The three texts I shall be discussing are the television series Lost, created by J.J Abrams in 2004, Peaky Blinders, created by Steven Knight in 2013 and Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner in 2007. Lost is a mainstream text, in which most of it's viewers are passive, the audience simply reads the text as Abrams intended.
Focussing on Series 1, Episode 2, 'The Pilot, Part 2', there are mainstream conventions within the narrative and technical conventions. Within the first minute of the episode I realised this was a mainstream text with the use of a non-linear narrative, the scene starts off with 3 characters walking through a jungle/forest, this sets the scene, however there is then a close up of one of the characters and then a flashback to a clip within the plane, this is a very mainstream narrative convention, attracting a mainstream passive audience.
Another huge mainstream convention used within the episode is the usage of enigma codes. In this episode there are about 5 different enigma codes, all used to keep the viewer interested just before going to a break. One of the first enigma codes we get are with the handcuffs, whilst Walt is wandering through the forest alone we get a point of view shot of him looking around, the score (another mainstream convention) builds tension, and then the handcuffs are brought into the shot, us as an audience straight away wonder what these handcuffs have to do with anything, who's are they, where are they? None of these questions are answered, leaving the audience wanting to know more. The biggest enigma code of them all has to be the very final one during the last scene, Kate, Charlie, Shannon, Boon, Sawyer and Sayid all go on a 'quest' to reach high ground to find signal for the radio, they receive a distress signal which had been playing for 16 years that says 'help, everyone is dead', the camera then cuts from character to character with the score becoming more sinister, it then zooms in on Charly as he says 'guys, where are we?', and then the end of the episode, this is a huge enigma code to enable the passive audience to discuss with others what might happen and to ensure that they watch next episode.
Another way in which Lost is a mainstream text is the usage of an ensemble cast. There are wide range of character roles in this show, different race, age and gender, which all get equal screening time, meaning a wide range of people can watch the show and relate, Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratifications theory would suggest that this show enables the audience to personally identify with the characters.
Now moving onto Mad Men, a very different text in which targets a niche and mostly active audience, it is considered a high brow text, intellectually and culturally rich.
Mad Men is shown on AMC, an american cable and satellite television channel, a very niche channel, which cares not about money but only producing high quality shows, Matthew Weiner, the producer of Mad Men, paid £250,000 to play a minute of the Beatles track 'Tomorrow Never Knows' in an episode, this is one way in which Mad Men is a niche text, with it's very successful placement on AMC.
Another way in which Mad Men is considered a niche text is it's usage of complex female characters. Some of the female characters in this show break the stereotypical female role, focussing on Series 5, Episode 11, 'The Other Woman', Peggy enters Don Drapers office and tells him that she is leaving, she is very dependant, and strong, the usage of a low camera angle on Peggy emphasises this, this breaks the stereotype, however, then you have Joan who is sexualised, she is forced to have sex with the head of Jaguar to ensure that he buys Drapers idea, she is using her body to gain power. But then we have Drapers wife, Meg, who is somewhere in between, she uses her independence to tell her husband that she is following her dreams no matter what, but then goes to an audition in which the producers ignore everything she says and just stare at here body. These complex and wide variety of female character roles draw in a niche active audience.
Peaky Blinders is quite a tough audience to define, it isn't as mainstream and simple as Lost, but it's not as intellectually and culturally rich as Mad Men. Peaky Blinders is a crime drama set in Birmingham which follows former World War one soldiers who have returned home and formed a criminal gang. It is placed on BBC 2, which has a reputation for producing High Brow drama series. Peaky Blinders has a very specific audience, in which most are active, one way in which it attracts it's audience is with it's usage of high quality cinematography. Within the first two minutes of Episode 2 there is a fight scene between The Lea Family and the Peaky Blinders, the scene has no dietetic sound whatsoever, and was editied in slow motion with lots of different unusual camera angles, this was all done to emphasise the scene and get the audience to focus on it more, a passive audience would've merely read the text and enjoyed, however a more active audience really would've appreciated the amount of work that went into that editing and camera work, which is what the director Steven Knights would've hoped to achieve.
Another way in which Peaky Blinders attracted it's audience is by breaking the stereotypical representation of regional identity, in this case the Brummie. Typical representations of the Brummie is that they aren't very smart, and the accent makes them seem very stupid, you see things in magazines such as the Daily Mail that have headlines like 'Brummie Dummie', Peaky Blinders
completely goes against this sterotype and represents Brummies as much more smart and formal.
The score and soundtrack within Peaky Blinders is a very mainstream technical convention, the music often reflects the mood of the scene, during scenes of excitement tracks by The White Stripes are often played, build up of the score is used to build tension, sad scenes the score becomes very sad, this enables the audience to become passive and simply enjoy the text, however, some audiences found this very patronising, almost as if the film was telling us that this scene is now sad, when we clearly already knew this.
No comments:
Post a Comment