gwl7

1. Megan Hughes
GWL7 Me & My Movies
The use of genre and an audiences understanding of a film is highly important when looking
at the relationship between films and their audiences. Genres are an essential factor of film
in the way that they persuade certain audiences to watch a film by letting them know what to
expect in terms of storyline, narrative and sometimes even characters. Certain types of
audiences have preferences when it comes to particular genres and react to a film in a
specific way due to their fondness for the genre; this can be referred to as an active
audience. Contextual factors such as the gender and age of an audience member also plays
part in why audiences react the way they do to certain films. For example, the genre of Chick
Flicks would be what middle aged males might find boring or disinteresting, however a
teenage female audience would love this type of film genre and connect to it making it a
more pleasurable film experience. This shows a form of active spectatorship as the audience
are actually able to pick what type of film they prefer to watch and enjoy it.
I have chosen to look at the genre of comedy in order to discuss how a specific audience
can engage with a particular genre of film. The first film I will be looking at is Tammy (Ben
Falcone, 2014) alongside my second choice film, Identity Thief (Seth Gordon, 2013).
The Tammy Movie (Falcone, 2014) is the story of a middle aged woman named Tammy,
played by famous actress Melissa McCarthy, who was recently fired from her job at Topper
Jack's fast food restaurant. She returns home from her unfortunate day only to find her
husband enjoying a romantic meal with the neighbour enforcing her to quickly pack her
necessities, and travels down three houses to her parent's home. Upon denied use of her
mom's car to drive to Niagara Falls, she quickly resorts to an "ailing" grandmother, who also
lives in the home...Only instead of traveling alone, Grandma Pearl wants in on the road trip.
After realising Grandma Pearl has the funds, Tammy and her hit the road to begin an
adventure. Throughout the film, Pearl soon proves to be quite the alcoholic despite her
diabetes, and Tammy quickly turns into the "baby-sitter." The film was produced by New
Line Cinema with a rough budget of $19,000,000 and was distributed by Warner Bros
Pictures.
Identity Thief (Gordon, 2013) also features actor Melissa McCarthy as the lead role
alongside American actor Jason Bateman. The film tells a story about a Florida resident,
Diana (Melissa McCarthy) who has a luxurious lifestyle as the queen of retail, buying
whatever strikes her fancy -- and it's all free, thanks to Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman), a
guy from Denver whose identity she stole. With just one week to track down Diana before his
world implodes, the real Sandy heads south to confront the unapologetic con artist and bring
her back to Denver so that he can clear his name with the Police and FBI and restore his
shattered credit rating. The film was produced and distributed worldwide by Universal
Pictures in 2013 with an estimated budget of $35,000,000.
I will apply Reception Theory, Uses and Gratifications Theory and Lacey’s repertoire of
elements to my chosen films in order to gain a better understanding of the relationship
between audiences and films.

2. Megan Hughes
The Reception Theory was created by Stuart Hall who focused on encoding and decoding
media’s texts. He looked at the relationship between text and audience; the text is encoded
by the producers and decoded by the reader within the audience but he discovered there are
huge contrasts between the two different readings of the same code. Stuart Hall’s aim was
to show that produced media texts are not passively accepted by the audience but instead
that the reading of the text is a case of individual circumstances that affect the audience’s
way of reading. In relation to film, his theory is able to affect an audiences reading of a film
whether it be preferred, oppositional or negotiated by the use of contextual factors such as
class, gender, age and ethnicity. In the case of the two films I have studied, Tammy and
Identity Thief, I watched them both with a preferred reading as I found both of them very
comical and entertaining which is what was intended by the producers with them coming
under the genre of comedy. Contextual factors can impact the way an audience reads a film;
for example how I found these two films funny as a teenage female, an elder female around
60 years of age might not relate to the sense of humour that the characters have because
they don’t have fandom for the current comical aspects shown in todays films and they might
not understand it very well.
The Uses and Gratifications theory was suggested by Blumler and Katz who had an
intention to show that there are four main pleasures that audiences gain from films; these
are diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. Diversion allows
audiences to be distracted and offers them escapism from their everyday life and is the most
common reason we watch films. Personal relationships within a film can relate to any
member of audience whether it’s a loving relationship or just a relationship between friends
as everyone experiences being in these positions at some point within their life. Similar to
personal identity, this is when a member of audience can relate to a film by seeing
themselves in the position of one of the characters and sharing similarities with their lifestyle
or person. Lastly surveillance is an element within a film which gives the audience useful
information for living or teaches them something throughout. Each of these four things
impact audiences in the way that they feel a connection/relation between themselves and
the film. In terms of comedy, audiences are usually attracted to watch this genre film as they
know it’ll provide comical entertainment which can result in the audience feeling happy and
being in a good mood due to impact from the film.
One film I have chosen to discuss in relation to this is Identity Thief (Gordon, 2013) which I
was attracted to watch this purely because of the narrative and my love for comedies.
However, the sense of personal relationships within the storyline allowed me to enjoy the
film more as we see main character Diana, played by Melissa McCarthy, form a strong
friendship with Sandy Paterson, played by Jason Bateman, after stealing his identity and
attempting to ruin his life which was bizarre making it a surprisingly comical narrative
because it was so unexpected. Another reason I related to this film was the sense of
diversion which is the most common reason people watch films allowing audiences to
escape everyday life and be somebody different. When watching comedy films such as this
one, I personally find myself in the shoes of the main character and find it more comical
applying what’s happening to them to yourself because it’s usually overly humorous and
exaggerated purposely to make the audience laugh as appose to being subtle comedy.
The film Tammy (Falcone, 2014) also involves a storyline about personal relationships which
can be relatable for all members of the public making it more pleasurable, especially females
as they tend to be more into romance related storylines more than males do. Tammy movie

