UNIT 26 - Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory

The Auteur Theory originated in France in the late 1940's, "Auteur" translates to author in english. It is a theory that the director has control over how the entire film and how it looks as well as the conventions it includes. An old example of an auteur would be Francis Truffaut, he had originally started off the auteur theory. It was his idea to have total control over the films he made specifically in the aspects of the structure of the film, theme and the story line of the whole film itself.

An example of an auteur would be Christopher Nolan, every director has different ways of making and producing films with their own twist on things making each movie different and unique in terms of story lines and theme. So Christopher Nolan is different as he adds his own style to his films which make him stand out from most other directors in the films he produces and controls.

The theory itself gave directors a new "change" and allowed them to have more control over their films varying on what they want and what they like, instead of listening to different personnel in the studio. This gives directors more creativity for their own content and gives them a shedload of freedom to represent things in the way they want to.

Christopher Nolan has previously created films in the genres Action, Crime film and Thriller. He has done films under this genre many times and they have been very successful as they have made blockbuster hits and Millions at box office. Some examples of this can be seen in the films Batman 'The Dark Knight (personal favourite) and Batman 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Both these films were based off the DC comic book character of Batman and Nolan had created and put his own ideology of the well known character. The theme of the film features the usual superhero saving the day and defeating the bad guy.

The lighting in his films are hardly natural as most of the editing is done via CGI for the effects. In films such as 'Interstellar' he would have used green screen to get most of the scenes done and also a bit of artificial lighting to get everything perfect, light also plays a huge role in portraying whether a character is good or bad in his films for example in 'Batman The Dark Knight', although the hero is good he also has a dark side which is represented in most scenes as half his face would be shown in light and the other half blacked out or in the dark. He uses a wide range of shot types in his films but one shot that is mainly used is the medium long shot, this is used to establish the character how their body language is represented. This would be important as most of his films have a certain character that the film needs to focus on so this angle shows exactly that. His films usually consist of action and so this would be vita to show what the character on screen us doing as well as looking into their body language to show their emotion.

The action in his films have a common theme of being fast paced, this creates an excitement in his productions as it gives the audience something to look forward to. It is something that Nolan has featured in most of his films and loves to do so again and again. The camera follows the action to give the effect that the audience are seeing every detail and this really engages them with the film which is what Nolan would want. this increases the appeal for the movie and makes audiences want more to watch.

Christopher Nolans films more or less target the same audience of young adults (teenagers) / adults so possibly from the ages of 16 to 30, this means that he can feature violence in his films which he does a lot and makes the "action" aspect of the film more entertaining for the viewers. In my own personal opinion I think that most of his films are aimed towards males primarily, due to the action and violence seen in the films, women too can enjoy this but usually it is men that find this more appealing.

As a fan of Christopher Nolans films enjoy them a lot due to the storylines and action that is seen throughout his productions, it is a recurring theme that fans love to watch and will keep coming back to watch as it is a source of entertainment and enables the audience to see what they want.

UNIT 26 - Films and their audiences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TTZli72NpM

UNIT 26 - Intertextuality

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is where two films refer to each other/ cross reference between films in many ways. it is particularly  used in literary texts. These films have an influence on each other, reflect, or differ from each other. There are many films which covers this. One example of this is the film Shrek. Shrek is a film which consists of a lot of intertextuality.

For example within the film we see the use of various characters from other films or stories put into the world of Shrek, these characters may play a 'Parody' role where they appear to be In the film but play a humerus role. Within Shrek Pinocchio is seen in various scenes with a modern twist to his character. Producers of Shrek put this is as they know audiences will know and recognize Pinocchio as its so well known from the original movie, by adding some humor then creates some additional entertainment, this is because the audience will most likely know Pinocchio for its story not for its humor. This also gives the movie more of a likability as fans can recognize the use of intertextuality themselves. This also aims to bring out more media literate viewers. Media literate viewers will be able to point out the use of intertextuality and can also bring it out the use of media literacy out of people.

There are two types of audiences; passive/active. Intertextuality enables active audiences. Active audiences are viewers who don't just watch the film but recognise different effects implemented by the director, this can vary to the intertextuality used or a link shown in the film to another.

Another example of intertextuality within a production is when the program Family Guy made their own version and referred to the film Star-Wars. The special episode of Family guy featured many references to the very popular film. The episode enabled audiences and fans of Star-Wars to watch and identify the scenes which were used to recreate their own version of the film.


 This may attract new audiences because many people enjoyed and watched Star-Wars and seeing that there is going to be a remade version in a Family-Guy concept then this will intrigue them and they'd most likely tune in to watch it. After this then the viewers may decide to carry on watching Family-Guy. So this is one way in which producers benefit from intertextuality. Fans of both Family Guy and Star-Wars will find this even more entertaining as merging the two productions together benefits both types of audiences be it passive or active, however Active audiences may find the intertextuality a bit more entertaining as they can recognize the use of it and how directors have linked the two.

By linking two productions together there are many ways in which fans can interact to the two productions. One production can gain more viewers because of this. Also intertextuality is a great way for producers o benefit n terms of money as more and more people will want to start watching more of the production. 

