3. Passive Consumption
• Detailed Definition
• Passive consumption is when the audience or a certain group of
people doesn’t engage or question the content of the media they are
watching or the message its trying to convey but just excepts what is
in front of them. This is what some media outlets such as films and TV
shows try to achieve as some people would watch something not to
engage with but just except.
4. Hypodermic Needle Model
• Definition
• Where the audience immediately believes what is said by the media.
• Strengths
• Allows us to reflect upon the media’s influence upon the public forums, collective
opinion and belief.
• Weaknesses
• Suggests that some people are stupid and will accept what is in front of them.
• Example
• The War of the worlds radio show that was hosted by Orson Wells and was
broadcast in 1938. Many people believed that there was an actual invasion taking
place that it caused wide spread panic across certain parts of the US.
5. Active Consumption
• Detailed Definition
• Where the audience engages and interacts with a media product and
sometimes question the message its conveying through their
experiences. This could apply to a film conveying a down to earth
message or TV shows like The Big Questions that mainly consist of
people discussing important political issues that the audience
watching may either walk away agreeing or disagreeing.
6. Uses and Gratifications Theory
• Definition
• An approach to how audiences seek a set of media in order to satisfy certain needs and requirements.
• Strengths
• Audiences get a wide range of information that is helpful to them ranging from News to all sorts. It may help
them learn about things that maybe important to them as well as seek advice on something they need help
with.
• Weaknesses
• This theory takes out the possibility that media can have a potentially negative impact on our lives and
media consumers have a free will to decide how to use media and how it will effect them and this can be
argued that media such as the news can be manipulative so that people can believe what the media wants
them to believe and this theory proves to be more relevant today with the height of the internet
• Example
• Youtube and various internet platforms can be useful to someone requesting entertainment or education
such as tutorials and comedic sketches.
7. Reception Theory
• Detailed Definition
• Reception theory is a look at how people of many types of
demographics interpret and receive the media they consume from
the content and themes and messages being displayed.
8. Reception Theory
• Choose an image (poster, screenshot from a film, photograph etc) and
provide:
• A potential encoded message
• This poster highlights the traits of the
characters in the film with its use of colour
symbolism to highlight the emotions that
these characters represent in the film. (e.g
Red for anger and rage)
• A potential decoded message
• Joy being upside down in this poster
highlights that she is the most unique out
of the group but also highlighting her
bouncy and euphoric personality
9. Reception Theory
• Choose an image (poster, screenshot from a film, photograph etc) and
provide:
• Preferred reading
• Excellent film. Best Star Wars film of all
time.
• Negotiated reading
• It’s a good film. Just not a good Star Wars
film.
• Oppositional reading
• Its Overrated. Worst Star Wars film.
10. Spectatorship
• Detailed Definition
• Spectatorship is the act of watching/observing something without
taking part or contributing to what you are seeing in front of you.
• Example
• A perfect example of spectatorship is an audience member of a gig
who is watching their favourite band perform their favourite band
right in front of them.
11. Framework for Interpretation
• List 2 very different frameworks for interpretation;
1
• Age
• Gender
• Social status/Class
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality
• Education
2
• Age
• Gender
• Social status/Class
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality
• Education
12. Framework for Interpretation
• Discuss how each may react to a film of your choice based on their
framework PRISONERS
1
The film has 15 certificate in the UK meaning that no
person under the age of 15 is not permitted to see this film
because of the content and the subject matter presented in
this film is too dark and shocking for them to comprehend.
So young kids under the age of 15 may end up walking
away from the film feeling disturbed because they would
have had a whole new perspective on the world that they
are not ready to comprehend yet. Because this is a thriller,
the genre is only going to appeal to those some of the gross
themes/content, mainly for a male audience as it’s a male
oriented genre. This will also be proven further cause of
the 2 main leads. Prisoners is also likely to appeal to people
who are more educated and have better paid jobs then
other social groups. The film is also very intellectual in its
themes so because these people are educated, they are
also more likely to pick up the films messages. This film
also deals with some religions themes but not to a point
where its preachy or pro religion so the film is also likely to
appeal to atheists then people who follow a certain faith.
