Both Nirvana and Radiohead have used digital technology to gain promotion and benefit themselves financially. Radiohead are a multi-award winning band from Oxford, UK, their music and marketting is considered experimental, progressive and innovative. Radiohead have created debate and stimulated further industry thought regarding innovative ways to sell albums in a digital age. The 'pay what you want' approach highlighted the importance of the fan-musician relationship to profit.
Radiohead have released 8 albums, their latest being 'King of Limbs', released in February 2011. Before this, they released an album 'In Rainbows' via the 'Pay What You Want' approach.
Lady Gaga released the album 'Born This Way' in 2011, the 5 singles were released over an 8 month period, these were Born This Way, Judas, The Edge of Glory, You and I & Marry The Night. The album topped the charts in 23 countries and the single Born This Way set an iTunes record, selling 1 million copies in 5 days. The album was so successful due to the usage of digital technology.
Lady Gaga embraces technology to form a parasocial relationship with her fans, she has a close relationship with them, built by her heavily promoted ideology of self-acceptance. Gaga used social media based fan interaction to reward fans to continue to buy into the artist. This strategy suggests a two way relationship between the artist to the fans, however, 'parasocial interaction' is a term to describe one sided. Parasocial relationships are ones in which one party knows a great deal about the other, but the other does not. This seems to be required to enable a singer to turn into a pop star.
Gaga writes tweets thanking her fans and she retweets people who compliment her. Marketting experts believe 'Born This Way' makes a third of her cash through social media sites. In March 2012, Gaga launched an invite-only social networking site for her fans, LittleMonsters.com. On the site users can download her music, buy tickets to her concerts, talk with each other and occasionally talk to Lady Gaga herself.
Lady Gaga advertises and sells via the most popular digital music platform of all, iTunes. She pays a tonne of money just to be on the first page. Gaga released a music video for all 5 singles, they are flamboyant and often contain an extended narrative. The themes feature sexuality and outsider art, all of which are available to purchase on iTunes.
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Evaluation
For my production pieces, I created three tour posters that explored the evolution of the Punk Rock genre, for this I produced two traditional punk posters, and one more evolved punk poster. I took this approach to demonstrate the changes in genre conventions from the 1970's to the modern day. I drew influences from my research investigation from the bands The Clash and Blink 182, I also gained visual influences from the band 'Sex Pistols'.
From my research investigation I concluded that early punk was much more rebellious in lyrical content and bands beliefs and behaviors. Bands discussed themes such as anarchy, political and social debates and inequality, where as in modern punk, bands discuss more personal problems such as losing girlfriends, rather than the issues that are relevant to the collective. I aimed to illustrate this through my production work.
For my first piece I produced a tour poster focusing on and projecting original punk, taking influences and visual signifiers from The Clash. I wanted the audience to decode with the preferred reading and decode the band as very rebellious, and 'hardcore'. The imagery used for this tour poster is very traditional, a three man band standing in front of an old dilapidated building with a very dirty door to show their gritty surroundings, a typical convention, discovered in my investigation. The filter used on the image gives it a very gritty grainy effect, used very commonly on Punk posters. I made the image look like it was a piece of paper stuck onto the tour poster with ripped edges, along with the tour date at the bottom, I did this to show the untidiness of the poster, that they don't care about their appearance and that there are more important things to focus on, which was a common Punk ideology during that era. The colour scheme is desaturated and contains a rough texture, however, the text colour at the top is pink, I constructed this as it is the common colour that The Clash use, once again using references from original punk bands. The font at the top of my tour poster isn't the same, I used a mixture of 3 different fonts to write 'Tickets available online now', this makes it look messy and untidy, a constant theme of original punk. These are all Punk signifiers that help connote Punk ideology. One criticism I have of this poster is that one of my band members is wearing a hoodie, this is not a typical punk signifier, which may mislead my audience when decoding.
For my second piece I produced a tour poster based on the Sex Pistols, I wanted an audience to be able to decode the piece as a Sex Pistols influenced punk poster, and I feel as though I have achieved this. The colour scheme is very typical of the Sex Pistols, yellow and pink. The background of my poster is a bright yellow, the font of my text is brown and pink, it gives off a very similar vibe to the Sex Pistols, and I feel my re-creation enabled my audience to decode the poster as Punk. The image I used is a close up of the male singer shouting into a microphone, straight away enabling my audience to see what genre of music this is, it also portrays the singer as very angry and emotional, he may be expressing his thoughts of politics and anarchy through lyrics, commonly expressed in early punk which I found out in my investigation. Even the tour name signifies the audience of the style of music, 'drink tea and die', it shows that Punk is very anti-monarchy, since my poster was based around the Sex Pistols it felt essential to include a reference to monarchy following up their track 'God Save The Queen'.
