EARNEST - Media language

Evaluating media language is evaluating all the micro elements of a piece and how they create a meaning when they work in tandem. The meaning often refers to genre, narrative, representation, ideology, and targeting. To evaluate media language, semiotic terminology is used to explain how we decipher codes, and all analysis must come back to the preferred meaning (A term coined by Stuart Hall.) 
The preferred reading for EARNEST is that although the characters are clearly too self absorbed, they have likeable traits and are entertaining to watch. The media language used in EARNEST was largely derived from professional Romantic Comedies our group analysed before creating our short.
Due to the short runtime EARNEST had, we relied heavily on symbolism to tell the audience about the characters, something I now know has the media terminology of connotation and denotation. 

Some examples of the denotations in EARNEST are:

• The large house in the opening title card.
• The large number of shots of the boys getting ready.
• The clothes the girls are wearing.
• The nondiegetic upbeat music.

From these symbols, the audience should be able to deduce that the characters are wealthy as well as vain. The music and saturated colour scheme set the tone and mood of the piece, it fits well with the light hearted genre. 

The characters are meant to be frivolous but likable, but when taking Stuart Hall's Active Participants theory into consideration, it's possible that the audience may interpret the characters any number of ways. They may see Jay and Ali as completely unlikeable as they spend all their screen time plotting out lies, or they may simply be uninterested in the nonsense these rich teenagers with too much time on their hands get up to. 
I stated the preferred reading above, but there are numerous negotiated meanings that audiences could come to, where the characters are only slightly likable but ultimately still entertaining. An oppositional reading of EARNEST would have the characters to be completely unentertaining to watch, regardless of their likability. 

To analyse EARNEST further, why people would watch it in the first place should be considered. To do this, I've looked at Bummer and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory. I theorise that the majority of the viewing audience would go to see EARNEST out for entertainment purposes, given the Romantic Comedy genre it falls into. Social interaction may also be a factor, as could personal identity for young adults who feel restricted in their world. As with most media texts, there's an element of escapism too, as logic is stretched to allow the events of EARNEST to unfold. 

Though logic is stretched to fit the plot of EARNEST, we kept a certain degree of verisimilitude so that the story couldn't reach unbelievable lengths and lose the audience. Although it is set in 'the real world' it's a version of the real world where the boys are less likely to be caught so quickly for having an obviously fake Facebook account. This is one of the three things Pam Cook identified a 'standard hollywood structure' should have, the other two being linearity of cause and effect, and narrative closure. 
EARNEST also has the linearity she talks about, the small cause actually only creates a small effect. The stakes aren't that high in EARNEST, the most the boys risk is their own pride and integrity, as well as the feelings of the girls they like. 
There isn't narrative closure, as EARNEST is only the first two minutes of a movie rather than a short movie in it's entirety. 

When we first decided to make EARNEST, we knew we had to make it different. Modern Romantic Comedies are often little more than a mash up of clichés and plot devices taken from their predecessors, and seeing as EARNEST itself has its basic plot taken from another story, we knew we'd have to avoid any other clichés. Since then, I've learnt that this is something Steve Neale discusses in his Repetition and Variation theory. This theory suggests that the success of genre products (e.g. rom coms) is achieved through conventions the audience will recognise and deviations that keep the movie from seeming stale. 
The conventions of EARNEST are the bright colours, the cast that's equally split between the boys and girls, the the one-at-a-time style of introducing characters in a 'roll call'. These are all ideas we garnered from watching professionally made Romantic Comedies, but then we added in deviations to make the movie our own. This include a teenage cast instead of an adult one, and introducing the boys as untrustworthy instead of romantic. Hopefully these variations would tempt an audience to go see EARNEST.