1. Active spectatorship active spectatorship is all about the emotional responses from the audience. A question mostly asked to get the answer for active spectatorship is do you like the film and that’s how you get a answer for that question, even though its not detailed it still shows that the person liked the film or not. Films can have a huge amount of effects on audiences from simply causing an emotional response to some would argue much worse effects such as causing copycat violence. Audiences however can also affect a film and particularly the longevity of its popularity and its status in our culture. Audiences are made up of individuals however and it is impossible to say that a film will have the same impact on every single viewer and also that a film will be read or understood by each viewer in the same way. It is a complex relationship that deserves further exploration. Over the next couple of weeks I will be looking at active spectatorship, the pleasures of film watching, the effects of films, fandom, different viewing experiences and things that affect our interpretation of films. There’s a lot of ways that the audience shows the active spectatorship. For example, through the sales of merchandise. This shows how much people like it by the sales. For example if it is high that means the film was successful and loads of people liked it. Another way where active spectatorship is commonly seen is in YouTube comments where different people around the world tell you if they like it or not through their opinions on YouTube comments. Here’s an example of active spectatorship on YouTube comments.

2. Audience pleasure
Audience pleasure is all about the positive benefits the audience feel about watching the films, so for example, what positive things the audience would do to show how much they loved the film. A good example is blog posts. If you go on the internet you’ll find blog posts which is basically from anyone in the world writing positive things about the film on a blog for everyone to see how much that person loves that movie. People do not all just watch whatever they are told to watch and instead different individuals consume different films for different reasons and pleasures. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggested by Blulmer and Katz indicates that there are four main pleasures that audiences gain from films; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. Diversion is where viewers will watch a film just to get away from the problems and reality of their own lives. Personal relationships is where viewers may use films as a substitute for personal relationships, for example when a viewer goes to see a romantic comedy film because they are single. Personal identity is where viewers watch films where they see themselves reflected in it, for example, if I am a basketball player I would watch a movie like he got game which is about a professional basketball player who is trying to make it and I would watch that because I see myself reflected in it. I wouldn’t watch a fight movie because that wouldn’t relate to me. The last one is surveillance and that is where they go to see a movie that is useful for living and that’s where I put myself in that opinion at the stage of my life right now. I watch a lot of movies which tell me about the world or conspiracy theories movies that come out. I watch films like they live which basically tells us the story that the government is controlled by Satanist and that they control the banks and everything in the world today. Here’s a blog from someone for my movie franchise -

3. Frameworks of interpretation
Frameworks of interpretation is that the audience is made up of individuals who all read and interpret films differently from each other. There are a range of things that make us individuals and these could be considered our frameworks of interpretation. For example I'm a young African man who lives in England who has been through higher education and I'm probably considered middle class. All these factors such as my age, my class, my ethnicity, my education and even my past experiences will some bearing on the way I interpret a film. For example if I was from a Indian/Asia background and I watched a sexual movie I wouldn’t like and think its bad because in that ethnic group they take marriage and sexual things very seriously. In today’s world there are a lot of ways how people demonstrate frameworks of interpretation. For example, likes/dislikes on YouTube videos or rotten tomato's which basically shows the rating of a film from all kinds of people who've voted the film good or bad and it then gives you a rating and percentage of that movie. Here’s an example of rotten tomato’s for on of my films from my movie franchise undisputed.

4. Media literacy
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyse, create and act using all forms of communication. It builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. An example would be reviews and my franchise has demonstrated this. If you go on YouTube and search for undisputed trailer you’ll be able to see media literacy all over YouTube comments and you can also see it all in reviews which are created by ordinary people who watch these movies.

5. Intertextuality
Intertextuality is basically the connections and references a film makes to other films and every film uses it in the industry. Every film you have seen in a franchise have some form of intertextuality and so does my movie franchise. You often see intertextuality in flashbacks where it flashes back a little scene. For example, in my movie franchise undisputed it flashes back from undisputed 3 to undisputed 2 where bokya the main character broke his leg in a fight. For example some viewers may find Kidulthood to be a realistic depiction of London’s youth whereas others may see it as a sensationalistic film that stereotypes London teens in order to sell more tickets at the box office. Some viewers will not enjoy fantasy films as much because they are overly aware of how the special effects are created and this ruins the magic for them. Some viewers may appreciate the films of Tarantino more or less than others because they are more or less aware of the references to other films that Tarantino alludes to. They may also enjoy a film such as Pulp Fiction more because they find the structure challenging and interesting compared to a traditional narrative whereas others may find the non-linear narrative confusing and pointless.
Here is the video to the scene to demonstrate intertextuality in my franchise.

