How theory influenced the institutions related to my production

1. HOW THEORY INFLUENCED
THE INSTITUTIONS RELATED
TO MY PRODUCTION

2. GENRE THEORY
• Lacey’s repertoire of elements helps to highlight some of the key themes and iconography
associated with a genre. This is useful when marketing our film for many reasons. Firstly, if a
spectator that is a fan of existing noir films saw our trailer, poster or magazine cover, thanks
to the repertoire of elements, they would be able to instantly identify what genre it is. This
highlights how genre is crucial in attracting the correct target audience and thus creating a
successful marketing campaign.
• Neale created a theory which states that “Particular features which are characteristics of a
genre are not normally unique to it; it is their relative prominence, combination and
functions which are distinctive”. This shows that our production runs the risk of being a copy
or parody of other existing films. In order to avoid this, we challenged many typical
conventions such as the Titles and length of our trailer.
• Rich was a genre theorist who wrote in ‘Dum Lugs and Femme Fatales’ he ideas surrounding
the representation of women in noir. She described women as “irresistibly sexy and
inexplicably evil”. Due to this, we felt it was appropriate to conform to this typical convention
as it is relevant in almost all neo-noir and classic noir, with the occasional acceptation such
as Irene in Drive.
• By conforming and challenging these typical genre conventions, we have created a set of
marketing campaigns which will draw in an audience.

3. REPRESENTATION
• Chandler, a representation theorist, argues that All texts, however realistic they may seem to
be, are constructed representation rather than simply transparent ‘reflections’ recordings.
Representation which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel’ natural’ and
unmediated and all these representations are based off of some accuracy. We were
influenced by this theory as we wanted to project a particular representation of women unto
the audience of Scarlet being deceitful and manipulative. As this is a typical representation
within noir, and so will appeal to a wider audience.
• Although we could have been explicit with our representation of women as the attracting
point of a male audience, we did conform to it to some extent. Nice clothing (including a
short skirt), nice presented hair and makeup as well as a seduction scene within our trailer,
women are shown to partially be sexual objects. This is done to attract a wider target
audience, particularly males, as they’re attracted to trailers with these representations within
them.

4. HOW THESE WILL INFLUENCE
WHERE WE MARKET OUR FILM
• Although we conform to many typical conventions and understand the effects that
they have on an audience, our promotional package also challenges many
typicalities and so we wouldn’t exhibit our film at cinemas that are for a mainstream
audience.
• Some of the ways that we would market our film are at independent cinemas and
film festivals such as Cannes, which are more suited for niche independent films.