Audience Theory For Frankenweenie and Starred Up

Frankenweenie

The type of audience Frankenweenie would have is a passive audience which means that the audience just accept the media message given to them without a second thought and they are easily influenced by the film. This is why Disney's audience is more susceptible to The Hypodermic Needle Model. From watching this film however I feel that Disney were not trying to inject any message to their audience, there were no characters of another race apart from white and one oriental character but I didn't feel there were trying to suggest anything regarding race. As I was watching it I thought a possible message that was going to be sent was that when a loved one dies the best thing is to move on and not grieve for too long but in the end they brought the dog back to life a second time so that contradicts what I thought the message was going to be.

Uses and Gratifications

Entertainment/Escapism: It is an enjoyable film to watch and creates a world where people can be reunited with loved ones they may have lost. It is also fun to see this more family friendly take on Frankenstein

Information/Surveillance: It teaches people a little bit of science from the lessons in class about how the muscles still respond to electricity.

Social Relationships: The media text can replace social life as the audience may feel attached to the characters and it may also be a part of social life as it may an event film for people who are fans of Frankenstein wanting to go see this can see it together and talk about it.

Personal Identity: People watching it may feel similarities between themselves and the main character 'Victor' as they may have felt isolated as a child, or had a childhood pet they loved and may have lost so they they can see themselves within Victor.

Hall's Preferred Reading

The preferred reading that Disney would like the audience to take is that this is a family comedy film with some elements of drama but overall fun and light-hearted to watch, a negotiated reading someone might take is that this is a film that is aimed at families but is much too morbid for a younger audience as it deal with death, the oppositional reading is for someone to think that this film is a Horror and are scared while watching this.

Cultural Commonality

Cultural Commonality is how the audience understands meaning in a text, and links to any cultural similarities between them and the creator of the media text as the creator will produce texts which represent their lives and experiences so if they share a cultural commonality the audience will understand certain things in the film better. We can see that from Tim Burton's other films he had a sense of isolation while growing up and lived in a suburban town in america, so people who also had these things will growing up would understand certain things in the film more. Not growing up in a suburban town may make it less enjoyable for the audience as the reason shows like The Inbetweeners is so popular is because many people can relate to the characters and see themselves in one character and place their friend as another so possibly people from the sub-urbs may have been able to do this with who they were and the people they lived in the same neighbourhood with.

Starred Up

Starred Up would have a much more mature and active audience, an audience who would be much more involved with their interpretation of the media text, they may create their own meaning and they will question and respond to institutions. This means they are less likely to fall victim to The Hypodermic Needle Model Theory and will not be easily influenced by the institution and will stick by their own views they had previously watching this film in most cases.

Uses and Gratifications

Entertainment/Escapism: The media text is enjoyable to watch but it is not an escape as it is a very heavy-hearted film.

Information/Surveillance: This film is set in a prison so it can give people a good understanding of what a prison is like, what life is like for the prisoners and what type of people the prisoners and staff may be.

Social Relationships: As this film has an active audience they would most likely want to discuss the film and some of the controversial issues dealt with in the film.

Personal Identity: Many prisoners or ex-prisoners will be able to relate to this film as it is about prison life.

Hall's Preferred Readings

The Preferred reading the institution want the audience to take is to feel sympathy for Jack O'Connell's character and hope he do his time in prison and turn his life around, they also want the audience to understand and sympathise with the fathers actions during the film as he is only looking out and trying to protect his son.They would also be against the actions of the prison warden and the other guards The negotiated reading that could be taken is that they dislike the main character and think that the warden should do everything in his power to stop Jack's character from ever being on the streets again even killing him. The oppositional reading is if the audience thought that Jack's character was innocent and has been falsely imprisoned.

Cultural Commonality

The screenwriter for this film Jonathan Asser was a prisoner therapist and so most likely based this film on a true events in which he encountered during his time as a prisoner therapist. So becuase he has actually spent time within a prison people who haven't may not understand or interpret them the way Asser intended them to. It would however, allow other therapists or people interested in psychology to look at this film in an analytical way.