Reception Study/ Theory

Reception Study/ Theory provides a means to understanding media texts, by understanding how these text are read by audience, how events and moods can effect they ay an audience understands a film or television show.

In college we watch the film "Vantage Point", in this film the narrative structures break the normal formula, instead of a single protagonist, linear structure narrative, in "Vantage Point" the events of the film are played multiple times from the perspective from numerous characters, in these re-plays details are that we did not know about or see from that point are shown. In the first run we focus on a news crew at the summit in Spain when the President of the USA is shot, the second run is of one of the President's seconds, the third is on a man who we find out is one of the assailants, the fourth is of a man with a camera who records the events, the fifth is of the President, who has been swapped for a double and the sixth and final perspective is of the main assailant and who all of these characters interact in the final act.


I watch a film with an open-mind so I can enjoy it as a whole, some people will focus on the small points and critic it, this is one of the ways the theory works, how people watch a film. Secondly location my effect it, we were in a classroom, this can effect the way watch a film, I was in working mood because I would have to make this blog upon it, in a cinema I maybe in a more relaxed mood not really caring if I have to talk about it. Thirdly Weather, this can effect a person emotions, e.g. if the weather is cold and wet I may be a little grumpy and be more negative about a film. Fourthly who you are watching it with, all in the room were friends so we didn't wish to spoil it, in a cinema there maybe those who just seem to keep in talking and distract you. Anything that happened within the lesson was that the film was stopped so we could have a break, this gave me time to think a piece things together, on previous events shown and how the film may end, I got most of it right, but I was off on a few details.

All in all Reception Study/ Theory show that when you watch a film you cannot rely on one viewing alone, you have to watch it a few times to get a final view.

Radio Drama - Audience Research

This post is the first on the radio drama, in this one we will look at how the producers research on the audiences for there programmes.

There are four theories of research: Primary, Secondary, Qualitative and Quantitate.

Primary research is when the producers would conduct the research themselves, the most used form of primary research is the questionnaire where the producers would ask questions relevant to the product and the audience. There are many places to conduct questionnaire research, on the street or in social areas where people of the target audience would spend time together. Focus Groups are another foam of primary research, I will put a link at the bottom of this post to another post that goes into detial in how focus groups effect a media product.

Secondary research is when the producer looks at research conducted by another person, a prime example of this for radio is RAJAR: Radio Joint Audience Research. This website allow the producers to check which radio show attract which age of audience and at what times they would listen.

Qualitative, this can be done thorough focus groups or by studying forums, this form of research may not result in a large amount of results but well detailed results.

Quantitate, this is the type of research that results on a large amount of results, this can be done by polls the results may not be detailed but this depends on the type of questions the researchers were using and the answers they were looking on.

Secondary research is usually found on RAJAR which gives the percentage of the population listening on certain radio channels, average hours of listening per head, and the average listening hours per person this would be Quantative research. If you wish to create a more specific search criteria to fit the target audience you would need to subscribe to the website.

The image is a speadsheet from RAJAR with the listerning figures with the options decided above.

The Ofcom report the information has been researched from was published in April 2013, this report is Ofcom’s Radio: The Listener’s Perspective. This report is on how people listen to radio and its role in a changing media landscape.

Amongst other things it includes a breakdown of the age groups including the target audience age group, what they prefer to listen on the radio and the reason why they listen to those preferred options.

‘BBC Radio 1 was the first choice station for this age group, valued particularly as a source of current and new music, as well as its exclusive live sets, guests and celebrity news.’ Section 4.4.1 18-24 age group.

The report suggests that the 18-24 age group primarily listen to radio for music and news for background listening.

This research is Qualitative, and from it I can tell that my radio drama would be for an extremely niche market indeed, but because this research is not my own I would need to do primary research of my own in order of prove or dispel this idea.

Primary research has the advantage that those who conducted it in this case the producers can verify this research as they have done it themselves; secondary research has the problem where if it is not sourced thoroughly enough then the information can be false, primary research can also be tailored to fit a specific group on a specific subject.

