Encoding/Decoding- The Kooks

Hall


Introduction to the Theory


Audience members will respond to the text in different ways but the preferred reading of the text is encoded using the conventions and technologies of the medium. The possible positions are:


Dominant- when the reader shares the text's code and accepts it's preferred reading.


Negotiated- when the reader understands the text's code and generally accepts the preferred reading but modifies it according to their social position and experiences.


Oppositional- when the reader understands the code but rejects the preferred reading. The audience member would be reading the text from an oppositional position.




What is the Preferred Reading of Your Product?


We aim to give a positive message. Our video aims to be more meaningful than ordinary music videos and we want it to make people think. We also want it to be one of those videos in which you notice something new every time you watch it- whether that be a scene or clip, or even another, deeper, meaning to the action.


How do You Plan to Encode this Meaning?

In order to encode this positive meaning we plan to use montage editing of a large range of happy and positive scenes and locations. All of our actors will be smiling, laughing and having fun in order for catharsis to take place. Pathetic Fallacy is also a technique we aim to use by filming our footage in the summer holidays. Our editing will be fast paced and the camera will move a lot to mirror the happiness and elation usually associated with positive activities for example- dancing, running and playing. We also liked the idea of using point-of-view shots and handheld effects in order to help the audience to relate to our characters more effectively.


What Different Ways Might the Audience Respond to Your Product?

We aim for our music video, and it's meaning(s) to be accessible to a variety of social groups and positions. We are going to use a lot of montage editing and therefore will contain a large variety of cinematography, special effects, locations, characters, and mise-en-scene. Henceforth, we hope that no matter what social group you belong to you will be able to relate to- or at least feel empathy towards those who do- in some of the scenes we use. At the beginning of our video we would like to use a monologue and think that this would help the audience- no matter who they are- to take our desired message from the video. Nonetheless, the realisation that the majority of music video audiences are teenagers and young adults and therefore we will try and target these social groups more so than perhaps elderly people or young children.