Task 4 Me and My films

Task 4 – Me and My movies

Relationship between audiences and films

The genre that I have picked to do in this blog is comedy. The reason that I have picked comedy is because comedy sticks in the mind and has a way of sticking in the audiences mind. The reason I have chosen comedy films is that they are always a good watch because they are uplifting and the fact that you laugh can put you into the active watching group.

Comedies also have a wide variety of different sub genres on the both television and film. The most popular on film is Romantic Comedies (Rom-Com) with its best titles including ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘the wedding singer’. On TV, the most popular genre is Situation comedies (Sit-Com) which include shows such as ‘Friends’, ‘Scrubs’ and ‘The big bang theory’.

Comedy has always been a difficult thing to make and to do. Certain types of comedy will obviously not work with certain people making it very hard to make a comedy for everyone. There are two different kinds of comedy in physical and verbal and the best comedies are the ones that can put both of those together.

Of course, several actors have made a name for themselves while doing comedy films with actors such as Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell and Melissa McCarthy. These actors repeatedly star in comedies so when I see their names on a poster or on a DVD cover I see them as a great advert for laughter. I can probably see a film poster or look at the description of a film and it may make a film look like a disaster but when I see a name like Will Ferrell or Eddie Murphy it puts a bit of faith in me and I may change my mind on going to see it.

 

Many films use social networking to get in a bigger audience and comedy films are no exception to this ritual. The websites that are commonly used are websites such as twitter, Facebook and YouTube as these websites will reach almost half of the world’s population. Comedies such as ‘Bad neighbours’ and ‘Frank’ have both got Facebook pages and Twitter pages which allows the film to advertise straight to people and that will bring in more profit to the company.

Facebook pages for the films:

Frank: https://www.facebook.com/FrankFilm

Bad neighbours: https://www.facebook.com/badneighboursmovieuk

 

Active Spectatorship and passive spectatorship are both common in comedies. Active Spectatorship is seen when films go to film festivals such as the Texas film festival and the Vancouver film festival. The festivals are used to give audiences a chance to view a film before its release this can help with the research for the film and it can help spread a good word of mouth for the film (if its good) and be good should the audience decide to review the film. Comedy films also use active spectatorship when the viewing audience watches a film because you are an active spectator with in a comedy film when you laugh at the comedy in the film but you can also do this when the film is in the background (Unless physical comedy is involved).

Films affect audiences in different ways and some films make audiences think in different ways and some films even make audiences act differently in their own personality. Also audiences also have an effect on the way that a film is seen and the way the film is met by the general public. Comedy films are mainly watched for pleasure and general enjoyment there has been suggest four reasons why people watch films and they were put forward by Blumler and Katz who suggested the Uses and Gratifications theory which suggests these four reasons are; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, surveillance.

Diversion is probably the most common reason people choose to watch films. Many viewers will watch a film just to get away from the problems and reality of their own lives. Comedy films make people laugh which takes away the problems mainly because you’re laughing at other people’s problems.

Personal relationship is a style of pleasure was some people may use films as a substitute for personal relationships. E.g. A viewer choosing to go and see a romantic comedy because they are single and like the idea of a relationship or finding a happy relationship is played out in the film.

Surveillance is another pleasure of film watching that means finding films that might contain information that is useful for living. While this could be considered escapism from own life in Britain, they could also contain information that is useful in life.

Personal Identity and the Frameworks of Interpretation are linked in closely with active spectatorship. Active spectatorship suggests that the audience is made up of individuals who all read and interpret films differently from each other. Age, class, ethnicity, education and past experiences all have some bearing on the way one reads and interprets a film.

Media literacy really affects how people see a film and also how people view a film. A viewer who is more media literate may be aware of how the text is positioning them and may therefore be less suggestible to the messages of the film. Some will not enjoy fantasy films as much because they are overly aware of how the special effects are created and this ruins the magic for them. Comedy films can be ruined this way when some character tries to ‘push’ a joke or when a joke doesn’t come off. Film boffins may enjoy films done by Quintin Tarantino because he uses a lot of references to old films.

Intertextuality is commonly seen in the spoofs of films. Films such as ‘scary movie’ and ‘disaster movie’ are both spoofs. Scary movie is a spoof of scream and disaster movie is the spoof of 300. Spoofs deliberately reference other films to parody them and make viewers who are aware of the film being referenced, laugh at the imitation. Any time a star such as Adam Sandler is cast for example, the viewer is likely to be reminded of previous Adam Sandler films. This can be used to sell a film or it can be used to subvert expectations.

Some argue that films can have serious and damaging effects on viewers. With films now being such a big part in children growing up its important that the films children are seeing are appropriate to their age. Children could be affected if they see too much violence on screen, perhaps they will not feel as strongly about it when they see it in real life but this also means the children may act what they see on screen and this could make them dangerous human beings that do not empathise with people in pain and therefore they would be capable of being more violent in real life.

Films have an effect on audiences but also audiences can have an effect on films. With fandom it can go both ways. Fans are people who love a particular film, genre, character or star and they share camaraderie with other fans. Comedy has no fandom at all with comedy just being a part of general life.

Comedies often have many of the best jokes in the trailers of the films and these jokes will not be as funny when they are in the final film if you have seen the trailer a few times. For some people (Not me) Comedies are a onetime watch. This means that when you have seen all the jokes from the first time that you watch the film you can’t watch it again because you know the joke for other it is also the same for live comedy shows.

Comedy films tend to be big Hollywood blockbuster films which mean that in the end of the film it all works out for the lead character who will come out on top with the prize of sorts for example in the film ‘Grown ups’ the lead character sees that friends and family are more important than money and that you can’t buy friends.