Audience

Why do audiences enjoy the teen genres?

As teen films are usually a better version of real life and are superficial, The audience don't feel alone and usually show the difficulties of becoming an adult. It could be said that teenage comedies are only successful if they reflect the situations that teenagers really face in life. The audience do like this genre as it makes high school look amazing and makes school more exciting. 

Why do audiences enjoy the documentary genre?
As it is usually on an interesting current or controversial topic making it more captivating. As the topics talked/ discussed are current people can relate and understand the documentary more. As I want my film to be a teen documentary I am going to have it about a teenagers so it attracts the teen age group and talk about matters which happen in their lives, than superficial topics. They don't just understand and enjoy documentaries, you can learn and take something away from it and use in your own life.

How do different ages/genders/races relate to the teen and documentary genres?

It relates to different ages, genders and races as everyone as gone to (high) school and can link themselves to at least one of the characters in the film as they are at mostly every school. The themes shown in the teen films e.g. prom, parties,school work and relationships are interesting to everyone as they can either laugh or relate to them. Even though it is a 'teen' film and is about teen, adults can find them interesting and funny as they like to know what the teens are doing nowadays and an see what is different and the same to when they were at school. Documentaries can relate to any ages, races and genders as it can be about anything from school to Africa. This makes it easy to capture the audiences attention, making the overall target audience bigger.

Ideologies of the 'teen' film and documentary genres?

The teenage target audience construct ideologies that can offer them escapism, sexual gratifications or a personal identity. The audience receive the all important entertainment value which is why they are so successful. Teen films have to be careful for what they show as they can be responsible for constructing negative ideologies as well as positive ideologies of youth, which can shape the overall ideology of youth in society as a whole. The documentary audience is very wide so constructs ideologies which can offer them may different outcomes, some are similar to the teen genres and there are others like: education about different places, events and eras of time. The documentary genres has widened over the years giving positive and negative ideologies depending on the topic. Documentaries help people keep up to date with whats happening around the world and not just in their own country.

History of 'Documentary' films

Documentary is a non fictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record. IN my film I want to document a persons real life, which is a twist on the teen genre.The term 'Documentary' was not coined until 1926. The first documentary style film was 'Auguste  and Louis Lumiere, which were only a minute long.

In the 19th century many different surgeons and professors filmed their own work e.g.Eugene Doyen recorded more than 60 operations and said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of, which shows documentaries help the audience. This relates to the idea of my film as I want people to take and learn something from it. 

'Travelogue' films became popular in the early 20th century, as they would reenact different kinds of people in a 'scenic' film, an example is a film about native americans.

In the 1920's, there were sub genres of documentaries starting to occur e.g. romanticism, city symphony and newsreel tradition.In the 1920-40's era propaganda documentary films started to appear, which would want to persuade their audience to do something. A good example is in 1934 when the 'Nazi party congress' was commissioned by Adolf Hilter. In this era most propaganda films would relate their film to the government.

In the 1950-70's era, 'Cinéma vérité' also known as 'Direct Cinema' was introduced and is dependent on some technical advances in order to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound.This kind of film involve a smaller crew of helpers and advancing in handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded. The fundamentals of the style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions.

Nowadays documentaries are looked at having a lower budget to mainstream genre films but makes it attractive to film companies. The interpretation of the film can be taken differently to the audience or the directors wants a certain opinion.

Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with the development of "reality television" that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged.

There are different documentary forms e.g. docu-eroticamentry, doc-fiction, DVD documentary, complication films and observational documentaries. These types cross and relate to other genres of film.

Types of Documentaries:

• Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by her presence.
• Reflexive documentaries do not see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations.
• Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world. They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own.This relates to my type of film as it is about one person making it very personal and real life and I want to experimental with it.