The film has very little sexual content so its open to anyone
of any sexuality
2
People who are not the demographic for Prisoners are
going to see it in a different light. They may deem the film
too dark, depressing and sombre for them to enjoy it. This
also might be down to the visual presentation and how the
film is made. The film is very muted visually with a lot of
shades of dark and grey and its very slowly paced as well.
The film is also over 2 hours long so people who have short
attention spans (mainly people in their early teens) are
easily more likely to loose interest in the film if they watch
it. This is probably why Prisoners is rated 15 because
people who are older in that age group are likely to have a
longer attention span then anyone younger then 15.
Anyone from a religious stand point is likely to be drawn
away from this film because the theme of religion and
Christianity plays a prominent part in the development of
the plot and who the antagonists are. Any religious person
would probably be unhappy to be portrayed as antagonists
in a intense thriller and as a result will turn away from the
film and may even see the film as offensive and insulting to
their religion.
14. Case Study
• Select a genre (or film franchise) that you like and provide some
contextual background information.
• What is the genre/franchise, what are the key films, who are the key
directors/actors/studios/etc, how successful/unsuccessful was it, how
was it critically received, when were the films made, etc.
• Go over as many slides as necessary
16. Background
• The cornetto trilogy originated in 2004 with the release of Shawn of the Dead a
comedy/horror film which stared Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at the early heights of their
carriers as comic actors. Both had collaborated with director Edgar Wright before in his
successful TV sitcom spaced and this was their first attempt at a feature film. The
influence in making the film came when shooting an episode of Spaced which involved a
imagination sequence where Pegg’s character Tim fights of some Zombie’s, and through
their appreciation for Romero Zombie films. The films success across the UK and wide
allowed Wright, Pegg and Frost to collaborate again with the action/comedy Hot Fuzz 3
years later in 2007 which Wight was influenced into making it after learning of a lack of
police action crime thrillers in British cinema. After a 6 year hiatus they finally made the
last film of the trilogy The Worlds End a Science Fiction comedy that was influenced by a
screenplay Wright wrote in his early 20s about a group of boys doing a pub round across
their village over one night and wanted to use the alien invasion element as social
commentary for businesses being homogenised by bigger corporations. The film was
released in summer of 2013. Both films where successful (mainly in the UK) and grossed
$156 million overall in the international box office with Hot Fuzz being their most
successful. That’s probably not much in comparison to other trilogy’s and movie
franchises but given that they started out from a low budget British film its impressive.
18. Directors.
• Notorious British director Edgar Wright is at the helm of directing both 3 of these
films as well as being the writer alongside Simon Pegg who star’s in both of them.
His directing style mainly likes to play around with different tricks in the camera
and editing to add some intertextuality in the scenes instead of being limited to a
single genre. Sometimes it can help aid the story and character progression as
well as making the scenes funny and playful in presentation.
19. Studios
• All 3 of the cornetto trilogy films are produced by Working Title studios, a
company that is mainly known for producing either romantic comedies or period
drama’s and distributed by Universal pictures from Bridget Jones's Diary and Four
Weddings and a Funeral and Pride and Prejudice
20. Stars
• Like most movie trilogy’s and franchises the cornetto trilogy also uses some recurring actors from
both films that came before it. Simon Pegg (who co-writes the film along side Edgar Wright) and
Nick Frost are the main 2 actors that star in everyone of the 3 films and because of their
involvement, the movies have been very successful in building their carriers as comedic actors
and they have gained more of an audience worldwide and because of the trilogy’s success, they
have gone on to star in more big blockbusters, For example Simon Pegg star’s in the Star Trek
reboot trilogy’s and Nick Frost has recently stared in the Tomb Raider reboot from this year. The
films have other recurring actors. Either both starred in both or where in 2 out of 3 of these films.
The actors include, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy, Rafe Spall, David Bradley, Peter
Serafinowicz and Alice Lowe.
22. Your Interaction with Media
• Talk about why you like that film/genre and your relationship with it and
how audiences have responded to it, you cover the following:
• How audience engagement relates to the key theories you have outlined in section 1
• Outline and investigate all the different ways in which you and the wider audience
might respond and interact with the film (we’ve covered this at length with the
screenings for Star Wars related material).
