LES REVENANTS

• 'French supernatural drama series' - hybrid genre
• hybrid genre - reaches a wider audience 
• 26th November 2012 on Canal+
• United Kingdom 9 June 2013 on channel 4
• 2 series, 8 episodes each
• based on french film, They Came Back
• created by Fabrice Gobert

there are lots of different story arcs in the first episode, the series is based on hermeneutic codes

SUPERNATURAL -  unconventional narrative, child comes out from nowhere (intertextuality of The Omen)

AVANT-GARDE (experimental) - non-linear narrative

FRENCH - the mise en scene of the actors

CULT TV - a tv show that has a passionate audience, invites the audience to do things with it, cult tv shows need to create their own world



EXAM STRUCTURE

INTRO - DAC
DEFINITION - key terminology
ARGUMENT - point of view, stick to it
CONTEXT - context of media products

PARAGRAPHS - PEA
POINT
EVIDENCE 
ARGUAMENT

KEY TERMS
HEGEMONIC 
STEREOTYPE
IDEOLOGY
POLYSEMY
INTERTEXTUALITY
NEGOTIATION

"In the 21st century, it is essential for tv shows to offer multiple meanings" - evaluate the claim with reference to Les Revenants....

• (opening scenes)
• establishing shot of french alps and bus - isolated and exotic setting (for secondary British audience), emphasizes importance of polysemy as it means different things to difference nationalities
• slow zoom from exterior to interior , the point of focus is butterflies pinned to board
• mise en scene on butterfly escaping - coming back to life, freedom
• desaturated colour grading and lowkey lighting when Camille returns  - mysterious (hermeneutic code), forces audience top negotiate their own perspective on narrative, not sure how much time has passed, etc 
• soundtrack when zooming in on butterflies crescendos (gets louder) - key moment, has a deeper meaning(symbolic code) 
• Camille has more screen time on bus and consistently framed in montage of closeup shots - positions the audience with her, her age allows teenage audience to engage in the narrative
• sudden and mysterious cut to black after the bus accident - symbolises primary theme of death, symbolises audience's own confusion
• unconventional to supernatural genre - lacks genre paradigms, very unconventional zombie 

REPRESENTATIONS  - allows audience to relate with characters, audience learns about the world, not real, construction of reality (they construct reality!)

ideologies are always presented through representation 

TEENAGE GIRL
SMARTLY DRESSED - ATYPICAL, CARDIGAN IS STEREOTYPICALLY ASSOCIATED WITH OLDER PEOPLE (COMPLEX REPRESENTATION REFLECTED IN COMPLEX NARRATIVE)
MINIMAL MAKEUP FITS WITH FRENCH 'NATURAL' BEAUTY STANDARDS
GINGER HAIR IS UNCONVENTIONAL WHICH HELPS HER STAND OUT 

 MOTHER - STEREOTYPICAL ASPIRATIONAL MIDDLE CLASS MOTHER
MINIMALISTIC HAIR AND JUMPER
TIRED EYES AND PALE FACE IS STEREOTYPICALLY ATTRACTIVE IN FRANCE
APPEALS TO HETEROSEXUAL MALE AUDIENCE - SAME AGE

YOUNG MALE
 DARK, STRONG FEATURES, BUSHY EYEBROWS -STEREOTYPICALLY ATTRACTIVE
CAST NEEDS TO BE ATTRACTIVE TO FRENCH AUDIENCE BECAUSE THAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE
LEATHER LOOKING JACKET REPRESENTS REBELLION

30 YEAR OLD WOMAN (APPROX)
HAIR IS TIED UP AND MESSY - NOT INVESTED INTO HER APPEARANCE

JOHN BERGER - 
'MEN ACT, WOMEN APPEAR'

REPRESENT RURAL FRENCH LIFE - ATYPICAL FRENCH SETTING FOR INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE
ALL WHITE CAST IN IMAGE - WHITE MIDDLE CLASS TARGET AUDIENCE
ALLEGORICAL THEMES - DEATH AND HOW PEOPLE DEAL WITH IT

Glasgow Megasnake - Mogwai

• Mogwai did soundtrack for les revenants
• instrumental rock band - this track sounds more like metal
• distorted guitars 
• songs tend to be very long
• Mogwai lack a 'front man' 
• boring appearance - t-shirts and jeans, look like normal men
• own their own record label - 'Rock Action'

why pick Mogwai for soundtrack?