History of the 'Teen' genre

Teen films is a genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. Often these normally serious subject matters are presented in a glossy, stereotyped. For legal reasons, many teenage characters are portrayed by young adults. Some teen films appeal to either gender depending on the storyline. Often a teen films is set in a school as the target audience can relate and would find it more interesting. Films in this genre are often set in high school, or contain characters that are of high school age. Sexual themes  are also common, as are crude forms of humour's well as the classic teen film, which is similar to a romantic comedy, as it has many different sub-genres:

• Teen sci-fi
• Teen horror
• Teen drama
• Teen love -e.g. 17 Again
• Teen musicals - e.g. Hairspray and High School Musical.

The first teen genre film was in 1917 called 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm' an American silent comedy-drama film directed by Marshall Neilan based upon the novel of the same name by Kate Douglas Wiggin.

Codes and conventions of teen films vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can include proms, alcohol, illegal substances, high school, parties, losing one's virginity, social groups and cliques, interpersonal conflict with peers and/or the older generations and American pop culture.

The classic codes and conventions of teen film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotype and social groups. The wide range stereotypes most commonly used include:

• The Jock/Cheerleader - bully, popular, airhead, mean, stupid, powerful e.g. can change peoples views.
• New girl/boy- different from everyone else, breaks stereotypes.
• The Geek/Nerd- really clever, can't talk to the opposite sex.
• The Rebel- skives off school,
• The Misfit/Outcast -sarcastic, see's people for the real them.
• The Boy/Girl next door- everyone likes them
• The gay best friend- feminine, relatable
• Class Hottie- rich, attractive, revealing clothing
• Class Clown- everyone laughs at, gets in trouble
• The Stoner/loner lonely, never at school, doesn't go to social events.

A good example of the use of archetypes in teen film were displayed in the film The Breakfast Club in the 1980s. These archetypes have since become a larger part of the culture. The Jock, cheerleader, social outcast among others, become a familiar and pleasurable feature for the audience. However genres are dynamic, they change and develop to meet the expectations of their target audience, teenagers, films such as 'Fun size' have most of the basic archetypes that one would expect, the jocks and cheerleaders, the outcasts and geeks, the older and younger sibling disagreements, etc.

Uses and Gratifications for my Short Film

Uses and Gratifications theory  is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. We all use media texts differently and choose what we want to watch and use. We expect to get something out of a media text, which is some kind of gratification.
There are 4 different types of gratification you can get from a media text:

• Information - we want to satisfy our audience e.g. fit in with the news and documentary film because it gives us a sense of learning.
• Personal Identity - we watch TV/films and identify the characters and help decide if they agree with their behaviour.
• Integration and social interaction: it helps emphasise and sympathise with a TV show through the characters.
• Entertainment - we use media for enjoyment, relaxation and fill spare time.

Reception Analysis is based on the idea that no text has one simple meaning, the audience create their own meanings of the text. Reception Analysts have found is that factors such as a gender, our place inside society and the context of the time we live in.

David Morley is the best known theorist to tackle this line of thinking. His 1980 study of audiences response to a BBC programme "Nationwide"  which analysed the different ways in the audience interpreted the media text. He said that audiences tend to fall into 3 groups:
(which is based on their different readings of the text.)

• Preferred/Dominant readings is the reading that you want your audience to get out your media short film.
• The preferred reading is the reading media producers hope will take from the text.
• Oppositional reading is the audience that understand and accept your short film and think its okay.
• Audience members from outside my target audience may reject the preferred reading.
• They can read the media short film in different ways and make up their own alternative message. 

Negotiated reading is the "third way" in which the audience recognizes the preferred reading, but modify it to suit their own values and opinions. David Morley's view  of dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of texts and recognizes the importance of the analysis of signs e.g. visual signs and modern media output. 

I want to make a teen short film therefore I need to think about what uses and gratification I am going to use and what I want my readings from my target audience to be. I am going to make a short film about my sister 'Beth' and about her life, I am going to concentrate on how she stops becoming stressed. She will explains the ways she does this, introducing people through the film.


An example of a film with a female audience is "An officer and a Gentleman" (final scene), this film is a good film to show a typical females fantasy/dream of romance and love. It is a female gaze as woman want to be her and want to be with him. As this film is quite dated, woman use to be attracted to men in a uniform.

