Narrative and Audience Theories

Theories:

Narrative:

Looking at Narrative, it is important that our trailer conforms to these theories because it will entice our audience by using conventions from theorists. These theories are also used in other film trailers which we can use as an exemplar.

Restricted Narrative: We have used this in our teaser trailer as this theory gives the idea that the narrative should not be given away, making it enigmatic for the audience. We have achieved this in our teaser trailer by showing selected clips from our footage and edited them to cross cut through montage editing to make un-relatable have meaning to show an unclear version of the plot.

Syd Field's Theory: Says that genre and narrative must be shown in the first ten minutes of a film to engage the audience as it must decode the genre, the narrative and engage the target audience.

Enigma: Our teaser trailer does this by creating mystery and making the audience raise questions which need answering. This can be achieved through titles and explicit footage that may raise questions of the plot.

Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium: This is the idea that the trailer begins with calm equilibrium and will gradually rise and fall between peaks of disequilibrium but end in a calm state. We have included this in our trailer by calm at the beginning but chaos is issued with temptation and corruption, where we see fast paced shots to connote to action.

Propp's Spheres of action: Common character types found within the narrative. This means there is a protagonist,  an antagonist and a victim, as an example. Our trailer only shows one character who plays all three roles by seeing his transition from an innocent victim, to being a corrupt antagonist and then saving himself by being the hero.

Audience:

Audience Theory: How the audience is affected by the media. They are either passive or active. An active audience is influenced by the media whereas a passive audience engages with the media but is not drawn to it's actions in the real world.

Hypodermic Needle Theory: Where the audience is affected by the media they consume by relating and altering their behaviour based on the media's influence.

Uses and Gratifications Theory: We consume media in a variety of ways (personal identity, social interaction, informative, social empathy, entertainment.

Marxism: The bourgeoisie use their power to oppress those below them whereas the proletariat use the media to support and influence others with their own views.

Hegemony: How the audience are influenced into accepting dominant powers and how they respond (positively/negatively)

Stewart Halls Reception Theory: The media is encoded by the producer and the audience decodes it. This means the media can be perceived in many ways. Dominant media would make the audience perceive the media the way they want them to but more subjective media allows a more oppositional audience, or there is negotiated reading which means the producer and audience can compromise.