Hi it Andre again and for the fifth and final vlog I will be talking about how the audience theories, Representation, Legal and Ethical and the Roles of Regulatory bodies of film affect the audience.
Audience theory:
There are two schools of thought that discuss how the media has an effect of the audience, the first one is called Hypodermic syringe (Theodore Adorno, 1930’s). Adorno stated that the media is so powerful that the audience has no power of their thoughts and they believe everything that they hear from the media. This is what is called a passive audience. One of the main problems with type of school of thought is that this can lead to ‘Copycat crime’ which has a negative impact on the audience. Copycat crime is where people copy the violence that they have witnessed in the media, this can cause a moral panic. Within Four Lions there are many examples of violence they may seem appealing for naïve people to want to copy, one example of this is when group are blowing up chunks of gunpowder. One of the main reasons why certain people may wan to try this is partly down to the film producers, the techniques that they use on the film make a lot of the stunts seem very amusing and not as dangerous as it would be in reality.
The other school of thought came from Gauntlett 2002. He stated that people are able to filter and adapt to what is put out in the media. This has a positive impact on the audience as it reduces the amount of copycat crime. This is what is called an active audience. Personally I think that the two schools of thought depends on the lifestyle and the age of the audience. Because Four Lions was aimed at people who were 15 and over, the audience was mature enough to be able to adapt and filter out anything that they had seen in the film.
Issues of representation:
One of the main issues representations that is shown in Four Lions is centred around Muslims and their Jihad. Ever since the terrorist attacks that happened on the twin tower buildings on the 11th September, one of the main stereotypes that had developed from this was that all Muslims take part in Jihad. This type of stereotype has a negative impact on society and to all Muslims as it creates a conflict between people who are Muslims against the people who aren’t. One of the other representations that are displayed in the film is gender. In the media today there are many stereotypes of men, some of these are ‘The Joker’, ‘The Jock’, The Strong Silent Type’, The Big Shot’, ‘The Action Hero’ and ‘The Buffoon’. The men in Four Lions are portrayed as ‘The Buffoon’, although appear to see themselves as being brave and strong they range from being slightly inept to being completely hopeless even when it comes to doing simple things.
Legal and Ethical issues:
One of the main ethical issues of this film is that the world had become very sensitive about the topic of terrorism since the bombings on the twin tower buildings on the 11th September, and Britain was in shock after the London bombings that took place on the 7th July. Whilst the film was in production the project was rejected by both the BBC and Channel 4 as it was too controversial to show on T.V. However the nature of the film did not scare away people of the British public, fans had donated between £25 to £100 each to the production costs of the film and as a return Christopher Morris would have them appear as extras. To make sure that they weren’t going to offend many Muslims the director had sent a script to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg. Begg had replied saying that he had found nothing in the script that would be offensive to British Muslims. When the film was completed Begg was given a special screening and he stated that he had enjoyed the film.
One of the main things that film producers worry about now is ‘copyright infringement’, copyright infringement occurs when the copyright owners rights are violated. Although this is a worry for a lot of film producers this doesn’t really have a massive impact of them especially those who are part of a big film company like ‘Universal studios’ and ‘Warner Bros’. Pictures. However for film companies like warp films this has a massive impact on them. One example of this is when people use illegal streaming sites to watch the film, this reduces the amount of money a film can make as people choose to watch it on these sites for free. Since independent film companies only make a small amount of money from their films, the losses that they make from things like illegal streaming of their films has a massive impact on the company.
Regulatory bodies:
There are two types of regulatory bodies that set out standards for what can be shown in a film that is directed to a particular audience, these are:
· BBFC
· ASA
The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), is a non funded governmental organisation which was founded by the film industry and is now responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the UK. The BBFC has six different classifications types that they use on all of the films in the UK, these are:
· U - Suitable for all
· PG – Parental Guidance
· 12A – Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over
· 12 – Video release suitable for 12 years and over
· 15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over
· 18 – Suitable for only adults.
As well as regulating the films that are made in the UK they also regulate any of the film that come over from the US. This is because the regulating bodies that are in the UK are different to the ones that are in the US. Legally the US rating system is entirely voluntary, no film maker is forced to submit a film to the board for rating but many of them do so anyway. The US rating board is not associated with the US government, and its film ratings have no legal meaning.
It is important that the BBFC’c classification standards are in line with what the public expects and that its decisions take in account of what the public finds acceptable at each age category. Therefore every 4-5 years they will carry out a major public consultation exercise to find out what the public thinks about the age rating of films and videos before they are released and whether the BBFC’s classification standards meets the public concerns. Four Lions The ASA (Advertising standards authority) is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media, they are not funded by the British government but by the taxes on the advertising industry.
Its purpose it to regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK by looking at all the complaints that they have received about ads and sales promotions. They then decide whether such advertising complies with its advertising standards codes. Here are all of the codes that relate to advertising in the UK. The poster of the film Four Lions does stay to the guidelines that the ASA put out, the poster comes under ’04 Harm and Offence’. The rules under harm and offence ensure that the ads do not cause harm or serious widespread offence to the public, this includes rules relating to shock tactics and unsafe practises.
No comments:
Post a Comment