The Uses and Gratifications theory

The Uses and Gratifications theory (1959) focuses on the fact that audiences use media to explore their own feelings, emotions and mind, E.Katz; one of theorists believed that this theory shows “what people do with media” as opposed to “what media does to people”.

The theory is split into five different sections, Identification, Catharsis, Surveillance, Escapism and Social.
Identification is using media to find parts of our identity by either exploring others identity shown in media or by exploring parts of our identity to make understanding of ourselves. For example some teenagers will watch The Only Way is Essex to explore other people’s way of life, however then this will become a part of their identity by using their words or dressing like them.
Catharsis is to feel strong emotions, this is often used with horror movies such as Saw, people watch it to experience extreme fear or adrenaline.
Surveillance is to “make sense of the world”; primarily think the news would help with this as it gives us fact about our surrounding world however reality television programmes' and documentaries help us understand people’s real lives.
Escapism is probably the most well known section of this theory, it is the idea of pure entertainment and to forget about things around you, most people agree that the best form of escapism is in a fantasy novel as it is completely different from the world and we can get lost in the story.
Social is the part of the theory that believes that people use media only to socialize and to feel a part of a group, an example of this at the moment would be Xfactor as people use it as a part of socializing.

Our trailer will show a rebelling teenager, this therefore there will be multiple reactions to it, the audience could identify with the wanting to rebel however some will use it as escapism as their life will be completely different.

Character summary

Protagonist: Male, 17, mother dies suddenly in a car crash causing his dad to go into serious depression. When he is going through his mums belongings he discovers her past of growing up as a mod, consequently leading him into a severe obsession with the Mods and Rockers era. His lifestyle changes dramatically revolving around his new, unhealthy obsession that leads him into a new group of friends but also into drugs and paranoia. The medias representation of teenage boys reflects in our depiction of our protagonist, television shows such as Skins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC6zFBji_vQ) show teenagers to be drug abusers, obsessive and selfish. However we will try to challenge part of the stereotype as normally the rebelling teenagers have nothing wrong and they are lashing out at nothing however we see that our main character has developed the obsession after a severe trauma. throughout different films and television programmes when a teenagers are involved the lighting is high key and bright, the props are normally alcohol bottles, cluttered rubbish and the soundtrack is normally loud, we will use all of this in our trailer. 

Father: Become depressed and neglects his son after his wife dies. We studied the film “The Hours” to understand how the media portrays depression as many books and documentaries present it as an intensely private affliction, but its effects are much more widespread and we feel the film shows this. The film shows inability  to do simple things such as bake cakes or look after children properly. Low key lighting and quite music was udes and no quick edits this was too create the effect of a slow, dim moving life. we wil use these techniques while editing and filming with the dad.

 

Soundtrack

Fluoxetine has an underlying theme of mods and rockers therefore our soundtrack will need to reflect the era. This track has a happy beat over a slow tempo which we feel would be perfect for our trailer, aswell as this the music is not copyrighted so we can use it with the owners permission.
http://soundcloud.com/rndmbts/60s-rock

At the beginning of our trailer the waves from the sea will be featured therefore these sounds effects will be used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF05Q9CVi0I

Actor choices for the main protagonist

So far we have looked at  guys to play our main part and the part of his friends, the actors range from the age 17 to 18 so are more relatable to the audience. We are looking at these two particular boys as they are all normal boys about to go to university, consequently they will mirror our character well.

Age: 17

Age: 17

Harry Littlefield

Current Representations of the 60's

Volkswagen Beetle 60s inspired campaign

The Volkswagen Beetle advertisement campaign has clearly been inspired by the 1960's era. They have used images of a 60's girl next to a beetle, the mod circle and a 60's look poster. This allows the audience to visualize the 60’s and shows how influential the era was. By using this era Volkswagen Beetle is attempting to create a ‘timeless’ look for their car showing how it has evolved over time but was initially for this period. 

Article from Boohoo Stylefix 

 “Mod Life- The ever popular era, the 1960s is back. Taking inspiration from the 60s librarians, Anna Sui, teamed checks in blue with skirts and jackets creating preppy looks. Clean lines at Marni reminiscent of Vidal Sassoon, with bold blocks of colour and hints of hounds-tooth seen across catwalks. Acne went for a more laid back, mod style, which is set to be THE way to wear the trend, whilst Dsquared opted for Elizabeth Taylor style glamour.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdjbvC3pjBI

Article from Style magazine

This is an article about mod fashion and how it is becoming increasingly popular again. The article also gives examples of inspirational people from that era. The article is closely related to our trailer because we are using the current time period but incorporating characters still fascinated and influenced by the mod era.

Black and White

Increased Brightness and Contrast

Increased Contrast

Original Image

Increased Brightness

To the enhance the effectiveness of using monochrome filters in our trailer we tried out different ways of doing this.

Contrast: Increasing the contrast emphasizes the gap between bright and dark, it makes the image more defined and decreases the greyness. This makes the image look less dull and can draw attention to a certain aspect of it. A low contrast, with less range in the brightness, may convey serenity and harmony.

Brightness: By increasing the brightness it creates focus on the girl rather than the background. However, in doing this we have lost some of the contrast in the image.