My Short Film

Our task was to watch four short films and analyse them for using our knowledge of what we had learnt on audience theory. we had to analyse the;

• Dominant Hegemonic Position is where - The audience can see, recognise and agree with the message put forward by the media text

• Negotiated Hegemonic Positions is where - The audience has to interpret or adapt to the preferred meaning

• Oppositional Hegemonic Position is where - The audience establishes and understand the proffered meaning but disagrees with it due to their own set of attitudes and beliefs

• Aberrant Decoding is where - The audience watches the film in a unpredicted way, producing a different result to what was expected.

• Moral Panic is where - An intense feeling is expressed through the media which in turn threatens social order - an example being Jamie bulger

• Mode of Address -

The four short films that I have chosen to analyse are; Wasp, Cubs, about A girl and Does God Play Football.

WASP:

Wasp was the first short film that I watched, and within 30 seconds it was clear to me that the genre was social realism. The short film ‘WASP’ directed by Andrea Arnold lasted 24 minutes and it was easy to see that Andrea’s use of dominant hegemonic position was well executed as the audience would understand and agree with the message put forward by the film.

Wasp is about a mother living in poverty trying to not let her kids get in the way of a potential relationship with an ex-boyfriend.

The Dominant Hegemonic view of the film WASP, looking at it from an audience’s perspective would be that the Andrea is trying to remind us of how we take life today for granted. It could be argued that most people would say that England does not even know the ‘meaning’ of being poor in comparison to 97% of world. Andrea is trying to inform us that, we as an audience and a culture look straight past the poverty that is in our own country which is why we need to be reminded, there for films such as this are a crucial “realization” that there are still people living in unbearable conditions whose every day routine is just a struggle to stay alive. The second key message that the audience can see is that this film completely stereotypes the working class in Britain. An example of this is the scene when she is trying to impress a guy she wants to get with by spending money she barely can afford to spend on one pint whilst leaving her children outside in a dark car park who are forced to scavenge remains of food. The audience can clearly see her behavior and her priorities are all wrong she would be classed as a bad mother. Moreover this linking to the stereotypical image of the working class, she may have not even wanted children but in order to just get housing it may have been the only way. This point being backed up by the clear negligence she shows toward her children.

The Negotiated Hegemonic view of the film WASP, looking at it from an audiences point of view, the negotiated view could be

completely different to the dominant view as the audience could assume (as they do not show a happy ending) that she is attempting to impress a man who she would assume is at a financial advantage to her, therefore she would then be seen as a ‘good mum’ in the eye of the audience as she would do anything to try and help their situation.

CUBS:

Cubs was the second short film that I watched, and although I think the audience could understand the message, I think that it was embedded deeper into the narrative and the audience would have to analyze the film carefully and even perhaps interpret their own understanding of the story (negotiated hegemonic position), as it portrays a complex story of a group of ‘thugs’ who plan or pre mediate fox hunting for fun.

This short film from director “Tom Harper”, lasts around 9 minutes and 52 seconds, and again portrays working class life. Although shown from a younger perspective which gives the audience the feeling that they could choose to be different but they do not.

The Dominant Hegemonic view of the film ‘Cubs’, looking at it from an audiences perspective would be that Tom Harper is trying to show the audience about decisions making and how important it is to make the decision that suits you (the individual) the best. The message being, never maker a decision on the basis of showing off or trying to ‘prove’ yourself to others. From an audiences point of view, this film captures th

is message very well as you can see from the minute the boy “Ben” asks to be chosen to the minute he pulls the trigger, he feels uncomfortable with what is going on and the situation he is putting himself in.

I believe that the narrative of this film is captures very as an audience can really relate to Ben and put themselves in his shoes, as if at some point of everyone’s life, there has been a situation where just like what they are seeing, where a split decision will affect or haunt them for ever. I know I have had a few. Although I read up on this film and found out that the actual message of this film was to show the brutal reality of fox hunting, the message that I believe the audience would get from this would actually relate to younger teens, giving them awareness of joining groups and gangs. The Irony being that the film is called CUBS which is a out door adventure group for young people. Who also go out exploring, who actually share a slight characteristic with this group in the way that although they m

ay not say it, it is actually quite hierarchical although there is definitely no killing of animals and no violence, unlike what this film shows portrays.

The Negotiated hegemonic view of the film CUBS, looking at it from an audience’s perspective would be different to the message that Tom Harper was trying to give to the audience but very similar to the message that would actually be shown when watching the film. This is because there is no point in the film where they actually debate about fox hunting being bad, they just express the influence of pier pressure and decision making how this affects the younger, vulnerable generation.

ABOUT a GIRL

About a Girl was the third short film that I watched, the narative is about a girl telling her owm life story, hence the name of the film'About a girl'. This short film uses clever jump shots to jump from present tence to past tence and back again, really giving the audience the feeling that the girl is actually truthful. What the girl is telling us, really did happen.