My third and final piece is completely different, it is based on contemporary modern Pop Punk, and gained influences from Blink 182, to show the differences between the era's and the increased individualistic nature of contemporary punk lyrics, a finding from my investigation. The image used is quite different to the others, once again the text contains a three man band, but for this poster I took 3 separate images and cut them out and stuck them next to each other, they are all cut out very neatly and have had a spot removing tool on their faces, to make them look as good as possible, I did this to show how perfect they all look, and they care about their appearance, my audience would be able to see the difference between this and my other posters and see how punk bands has evolved. Another small icon to emphasise how Punk has turned feminine, on one of the band members shirts is a love heart, this would never be seen on someone like The Clash, this was done intentionally to show how things like that are now acceptable in Punk.
From my research investigation I concluded that early punk was much more rebellious in lyrical content and bands beliefs and behaviors. Bands discussed themes such as anarchy, political and social debates and inequality, where as in modern punk, bands discuss more personal problems such as losing girlfriends, rather than the issues that are relevant to the collective. I aimed to illustrate this through my production work.
For my first piece I produced a tour poster focusing on and projecting original punk, taking influences and visual signifiers from The Clash. I wanted the audience to decode with the preferred reading and decode the band as very rebellious, and 'hardcore'. The imagery used for this tour poster is very traditional, a three man band standing in front of an old dilapidated building with a very dirty door to show their gritty surroundings, a typical convention, discovered in my investigation. The filter used on the image gives it a very gritty grainy effect, used very commonly on Punk posters. I made the image look like it was a piece of paper stuck onto the tour poster with ripped edges, along with the tour date at the bottom, I did this to show the untidiness of the poster, that they don't care about their appearance and that there are more important things to focus on, which was a common Punk ideology during that era. The colour scheme is desaturated and contains a rough texture, however, the text colour at the top is pink, I constructed this as it is the common colour that The Clash use, once again using references from original punk bands. The font at the top of my tour poster isn't the same, I used a mixture of 3 different fonts to write 'Tickets available online now', this makes it look messy and untidy, a constant theme of original punk. These are all Punk signifiers that help connote Punk ideology. One criticism I have of this poster is that one of my band members is wearing a hoodie, this is not a typical punk signifier, which may mislead my audience when decoding.
For my second piece I produced a tour poster based on the Sex Pistols, I wanted an audience to be able to decode the piece as a Sex Pistols influenced punk poster, and I feel as though I have achieved this. The colour scheme is very typical of the Sex Pistols, yellow and pink. The background of my poster is a bright yellow, the font of my text is brown and pink, it gives off a very similar vibe to the Sex Pistols, and I feel my re-creation enabled my audience to decode the poster as Punk. The image I used is a close up of the male singer shouting into a microphone, straight away enabling my audience to see what genre of music this is, it also portrays the singer as very angry and emotional, he may be expressing his thoughts of politics and anarchy through lyrics, commonly expressed in early punk which I found out in my investigation. Even the tour name signifies the audience of the style of music, 'drink tea and die', it shows that Punk is very anti-monarchy, since my poster was based around the Sex Pistols it felt essential to include a reference to monarchy following up their track 'God Save The Queen'.
My third and final piece is completely different, it is based on contemporary modern Pop Punk, and gained influences from Blink 182, to show the differences between the era's and the increased individualistic nature of contemporary punk lyrics, a finding from my investigation. The image used is quite different to the others, once again the text contains a three man band, but for this poster I took 3 separate images and cut them out and stuck them next to each other, they are all cut out very neatly and have had a spot removing tool on their faces, to make them look as good as possible, I did this to show how perfect they all look, and they care about their appearance, my audience would be able to see the difference between this and my other posters and see how punk bands has evolved. Another small icon to emphasise how Punk has turned feminine, on one of the band members shirts is a love heart, this would never be seen on someone like The Clash, this was done intentionally to show how things like that are now acceptable in Punk.
