Post 5: Audience Theory and My Short Film

To help increase our knowledge on short films, our teacher brought in a professional in short films to speak to us about them and how they work. Her name is Becky Knapp, she is involved with the film industry as a producer. During this lesson, she showed us some of the films she had worked on and explained how she made them successful.

The first film I saw was named, About A Girl. It won a BAFTA award in the year 2001 and was directed by Brian Percival with a length of nine minutes and fifty-two seconds.

Negotiated Hegemonic - The difference in audience views can also lead to a variety of questions needing to be confirmed about the film in order to understand the true moral of the story. The main audience will have a different understanding than those of the producers so will have to adapt to the original meaning.

Oppositional Hegemonic - The message in this film can be interpreted in many ways. Audiences will most likely blame the mother for neglecting her child even though the preferred meaning of the film is to put the blame on the girl as she stays too secretive. The younger age race can relate to such stories possible from personal experience increasing its popularity.

Dominant Hegemonic - About A Girl brings amazement to the audience as the ending to the story is set to do. No one prepares for it bringing an entire new feeling to the film however it brings understanding to the films perception. It also brings in confusion leading to many questions to why the events had happened e.t.c.

Moral Panic - About A Girl threatens the social impact of female teenagers. This pressures feelings of being selfish and under-educated towards similar people causing a wider controversial stereotype enforcing more questions to be asked in relation to this short film.

Profile the Target Audience: The film has won many awards including Best Short Film Winner 2001 in the BAFTA's and Edinburgh International Film Festival 2001. This clearly indicates that a lot of work had been done into its research for it to become such a success. The BAFTA's Best Short Film Award was set up in order to encourage the essential growth and development of new talent within the British film industry in which the producers of this film have benefited from majorly.

Viewing Environment - Short films are shown mostly at film festivals; this is where they gain their popularity. The audience here are more convenient for them as they are focused only on the film rather than any other disturbances you would get at home for example. However the disadvantage to this is that there is only a limited audience, this is because short films aren’t really advertised therefore the majority of times, it is usually the same type of audience rather than a different variety.

Film four also air short films on their channel although as they already have a specific target market however it does help to increase its popularity even though it would not be as much as other channels, for example, BBC1.

You can also argue that audiences to both Film Four and Film Festivals are both the same. This is because they both have a set target market and stick to that, also because the audience are mainly focused on the film, therefore cannot find any disturbances to distract them and under-rate the film.

The second film I saw was named Cubs. It was directed by Tom Harper and produced by Lisa Williams, with a length of nine minutes and forty-nine seconds.

I noticed a dominant hegemonic representation behind this film as the story line behind the film is quite clear making the audience easily understand the preferred meaning offered by the text. It shows a youngster wanting to join a crew of older teenagers; however it comes at a price which by many audiences would be seen as horrific. This is easily understood by the audience as there have been similar story lines in popular TV shows, giving a stereotype for such people.

The film shows a youngster wanting to join a crew of older people which they say can become possible only if he shoots dead a fox. The audience can easily view his hesitations and unwillingness nevertheless his desire to link with the crew comes to a bigger value to him. This shows how some people can be peer-pressured into things they are reluctant to do in certain areas increasing negative stereotypes for many.

Due to the depth of the events in the film, it would increase stereotypes for such people. Many would now think that this occurs on a regular, common basis, giving a false hype towards teenagers.

The third film I'd watched was called Celebration, produced by Daniel Stedman. With a duration of only four minutes and fourty nine seconds, the film focuses on the relationship between a mother and her child. Being shown from the boy's point of view, it reveals a journey of the child exposing his sexuality to a certain group of people, ending with reactions of happiness and applauding by the adults in the group.

Daniel Stedman shows a stereotypical role of a mother towards her child; caring and loving.

The third film I'd watched was called Celebration, produced by Daniel Stedman. With a duration of only four minutes and forty nine seconds, the film focuses on the relationship between a mother and her child.

Daniel Stedman shows a stereotypical role of a mother towards her child; caring and loving, however through character movement rather than dialogue making it harder to understand in some ways. Although due to the chosen character movements, it is easier to understand what Steadman is implying, such as the mum smiling and applauding her child showing her parental love, a well known stereotype.

However, when the boy reveals his sexuality it brings a complete shock to the audience leading to a different view of the film. Apart from this, the film comes across as a dominant hegemonic as its preferred meaning by the producers is easily understood by the audience.

The final film I watched was called Wasps. Produced in 2003 by Andrea Arnold, it lasts for a total time of 24 minutes and 13 seconds. Although it only won only one award in its first year, it picekd up many more in the next few years including Best International Short Film and an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film, showing the impact it had as well as its realistic story line.

The film shows a struggling single mother trying to prove her children will not be an obstacle for her pursuit of retrieving her relationship with her ex-boyfriend.

The film shows a dominant hegemonic representation as the film is easily understood due to its stereotype. Many people are familiar with the events therefore can understand what the mother is going through, getting the message produced by the film across to all audiences.

The target audience would preferably be the older more mature people as they would more likely understand and familiarise themselves with the characters involved. They can also relate to it as the mother struggles to deal with her kids as well as other events, which many people stereotypically do. However the film brings a negative as well as positive stereotype towards single mothers.