1. The Hypodermic Needle Theory
Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. As you can see from the diagram, this theory suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway populaces to their way of thinking. Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers.
2. Two-Step Flow
As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts.
3. Uses & Gratifications
Throughout time, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.
In 1970, Halloran said, "We must get away from the habit of thinking in terms of what the media do to people and substitute for it the idea of what people do with the media." In other words, the consumer now has a say in what they want from the media.
C. Wright Mill decided the four functions of the media for the audience are:
- To give individuals identity
- To give people aspiration
- To give people instruction
- To give people a form of escapism
Researchers Blumler and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes (ie uses and gratifications):
- Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
- Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life
- Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
- Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains
4. Reception Theory
Extending the concept of an active audience still further, in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.
When considering these theories, I will make sure I use recognised codes and conventions in my music video to grab my audience's attention. I know now that the codes I use will be interpreted differently, so I am expecting a mixture of opinions when my product is completed. I will also make sure I get audience feedback throughout the process so that I can give my target audience a product that they want.
We are now starting to think about what our protagonists will be wearing when we are shooting. Considering that our USP (Unique Selling Point) is telling a classic 'boy meets girl' story, with a kooky and quirky vibe, we must ensure that the costume follows this trend. When looking at previous films that we take inspiration from, and in this case [500] Days Of Summer, you can see that the costumes connote cute, originality and indie. 
I really like the idea of hanging threads of photographs, so me and Rach are very happy we found this video! It relates to the previous post about the connotations of photographs, and creating memories. This has given us the green light to use photos as a visual motif, as this video is successful. The tone has also shifted as it is now brighter, and in higher contrast.
This has inspired us to use the beach as a key location. It connotes romance and natural love, something that we want to portray. The clothing and makeup is very neutral, and this had made us think about our costume in advance. The proxemics of the shot clearly demonstrate the romance between the couple as she is laughing - connoting happiness, and he has his arms around her.
I noticed a darkened haze framing the shot. We liked this idea, as it gives the impression of a fairytale story. We will experiment with this during the editing process. The female's dress is white, and she has a flower in her hair, connoting innocence and purity - we want to create a similar image to this, thus we will experiment with various costumes. Interestingly, the male is dressed in black and has a tattoo on his forearm, contrasting with her delicate portrayal. We like the location shot again, especially the sea in the background connoting peace and harmony. 
Me and Rach really liked this shot! The use of lighting is really effective, creating a silhouette of the happy couple. We find this shot to be a powerful shot because it's so simple, yet riddled with hidden meaning. If it is possible to explore lighting when we are shooting we would like to try this out.
This shows the unity of the couple, and we realise that love is growing. We also understand the importance of non-verbal communication between the actors as this screen shot itself tells a story.
This clearly demonstrates the genre of romance, with the ring and the touching of the hands being obvious signifiers. Hands, again could be a recurring visual motif, because of the meaning it holds: love. Rather than a ring, we are thinking of using a necklace as a prop to symbolise the couples' love, so when it is taken off the love that they once shared is over.
We are planning to have many over the shoulder shots, as they give the audience a POV perspective, so they can empathise more with the charaters.
Here we see tones of blue, connoting sadness. These shots are also edited to be in slow motion, which is an extended metaphor for a relationship slowing down, and coming to an end. This is something we wish the explore. Again the non-verbal communication is strong, again highlighting the importance of choosing our actors carefully.
Me and Rach are planning to use photographs in our music video as an visual motif, as the connotations attached to the idea of a photograph are memories and emotion. Both create a sense of nostalgia, which is something we want to achieve from our target audience. We want to provoke feelings from our audience, and make them think about past relationships and emotions. A photograph is a very personal and powerful object, as it can hold so much meaning to whoever it belongs to. We want to play around with our characters making memories of their relationship, so we'll be using lots of hand held camera shots and POV shots, almost so it looks like home footage. This works to our favour, as we can still make a realistic looking music video without the use of high tech cameras which we don't have access to. We'll be using a polaroid camera as a prop to show the memories being made. 