3. Megan Hughes
first of all shows a loving relationship between main star, Tammy, and her husband however
as their relationship deteriorates, we see Tammy build a much more substantial relationship
with her Grandma Pearl. Males members of the audience that have gone to watch the
comedy film could relate to this as it’s common most young men have a special bond with
their grandma making the film more enjoyable and personal to them. On the other hand, I
personally was attracted to this film through personal identity as Melissa McCarthy’s
character, Tammy, reflected on me as a person in the way of her lifestyle choices throughout
the film. As well as this, after previously watching Identity Thief the year before and finding
her character highly amusing, I expected the same in Tammy which was a successful
experience. Surveillance is also part of the uses and gratifications theory which is when the
audience relate to the film by taking away knowledge and being inspired by the film. This
occurred for me in both films. Firstly in Identity Thief as it taught the audience a lesson about
stealing people’s identities and the consequences of fraud but also showed them you
shouldn’t ever want to be anyone but yourself making it a learning experience but still
allowing them to laugh. Then in the film Tammy as it made a clear statement to the audience
that you can do whatever you want, be whoever you want and go anywhere you want to go
which could be seen as inspiration, especially to young members of the audience like
myself.
Another way we can analyse films is through Nick Lacey’s repertoire of elements which is
based on why audiences watch a particular genre of film and how you can identity a specific
genre. Lacey’s theory states that there are five different categories to consider when
watching a film and you determine its genre by comparing it with other similar genre films.
The five categories are:
Character: A generic or common character found in this genre film
Narrative: A distinct story structure for the genre
Setting: A familiar location often seen in this genre film
Iconography: Expected costume, props, themes within the film based on its genre
Technical and Audio Codes: Distinctive sound and instruments or stylistic camera shots and
angles for this genre
The characters are the most important part within a comedy film as they’re the ones that
generate the humour. In a typical comedy film, there are stereotypical characters that’re
idiotic, silly and accident prone purposely to make the audience laugh and define the genre
as a comedy. Within films Identity Thief (Gordon, 2013) and Tammy (Falcone, 2014),
Melissa McCarthy, American actress and comedian is known for her bubbly personality and
outgoing sense of humour which would not only attract her fans but also audiences that are
looking to laugh and smile. Using characters like her in the public eye helps the audience to
form a relationship with the film if they’re noticing a familiar face. Her character in both films
is very sarcastic and makes stupid mistakes to fit the genre and allow the audience to laugh
and express their emotion more freely.
Both films also hold unusual but comical narratives in order to make the film stand out.
Comedy films are usually quite easy to understand as more often than not they’re displayed
as a linear narrative in chronological order, especially in this case as the subtle film titles tell

