Theories

In order to put a message across to the audience and present them with concepts to consider, we need to think about what the audience is expecting, and how they will interpret our film opening:

Uses and Gratifications-Reseachers have come up with the idea that different individuals might use media for a number of purposes:

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg substituting soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

Therefore we want our film opening to provide some of those purposes to entice more viewers, for example present realistic relationship problems/situations(as we are making a romance) and different types of solutions-this could count as diversion, personal relationships or personal identity

Reception Theory- In the 1980s and 1990s research was done on the way different people received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. The research was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there can be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and therefore create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.


This means that we need take a look at what certain types of clothing, items and locations mean to the general audience to make sure our message is not completely misinterpreted