uses and gratification

Acording to Blumler and Katz's theory on uses and gratifications, Peaky Blinders gratifies its audience in a number of ways. one gratification would be giving intrinsic cultural and aesthetic enjoyment, we see this in the cinematography. When Tommy rides the horse down the busy industrial street the camera tracks behind him and we get a wide shot of the action in the mise en scene; men working, shouting and people drunk on the side of the road. when the flame flashes the cuts become quicker as the horse is startled, tommy calms the horse by telling it what him and other soldiers said to horses to calm them from the loud noises; "its just the band arriving". this would attract a niche audience as it gives historical content that some passive viewers would not pick up on.   

how does Peaky Blinders attract its audience?

set in birmingham 1919, Steven Knight's Peaky Blinders is a crime drama which follows former WW1 soldiers who have returned home and formed a criminal gang.

one way it attracts its audience is by placement. the show was first aired on BBC 2; historically its remit was screening programmes targeting the arts, culture, drama, and some comedy. in the scene where they bur the kings portraight we see in the on looking mid shot, Tommy talking to the reporter. he says " We went through hell for our king, and wouldnt want him to see what is being done to us here". we see an acurate representation of the social feelings towards the monarch, as they fought and now are being attacked in their own homes. over 30 years, BBC 2 built a reputation of screening highly praised and prestigious high brow drama series.
 A high brow text is one that is intellectually and culturally rich. Peaky Blinders has elements of a high brow text but also contains mainstream conventions. the show has been complemented for its high production value and cinematography. this is another way the show attracts its audience.

explore the different ways in which audiences and/or users respond to your chosen texts.

AMCs critically aclaimed Mad Men has been awarded back to back EMMY awards and nominated for golden globe. Audiences and users have responded in various ways, some of these being:

. Via social networking. AMC president Charlie Collier talks about a game the company had set up where people could create their own cartoon avatar along side those of the cast. one they had done this it would then be shared on social networking sites where others could see the avatar images and see the name of the show. also AMC has set up a page on their website where fans can indulge in games such as personality tests, job interview games and many others. this is obviously for fans to feel closer to the show by comparing themselves against other characters.

. 'The orange couch' is a an internet series that reveiws each episode of mad men, hours after it is aired in America. the purpose of this is to go deeper into the narrative and explore the possible meanings within the polysemic text. it is clearly set up by active members of the niche audience that it targets.

lost stats

awards?
what have fans produced after?

Lost is an American drama series that has aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 until May 23, 2010. It has been nominated for a variety of different awards including 54 Primetime Emmy Awards (eleven wins for the series), 48 Saturn Awards (thirteen wins), 33 Teen Choice Awards, 12 Golden Reel Awards (five wins), eight Satellite Awards (one win), seven Golden Globe Awards (one win), six Writers Guild of America Awards (one win), five Directors Guild of America Awards, two NAACP Image Awards (one win), two Screen Actors Guild Awards (one win) and a BAFTA Award. Amongst the wins for the series are a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Drama Series", a Golden Globe Award for "Best Television Series – Drama", a Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series" and a Peabody Award.
The series has an ensemble cast and several different Lost actors have received acting award nominations. Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson are the only actors to win Emmy Awards while Matthew Fox has been nominated for eighteen individual awards (winning three), the most of any cast members, Evangeline Lilly is second with fifteen nominations. "Pilot" is the most nominated single episode of the series, receiving nominations for fifteen different awards, winning six, including four Emmy Awards. "Through the Looking Glass" is the second most nominated episode, with nine. "The End" received the most Emmy nominations for a single episode with eight, winning one. Lost has been nominated for over 200 awards and has won 57.

 critiscisms?

.When Ana Lucia Cortez became a main character in Season 2, producers found many fans disliked the character. Her "tough girl" attitude turned many people off, along with her accidental killing of Shannon.
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how does lost attract its audience?

J.J Abrams' Lost attracts a mainstream audience. lost has been encoded to be inclusive. passive and active audience can be gratified by it. enigma codes are seen throughout the episode; they control what the audience sees and knows. they gratify a more active audience member as they would want to decode and guess the meaning of it. placed just before an advert break' we get a slow zoom shot of a pair of handcuffs that Walt had found on the floor, it then cuts back to Micheal and Walt looking at them in slight horror. this, and most of the enigma codes, are accompanied by the use of score written by the composer Micheal Giacchino. this is music that is written specifically for the show. as the camera zooms in looking at the handcuffs the timbres build and become more staccato, allowing passive audience members how the characters are feeling and how the handcuffs should be read. by merging these two conventions together, it allows the show to gratify both types of audience member simultaneously. 

lost

lost is a text that attracts a mainstream audience. the first convention that makes me believe this is the use of score; this allows passive audience members to have an emotions created for them making them empathise with the characters feelings via the various timbres and pitches heard. this technical convention is met with an enigma code which appeals more to the active audience members. these enigma codes also keep the audience hooked and are usually placed just before an advert break. an example of this would be where they young boy walt wonders off to find his dog; there is low angled mid shots of him holding the dogs lead, then there are long shots that track and pan as he walks deeper into the jungle. the score at this point is quite ominous and consists of two or three tone that peak every few seconds. once the tension is built up there is a pov shot of walt finding a pair of handcuffs. at this point the score reaches a high pitch and stops dramatically, then continues to keep a lower tone. as the camera zooms in slowly it cuts to walts dad looking around in horror then blacks out in time for a break. a passive audience member would be feeling nervouse and be glad that walt had been found, but a more active member would start to create a narrative for the cuffs and start to ask the questions the enigma code gives.

social realism.

Fish tank is a 2009 british social realist film writen and directed by Andrea Arnold. the film adheres to the social realist genre in a number of ways. in the section of the narrative where we see Mia in bed and her mum shouting her we get a close up of her asleep and as her mum enters the room the film cuts to an over shoulder shot for us to see what she does; this being a technical convention of socialrealism. there is also a close  up shot of a cd cover which reads 'An England Story' which adds a sense of realism as we see what music she listens too and also a glimpse at her situation and struggle. the film then cuts to her walking down the stairs where she talks to the social worker who wants to get her into a special school; her mum also wants her to go but doesnt adress the matter lightly and she ends up making sarcastic remarks to mia. this shows us that the family is dysfunctional, also when the worker asks about another daughter there is no mention of a father telling the audience that it is also a broken home. at the point where mia runs out the door we then see the movement from the camera as it follows her; the hand held camera effect allows the veiwer to empathisewith mia and feel more part of the situation as the camera acts as our eyes when filming her in shallow focus and mia's eyes when we get a close up pov shot of whatever she is looking at. for example in the narrative when she looks at the window to read something, the film instantly cuts to a pov close up of the dance audition flyer which she is reading. the lighting in the shot is plain and natural, and not overly lit; doing this, the film conforms to yet more convention.