USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY

Uses and gratification theory suggests that an audience will actively seek out media they wish to consume, based on certain criteria – the audience is active, not passive​

What they wish to consume is based on 4 specific gratifications:​

• Escapism​
• Personal Identity​
• Personal relationships​
• Information​

Conglomerates aim for 4 quadrant audiences, so aim to fulfil as many of these as possible in their productions​

Indie productions on the other hand, do not always aim to gratify the audience as much, so only some of these will be fulfilled​

This isn't to say that the audience is not viewed as active, only that smaller audience will find appeal in indie productions​

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Uses and Gratifications Applied - Jurassic World from harriet Barlow

Uses and Gratifications Applied - Tyrannosaur from harriet Barlow

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4 QUADRANT THEORY

Conglomerates

• The Big Six conglomerates of the film industry have managed to almost monopolize the market, as most of their films target a 4 quadrant audience​.

• In the last 8 years, almost every single highest grossing film of the year was produced by one of the Big Six, and didn't have a BBFC rating above 12​.

• Because they use the tentpole strategy (their films cost $100m+) there is a massive financial risk, as if only a few of their films are flops, their entire company fails​.

Conglomerates therefore tackle a 4 quadrant audience


Indies

• Indie films have less of a financial risk when making their films, as not only are budgets lower, so they do not have to make as much money to make profits, but they also receive government funding in the form of grants, which they do not have to pay back​

• Because they do not use the tentpole strategy, they can make films which appeal to niche, or smaller audiences​
• The most expensive Warp film was still only £8.1m ('71)​

• But, audiences still get missed out on because they do not have the budget to market their films​
• The BBFC plays a big role in this issue​

Indie films can therefore target niche audiences with their films, as they are not usually such big financial risks.
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STUART HALL theory of readings

Reception theory

It was suggested by Stuart Hall that a producer encodes specific meaning into a text, and the audience decodes it (preferably) in the way the creator intended. If the audience does not decode the text in the way intended, their reading is not inherently wrong - different audiences react differently based on who they are.

Some audiences may not be able to decode some texts based on things like cultural background, gender, age etc.

Different audiences pick up on different levels of reading:

• Preferred reading
• the audience is able to understand the text in the way the creator intended
• Negotiated reading
• the audience is able to understand some of the text, but not all of it
• Oppositional reading
• the audience rejects the intended meaning and creates their own, maybe because they disagree with the content, or they are not able to understand the text (it is not accessible to them)

If a text has multiple possible meanings, it is polysemic

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WEB 2.0

Web 2.0 describes how the internet has become driven by users, converging the line between producer and consumer. An example of this is user-generated content, like the fan-art that was made for the Cornetto Trilogy, or the poster for Hinterland which was also fan-made. This web 2.0 theoretically allow indies more of a chance at achieving successful distribution online, by setting up twitters, instagrams and being able to engage with audiences directly.

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