UNIT 26 - Reception theory

The Reception Theory

The reception theory was first originated by Halls Robert in the late 1960's. The idea of this theory is that the theory is an interpretation of the viewer as an individual. This could mean what the viewer gets from the production or just what they might think the message of the film is. The Receptipn Theory is broken up into five different parts, these parts are:

• Encoding

• Decoding

• Preffered / Dominant reading 

• Oppositional reading 

• Negotiated reading

Here are some examples of these pillars of the reception theory in the movie spy. In this film there is an evil villain within who is trying to get hold of a tactical nuclear weapon. The villain has all the details on the spy agencies personel so the agency had no choice but to send one of their secretary to do the job. The secretary is a woman in her late 40's and really overweight. At first you wouldn't imagine of think that a woman like her would be a spy due to her in-experience and because of the way she looks. In the end we see that she is very effective in her job. She is very brave and skill full. the message I get from this is that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, meaning that we shouldn't base our views just on what we see. this is deciding as it is what the audience get from the film. 

Furthermore, another element of the reception theory is Encoding. Encoding is what the director wants us to get from the film; like a hidden message. In my opinion I think that the message that was meant to be given by the director was the same as what I decoded from the film which was don't judge or base opinions on what you see. In this one specific example the director may have been successful in what he wanted the audience to decode. The director had used many ways in which he had his these messages without actually saying it in the first place. The audience could and should be able to get that just from watching the film. 

Another factor of the Receptipn theory is Preffered/dominant reading. Preffered reading is when audiences respond to the production the way media producers want/expect them to. this is what the directors want us to get from the production. Like a message they should want us to interpret. Negotiated reading is when the audience partly agree with parts of the production. So when the audience do understand the message within the film but not all of it. So for example in the movie spy another message from the director might of been 'anyone can be a spy'. Some people may agree with that where's often might go with the more deeper thought. It creates a controversial opinion.

Oppositional reading is when the audience are in complete disagreement with the meaning of the production. So when the viewers find the message wrong or not very effective. An example of this would be that if I'm the movie 'Spy' the message was 'only men can be spy's' then the audience would have a strong disagreement and this would probably lead to the movie to be a failure in terms of likeability as views for equality with women and men are seen highly upon in this time. 

In conclusion, the Reception theory plays a huge roll on any film production as it links the directors views to the audience. Each of the factors of the reception theory give us views to take on board. On my opinion this theory is very useful in terms of getting a message from the producer. 

UNIT 26 - Genre Theory

Genre

Genres are used to specify films in terms of what sense they have on the audience so they can have an insight on what the film may feature. Genres can come in man forms and even intertwine with each other which is called a hybrid-genre.

One genre is horror. This type of genre specifies in making the audience experience and feel scared and feel horrified. This can be done via many conventions such as sound, camera angles, camera movement. This can be done by making a scene slow via the movement and gradually building up the pace to make the audience feel the emotions a character would be having at that time in the movie.

 Furthermore the sound plays a big role within this genre as well this can be done through the type of music/sound used so for example it can be sound that builds up tension or there can be a lack of sound which can engage the audience and then a jump scare to startle them would be very effective and is classically used within a variation of horror films. For example in the film 'The Devil Inside' there was a group of friends who all came to an abandoned cabin to have a small vacation. everything started happy and jolly but there were certain events which led them to the pain and misery they faced in the climax of the film towards the end.
This fulfills the narrative of there being a start, middle ad an end. Lighting can also represent a genre. In the case of horror it would be mostly dimmed or dark lighting to represent the unknown of what the character may see. Furthermore the pace of editing can show the genre and add towards how relatable the film is to its genre.  So a gradual increase in pace can effect how the audience will feel and it ads to the scariness seen on the screen.

Another genre is Sci-Fi. In terms of Mise-En-Scene, this genre usually consists of Aliens, robots, spaceships etc. usually just anything extra terrestrial involving space most of the time. This is done through computer editing and can also be shown through green screen. There tends to be some form of action within this genre as there would also be a battle scene between the extraterrestrial and humans or other. this would have fast pace editing to make sure the viewers feel the thrill and adventure of the characters. Furthermore this genre is meant to has to consist of editing since most of the footage captured with surreal things. Because of the film consisting of many computer generated images the editing would have to be on point so everything looks real and natural/ By doing this it will increase the enjoyment of watching it and the viewers will enjoy the experience. An example of a film which came under the Sci-Fi genre was the film 'Transformers' this film required many weeks of editing since the film had a variety of surreal objects and action.

One las type of genre is a Period Drama.  A period drama is a drama which is set years back for example back in the 1950's. These dramas have been made to look like it was set years back when in actual fact they're being filmed and produced in present. Props are used from the date the whole production was set, so for example you wouldn't see a computer being used back in the 1950's as they didn't exist back then however a typewriter would be more suitable for the time period. In addition some period dramas use editing to make the footage lack colour so it will look more suitable to the specific time period they were in, it doesn't have to be completely black and white however a dull colour can make a scene set in the 1950's look so much more realistic. A n example of a Period Drama would be Downton Abbey. this programme features on ITV 1 and is viewed globally. This drama consists and has many events which actually happened around the time period it was set in so it has realism for the audience to view. The drama was set in in roughly 1910-1915 so there would be an obvious difference in comparison to nowadays. Period dramas are mostly viewed by adults from 25 and upwards as this type of drama wouldn't be suitable if it had action flying around everywhere or a lot of scares which would make it a horror. it purely consists of drama.