Media Theories: Cultivation Theory

Cultivation theory:This theory suggests that as audiences view increasing numbers of films and TV shows, they gradually develop certain views about the world, some of which are false.
Strengths: This particular approach draws the focus on the fact that audience members develop large quantities of information about the world from the media that they view. In addition, it also recognises the increasing influence the media has on day to day life.
Weaknesses: This approach often comes under the criticism that by judging people's perceptions on the world on the media they use, views such as crimewatch feeds perceptions that Britain is overrun with crime and that the rate is growing, while not contemplating actual facts or evidence.
Notable example(s): War of the worlds, this was during the infamous radio broadcast of 1938 in which people actually mistook the broadcast as a news bulliten, causing mass hysteria and panic.
Another exmple is the film Crash, which made people believe that people often cause crashes deliberately to get a natural high.
The final example is the mainstream news media, as they always focus on the shocking stories to get the views, however this often feeds the perception that the world is a bad place where everyone is out to get you, where in fact, it is only a minority.

Media Theories: Copycat Theory

Copycat theory:
This theory suggests that audiences will copy what they see in the media. However, this is not so much of a theory as opposed to an assumption that has been blown out of contrast by the press.
Strengths: The main power and influence of this theory is how it psychologically prays off the fears and concerns of parents as well as many independent commissions other than the BBFC, and engages their parents to more actively monitor the media that they use. This not only covers movies, but also video games, especially with underage gaming on the rise, with games such as Modern Warfare 2 being predominantly played by young people as an example.
Weaknesses: The main weakness is the opinion of the people regulating their children, as the preconception of danger varies from person to person, so one person's horror movie is another's comedy. Additionally, while short term effects of the media are easily monitored, the long term are not so easily monitored, and therefore the theory cannot be proven correct. Thus leading to moral panic where people suspect that rap music can lead to gun violence for example.
Notable example(s): The most notable example as discussed earlier is the Bulger murder case. Additionally there are multiple cases of children with short tempers due to constant exposure to competitive and mature gaming, examples being Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.

Media Theories: Desensitisation Theory

Desensitisation Theory:
This theory states that the longer we are exposed to violence, horror or any other shocking material, we eventually become less sensitive to it and any real life equivalents.
Strengths: This theory draws its information directly from the increasing volume of violence and representations of sex in the media, and regulation committees such as the British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC) and how they let more shocking material through in comparison to earlier times. It raises the questions of the amounts of representations we should be witness to, and asks how far the effects can go.
Weaknesses: The counter argument for this theory is that there is no way that this theory can be effectively proven, especially when considering how difficult it is to seperate the effects of the media from the effects of the home living conditions (Bulger murder case).
Notable example(s): The most notable example of this, again, is the Bulger murder case, where the children lived at home watching horror movies, but also had abusive parents and poor living conditions. Another example is the last house on the left, as it was rejected when completed due to portrayals of rape, but allowed only a few years ago, this displays a higher cultural acceptability for the film, and that due to the regulations reflecting society, implies that we have indeed been desensitised.

Media Theories: The Hypodermic Model

A substantial portion of our course this year is understanding and being able to relate to media theories on regulation and audience behaviour. These theories have been made to attempt to understand audience members and more specifically why they choose to view the various shows and movies, and also what they will get from viewing it.
These theories cover all kinds of effects, ranging from education to psychotic behaviour. The theories are as follows:

The hypodermic model:
The hypodermic model sugests that the media injects messages and information directly into the minds of the viewers, like a hypodermic needle injects the body, and that this can be considered to be as addictive as heroin.
Strengths: The approach draws attention to the power that media producers have and that media products can be powerful and range from importance relating to each audience member.
Weaknesses: The approach, however insinuates that the audience can be percieved as a group of passive powerless individuals, helplessly taking in false information. The theory is also used focusing on the effects on women and/or children, and finally, the majority of the ways in which people use media are still unnacounted for, rendering the theory incomplete and thus innacurate.
Notable example(s): The James Bulger murder case blamed on the children having viewed child's play three. The theory is that the film injected false information to the suggestable minds of the killers and so made them commit the heinous act.

Shot List

Once we filmed, it was important to keep track of what we had filmed and when in the event that anything needed to be redone, as of such, below is the complete list of the scenes we had shot, including all of the deleted scenes, and on what day.
Day 1 - Thursday 24th November:
Dry Cleaning thug scene
Elderly couple walking a dog scene
Drug dealer Scene

The first day of filming was done on a Thursday, as that day was a Teacher/Parent conference day in our college, thus allowing us to gather in town to film all of the necessary scenes. Furthermore, due to it being a conference day at college, we were able to gather most of our cast and complete most of the filming in one day. However, there were still scenes that needed to be shot. For example, in the first day of shooting I did not have my costume for the nerd character (Shoes, Trousers, Shirt) and as of such, I needed to come back on the Sunday to shoot the love triangle scene. As of such, we also needed to shoot the complete cast gathering on that day.

Day 2 - Sunday 27th November:
Alpha Male pub scene
Love Triangle Scene
Complete cast gathering

The Sunday shooting session was highly successful as mostly everyone from the Thursday shooting returned to appear in the final shot. In addition to this, I had booked the local pub to allow us to shoot a quick scene in the bar on Sunday before they opened for business, and gave us full reign of the bar until we were done shooting. As of such, we were able to shoot the pub scene quickly, and efficiently.
Finally, we were also able to shoot the love triangle scene as I had managed to get my nerd costume ready, and as of such we shot the two scenes back to back, thus closing the filming, and allowing us to edit it together in the following week, to maximum efficiency.