1. Meaning making moments in my short film for media.
In this document, I will be listing two different meaning making moments that are in my
short film, whilst applying them to different theoretical areas of media. Genre, Narrative,
Representation and Audience. I will be listing theorists and their theories and how my film
links to their theories.
Narrative:
In terms of narrative theory, I believe that I have followed Propp’s idea of characters being
separated into different types – such as the hero and the villain in a story. In my film, the
hero figure is the main character “James Flint”. He is NOT a hero because of his bravery, but
because of his desire to find truth and because of the fact that he is spurred on by an event
that has happened… which is something that Propp classes as typically hero like. The MMM
in my film for this is when he decides to take an overdose of medicine to try and find his
way back into the 1930’s.
I have also followed the Todorov equilibrium theory with my short film. This is the idea that
there are clearly divided parts of a story that are clear to differentiate, but add to the overall
story. The theory includes a beginning, middle, problem, resolution and an ending. The
MMM’s in my film are: James waking up, James encountering a friend, James falling into a
coma, James searching for truth before killing himself, and then James waking up again. The
film ends in the same way that it starts.
Genre:
I have followed the theory of Daniel Chandler in terms of genre – who believed that genre is
defined by conventions of certain things. For example – horror films are defined as horror
because of fear, monsters and blood etc. In my film, I have stuck to the genre of German
Expressionist cinema/ old styled films. The MMM is when James is running through the
park. A lot of old styled films have their characters over exaggerating their movements…
almost looking “camp”, so to speak. My cousin Dylan ran whilst flinging his arms and legs
around – looking comical.
Audience:
The first of the two audience theories that my film applies to is the influence theory. This is
the idea that the audiences are influenced by the media text that they are viewing. This
covers decoding the text itself and the media language that the text has – for example
2. sound or camera. The first MMM in my film is the use of a prolonged shot of James Flint
running to his friend. This could imply that he is all alone and lost in the foreign world that
he finds himself in after the coma. This MMM links to the next section of the key concepts –
media language.
Media language:
In my short film, I have followed theories of media language that are commonly practised in
the world of film and television.
The first theorist that I have followed is Sassaure, and his idea that everything is there for a
reason. There are several MMM’s in my film that are ambiguous, and could be considered
as effective or deliberately placed. The camera work that I mentioned before could be
considered as effective and metaphorical. There is also the use of James’ body language. An
idiosyncrasy that he has (Scratching his head a lot) could have been a sign of how he is going
to be confused and depressed because of the situation he is in.
Representation:
In terms of representation, I have followed the idea of hegemony – which is where a social
belief of power/status is shown to be right. James Flint is a quiet character who often hides
away from people and/or his feelings that he may have. Socially, a lot of people who are
quiet prefer to stay to themselves and can be classed as freaks. They are secluded away
from others and don’t have much of a social life. James is portrayed as a loner and this is
shown when he is in alone in his office, with a messy desk. The lights are dim and he is
shown to hate reading mail from people. Which adds to the idea that he is forever alone.