A good example a good dramatic opening scene is a film called 'Halloween' from 1978, it was successful as it releases tension, appeals to both genres and has a massive twist.

My film will appeal to the audience on a number of levels and I don't think it matters about having scopophila. I want people to relate and understand my main character therefore I want her it look like a normal teenager. I think my film will attract the teen age group especially females as it is about teenage girls at school. There will be a female gaze at the end as I want my audience to want to have friends like her and be her. My film will involve 'vicarious' as I want the audience to relate to the main role and live the film through her point of views.I want my audience to learn something from my film as I help through the film. The moral/message is very positive as it is helping the audience feel better. Asmy film is based around a normal person and their life, there will not be a storyline as its not telling you a story.

Textual Analysis of Existing Short Film-'The Camera'

I am going to textually analyse a short film which has gave me inspiration for the storyline for my short film. The film is called 'The Camera' by Peter Lewis and has been shown at many film festivals and short film websites.

CAMERAWORK:
- starts with a long shot of her standing in the middle of a beach/desert.
- there is a low shot of her walking.
- uses a hand held shot to make her adventure more realistic.
- the camera focuses on her with the background blurred.
- then a over the shoulder shot showing the beach house.
- she opens the door and suddenly fades to black.
- a birds eye view of her walking up the stairs.
- there is many close ups on her face after taking the pictures and she gets happier every time.
EDITING:
- starts with a black screen then the title appears and cuts to the first shot with the title still in the centre.
- there are extreme cuts between different shots.
- after opening the door it fades to black.
- it jump cuts between her looking at the abandoned beach house then to walking up the stairs to the house.
- when she takes a picture on the polaroid camera the scree flashes to white to show the light.
SOUND:
- the natural sounds are extremely loud to create a realistic atmosphere of the beach.
- there is calm and peaceful music in the background all the way through.
- there is no dialogue as there is only one character.
- when walking through the grass the foot steps are loud.
- when she opens the door and music highlights it which is a good example of music visualisation.
- there is a sound effect when she takes a photo.
by the end of the short film the natural sounds have got louder e.g. her breathing to 
emphasise her rushing.
MISE-EN-SCENE:
Location
1. walking through a desert.
2. finds an abandoned house.
3. walks around the rooms.
4. the beach.
Costume- she is wearing a grey vest top with a cream vintage long skirt with bare feet to show she's on an adventure.
Lighting- is natural lighting but has light on her face to emphasise her facial expressions and emotions.

Overall I like the concept of this short film and how her imagination runs wild, this has gave me inspiration for the storyline of my own short film. I like how they have made the natural sounds louder as it makes it realistic and sets the scene of the location. I also like the idea of making a short film about an object. They used continuity editing with long takes which I didn't think was so effective. However i like the use of different distanced shots e.g. long take to close up low shot. I like the transitions they have used like fading to white or black as it creates a mystery. The camerawork was interesting as they played around with the camera focusing, i like how they would either focus on the character or the background to show the importance in the scene.

Textual Analysis of Existing Short Film-'Pudding Bowl'

The first existing short film I am going to do a textual analysis on is 'Pudding Bowl' by Vanessa Caswill.

MISE-EN-SCENE:
- natural lighting
Location:
- set in the 1950's era therefore all the furniture in the house was old fashioned.
Costume:

-'Ivy' was wearing a red polka dot dress and beige knitted cardigan which was popular in the 50's.
-she wears big vintage glasses with red ribbon in her hair to show her age (9 years old)
-'Jack'(Ivy's brother) is wearing a collared 'V' neck shirt with grey three quarter length trousers.
- the 'mother' is a housewife therefore she is wearing an apron and neutral coloured clothes.
Hair:
-'Jack' pours glue in 'Ivy's hair therefor her mother gives her a pudding bowl haircut and she refuses to stop imagining about Hollywood.
Props:
- 'Ivy' loses herself in glamorous images of Hollywood magazines and imagines herself a Hollywood star and uses lipstick and takes off her glasses.

