Applying Theories to the Work

When creating my product, I must always take into account popular theories that will influence and structure my product, and conventions I must conform to for my product to appear professional and real on the market. On this post I will include a few theorists and their respective Media theories.

Hartley, Hodge and Kress

GENRES LIMIT CREATIVITY

John Hartley (1994)

• He argued that "Genres are agents of ideological closure- they limit the meaning potential of a given text". This suggests that genre acts as a straight jacket, which limits creative potential.
• I believe this theory does apply to Horror in the way conventions are apparent in most Horror films and the way that very few Horrors are critically received, becoming famous due to their schlocky feel and the usage of violence, but never for strong storylines and character development. Even the word Horror has connotations of B-Movies and poor quality in work
• I believe the constructs that are used in Horror do limit the creative output of the director, as the intended audience will have expectations and being to original will alienate them. There is no media text that isn't bound by genre constructs and rules.

Hodge & Kress (1988)

• Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress have said that genre "control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers"
• I must always note that whilst making a Horror the audience and producers will expect my product to act a certain way, visually, aesthetically and artistically. They will want certain things, particularly gore and characters breaking moral and social codes. These horror films act as a treatment of the human condition that they will always want to see horrific things. If my film was to have a musical interlude, or not have a frightening villain, my audience and producers would be outraged and it would lose money
• My film is going to be unconventional as due to the budget, I will not feature any physical violence and gore, but instead all of this will be left to the audiences imaginations. The fact it is a low budget student film will perhaps warn potential audiences that it will not have the same level of gore as a film with a big budget

Fiske

GENRES REFLECT THE ZEITGEIST

John Fiske (1987)

• John Fiske asserts that generic conventions "Embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular" This suggests that the media text will tell us something about the 'way of the world' in the time in which it was popular (The Zeitgeist)
• For example looking back at various Horrors from the past you will notice how some of them appear dated through time, but contextually would have been horrifying. Psycho was groundbreaking in the use of Horror visuals at the time, but now the effects aren't great. Despite this the idea of a mystery murderer was horrific. Over time, this mystery murderer turned into something supernatural and unreal, and usually unstoppable, making the attempts to escape from the characters fruitless and pointless. Famous film characters like this include Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees. The increase in technology helped them create unrealistic amounts of gore, which whilst laughable now will have been horrific at the time of making. In the 1990s there was a lot of tongue in cheek spoofs of this over the top violence, most famously Wes Cravens Scream, and this self deprecating humour helped construct the film, and also laughed at the years before it, a typical, optimistic reflection of the 1990s. This is around the time that these horrors became blended with comedy. In the 2000s we returned to more serious films of the 1960s, but with much more advanced technology in an attempt to imitate real life with more psychological themes. Voyeuristic elements are also popular now, with films like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, again linking it to the audience and making them believe these horrific things could happen to them.
• Perhaps one of the biggest things to date a media text is the technologies and the mise en scene used in the film. Even Scream, which was made in the late 1990s, seems dated due to the contemporary (at the time) costumes, and the technology used in the film such as the phones, computers etc. Films will always be a reflection of the time if they are set in the modern day
• My film will reflect the zeitgeist in a few ways. I will be using Post-Modern intertextual references to the slashers of the 1980s, and will be filming with the newest more advanced technologies. There will be usage of this technology, particularly at the start, as the catalyst for the action will come from the typing on a computer. This will be a new computer and will make the films set in this time. The costume of the main character will be a plain suit, a timeless outfit that will stop the product becoming dated.