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. 

Name Ideas

close yours eyes

• recurring motif of eye,
• wouldn't get audiences attention,
• too anonymous

blink

• too short,
• 1 sylable makes it short making it sound like a action film

flutter

• conotes to nature and butterfly, makes it sound childish

Past shadows 

• use of shadows can present the boy not being there anymore

shadows in the fog

• fog conotes to horror

The definition of acceptance

• long title like is usually seen in arthouse films
• ambigous sense, creates intreast in film
• conotes to the 5 stages of grief and death so hinting towards the narrative of the film

Target audience

Art house films are usually well known for their fragmented audience, they appeal to alot of people or very few. With this in mind I looked into the ITV sales categories to get a clearer understanding of my target audience, however the closest to my target audience is W3, women aged between 16-34, however this age range is too broad for my film. I was aiming to focus into the age range of 16-21 so, according to Blumer and Katz's uses and gratification theory, the audience with be able to emaphise easier with the character because they are of a similar age and gender meaning that the emotive needs of the audience is met. According to Aristotle's theory of Catharis, the audience will watch a film to realse a purge of emotions, so with the emotive needs are being met and with empathy being easier to achieve in my target audience because of the age of the protagonist this means that the audience can achieve a cathartic experience.

With ITV's sales categories not matching that of my target audience, I then focused onto the lifestyle categories. This explores consumers as being more sophisticated. I believe that my target audience can fit into many of these different cateories, like is seen with many art house films. The first of these being the drop-outs, those who do not want to get commited in any way, because of the length of my film being between 5-10 minuites this doesn't take a lot of time to consume meaning that the audience won't have to put off doing other things to soley commit to the film it'self, with it only being short it means that this category may not get bored while watching the film. My target audience could also fit into the Innovators category, these are people who want to make their mark on the world. This could be acheived through the surealality of the film it's being different to  many blockbuster films, with also the narritive touching on a quite taboo subject (suicide). Finally I believe that the last category my film could fit into would be the rebels, who are people who want the world to fit in with their idea of how it should. My film could be appealing to this cateogory because of how I aim it to make the audience question their believes and ideas, through flashbacks, while watching the film. Which may lead some comsumers leaving with a different idea of suicide then they first orgionally had. 

Demographics

My target audience will be middle class teenage girl’s between the ages of 16-21 this is because of the subject I will be focusing on in my film may be harder to understand in younger audiences. With the different type personalities of teenagers my film will be focused more towards the alternative girl especially because my film isn’t a traditional Romantic drama it is breaking the mould making it an art house film. There are three main areas that we can use to make our film appealing to my demographic;

·         Mise en scene

·         Intertextuality

·         An unusual/non-traditional lead character

Mise en scene means everything in the frame of the film which includes props, style e.t.c. This can help with the characterisation of a character. With my film’s protagonist being a teenage girl the type of mise en scene I will be using will be things that will help represent her as an average teenage girl. Such as high street clothes, makeup, posters on walls, dialect and books. Mise en scene can help audiences, according to the uses and gratifications theory, gain their affective needs. Because they recognise something in the film as similar to their life or what they do this will make it easier for my demographic to empathise with my lead protagonist thus meaning they will be more likely to get emotional at the film which, with it being a romantic drama, is what I am aiming to do. In my film I will be using a quote from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, to show that the girl is a student to make the audience empathise with my protagonist especially if they are students too and also if they have studied any of the Brontë sisters work. This is also an example of Intertextuality because in my film I will be using Wuthering Heights to help explain the themes conveyed in my film which intern will help them understand the film. Intertextuality can help make a film popular because an audience might recognise something shown in the film which will make them want to see it, as long as it is popular in their demographic, e.g. a young girl stuffing their bra in a film, this may be something that some younger audiences may do so they could look up to the characters because they are like them complying with the self integrative worth seen in the uses and gratifications theory because the film could raise their self-esteem. The use of a non traditional lead character is important because it makes your film stand out against the others because it is not complying with conventions, with my protagonist being a normal middle class teenage girl who you are unlikely to see in most teenage films, which, according to structuralism theory means that the audience will find it easier to empathise with my lead protagonist because they are someone like the audience themselves, meaning that they will find it easy to fulfil their affective needs.

Uses and gratifications theory

The uses and gratifications theory helps us understand how media affects people. It states that people use media for what they need rather than the media controlling people and their needs; which makes it quite opposite to the magic bullet theory. This theory has a user/audience centred approach. There are several needs and gratification for people which are focused into five categories;

·         Cognitive needs

·         Affective needs

·         Personal integrative needs

·         Social integrative needs

·         Tension free needs

Cognitive needs

This is that people use media for acquiring knowledge and information, however only certain people have these needs, these people are the ones who have intellectual needs to acquire knowledge. In order to gain this knowledge many audiences may watch documentaries, Malik Bendjelloul’s 2012 documentary Searching For Sugar Man. It hard to apply my film towards people’s cognitive needs because it will not be delivering them information or knowledge; however it could make people think about their views and judgements on the idea of suicide and teenage depression.

Affective needs

This need includes all types of emotions, pleasure and other moods of a person. People use media, like film, to satisfy their emotional needs. Many people to fulfil this need will watch romantic dramas such as Nick Cassavetes’s 2004 film The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks’s novel. Films in this genre create emotions in an audience because they can empathise with the characters and the narrative; especially with the narrative revolving about an illness that affects many people. The affective need of the audience will be strongly met with the theme of the loss of a loved one which is something most audiences would be able to empathise with, especially with the target audience being the same age as the protagonist this will mean empathy will be easier to create. Also with the theme of depression and suicide in the film it is a very sensitive subject for some audiences therefore instilling an emotive response in an audience.

Personal integrative needs

This is that people use media to heighten their self-esteem, status, gain credibility and stabilize. Therefore meaning that people watch films and assure themselves that they have status in society, thus meaning that they change their life style and media helps them do it. This is mainly done with product placements seen in Sam Mendes’s 2012 James Bond Skyfall. People will see the products that James Bond uses and wears and with his high social status people will go out and buy the products thus intern raising their self-esteem. In my film I could raise their self-esteem because the audience could place themselves about that of the protagonist because they will feel that they are better than her because they will not be dealing with the problems that she will be.

Social integrative needs

This encompasses the need to socialise within society. In modern society people do not seem to have social gatherings, instead they are using media such as social network sites, such as facebook, twitter, e.t.c. to satisfy that need. Also it gives people common topics for discussion. Film such as Stephanie Meyer’s series Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), Chris Weitz (New Moon), David Slade (Eclipse), Bill Condon (Breaking Dawn part 1/part 2), thrive of this need to make their films popular with their teenage target audience. Twilight fans used social network sites such as twitter to vent their obsession with the film series which later made them be called Twihards. However this is only really popular with many blockbuster films because of the budget and vast popularity of the film, this effect will be hard to replicate with my art house film because with only having a small target audience it is hard to generate a cult following, especially with the film only be an individual short film not a series.

Tension free needs

People use the media in terms of escapism and to relieve from tension. This could be applied to many surreal films, because of the difference between the real world and the world that is portrayed in the surreal film people engross themselves in the film and forget about their own life and worries. This could be applied to many of Tim Burton’s film especially that of his adaption Alice In Wonderland, which even explores this theme in the film itself, with her going to wonderland to escape from her problems in the real world. I could use this in my film because the audience will get engrossed with the worries of her life and with the surrealistic effect of the film and forget about their own life for the short while of watching the film.