6. Preferred/negotiated/oppositional readings
Preferred reading – this is when audiences respond to the product the way the way media producers want/expect them to.
Negotiated reading – this is when a member of the audience partly agrees with part of the product, for example, film, documentary or tv programme.
Oppositional reading – this is when the audience are in complete disagreement with the product’s message or setting.
My demonstration of preferred, negotiated and oppositional reading of the film harry brown.
The film Harry Brown, for example, which I looked at a couple of weeks ago. The Preferred reading would see the audience siding with the character of Harry - all youths are thugs, mindless violence. The Negotiated reading may say that, yes, I agree that the youths in the film do act thugishly and commit acts of needless and terrible violence BUT there may be a reason behind it. This audience member may look beyond the 2D stereotype while still agreeing that Harry had a right to act as he did. The Oppositional reader may argue that there IS a reason behind the way the youths act, that they feel sorry for them rather than the people they are terrorising

7. Audience effects
Audience effects basically is the ways the films make us-the audience behave differently. Films can have good impact on audiences but some films can also negative impact on its audience for example in some horror movies such as the purge where people go in to other house and just do violent things. This could have a violent effect on the audience as it could make some people walk out their door and do the same thing. Loads of kids are influenced by that doing what they see in movies and the crime genre is at the top where loads of kids watch gangster movies and they copy what they see on the screen and that is a big negative effect on the audience. Despite the fact that most people reject the idea that cinema audiences are a completely passive mass who do not question or interpret films in different ways, some theorists have argued that films can have serious and damaging effects on viewers. In the past, the media (particularly tabloid newspapers) have been quick to blame films and video games when individuals have committed terrible crimes. The murder of the three year old James Bulger by two ten year old boys was blamed on the murderers having been exposed to the film Child’s Play 3 with calls for the film to be banned despite no real evidence that the boys had seen the film. Natural Born Killers and A Clockwork Orange were also blamed for copycat violence with the argument that some people see bad things in films and want to copy them. The other effect that might be a concern is that with all this violent entertainment, vulnerable people may actually start to fear society and other people. If an elderly, frail person watched a film like Harry Brown or Kidulthood, it may make them fear London youth because of the stereotypes it presents. Horror movie watchers might be more afraid of being alone, women could be more afraid of men and the threat of rape and all because of violent films that people watch for entertainment. 

8. Fandom
Fandom is always about the fans, the audience who absolutely love the film or franchise and demonstrate certain behaviours as fans. Fans show their fandom in a lot of different ways. Some create websites, fan pages, some even create a online store selling products and clothes related to the movie/franchise. Films do not just have the potential to have an effect on audiences but also audiences can have an affect on films. With fandom it can go both ways. Fans are people who love a particular film, genre, character or star and they share camaraderie with other fans. Sometimes being a fan can involve a huge range of activities such as attending conventions, dressing up, writing fan fiction, blogging, starting a website, attending premieres, collecting merchandise, writing fan mail or even getting into film production and referencing the films you are a fan of. Here’s an example and demonstration of fandom for my movie franchise undisputed. This link shows fans selling products on a public website.

9. Interactivity
Interactivity is all bout the way the audience interact with the film. These people were "the audience" of old television viewers, filmgoers, radio listeners, newspaper readers. However, the new media are interactive, designed to require some type and amount of activity on the people’s part to access and/or progress the content housed within the technology. As time and technology advanced, audience reception studies and media studies have discussed how to alter or adapt research approaches to study interactive audience practices and paradigm.  

10. Social networking
Social networking is all about the importance of spreading the word online and my franchise social media campaign do a lot on social media to spread the word online. They have a page for almost every social media page including youtube, facebook, twitter, Instagram e.t.c this definitely shows the importance of social networking and that is why it was successful, because the trailer and everything will spread on these social network sites and the audience will view it. Here’s a social networking page that spreads the word online for my movie franchise undisputed undisputed-se

11. Pre and post viewing experiences
The enjoyment of a film can also be affected by the pre and post-viewing experiences of the person who watches it and where and how they watch it. For example if a viewer watched all the trailers, promotional clips, interviews with the stars etc before a film is released, they may have extremely high expectations of the film. This might mean the film fails to meet these expectations. Comedies often have many of the best jokes in the trailers of the films and these jokes will not be as funny when they are in the final film if you have seen the trailer a few times. Similarly many trailers give a great deal of the story away and show many of the best stunts. The recent Fast and Furious 6 trailer seemed to have clips from all the major set-pieces and therefore there was no sense of surprise when watching the film. Prometheus was also a victim of its excellent marketing because people had huge expectations and the film was not as good as many had hoped. A demonstration of my movie franchise is the YouTube trailer because it shows most of the best stunts so when you watch the movie there wont be no surprise. Heres an example of the undisputed 4 trailer.

12. Conditions of reception
Conditions of reception is all about the environment where the viewing took place. The place impacts whether the film was like or not because the way you watch a film is also important as watching a film at an IMAX cinema with state of the art sound is a very different experience to watching a film on a mobile phone or a dodgy pirate DVD copy. Blockbusters particularly are supposed to be seen on a big screen in a dark room with the sound up loud to get the full audio visual experience. If an audience is laughing in a comedy or screaming in a horror, it will likely have an effect on other viewers. Watching a film with mates is different to watching it with parents or on a first date and watching it alone is very different to watching it with a large audience. All these factors can affect enjoyment and interpretation. 3D is supposedly more immersive but many hate it and some people have home cinema set ups because they would rather watch a film in their own home. I also find that if I see a really good film early (at a preview before it is released) I think I often love it even more than if I was (seemingly) the last to see it. I certainly feel the need to talk about it more to convince more people to go and see it.