Eleanor N - A level Media blog

  Intertextuality- The shaping of a text's meaning, by another text. Set in the 1980's, Stranger Thing's makes plently of intertextual references to a range of texts from this era, such as Stephen King novels and the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons- the game being played in the opening scene. The drama makes reference to past films, Steven Spielburg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) for example, with the camera panning down from the sky emulating the opening of E.T. What connects these cultural texts are the genres of horror and science fiction. This connection or reference to genre in episode 1 of Stranger Things provides familiarity and a starting point for audience interest and engagement. The success of stranger things, in part, is due to the narrative pacing of its events. The Duffer Brother's made successful movies in Hollywood, but the biggest challenge for them with LFTVD was how to tell a cinematic story over eight hours rather than two. The Duffer Brot...

Key scene - going to school This scene starts with a montage of establishing shots, positioning the audience in a typical US high school in the mid-1980's. This opening montage makes heavy use of referential codes, playing off the knowledge that the audience has of 80's teen movies. The use of natural, warm lighting may provide gratifications of escapism for UK viewers, a country not known for its good weather. After an initial tracking shot, the camera settles on the iconographic BMX bikes of the younger teenage protagonists. The low angle shot positions us as somebody much smaller and younger, and provides the escapism of nostalgia for the older target audience. Stranger Things  is not all about nostalgia, and many of the themes of the show focus on the issues affecting young people. The young, teenage protagonists meet a group of older children who begin to bully them. The us...

Audience- the reaction to the text and what happens after. It includes messages and how they are communicated to different groups of people differently. What is the effect of Nostalgia? It makes people feel more socially connected to others. This then boosts the positivity of people's feelings about themselves. Nostalgia marketing: • There’s a lot that can be taken away from the wild success of Stranger Things and the nostalgic  products and entertainment that have emerged over the past few years. • A study conducted by the Journal of Consumer Research discovered, people actually spend more money when they are feeling nostalgic . Because of this, there's been an increasingly popular trend among smart brands to engage in what is now called: 'nostalgia marketing'. Millennial Pull: The millennial generation represnts 20% of US population and have an annual buying income of $200 billion.  The series revived a plethora of nostalg ic memories, especially of 80...

The first episode of Stranger Things was written and directed by the Duffer Brothers and streamed on Netflix in July 2016. All 8 episodes were released in the summer and were potentially aimed at younger audiences. The series was produced by 21 laps and released as an Netflix original series, Netflix having sole distribution rights. Audience Stranger Things is a long form television drama marketed by a successful online campaign employing traditional film marketing techniques, that is promoting genre, stars, writers etc using new media technology. The marketing of the series relied on word of mouth and the following methods to make its release visible to Netflix's online subscribers and to a targeted range of viewers: A four hour live twitch stream with promoted players playing games in the studio build of the stranger things basement A cinematic trailer of the first 8 minutes an interactive VR 360 degree video of the basement set Dedicated twitter, Facebook and Instagram ...

The idea of a village being safer for kids than a city has been the ideal message for many years, however, a place is only seen as safe when compared to one that is unsafe. .  If population size is the determining factor of safety,  Alaska has a higher murder rate than New York City,the assumption that Americans who live in certain places are inherently kinder and better people than those who live elsewhere. Storytellers of the Gothic tempt us with the single-minded idea of small town goodness but underneath there is something sinister about it- letting us believe that a typical american high school seems innocent to be invaded by the bad, rendering the community's fear of anyone who looks or seems different than them. The cast said that stranger things season 2 is much more darker and will draw more from horror movie sources. Nightmare on Elm street and Halloween are both social critiques of neighborly small communities whereas Grem...

Theorists: Semiology- Barthes meaning is communicated through signs which are made up of the signifer (the thing itself) and the signified (the meaning). The process depends on the connotations of the sign. These signs may neutralise dominant values and ideologies. ST- to introduce hopper, the signs they use are a police badge, gun and uniform which all communicate meanings in relation to the character but they also suggest values and messages around power and masculinity. Power  without responsibility- Curran and Seaton Powerful media institutions have the power to send out messages to make us think in a particular way TK- women can be just as good as men in the same job ST-crazy people are actually telling the truth and police are lazy until forced to do something Cultural industries- Hesmondhalgh producing a media product in the industry is a huge risk because it is difficult to measure success, expensive, low reproduction costs Cultural industries ...

