- definition
- argument
- context
Paragraphs
- point
- evidence
- argument
Definition Argument
Context
Audience is an essential aspect of producing a media
product for producers of all kinds. It is a way for producers to target each
product at certain consumers with specific beliefs, ideologies and interests. Audience
targeting is significant in the media as without an audience there is no consumption
of the media texts produced. Audiences are targeted through thing such as
genre, and sub-genre. These are identified through conventions within the
genres. This product advertising for Les Revenants targets its audience through
the use of a more complex fluid technique called genre hybridity, where the
text embodies a range of genres that appeal to a wide target audience of
different interest in different genres. I will be exploring how the text
constructs its audience through the use of genre hybridity and polysemy. Typically
the advert uses things such as genre conventions, representation, narrative
codes, and technical codes to do so.
Point Evidence
Argument
The advert is encoded
with recognisable genre conventions for audiences to decode the multiple genres
categorized within the product. Arguably the
text reflects both horror and thriller genre conventions, it is an enigmatic
drama that makes references to both French poetic realism and the avant-garde,
as well as embodying iconography and paradigmatic features from the 'zombie'
genre.
From the beginning we are introduced by the camera moving
through the house there is a mid-shot of a butterfly, seemingly dead, breaking
through the glass from which it is kept, reflecting paradigms from the
supernatural/zombie genre. This opening uses hermeneutic code and is very
polysemic, encompassing multiple meaning (of life and death) and genres. Tense
music throughout the advert is accompanied by flashing camera editing work of a
bus crash. The complex editing could reflect the character driven narrative and
implies that it is non-linear; targeting an audience who perhaps enjoy being
challenged and ambiguous meaning. While the Mogwai, Scottish post-rock band
music, using moody instrumentals also target a small cult following audience of
an unpopular genre of music. Additionally the bus crash, along with shots of
the murder stabbing in the dark alleyway represent the gory horror aspect of
Les Revenants, which appeal to a whole other range of audiences with different
interests.
Methods of multiple meanings and genre hybridity have
constructed Les Revenants audience in a multi-layered way. Producers have
wanted to use genre as a tool to target a complex type of audience. According
to the theory of reception, audiences will have a dominant, negotiated or
oppositional reading and impression of the product due to the adverts approach.
Audiences attracted to the niche, horror, French poetic realism style product
will consequently seek to follow the show and be part of the ‘cult’ following,
the type of audience that undertake fan fiction.
