Hello Culture Remix: What I learnt as a media producer
How do the ideas affect your own practice?
So, whilst I had taken part in the “Hello Culture Session”, I had been able to listen and understand the many different subject matters that the guest speakers had conveyed to us all. Each of them centred around ideas that in their own different ways affected the way in which we create our content. Whether it is a drama or a film which has been constructed in several different ways to tell a story, content is created through the minds of the producer, director, or storyteller in order to showcase their invention.
For instance, the CEO and Founder of Storycentral Alison Norrington had talked on the need for creating a narrative that was experimentive and emotive. She has used a number of examples from films such as Avatar and the way in which character of Jake Sully, who is wheelchair-bound, is able to walk through being a 12-foot tall creature called the Na’vi. This is something that creates an effect that is both experimentive and emotive because of the situation that has been established through the character.
In the terms of how it has affected me in the way that I want to create narrative structure, I (who have previously written screenplays for dramas) have always gone about creating characters that I believe would create a huge impact in terms of the plot. For me, I find that character is plot, and character is what drives the plot forward. Alison has also mentioned how there needs to be a what (in terms of the telling of the story), why (why are you creating this story), and how (how is it going to work). With these three questions, I had never previously narrowed them down as much but from understanding these I feel that when it comes for any future projects that I do when it comes to creating a story for a drama or feature-length film, I can always refer back to these.
Role of audiences
In terms of the audience, each piece of content that is produced by someone or production will be aimed at certain types. More often than not, audiences of your created content will see the content because they are those who the producer wants to target. Alison Norrington has also spoken about the audience being the forefront of modern storytelling. Through this we understand as they are being told a story, they are also involved in the action through the characters that are depicted in the chosen content, whatever that may be. With regard to the role in which they play, they are very important in terms of whether the content that is produced to them meets their standards. Sometimes with audiences that relate to a specific genre, they can create fandoms to specific films or shows. An example of this would be fans of the superhero genre would find themselves invested with films from Marvel or DC.
When listening to Nick Robinson, he had talked on when people used the app TikTok it is used to form a certain kind of “free stage”. This allows those who create the content to create a form of entertainment, and in doing that they are able to engage a “free audience”. The word has “free” has been used in order to describe audiences who are able to view performances online through interactivity without having to pay to see it in person. From this, I have understood that interactivity online through platforms such YouTube, Vine, Tik Tok, and Vimeo, both free stages and audiences are used in order to influence others to do the same as if it were an audience that was paying to view a performance in the cinema or television etc.
How it would affect me in terms of my practice in creating content for audiences firstly comes down to what it is that they would find either appealing or engaging. Going back to what Alison Norrington had mentioned creating an experimentive and emotive narrative, this can be achieved in many different forms of visual communication. Whether that be creating a drama, film, or music video that focuses on emotive characters, or creating a documentary that centres on a subject matter that the audience will relate to, what needs to be established here is that the content that is being created and whether it aims for that audience in the right way in which it does not alienate them or offend them in any way.