Primary research would be thorough a questionnaire, this could be done in streets, social areas that relate to the target audience or on Facebook. A questionnaire has the advantage that it can be done quickly and that it asks all the people involved the same questions to answer. E. g. A questionnaire for a radio drama for the 18-24 age groups could be targeted at people within that age range. A disadvantage of this is if the questionnaire is givien to a small collection of people who are either in favour of the subject or completely uninterested this would result in biased results. A problem with using Facebook and other social networking websites is that it would be harder know if the people who have filled in the questionnaire are the correct age.

Another method of a focus group which has a small number of people discussing the subject this would result in Qualitative results. The results would include in-depth opinions which would be useful in planning the drama and its presentation. This can be helped with giving the group evidence of the initial plans and possibly a sample recording or a pitch.

This is my Audience Profile on what I believe to be an average person to listen to my radio drama. The idea for this radio drama is based off "The Goon Show".

http://www.thegoonshow.net/

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/radio-research/ressearch-findings13/listeners-perspective.pdf

http://www.rajar.co.uk

http://wghkfmp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/audience-feedback.html

Audience Feedback

This post details that use of, focus groups, audience panels, trialling and testing, reviews, complaints and how they would affect the media product.

Now in the case of Unwind, comments on Youtube could help shape the look and feel of the up-and-coming film, the feedback for those who watch this and comment can tell the film-makers what the audience like about this short so that they can replicate this in the theatrical adaptation.

Now I would go into this in more detail but as I am not an expert on the book and the film I cannot (as the film has not been released and production note and test screening documentation have not been realeased as well). But I do have a perfect example of how audience feedback can affect a film, whether making it better or in some cases worst. This example was improving the script of a film but in other cases ruins it.

This example is "Thomas and the Magic Railroad"

The film was written, directed and co-produced by Britt Alcroft, (the woman who created the original television programme). Her original script was rather different.

In the movie the main villain is the character Diesel 10, who was done by model effects, but in the original script the villain a human called PT Boomer, in the script he is the adversary of Burnett Stone (played by Pete Fonda).

After test screenings Boomer was removed for being too scary, same with the original voice for Diesel 10 (provided by Keith Scott), which sounded like the Big Bad Wolf in Disney's "The Three Little Pigs". Both Boomer and Keith Scott's performance were in the original theatrical trailer as well as Boomer appearing another trailers, this meant that these changes were made only a few months before the film was realised. Due to this scenes within the films still have Boomer within them, cut down or left by mistake. There is a scene set in the Indian Valley were Burnett Stone is giving a motorcyclist directions, in the original script, the motorcyclist was Boomer and he and Stone were having an argument. Also in the climatic chase-scene Boomer is seen clinging onto the back of Diesel 10.

In my view the exclusion of Boomer was an improvement, due to a fact that one of my favourite reviews Doug Walker for his internet review show "Nostalgia Critic" noted that a problem with the movie is the lack of screen time of Thomas the Tank Engine, due to the plot involving Shining Time Station (set in the Indian Valley) and Burnett Stone, with the PT Boomer character we would have meant more time in the Shining Time subplot. However all that the test screening did to the film was to remove Boomer from it, as far as I know, no-one noted that Thomas had little screen time, all that removing Boomer did was shorten the length of the film.

That is an element of story removed that help the overall story somewhat, overall the story seems confusing, both Walker and Roger Ebert mentioned this, removing Boomer made that story less complicate, but as the Sodor Island Forum site (where I am getting the majority of this information from) mentions lines and story elements that involved Boomer still remained making the realised film more confusing.

Other elements that were removed due to test audience reactions (in this case mostly American audiences), the original voice for Thomas, John Bellis was removed due to his Liverpudlian accent making Thomas sound too old (side note- I would like to mention that the original narrator of the series in both the UK and USA was Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr, who being a member of the Beatles was Liverpudlian). Also Michael Angelis the UK narrator from 1991-2012 was to play Percy and James but the same test audiences that hated Bellis hated Angelis, Thomas, Percy and James would be replaced by Canadian voice actors.