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Television - Audience Homework
1a. Identify the main targeted audience of Mad Men
Mad Men targets a niche and mainly active audience
1b. Idenfity one way the text has been encoded to appeal to that type of audience
One way in which Mad Men does this is with it's complex female characters
1c. Justify how that point would gratify your previously identified type of audience
The female character Peggie in Mad Men goes against the typical female role, Peggie is independent and gains power through her intelligence, an active audience would notice this and appreciate how Weiner has challenged the typical female stereotype
1d. Describe a narrative sequence where this point is present
This is present during the scene where Peggie confronts Don Draper in his office and tells her she is leaving, this shows independence and dominance, this is emphasised with the usage of a low camera angle when focussing on Peggie, to show she is the current power holder
2. Does lost target a passive audience? Justify your answer
Yes, Lost uses many mainstream conventions which attract a passive audience, for example the use of a score, during scenes such as the final scene in episode 2, the score became more intense and dramatic as Charlie said 'guys, where are we?', a passive audience would simply read this as the JJ. Abrams intended, where as an active audience may find this patronising
3. Identify how Lost is encoded to gratify a passive audience?
Lost gratifies a passive audience with the usage of the dialogue, characters spell things out for the audience, enabling a passive audience to simply watch and enjoy the film, an example of this is when Soya says to Jack 'you're the hero', this is a character role within the Propp theory, if Lost was encoded to gratify a more active audience, then we would be left to figure it out for ourselves, however because Lost targets a more passive audience, it's spelled out for us
4. Justify one point that would force Mad Mens audience to decode the text actively in order to gain gratifications
The lack of a score forces the audience of Mad Men to decode the text actively as the score isn't backing up how certain characters are feeling or how you should feel during the scene, you are left to work things out for yourself and decode the narrative in which ever way you can
5. Explain and justify how Peaky Blinders has been encoded to gratify both a passive and active audience
Peaky Blinders is considered a high brow text in which attracts an active audience, it's usage of good quality cinematography within the first two minutes of episode 2 of a fight between The Peaky Blinders and The Lea Family are certain things an active audience would enjoy watching and would appreciate, however, a passive audience enjoys things such as the usage of a very obvious soundtrack, during exciting scenes, music by The White Stripes is used, during sad scenes the soundtrack becomes much more slow paced and sad, this enables a passive audience to simply watch and enjoy the text and decode it as Steven Knight encoded it
6. Justify the statement 'Lost is encoded to be inclusive'
Lost is encoded to be inclusive with the usage of mainstream character roles such as the character Shannon, she is the typical dumb blonde, we see this during the scene where the polar bear charges to attack and whilst everyone else has ran away, Shannon is still stood there screaming, this typical characters role is very mainstream and attracts a passive audience as it's what they're used to seeing
7. Why does the use of a score appeal to a more passive audience?
The score appeals to a passive audience as it tells them how to feel, during a sad scene a non-diegetic soundtrack/score would start to play, you wouldn't even need to understand the narrative to realise this was a sad moment within the scene, which gratifies a passive audience.
Mad Men targets a niche and mainly active audience
1b. Idenfity one way the text has been encoded to appeal to that type of audience
One way in which Mad Men does this is with it's complex female characters
1c. Justify how that point would gratify your previously identified type of audience
The female character Peggie in Mad Men goes against the typical female role, Peggie is independent and gains power through her intelligence, an active audience would notice this and appreciate how Weiner has challenged the typical female stereotype
1d. Describe a narrative sequence where this point is present
This is present during the scene where Peggie confronts Don Draper in his office and tells her she is leaving, this shows independence and dominance, this is emphasised with the usage of a low camera angle when focussing on Peggie, to show she is the current power holder
2. Does lost target a passive audience? Justify your answer
Yes, Lost uses many mainstream conventions which attract a passive audience, for example the use of a score, during scenes such as the final scene in episode 2, the score became more intense and dramatic as Charlie said 'guys, where are we?', a passive audience would simply read this as the JJ. Abrams intended, where as an active audience may find this patronising
