Reception Theory

This is an extension of uses and gratification theory and is based on the idea that no text has one single meaning; however producers of the film have a preferred reading. The way we interpret a texts meaning is dependent on factors such as upbringing, age, location, company and the mood we are in, or a combination of these and other factors. Reception theorists suggest factors such as gender, social status, and social context are very important when we construct a meaning for a text.

This will be relevant as the audience can interpret the trailer in many different ways as there are going to be no zombies within the trailer but my group and I know that civilisation has crumbled and that they are fighting for their lives.

Narrative Theory

Narrative theory examines the way in which storytelling frames the content and the meaning of media messages. Narrative theory holds the story telling process and is used in factual as well as fiction media. This theory explores the features that govern the stories produced by the media. Propp referred to the 8 character functions and/or the 31 devices. Todorov argues that the narrative is about the disruption of equilibrium and the consequences of that disruption for a range of characters until a new equilibrium is established.

We will incorporate this theory into our piece as we would like to give each character a role, such as James as the Hero, Jonah as the helper and Anna as the reward. This will match the 8 roles of Propp. The narrative will be about the disruption of the fact civilisation has in fact crumbled and focus on the consequences such as fighting for human existence.

Users and Gratification Theory

This theory assumes that the audience actually seeks out texts for the following reasons:

·         Diversion (escapism)

·         Personal relationships

·         Personal Identity

·         Surveillance

This theory can be used as the characters are using the media for an emotional interaction with the audience. The personal identity is following the fashion of modern society as Anna is wearing a pink lipsy tracksuit which is popular with the age group. The surveillance is providing and gathering the audience with the right information that they need to understand what is going on within the movie trailer.

We need to have a meeting!

It has come to our attention that we realistically have trouble with one of the characters. The intention of having a child character, Amelia/Jake, within our trailer is no longer an option. As we intended on having an 8 year old infant character within our trailer, realistically we cannot follow through with that idea. We will need to use him for filming of which we will need a lot of commitment of which we need parental consent, we feel, as a group, that a child would be a hindrance rather than a help. So for this reason we have decided to scrap that character and continue with James Greenwood, Jonah, Katie and Anna.

Photo Time

Below is a selection of the character shot photos that my group have taken. We have used all the conventions that we learnt from the evaluation of existing photos that match our genre, but are also trying to match the codes and conventions. We have taken the character chots against green screen of which will allow us to edit the photos within Photoshop.