• widens audience - pre-existing Mogwai fans
• synergy - 2 media products coming together and working well together
• allows Mogwai to target international audience 
• are both moody and creepy - share the same ideology
• gives Mogwai subcultural capital 

how does the trailer target its audience? (International audience)

• english text - everyone can understand
• quoting British newspapers such as Sunday Times - audience know and trust these newspapers
• fast-paced editing and montage - makes the show look more exciting and action-packed than it is, sells to action fans
• encourages audience to take an active reading - invites its target audiences to have a negotiated reading 

Fans of Les Revenants have the option to buy the book, 'The Lake Pub' t-shirt, and the soundtrack on vinyl/cd 

CANAL+

IDEOLOGY - premium channel, quality shows

FUNDING - 'Creative Europe' funding, paid for by grants, some funds from Alps tourism board

SCHEDULING - season 2 was shown at 8:50pm, 9pm in UK and USA

OWNERSHIP - Vivendi SA, french mass media conglomerate, headquarters in Paris 

NOTABLE RELEASES - the tunnel, spiral, le grand journal, all created for a domestic audience

CONGLOMERATION - media, music (Universal music), tv, films, videogames

IMPORTS - tellytubbies, vampire diaries, game of thrones 

THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

Television is a specialised industry

approx 6-8 episodes in UK drama series
6 episodes in UK comedy series
Humans was made in England, there is 8 episodes, drama series

TV in 21st century

• global, rather than national industry
• increasingly commercial 
• HBO home box office, global success
• the tv industry has totally fragmented
• channels "narrowcast", which means they target more niche audiences 
• audiences consume television in a variety of different ways 

television was the first example of mass media

nazis used it for propaganda - assumed audience could be manipulated and were passive (passive audience theory)

DISTRIBUTION, CIRCULATION AND MARKETING

DISTRIBUTION  how the product gets there

CIRCULATION  how many people see it

MARKETING  how the product is sold/promoted

Humans advert

• viral marketing - distributed on Youtube as opposed to traditional tv broadcasts
• audience led distributing - audience may share it, hashtag, rich in hermeneutic codes, no clear product 
• extremely American, cheesy, American voiceover is stereotypically happy and confident 
• conventions of American-style medical advert - clean mise en scene, gestures of synths are threatening
• "faster than before" - suggesting something went wrong with them before

• there is an option to return your synth on the website and it provides a returns slip - proairetic code that something will go wrong/ they are faulty
• immersion - totally involved in running the website and social media
• the marketing campaign has been successful because there are currently 3 seasons of the show 

OWNERSHIP AND ECONOMIC FACTORS

• OWNERSHIP  owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

• FUNDING  sale of on-air advertising, programme sponsorship, and the sale of any programme content and merchandising rights it owns, such as overseas sales and video sales, they now also get a small % of the license fee

• IDEOLOGIES "experimental, encourage innovation and style, risk and non-conformism to engage a younger generation"

• ASSOCIATED CHANNELS  channel 4, E4, more4, film4, 4seven, 4music, all4, hd+1 channels, each channel targets a specific niche audience

• SCHEDULING  makes use of the watershed placing, reputation for challenging programming

• NOTABLE RELEASES  big brother, hollyoaks, brookside, celebs go dating, gogglebox, made in chelsea, inbetweeners, skins

The Target Audience

AGE 27
NAME  david

GENDER male
NATIONALITY english
LOCATION  
SEXUALITY heterosexual 
SOCIO ECONOMIC CLASS  working class
OCCUPATION  teacher
HOBBIES  going to cinema

the process of commercial television is selling audience. ads are very specific.

BREAKFAST SCENE - how does it appeal to the audience and maintain?

• "microchips" - dad joke
• establishing shot of 'nuclear family' - creates an aspirational image 
• slow pan of breakfast table - an easily identifiable scene for middle class audience
• close up of Laura's face - establishes her dislike of Anita, relatable situation for target audience who may debate over wether or not to get a maid
• "this is what breakfast is suppose to be like" - lowkey dig at Laura, failing to provide properly for her family, assumes she never does breakfast properly 
• all sitting down and eating together - hyperreal, perfect breakfast
• MES of dressing gowns - most of them wearing them, convention of sitcom genre, unconventional of sci-fi genre, keeps interest, repetition and difference (STEVE NEALE)

watershed - 9pm

OFCOM - regulate tv, they try to limit harm and offence

it is getting harder to regulate tv as you can now find the programmes online - Livingstone and Lunt

HARM AND OFFENCE

 kidnapping - may trigger memories - depicts unconscious woman - connotations of murder and sexual assault

black synth treated badly - shot to the ground - connotations of slavery 

threatening behaviour - close up - stern facial expressions - may offend people who have been involved in violence 

gun in background

STUART HALL

RECEPTION THEORY

preferred reading, negotiated reading, oppositional reading

• preferred - uncomfortable, feel sorry for Niska
• negotiated - can see why the man thinks he can do what he wants, but may still feel uncomfortable watching it
• oppositional - the man can do what he wants, Niska is just a synth so she doesn't feel anything

humans mini mock

In Humans, binary oppositions do help to convey meanings; for example, in the scene where Laura first meets Anita. Binary opposition is created in this scene by the low angle, midshot of Anita standing and looking at Laura, this shot emphasizes the difference between the two characters as Anita is above Laura. This shows that Anita is more important and makes Laura feel threatened. Additionally, in this scene, Anita is more stereotypically attractive, this is because she is younger, has neater hair, and her clothes aren't scruffy.  This binary opposition is another way to help convey the message that Anita is a better version of Laura. Lastly, their is an opposition between the character's facial expressions. Anita has a permanent smile on her face when talking to Laura, however, Laura's face shows disgust towards the synth. As a result of this,