Cast: largely unknown cast with two exceptions (to get a larger following): Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine This is so that people can't judge them and its cheaper Marketing: Series of methods above-the-line: normal advertiisng/ posters/trailers below-the-line: different/ fan pages/talk shows Above the line: trailer-2016 posted first 8 mins on youtube; millions of users, can like and share it, 24/7 access social media accounts- cross media Below the line: twitch stream snapchat filter fan art performed at Emmys 2016 Made up a fake news report Kelloggs eggos

Key facts for industry: first series aired on Netflix in mid 2016 only 8 episodes Written and directed by the duffer brothers, matt and ross Duffer Brothers: Always loved film relatively recent in their output The idea: influenced by cold war experiments supernatural that feels real or believeable. Production and distribution: produced by 21 laps original netflix series Netflix are notoriousley cagey about viewing figures https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/netflix-2020-content-spending-17-billion-1203469237/ estimated $17.3 billion will be spent on content in 2020 competitiors like Disney plus on netflix's subscriptions will be 'manageable'- blackledge said making more originals and shows- vertical integration Why Netflix? Dont have a limit on how long a show is- broadcasters do Duffer Brothers said 8 episodes is perfect length to tell a story Netflix is known for its packing and binge-ability If DB went to BBC then they ...

What does genre mean? Type of media forms/products It has conventions that will make it a certain genre (things that make up a genre) How many genres can you identify in stranger things? Why might this be appealing? Love story/ Buddy/ coming of age/ thriller, sci-fi It helps attract a wider audience as they will find genres they like in Stranger Things as it has a mix of genres Its important for Netflix as viewers are paying for it and its very genre platform driven. Stranger things works in multiple genres. It is about genre, rather than belonging to a genre. Intertextuality: -The shaping of a texts meaning through another text. https://vimeo.com/175929311 https://youtube.com/watch?v=AwTpsw-ufDA%feature=youtu.be VS                                             Steve Neale - genre theory

Primary Audience: Gender- neutral (slightly more men) Age- 15-37 year olds Interests- LFTVD/sci-fi's/ 80's nostalgia Socio-economic status- A-E Secondary Audience: people who enjoy sci-fi's  people who enjoy retro games people who enjoy spielberg films people who enjoy 80's novels (stephen king) people who enjoy 80's horrors Reception Theory (Stuart Hall) - media texts are encoded and decoded. The producer encodes messages and value into their media texts and the audience decodes it. -Dominant(preferred): audience agreed with the messages in the text -Negotiated- neither agrees or disagrees. It accepts the producers views but also has their own views. Oppositional- when the audience rejects the preferred reading. Fandom: The series has a strong, online fan base Fans often create negotiated readings of the text Fans as textual poachers - selecting part of the text that appeal to them, and using them as part of their 'we-media...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/audio/2019/nov/25/the-rise-of-netflix-an-empire-built-on-debt "Gone from a 'joke' company to the 'superpower' of the world" 1997: Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings was inspired when they wanted to find a way to rent entertianment without worrying to take it back to the shop like blockbusters Came up with an idea of a postal rental service (order dvds online and send it back) 2000: tried to do a meeting with blockbuster but they just ignored them as they were much bigger than Netflix  2013: Wanted to make their own content= start of house of cards (when they started to grab peoples attention) Some people said they copied from BBC's content however Netflix realised they could find out viewers interests and how many times they watched a show and then remade a better version Netflix wanted to bring the emersive reading experience to viewing- how they got to box sets- monopoly Netflix decided they wanted to do high end...

What was America like in the 1980's? cultural contexts of the 80's: Pac man and video games Goonies, ghostbusters, ET, star-wars coca cola new styles MTV superheros aliens space arcade Technology entertainment health and fitness 80's was known for being a 'all about me' decade and people enjoying themselves what was the amotsphere like in 1980's USA? Rise of yuppie culture(young, well educated, wealthy indidviduals) cable goes mainstream (special tv programmes like mtv) spread of HIV/AIDS developments in the space programme war on drugs - crack (cocaine) tense relations with Iran 1981 tax cut and regimonics electronic invasions (nintendo) pollution persists cold war ends, concern shifts to china