1. Active spectatorship, fandom and preferred readings (how do audiences make
active responses to your genre)
2. Frameworks of interpretation, intertextuality and media literacy (consider the
effects of the film on other films/tv/etc and the way this is done, i.e. parody,
pastiche, homage, etc)
3. Social networking, conditions of reception and pre- and post- viewing experience
(how the audience interacts and responds as part of a community)
• Go over as many slides as necessary
23. The thriller genre
• People’s active response to the thriller genre is they end up walking out of it feeling either riveted or
exhausted supposedly from the thrills generated from the film they have watched hence the word thrills in
thriller. This could be because the subjects presented in the thrillers are so dark for them to comprehend
and completely outside of our comfort zone. This can be enough to leave a viewer disturbed and riveted
because they have been given a whole new perspective on the world that they where never fully aware of
before, This could also be down to the filmmaking, acting and the intense, gritty realism that comes with
them. Sometimes thrillers are also constructed like horror films. Even though there are no supernatural
elements, the dark, eerie lighting and creepy settings that you are used to seeing in horror films often are
applied to thrillers to build up the suspense and tension. Thrillers often involve a lot of life or death
situations so there is also a sense of getting something done in time before its too late. These are the stakes
often set up in this genre and sometimes that’s enough to win over mainstream audiences to get invested in
the film. Some of the best thrillers ever made often contain some insight to a person’s mental state (The
Shining) and other touchy dark subjects such as cannibalism (Silence Of The Lambs) and serial killers ( Seven
) Sometimes the storytelling in these films are different to what people are used to. They often leave things
to the audience’s interpretation without the film giving away the answers to the mystery. The Shining is the
best example of this and to this day people are still giving their own interpretation of what the film means
and what are the messages being conveyed. When audiences (mainly dedicated film fans) are not busy being
riveted by a thriller they often try to analyse or research the message and the hidden meanings. They often
look for any symbolism or they often re watch the film to see if their interpretation towards the film is
different then the first watch cause films can have multiple meanings that you don’t pick up on the first
watch. That’s one of the reasons why films like The Shining are considered classics because they have so
much to come back to and have a lot of re watch value.
24. intertextuality
• Thrillers such as Silence of the Lambs have been parodied and made fun of by comedians
and comedy shows/films as well as being referenced in other media ever since its release
in the 90s. Mainly poking fun of Anthony Hopkins’s Oscar winning performance as serial
killer Hannibal Lector and his infamous speeches. This is mainly to give the scenes that
where written originally as scenes of suspense and tension a bit of comedic edge and try
to give it a juxtaposition from something that is meant to be scary but comes across as
thrilling instead. Parody also exists to pay homage to the film and the impact it has on
the genre and modern culture in some cases and in the thriller genre and how they are
directed. Ever since its release other directors try to mimic the tone and look of the film
while also trying to imply their own style in to the film. Silence of the Lambs had also
started a trend in Hollywood of films about detectives who are trying to catch serial
killers who have a distinct way of catching their victims. The best example was Seven
which was released a year afterwards and is also considered a classic within the genre
further influencing Hollywood to make films like it because they saw the success both
films where generating financially and critically.
25. Social Networking
• In our modern society, social network is a great a way in spreading word of mouth of a
certain film that you may have seen at a pre showing and you really like the film enough
to say that it’s worth other people’s time and energy. Before seeing the film you might
have gone through social media and saw the praise the film was getting which may
convinced you to buy a ticket. Unlike decades ago where word of mouth came from a
newspaper, people across twitter and Facebook can express opinion to the world in 10
seconds. It can also be a place where you can interact with someone who has the same
opinion as you. There maybe a whole Facebook group and twitter chat dedicated to this
one film that you enjoyed and you analyze the film on why you think it works as a film as
well as the themes and messages. You become a part of a social media community after
that point dedicated to one film. Sometimes word of mouth is not always positive and
sometimes people walk out of a film expressing negative opinions and it can have some
negative impact on the film if the person expressing their opinions negatively saw it at a
preview showing before its release. Sometimes that isn’t always the case and some films
(particularly blockbusters) get their money back regardless but its more damaging to
independent films who don’t have the push to mainstream releases and are made on
low budgets if the word of mouth is largely negative. If they are shown at a festival and
are not well received they don’t get distributed to a wider audience.
