Codes and Conventions of the psychological drama genre

 This is a hybrid genre which comprises aspects of the psychological but focuses on realistic events and emotions. This type of drama centers on the psyche and mental struggle of the character, also their inner conflict; this genre is mainly used as an approach, merging with other larger genres that stress mental struggles over the physical. The 'psychological' aspect of the genre can be taken more literally as a way to accentuate a character/protagonist on the edge of sanity. There is always conflict present in this way, inner conflict of the protagonist and also with other characters. This emphasizes the protagonist's inner turmoil and external impact of their state. This conflict is usually presented using 'expressionistic aesthetics' such as a distorted reality, dream sequences and non-linear narratives. It is usually the case that the cause for the protagonists disorder is rooted from a traumatic event from their past. Therefore the psychological genre will always portray the mental and the physical state. It is interesting to see how producers balance this duality within the characters.
The dramatic genre is one i will interweave by focusing on the emotional impact of the issue on characters in the narrative, the wife and the daughter, and also on the audience who will be able to empathize with the characters and the situation.

Audience Uses and Gratifications

Audience pleasures:
- Recognising conventions due to familiarity.
- Emotional pleasures linked to different genres.
- Cognitive satisfaction: problem solving, predicting. Pleasure comes from realising these predictions/ expectations.Catharticism
- Noticing manipulated genres, shifting our expectations.
- Judging characters
- Sharing experience of genres with other people that enjoy it - creates a community.

My Audience:
My target audience will relate to the film to be marketed due to familiarity. For example the male patriarch would relate to the father figure presented in the film and also would understand his mindset and way of thinking, also by noticing these similarities it may invoke change in the form of self-actualisation or development. There will be great emotional impact on the viewer, of whom will be immensely affected if placed in a similar life situation. The content could be a catalyst for outlet of emotions that may not have been founded until this relation is found. The satisfying element is gained from the enigmatic quality of the film and marketing package, also in the shift of audience expectations due to the fact the film is a niche publication. The desire to seek publications such as this may also be used as a topic for discussion in social situations and may create a community with a fondness for the particular genre. As an audience it is inevitable that we judge characters based on their language, actions, appearance, background etc. This means audiences relate in very different ways to the characters involved. As i have said my specific audience will relate to the patriarch and also the effect of his actions on the rest of the family. The most emotion will be provoked due to the depiction of the breakdown of father and daughter relationships. So while there is enjoyment in the enigma of the plot, the main aim is to provoke emotions that hide deep beneath the surface.

Hypodermic needle theory

The hypodermic needle theory was developed in the 1920's and 1930's, it implied that mass media was responsible for injecting powerful messages into the passive receiver, and for impacting on behavioural choices. The sheer effect the mass media through communication began with issues such as:
- Advertising and Propaganda industries emerging.
- The popularisation of radio and television
- Orsen Welles war of the worlds broadcast. mass hysteria - small proportion.
- Hitler's monopolisation of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.
- Also the 'Payne Fund' studies which suggested the impact of motion pictures on children.

The magic bullet theory is also a very powerful theory which assumes that 'The media's message is a bullet fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head"' (Berger 1995). This theory was based on assumptions of the time about human nature.

People were assumed to be "uniformly controlled by their biologically based 'instincts' and that they react more or less uniformly to whatever 'stimuli' came along" (Lowery & De Fleur, 1995, p. 400)

This passive audience is immediately affected by these messages. The public essentially cannot escape from the media's influence, and is therefore considered a "sitting duck" (Croteau, Hoynes 1997).

Both models suggest that the public is vulnerable to the messages shot at them because of the limited communication tools and the studies of the media's effects on the masses at the time (Davis, Baron 1981).

Active and Passive Audience

The idea of Active and Passive audiences has derived from the hypodermic needle theory. This theory suggests that audiences are passive (inactive) in the sense that they allow themselves to be injected with certain ideals by the media which aid their decisions in life. An active audience is not hive-minded, allowing themselves to be a victim of mass-production, but an individual that seeks and pursues their own interests regardless of the way the media targets them. As a 21st century audience we are able to be more selective in terms of the type of media we consume, expansion of technologies and progression of different concepts and ideologies has allowed this to happen; there is much more variation in the way we consume texts compared to the 19th century. During the 1920's-60's the three main ways people consumed media was through the radio, the newspaper and by going to the cinema. This means they were a passive audience as alternatives didn't exist. Television didn't start entering households until the late 1940's, families fortunate to have one were only able to access a limited amount of channels, programmes were only broadcasted at certain times. It wasn't until around 1997 that the internet started to enter households, we can look at this in comparison to the range of on-demand internet streaming media we have in this century such as Netflix; also many people would say that Youtube is the biggest internet revolution of the 21st century. There is now globalisation in media, the vastness of media we have access to now means that we cannot fit into the target audience for each and every media production, hence there are niche productions which target only a small definitive audience. Another way a 21st century audience is more active in the media is that they have become the producers, we now have access to the technology and materials to create media productions, most commonly on digital cameras and phones, these products are not set on a big budget and are not industry standard but appeal to a specific type of media consumers.
- old marketing styles gone

Frankfert school - mass media is a form of control 

My Audience

My audience will be active, they'll be selective and interested in niche production, seeking and pursuing  their own interests. They will not be victims of hypodermic injection as they will not be prime targets for mass media productions. Although my trailer will have a preferred reading it is the audience's role to  create their own meaning (Hall); everyone is individual and will receive the text and its issues in various different ways. My audience will have ideologies that overall will be set by important institutions such as the Law, the Church and Education however they will not be subject to the overriding influence of opinion leaders, they will make their own informed choice, hence their interest in niche publications. My audience will relate to the text as 'The Explorer' to an extent (Young and Rubicam) as they are driven by the need for discovery, the audience may aim to discover similarities within the text in order to compare and react (Blulmer and Katz).

Audience Feedback

Target Audience Profile

Genre

Duff: "Genre is a recurring type or category."
Buckland: "...boundaries between films are fuzzy...most films are hybrid genres."
Buckingham: "It is in a constant process of negotiation and change."

What is genre?
Genre refers to a category or type of the arts, whether that me literature, music or film etc. There are subdivisions of a particular genre, as well as hybrid genres which blend certain themes and elements from two or more different genres of fiction

How is genre fluid?
- Genre is in 'a constant process of negotiation and change' meaning it always adapting to avoid predictability, this is particularly why hybrid genres are formed, merging different elements to create the unexpected for the audience.

Why does genre matter for audience?
Genre matters for an audience as from the outset they are given certain expectations; this means they can be selective when choosing the type of media they interact with and make informed decisions about their media consumption. These choices will be dependent on the consumer type, and their needs. So in accordance with the Uses and Gratifications theory the audience have certain needs and seek different elements within a text. The most common reasons will be to gain an element of escapism or to relate to a certain character or situation.

Why does genre matter for media producers?
Once a genre has been defined the media producers are able to amplify certain codes and conventions within the text to suit the chosen genre. Also by defining a particular genre, even if it it a hybrid genre, the producers are able to determine how far they can push the boundaries. Defining genre helps to determine a specific target audience, so the genre allows the producers to make decisions about how successful they're going to be in meeting audience needs. The particular genre can have affect the way the text is marketed and distributed, for example a trailer for a thriller film would not be shown directly before a romantic comedy film is about to be screened.