3. Identify how Lost is encoded to gratify a passive audience?
Lost gratifies a passive audience with the usage of the dialogue, characters spell things out for the audience, enabling a passive audience to simply watch and enjoy the film, an example of this is when Soya says to Jack 'you're the hero', this is a character role within the Propp theory, if Lost was encoded to gratify a more active audience, then we would be left to figure it out for ourselves, however because Lost targets a more passive audience, it's spelled out for us
4. Justify one point that would force Mad Mens audience to decode the text actively in order to gain gratifications
The lack of a score forces the audience of Mad Men to decode the text actively as the score isn't backing up how certain characters are feeling or how you should feel during the scene, you are left to work things out for yourself and decode the narrative in which ever way you can
5. Explain and justify how Peaky Blinders has been encoded to gratify both a passive and active audience
Peaky Blinders is considered a high brow text in which attracts an active audience, it's usage of good quality cinematography within the first two minutes of episode 2 of a fight between The Peaky Blinders and The Lea Family are certain things an active audience would enjoy watching and would appreciate, however, a passive audience enjoys things such as the usage of a very obvious soundtrack, during exciting scenes, music by The White Stripes is used, during sad scenes the soundtrack becomes much more slow paced and sad, this enables a passive audience to simply watch and enjoy the text and decode it as Steven Knight encoded it
6. Justify the statement 'Lost is encoded to be inclusive'
Lost is encoded to be inclusive with the usage of mainstream character roles such as the character Shannon, she is the typical dumb blonde, we see this during the scene where the polar bear charges to attack and whilst everyone else has ran away, Shannon is still stood there screaming, this typical characters role is very mainstream and attracts a passive audience as it's what they're used to seeing
7. Why does the use of a score appeal to a more passive audience?
The score appeals to a passive audience as it tells them how to feel, during a sad scene a non-diegetic soundtrack/score would start to play, you wouldn't even need to understand the narrative to realise this was a sad moment within the scene, which gratifies a passive audience.
Monday, 24 February 2014
Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts
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.
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.
Tuesday, 11 February 2014
Study the Uses and Gratifictions theory and question, which gratifications audiences would gain from each of your studied texts.
According to Blumler and Katz, people watch texts to gain something from them, whether that be a use or a gratification, Peaky Blinders fits in to this theory. Within Peaky Blinders is retrophilia, you are constantly given historical content from the time in which it was set, in this case, 1919, in terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory, Peaky Blinders informs it's audience, for example, during the scene where the horse has a broken leg, Tom Shelby and two other men that work in the barn are under the impression the horse has been given a curse by gypsies, this informs the audience of the ideologies of people in Birmingham at that time and gives them a little background information, a passive audience may merely ignore this, however an active audience would take in this information and appreciate that it's there. Peaky Blinders gratifies it's audience with entrainment and escapism, they do this with their usage of highly concentrated cinematography, a number of scenes within Peaky Blinders have been so highly edited and so thought out that they don't seem real, an example of this is the scene where there is a confrontation and fight with the Lea Family, there are a number of different shots and camera angles used within the scene however it's not as face paced as it may seen, it's completely slowed down and there is no diegetic sound whatsoever, only music, this lacks a sense of realism and enables the audience to escape within the text.
Thursday, 6 February 2014
How does Peaky Blinders attract it's audience?
Peaky Blinders is a crime drama set in Birmingham in 1919 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, intellectually and culturally rich texts.
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 good quality cinematography. Within the first two minutes of Episode 2 there is a fight scene between The Lea Family and the Peaky Blinders, the whole scene consists of no dietetic sound whatsoever, and it was all in slow motion with numerous clips used, this was all done to emphasise the scene and get the audience to look at 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..
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 good quality cinematography. Within the first two minutes of Episode 2 there is a fight scene between The Lea Family and the Peaky Blinders, the whole scene consists of no dietetic sound whatsoever, and it was all in slow motion with numerous clips used, this was all done to emphasise the scene and get the audience to look at 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..
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Explore the different ways in which audiences and/or users respond to your chosen texts
AMC's and Matthew Weiners critically acclaimed Mad Men is a niche text targeting an active audience, which is not encoded to gratify a mainstream audience. As Mad Men goes against typical mainstream conventions, the audience has responded in a numerous ways.
The audience of Mad Men have responded via social networking sites, Charlie Collier, the president of AMC mentioned how they brought out a game in which you could go make an avatar based on Mad Men and then share it on a social networking site where others could see their avatars, and of course, the name of the show. There are also other games such as 'the personality test', this enables the audience to connect more with the show and compare themselves with other Mad Men.
The audience of Mad Men have responded via social networking sites, Charlie Collier, the president of AMC mentioned how they brought out a game in which you could go make an avatar based on Mad Men and then share it on a social networking site where others could see their avatars, and of course, the name of the show. There are also other games such as 'the personality test', this enables the audience to connect more with the show and compare themselves with other Mad Men.
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