4. Megan Hughes
us everything about the film before it even begins. Identity thief involves a person’s identity
being stolen and Tammy is based on a day in the life of Tammy. Most narratives of comedy
films are completely random as the humour is generated purely from the characters and
visual elements so the storyline is easy enough to initiate. Typical themes in a comedy
consist of love, alcohol and drugs and crime in which both occur in the two films I have
studied. Each of the films show elements of love to express personal relationships and help
the audience connect with the film, also in the films we see Melissa McCarthy, as the main
character, drunk and making idiotic, comical mistakes. Identity Thief (Gordon, 2013) in
particular shows elements of crime as the storyline is based on fraud.
The setting of a comedy film as well as the narrative is dependent on the type of comedy;
however it’s noticeable that most Hollywood blockbuster comedies are set in large American
cities. Teen comedies are usually set in high schools, social comedies are usually set in
homes or bars but in generic they’re typically set in well populated areas that’re quite bright
and lively to help it appeal to the audience and appear more attractive. The films Tammy and
Identity Thief were set in California, Florida and in the case of Tammy a popular landmark
between the American and Canadian border, Niagara Falls. This type of setting will attract all
kinds of audiences however in specific those who’re attracted to these big cities and
beautiful monuments. Members of the audience could relate to the film if they’ve previously
been to or perhaps dream about visiting these locations.
Iconography in comedies can be random and unexpected. For example, the props are never
the same. In Tammy (Falcone, 2014) they use folded paper bags as guns which while
making the audience laugh, is also an unusual thing to see. I think the fact that the props
and other visual elements are so unplanned helps the audience to laugh as it’s comical to
see what unexpected things the producers come up with. In a typical comedy and the case
of films Tammy and Identity Thief, the audience expect to meet a series of humorous
characters that endure in comical experiences and are quite clown like. Most comedy films
like the two I’ve studied also entail characters taking the mick out of one another which could
be classed as an icon as it’s what the audience are expecting. There are many different
types of comedy such as dark comedy, slapstick comedy and practical comedy which occur
in this genre of film but in particular generic comedy that frequently takes place in Tammy
and Identity Thief as we see various jokes being made, sarcasm and visual humour but it’s
done within a subtle manor. Typical comedy films are also usually shot in daytime to allow
best coverage for visuals and to keep the mood happy and enthusiastic.
In terms of technical codes, camera shots within comedy films are usually quite
straightforward and naturalistic to allow the audience to understand the film more easily.
Close up shots are popular within comedy films to allow the facial expressions of the
characters to be shown more clearly when they’re making jokes, this lets the audience to
laugh and enjoy the humour more substantially. The audio within comedy a film is extremely
important to ensure the audience are able to understand the humour the characters are
delivering but also to ensure the music and instruments keep in tone with the mood of the
film. All diegetic sound, (e.g. the characters talking) needs to be heard clearly so that they
can understand the humour and laugh at it. However, non-diegetic sound is also important
(e.g. the sound edited on) to help emphasise and exaggerate the visual comedy making it
more pleasurable for the audience. High pitched instruments and upbeat music helps to
enhance the audience’s mood positively and give them a boost in order to keep them hyped
about the film.

5. Megan Hughes
To help understand the relationship between audiences and films I have gained media
literacy on my chosen films by gaining the ability to analyse and evaluate them using a wide
variety of media modes and formats such as film review websites like IMDB. Film websites
enhance on an audiences pre and post viewing experience first of all by giving the audience
an idea of what the film will be like on terms of storyline and narrative, also seeing what
rating it’s received and afterwards by allowing the audience to leave a review and talk in
forums to compare their film experience with others. I first went to see Identity Thief (Gordon,
2013) after hearing about it through word of mouth and finding out that it was pleasurable,
humorous film experience for a friend. The year after when I saw Tammy advertised online, I
checked IMDB and although the rating was only 4.9 I still went to watch it as I knew from
past experience that I personally enjoyed comedies with Melissa McCarthy as a main star
and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Fandom plays a large part in forming a relationship between the film and a member of
audience as it creates a community of people that support forums and message boards to
help show their opinion and feelings towards the film, this could be seen as active
spectatorship. Many fan pages have been made based on these two films and after being
released 2/3 years ago, they still show up to date images of the cast and let the audience
know what they’re up to in order to prolong the film experience. Social networking has also
allowed me to gain media literacy on my chosen films by sharing information on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram about release dates for the film in cinema and on DVD to ensure me,
as a member of audience is interactive with the film and remain interested in it by following
and sharing the posts online. Here are two examples of active Facebook pages with posts
about Identity Thief which give you the ability to build a relationship with the film:

6. Megan Hughes
This is an example of an unofficial twitter page for the movie Tammy which was presumably
created by a fan. It also allows the audience to interact with the film by hash tagging and
retweeting the film title. This is a good example of interactivity as it’s allowing the audience to
communicate with one another as well as the filmmakers.
To conclude the theories which I have studied within this unit have given me a better
understanding of the relationship between film and their audiences.