In the end due to the changes made the film became heavily Americanised, far removed from the British version of the TV programme (before the films release), and the Railway Series written by the late Reverend Wilbert Awdry OBE of which the original TV programme was based on.

This post could be called a review of both the final movie and the original script, but in response to the two reviewers, and the questions in their reviews I will give the reasons why: 

•Both Walker and Ebert asked why Alec Bladwin was in the film as Mr Conductor, my answer will also explain Walker's question about the Shining Time elements, Britt Alcroft made the series Shining Time Station, so to get Thomas into the USA. Three episodes of the UK series would be played in one episode of Shining Time as an anthology, Ringo Starr being the UK narrator at the time played Mr Conductor as a way to get round re-dubbing, when Starr left in 1991 he was replaced by Michael Angelis for the UK series and American comedian George Carlin replaced Starr as Mr Conductor, meaning that Carlin would have to re-dub episodes, Carlin left in 1995 and Shining Time ended, in 1998 Thomas and Friends would start in the USA in the same format as the UK series and Alec Bladwin was the narrator for the US version until 2003, so as the previous narrators played Mr Conductor on Shining Time it would make perfect sense that Bladwin would play Mr Conductor in the movie. Alcroft I think was probably wanted to honour her previous work and get people into the film thorough the nostlagia of watching it, so the Shining Time element was to the American audience who watch Shining Time Station.

•Both Walker and  Ebert mentioned that the mouths of the engines don't move, but we hear the separate voices of each character, this complaint is invalid as the models used in the movies were almost exactly the same as those used on the TV programme which were roughly G-scale in sizes, due to this the room behind the faces were occupied by the complex eye-mecanism, also adding a moving mouth may effect the changing faces, possibly meaning the the expressions would stay the same and the mouth moving to lip-sync make these character act on similar principles to ventriloquist dummies , personnally as a fan of the original series I don't mind that the mouths do not move, it gives it a stylised look, also another television programme direceted by the late David Mitton (the direcetor of the television version of Thomas) known as "TUGS" had sperate voices actors for the characters and it proved that the fomula worked.

In the end I give the film credit for trying to get Thomas to the Big Screen, but I have to deduct points for the rather slopy execution, if was able to remake the film I would cut out most of the Shining Time parts and have it set more on the Island of Sodor and actually give Thomas the screentime he disreves being the title character.

Infomation from: http://www.sodor-island.net/themagicrailroadminisite/mrrevealed.html

Nostaglia Critic Review: http://blip.tv/nostalgiacritic/nostalgia-critic-thomas-and-the-magic-railroad-6006535 Note -  This video contains swearing.

Roger Ebert's review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000726/REVIEWS/7260301/1023

Representation

In media representation normally means stereotypes.

The stereotype of science-fiction as a genre is that it is set in the future, or concerning science whether true or made up.

I have already talked about dystopias but the stereotype is that they are unpleasant, making it a terrible place to leave in, the people who work for the authority in charge are normally in some way are unpleasant, uncomfortable and are devoid of emotions.

A prime example of this in the short film of Unwind is the nurse, the way she talks to our main character (the girl), seems to be stilted, like is a robot or a hologram of a nurse saying pre-programmed lines, she also does not properly answers the girl's questions. This seems to be a break away from the stereotype is the nurse character as careering, sweet and loving individuals, in nurse in the short is the opposite to proper nurses. The nurse is also dressed in stereotypical hospital clothing, this is a way to identify the nurse character as a nurse, the clothing also add to the stereotype of the unpleasant dystopian worker, wearing a mask over her mouth, keeping her lip movement from being seen, this make her look different and off-kliter. The interesting thing about the nurse is that she is out of the character of nurse stereotype, but in character for a dystopian worker character.

In the end representation in the media terms means stereotypes, and Unwind does have definite stereotypes, in the case of the dystopia workers, but in the case of the worker's actual jobs they do not fit the stereotype.