This document provides a list of film and media theories that can be applied in exam answers and coursework. It includes over 20 theories within the categories of industry conventions/practice, audience, narrative theories, semiotics, hegemony, postmodernism, feminist critiques, genre, and gender performance. Applying these theories would help students raise their analysis, argumentation, use of terminology, and communication skills.

1. APPLYINGAPPLYING THEORYTHEORY ININ
EXAM/COURSEWORK: AEXAM/COURSEWORK: A HITLISTHITLIST
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THEORIES YOU CAN USE IN YOUR EXAM AND
COURSEWORK. FURTHER DETAILS ON EACH CAN BE FOUND ON HANDOUTS, CLASS
NOTES, DB BLOGS, or GOOGLING IF NEED BE! THESE HELP RAISE YOUR ‘explanation, analysis,
argument’ + ‘terminology’ FOR THE EXAM AND ‘communication’ FOR THE COURSEWORK
INDUSTRY CONVENTIONS/PRACTICE
GANT RULE
VERTICAL or HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION
LONG TAIL THEORY (CHRIS ANDERSON 2004)
BIG 6 (Lionsgate leading some to switch to ‘big 7’)
TENTPOLE STRATEGY
AUTEUR THEORY
PRODUCT PLACEMENT, TIE-INS
RICHARD DYER STAR SYSTEM
WEB 2.0
(LONG TAIL)
Tim O’Reilly (coined term web 2.0, 2004)
Dan Gillmor (“the former audience” v “Big Media dinosaurs”, 2004)
Henry Jenkins (Convergence Culture, 2006)
David Gauntlett (media 2.0 (2007) + “the end of audience studies” in The Make & Connect Agenda (2011))
John McMuria (global village meme is a myth: US corporate dominance: YouTube (2006))
AUDIENCE
Stuart Hall’s readings also relevant here
BRIGID CHERRY (2010) user-generated content extends the film text; online communities blurring
audience/producer divide (used eg of Scream scripts at fanfiction.net)
NARRATIVE THEORIES
TIM O’SULLIVAN (1998) argues that all media texts tell us some kind of story.
TODOROV’S NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: equilibrium, dis-equilibrium, recognition, action, new
equilibrium
PROPP’s 8 character archetypes or plot elements
BARTHES’ NARRATIVE ENIGMA
LEVI-STRAUSS’ BINARY OPPOSITIONS

2. RICHARD NOWELL (Blood Money, 2011): mixing up order of seven key plot points creates difference
between otherwise repetitive slashers
According to Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:
1. Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.
2. A high degree of narrative closure.
3. A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.
Jay McRoy (writing in “Horror Zone” (2010)), argues that horror films, despite their subversive reputation,
fulfil a conservative function (think hegemonyhegemony: maintaining the social order); ultimately the antagonist,
who deviates in some key ways (often sexual) from the social norms, is vanquished and the good,
heterosexual (often virginal) protagonist triumphs. Was this your intention for your full 90min feature?
SEMIOTICS
COMMUTATION TEST
ALL SEMIOTIC TERMS
STUART HALL’S THEORY OF READINGS (preferred, negotiated, oppositional: depends as much on
audience as producer)
TESSA PERKINS: stereotypes aren’t always negative (French as great cooks), or about minority groups
(upper class twits), or fake, or rigid and unchanging
HEGEMONY (GRAMSCI) also argues that power is wielded through cultural control, BUT there is a
constant struggle to control and define cultural perceptions. To argue against anything accepted as common
sense is counter-hegemonic.
NORMATIVE: standard representations (eg couples are heterosexual, not homosexual) shape reality and
cultural attitudes, creating and defining THE OTHER as deviant (in this example, homosexuals)
POSTMODERNISM
BAUDRILLARD: SIMULACRA (films etc create representations of reality, but there is no ultimate reality:
just an endless chain of signifiers, as we base representations on previous representations!)
INTERTEXTUALITY, eg STRINATI (1995)
FEMINIST CRITIQUES
BECHDEL TEST: have 2 women, named, who speak about something other than men/boys?
LAURA MULVEY: MALE GAZE (objectification)
(counter-critique to Mulvey) CAROLE CLOVER: FINAL GIRL as hero/protagonist of slashers
JOHN BERGER (1972) “Men act and women appear.” “Men look at women. Women watch themselves
being looked at.” “Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator.”
GENRE
Consider the usefulness of redundancy, especially with reference to aud/genre. Bellour developed a point,
not quite on this but on a linked idea (which also nicely builds on Pam Cook’s work):
‘His … concept is that narrative consists of a play of difference and sameness. Although it might seem that
difference is dominant, with continual changes of content through new events, characters, words spoken,
and of form through framing, lighting, camera angle and most obviously the succession of shots, the lasting
impression given by all successful narratives is one of cohesion and coherence.’ (Lapsley & Westlake, Film
Theory: An Introduction, 1988: 176) =====
JUDITH BUTLER’S PERFORMATIVITY OF GENDER