CAMERAWORK:
- at the start of the short film, there is a pan over the hollywood magazines 
- there is the technique of pulling focus, which only focuses on the picture in the magazine.
- to show Ivy's intense imagination, they use a close up on her face whilst she is cutting out of Hollywood magazines.
- there is a use of a high angle shot when the mother finds out Ivy has glue in her hair, this shows POV from Ivy's eyes and creates tension.
- there is an interesting shot used when the mother is cutting the hair. It is filmed from the floor looking up at Ivy and hair falls onto the camera and you can see the despair in Ivy's face.
- when she looks at 'Jack' and his friends she puts up her glasses to her face, the first shot is from a far then a subjective filming shot of her looking through her glasses which is very effective.
- there is a reverse tracking shot (low loader) when she rides off on the bike, as she is close to the camera you see her happy facial expressions, which emphasises she is still dreaming.

EDITING:
- there is an action match when Ivy is cutting the pictures at the start.
- it cuts into the 'Jack' looking over at Ivy and doesn't look happy.It cross cuts from his friends outside to Ivy.
- the mother is making dinner in the kitchen and you first see her making it then jump cuts into a close up of the meat.
- there is a type of dissolve transition into the haircut scene. 
- over time when the mother cuts the hair it starts to speed up showing the mother loosing her patience and in the end there is a quick montage of different parts of hair being cut off then layered together at the end to emphasise that Ivy had long hair.
- when the hair falls to the floor it fades to black to show Ivy's emotions of being upset.
- at the end when ivy's riding the bike it goes into a slow motion shot to transition into her dream.
- the dream is also in slow motion and has a glowing effect to show its her imagination.
- it abruptly cuts back into the reality of what 'Jack' and his friends see.

Overall I like 'Pudding Bowl' as it has a simple storyline but includes very unique styles of camerawork and editing which I am interested in using myself. For example:
- the camera angle from the floor as it is effective.
- a subjective filing shot of what they are looking at.
I like the title of the short film as it very random but you only understand it if you watch it which makes you click and watch.

What makes a short film?

Firstly I decided to research the definition of a 'Short Film' and I found out it is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film and the running time can't be any longer than 40 minutes, including credits. Longer films usually follow one event/storyline, which can become predictable and boring but this doesn't have to apply to short films. Short films can be more experimental and less clear, making the audience have different interpretations. Short films can follow a classical hollywood style of film making or choose to go down the more experimental route. This route can attract a bigger audience as they don't know whats going to happen next. It can be hard approach as theres no clear characters and storyline.  I prefer a clear storyline as its easier for the audience and they understand whats happening. As when I watch a novelty short film I never understand it and don't take anything away from it than just being confused. An audience will be attracted to a short film with interesting characters, which they can relate to. If they can relate it makes the story and characters personal to them making them engage more into the short film. However this doesn't always works because the story has took too long introducing the characters which can become annoying and not telling a good enough story. Also as it is a short film it needs to be a quick introduction to have enough time for the storyline. To make a good short film you need a good ending, it usually tells you a lot about what the message the film was trying to make. 

In class we watched a short film called 'Eau de la Vie'  which has a tragic short film with a good example of a interesting ending. The film is a combination of novelty (experimental) and emotion/ connection to the characters. In the film there is a group of friends in a restaurant watching a cruel and unusual type of entertainment. I have never seen a storyline like this before, which makes me think that it took them a while to think it. I didn't know what was going to happen all the way through the film making me very engaged throughout. This film engaged with my emotions as I felt sorry for the boy (who was the entertainment) and at the same time annoyed with everyone watching him. I felt sorry for the lady as she didn't understand what she was getting herself into and having friends which enjoy cruel entertainment. I felt very uncomfortable watching the film especially the boy in the water and made me not want to keep watching but as it was such a crazy storyline with an interesting ending I had to keep watching. Overall I thought the short was very interesting and captivating as it was so unique. This film has made me realise that I need to plan in depth to create an interesting plot/storyline with connectable characters which the audience can relate to.