Conventions of an art house film

Many art house films include intertextuality of literature and art forms. This gives a message that the film is for more of an intelligent target audience, this intern differentiate itself from blockbusters. I aim to use this convention by including a quote that sums up the themes that are present in the film. Art house films also includes direct address, this is where the protagonist or a main characters will talk directly to the audience/camera. This is usually a theatre technique (breaking the 4th wall) this helps the film to seem more up market and cultural. Also, this technique helps to make the audience feel closer to the protagonist which can make a film's narrative more emotional, especially in dramas. I aim to use this convention only very briefly because I believe when this technique is repeated from scene to scene it can become cliche which loses its effectiveness. The title and any font seen in an art house film is usually written in a handwritten font, this makes the film seem more personal to the audience. I aim to use this technique because it feels like you are being given an insight to the characters life and helps make the film seem more real. Also, in art house films there is usually a strong use of black of white in the sense of over/under light, this is similar to original cinema making the piece be seen as a piece of history. In many art house films there is a sense of an ambiguous ending, leaving the ending for the audiences own interpretation. I will definitely be using this technique because it makes the piece seem more creative which is what art house films are usually perceived as. A art house film will usually include a city setting or a young protagonist this makes the film reflect a typical member of the target audience. I will be using a young protagonist because it will make my target audience be able to empathise with the character easily, which, intern will make my film effective as a drama. Art house films usually include no dialogue this shows the creativity of the director leaving the story told by the camera shots and the music solely, this is a extremely hard technique to master and can leave a film looking unprofessional if the technique is not done correctly. Close up's are the camera technique that is usually used in art house films; these make the audience feel closer to the target audience creating empathy in the audience. I will be using this technique to help make my film emotive, thus, making it effective as a drama.

Deconstruction Of The Words Movie Poster

The use of natural colours in the words movie poster makes us see that the genre will be mellow and follows conventions is seen in dramas. The off white colour of the man’s shirt is interesting because it suggests that he is promiscuous; due to the sense that white usually conotates to purity and virginity so the off white colour suggests the opposite. The black of his jacket further enforces his cold nature, considering that black conotates to coldness and darkness; this gives the audience an insight to the character. The women’s brown dress suggests that she is a natural, warm character, considering that brown usually conotates to nature. The tanned skin of the women makes the women more attractive to men; however, this will only be true in modern culture. The gaze of the women, towards the man, suggests that they have an intimate relationship. This is further enforced by the women’s body language, with her hand being underneath the man’s shirt and the other on his face. Her closed eyes, especially with her gaze/face position being positioned towards the man, shows trust towards the character. The man’s gaze towards the audience shows to the audience that he is the main character. However, this could also enforce his promiscuous nature due to his seductive gaze. This could tell us the target audience of the film is a woman due to the fact of the attractiveness of the protagonist with a seductive gaze means that women will want to see the film because they find the protagonist attractive. The white font of the writing could signify a relationship between the two characters, considering that white is associated with marriage. The institutions in small white font could show that they feel that this information is unimportant but still present if needed, this could be due to the fact that it is an art house film. There is no director or writer present in bold, which is not a convention of an art house film; instead it is present with the institutions instead. The boldness of the title and the release date provides the key information to the audience, showing that these are the two most important factors that the audience needs to know. With the title being larger than the release font makes it clear that this is the title of the film, thus making it the most important piece of information. The tagline next to the title is in a smaller font this shows that is not an important piece of information but it is present to deliver the audience information of the context of the film and act as a tool to make audience what to see the film because they want to find out more about the film's narrative. The names of the actors and actresses are listed above the title in white font, these are in a smaller font that the title, but however bigger than the tagline and at the same size font of the release date; this, like the tagline, acts as a tool to intrigue audiences to want to see the film because they make like an actor/actress that is present in the film.

  

Study into the effects of background score in my target audience

With many art house films not having a background score I wanted to find out first hand whether or not my film would be more emotional if I used background score or not. Joint with looking at already existing media theory about background score I decided to join with A-Level psychology students to undertake a study on whether music background would be effective in creating emotion in my target audience (teenagers, more specifically teenage girls).

The aim of our study was to see if music joined with film is most likely to cause an emotional response in girls than the film unaccompanied by music or the music itself. Also we aimed to see which emotional response (fear or sadness) is most likely to be caused in girls by film. We were influenced by Ivanka Pavlović and Slobodan Marković’s work of the effect of music background on the emotional appraisal of film sequences. This study investigated the effects of background music on emotional appraisal in film. Four pairs of polar emotional states defined in Plutchik’s model (joy-sadness, anticipation-surprise, fear-anger and trust-disgust) were used. The study used eight film sequences and eight music themes that were agreed to represent all eight of plutchlik’s emotions. The participant was told to judge the emotional quality of the eight film-music sequences on eight seven point scales, half of the sequences being congruent (joyful film-joyful music) while the other half would non congruent (joyful film-sad music). Results of the study shown that the film had more of an emotional influence than the music. 

The participants of our study were 15 year 10 students, which we obtained by using an opportunity sample. The participants were then divided into 3 groups, 5 girls in each 3 conditions. Each participant was matched to two others from the different groups by their emotional responses to films. Each participant was asked to firstly sign a consent form and to fill in a questionnaire which we then used to match the participants. In the first condition the 5 girls were asked to watch a 2 minute clip of the film “The Woman in Black” with the film clip accompanied by music, which we used as the fear stimulus. After the clip had ended they were given a likert scale for them to fill in their response to the clip. Next they were asked to watch two minutes of the film “Titanic” with the film clip accompanied by music, which we used as the sadness stimulus. After the clip had ended they were given a likert scale for them to fill in their response to the clip. In the second condition a different group of 5 girls were asked to watch a 2 minute clip of the film “The Woman in Black” with the film clip unaccompanied by music, still acting as the fear stimulus. After the clip had ended they were given a likert scale for them to fill in their response to the clip. Next they were asked to watch two minutes of the film “Titanic” with the film clip unaccompanied by music, which we still used as the sadness stimulus. After the clip had ended they were given a likert scale for them to fill in their response to the clip. In the final condition a different group 5 girls, who we used as the control group, were asked to listen to the 2 minute clip of the music to the scene from “The Woman in Black” without the image being presented, which we used as the fear stimulus. After the clip had ended they were given a likert scale for them to fill in their response to the clip. Next they were asked to listen to the 2 minute clip of the music to the scene from “Titanic” without the image being presented After the clip had ended they were given a likert scale for them to fill in their response to the clip. In all 3 conditions the same 2 minute clip was used from both films, we also made sure that the girls did not discuss anything with the others in the group so all responses were not affected by the others in the group.

We found that self reported scared personality types did get scared when watching the clip with music and self reported scared personality types did not get scared when the clip was unaccompanied by music. We found that the music itself did not induce an emotional response of fear, so the original fear response must have been due to the combination of the music and the film and not just the film or music itself. We did find that sadness is easier to achieve in girls even in self reported non emotive personality types. This could prove that oestrogen effects your emotion. Most girls did state that they believed that they believed that the environment does affect your emotional response. Also the majority states that others do effect how you react to films.

This helped me understand that sadness is an easier emotion to create in teenage girls better when accompanied by music, this then led to me making the decision that I would use a background score. However, making sure that the music suited the genre.