Utopian Solutions - Richard Dyer

Dyer believed that audiences consume media products with a clear set of pleasures to draw from these experiences. 

Similar to Blumler and Katz' Uses and Gratifications Theory. 

Both suggest that audiences consume media products as a means of escaping reality. 

 ''...expressing ideals about how human life could be organised and lived….Entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to set against the realities of day-to-day existence’’

The three reasons generated by reality that audiences choose to consume media are:

Social Tension 

Inadequacy 

Absence 

The consumption of media provides a 'utopian solution'. 

Social Tension/Utopian Solution: 

Exhaustion/Energy

Scarcity/Abundance 

Dreariness/Intensity 

Manipulation/Transparency 

Fragmentation/Community  

Reality: Tiring, poverty, boring routines, manipulation and rehousing

Utopian Solution: Active, material things, emotion and energy, honesty and love, sense of belonging

In relation to our film package, our target audience may wish to engage or watch our trailer and consequent film as a means of escaping, perhaps the 'harsh' reality they are in. However, as a supernatural horror, our trailer features a fair amount of distress and suffering for the protagonist Morgan, this perhaps may provide reassurance for our audience about the reality they are experiencing, the idea that nothing can get worse for them due to the unfortunate circumstances of the characters within our trailer. However, our film may portray a sense of action, emotion, energy, love and intensity, which are considered utopian solutions to the tiring, dreariness and manipulation of reality. Our target audience (15-24 years, primarily females) may wish to buy or read our film front cover, observe our poster and watch our trailer as a means of securing a pleasure of excitement, intensity and enjoyment, things which may lack in the world of reality. Our film package may guarantee the entertainment which 'offers the image of something better'.