APPLYING APPLYING THEORYTHEORY IN IN EXAM/COURSEWORK: AEXAM/COURSEWORK: A

HITLISTHITLISTTHE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THEORIES YOU CAN USE IN YOUR EXAM AND COURSEWORK. FURTHER DETAILS ON EACH CAN BE FOUND ON HANDOUTS, CLASS NOTES, DB BLOGS, or GOOGLING IF NEED BE! THESE HELP RAISE YOUR ‘explanation, analysis, argument’ + ‘terminology’ FOR THE EXAM AND ‘communication’ FOR THE COURSEWORK

INDUSTRY CONVENTIONS/PRACTICEGANT RULE

VERTICAL or HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION

LONG TAIL THEORY (CHRIS ANDERSON 2004)

BIG 6 (Lionsgate leading some to switch to ‘big 7’)

TENTPOLE STRATEGY

AUTEUR THEORY

PRODUCT PLACEMENT, TIE-INS

RICHARD DYER STAR SYSTEM

WEB 2.0(LONG TAIL)

Tim O’Reilly (coined term web 2.0, 2004)

Dan Gillmor (“the former audience” v “Big Media dinosaurs”, 2004)

Henry Jenkins (Convergence Culture, 2006)

David Gauntlett (media 2.0 (2007) + “the end of audience studies” in The Make & Connect Agenda (2011))

John McMuria (global village meme is a myth: US corporate dominance: YouTube (2006))

AUDIENCEStuart Hall’s readings also relevant here

BRIGID CHERRY (2010) user-generated content extends the film text; online communities blurring audience/producer divide (used eg of Scream scripts at fanfiction.net)

NARRATIVE THEORIESTIM O’SULLIVAN (1998) argues that all media texts tell us some kind of story.

TODOROV’S NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: equilibrium, dis-equilibrium, recognition, action, new equilibrium

PROPP’s 8 character archetypes or plot elements

BARTHES’ NARRATIVE ENIGMA

LEVI-STRAUSS’ BINARY OPPOSITIONS

RICHARD NOWELL (Blood Money, 2011): mixing up order of seven key plot points creates difference between otherwise repetitive slashers

According to Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

1. Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.

2. A high degree of narrative closure.

3. A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.

Jay McRoy (writing in “Horror Zone” (2010)), argues that horror films, despite their subversive reputation, fulfil a conservative function (think hegemonyhegemony: maintaining the social order); ultimately the antagonist, who deviates in some key ways (often sexual) from the social norms, is vanquished and the good, heterosexual (often virginal) protagonist triumphs. Was this your intention for your full 90min feature?SEMIOTICSCOMMUTATION TEST

ALL SEMIOTIC TERMS

STUART HALL’S THEORY OF READINGS (preferred, negotiated, oppositional: depends as much on audience as producer)

TESSA PERKINS: stereotypes aren’t always negative (French as great cooks), or about minority groups (upper class twits), or fake, or rigid and unchanging

HEGEMONY (GRAMSCI) also argues that power is wielded through cultural control, BUT there is a constant struggle to control and define cultural perceptions. To argue against anything accepted as common sense is counter-hegemonic.

NORMATIVE: standard representations (eg couples are heterosexual, not homosexual) shape reality and cultural attitudes, creating and defining THE OTHER as deviant (in this example, homosexuals)

POSTMODERNISMBAUDRILLARD: SIMULACRA (films etc create representations of reality, but there is no ultimate reality: just an endless chain of signifiers, as we base representations on previous representations!)

INTERTEXTUALITY, eg STRINATI (1995)

FEMINIST CRITIQUESBECHDEL TEST: have 2 women, named, who speak about something other than men/boys?

LAURA MULVEY: MALE GAZE (objectification)

(counter-critique to Mulvey) CAROLE CLOVER: FINAL GIRL as hero/protagonist of slashers

JOHN BERGER (1972) “Men act and women appear.” “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” “Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator.”

GENREConsider the usefulness of redundancy, especially with reference to aud/genre. Bellour developed a point, not quite on this but on a linked idea (which also nicely builds on Pam Cook’s work):

‘His … concept is that narrative consists of a play of difference and sameness. Although it might seem that difference is dominant, with continual changes of content through new events, characters, words spoken, and of form through framing, lighting, camera angle and most obviously the succession of shots, the lasting impression given by all successful narratives is one of cohesion and coherence.’ (Lapsley & Westlake, Film Theory: An Introduction, 1988: 176) =====

JUDITH BUTLER’S PERFORMATIVITY OF GENDER