plan for les revenants

"It is essential for a TV programme to simultaneously target both mass and specialised audiences"

Explore this statement with reference to Les Revenants


The EU has a funding programme, which called 'Creative Europe'. This allows for European TV shows to be able to get grants to support production and distribution and to allow them to be made. 'Les Revenants' in particular was awarded a grant for 450,000 euros for season 1 and 1 million euros for season 2.

Aired on Chanel 4 in Britian at 9pm
9pm on Sundance Channel in America
8:50pm on Canal+

Canal +

Canal+ is a premium TV channel that needs to be paid for on a subscription payment.

Canal+ is owned by Vivendi SA

Vivendi SA is a French mass media conglomerate headquartered in Paris. The company has activities in music, television, film, video games, telecommunications, tickets and video hosting service.

Canal+ Group 


- Owns many different cable (pay) television channels showing TV shows, documentaries, films, animation etc.
- is involved in the production and financing of films and has even created its own subsidiary                companies with direct involvement in film production.

Canal+ imported shows


Teletubbies, Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones, The Tunnel, Tom and Jerry Show, Family Guy...

  • Targets international audience. 
  • primarily french audience.
  • Cult audience- small/ devoted audience- buy merch- fans of 
    Glasgow Megasnake-It gives Mogwai an international audience (subcultural capital).
  • criticise reception theory- no preferred reading in the show.
  • sex scene- taboo for some audiences
  • mass audience-everyone can watch it.
  • Reception theory- negotiated reading, oppositional theory.
  • scene where Camile comes home- claire's reaction- conventions of horror- boring for some audiences.
  • Trailer- in english- appeal to english speaking people- trailer was tailored to an Australian audience.

Television 


  • Genre codes and conventions 
  • Genre theory- reception theory
  • Genre fluidity
  • Camera work - framing and composition shot types, angle, position, movement 
  • Lighting and colour
  • Editing – pace, type of edits, continuity
  • Narrative construction, related to narrative theory
  • Sound – dialogue, music- creepy music
  • Mise-en-scene – setting and location, props, costume/dress, hair/make-up 

  • More diverse range of tv shows to choose from (not like in the past where there was only one channel- BBC1) .
  • Channel 4 started in 1982- up until recently, there weren't many channels now there are hundreds, on demand services, streaming sites etc.
  • Streaming uses the internet so it's not the same as broadcasting a show/ movie on the TV- narrowcasting.
  • Les Revenants- targeting British audiences as it has english translations on trailers, posters, promo etc.
Issues with this theory:
Preferred reading might not be clear to the audience. They want the audience to react to their ideologies.

Does Les Revenants have a preferred reading?
Audience may love or hate the show. They may also have an intellectual or emotional response as to why they love or hate the show. 

The show provides many polysemic meanings (multiple meanings).

Audience responses to the scene where Camille comes back to life and her mom finds her in the kitchen:
  • Subversion of a horror movie convention- the daughter coming back to life.
  • Non diegetic music creates tension, conventional of the horror genre.
  • Close up shots of the the moms face so audience can see how shocked she is- this implies that Camille just came back from the dead even though there was no real indication in the show that she died. (close up shot may make some of the audience feel uncomfortable).
  • Low key lighting- to set a dark mood, relating to the events taking place.
  • Mid-/close shots of Camille's features (her hair, hands, coat) when her mom first sees her- to build tension- conventional of a mystery genre.
  • Enjoyment at having genre conventions (like the zombie genre) subverted- it is a zombie show but does't have stereotypical conventions of the genre (like shows like the walking dead etc).
  • Nothing like the trailer.
  • Mother's evasive performance- why doesn't she hug her "dead" daughter- just stares at her daughter, she doesn't try to find out anything that happened to Camille.
  • Enjoyment at Claire's (the mother) atypical response- fully flushed out character, subverting character archetypes. 
  • Crane/ tracking shot- conventional shots used in a typical horror movie (conventional). An intertextual reference to the horror movie Sinister, when he's walking up the stairs. 
  • Frustration at the use of montage- lack of definitive action and fast paced editing (some people might find it boring as nothing much is going on).
  • Foreshadowed Camille coming home as her mom was in her bedroom looking at pictures of Camille before she appeared (has symbolic reference to her coming back to life)- some might think of it as cliche that her daughter comes home as she's looking at her pictures.  
  • How did Camille survived? (Hermeneutic code). Her arrival spurs a lot of unanswered questions. 
  • Pleasure at Camille's character and her assertive gobby nature. 
  • Middle aged heterosexual men might find Claire attractive.
  • Non-diegetic soundtrack - establishes a creepy and oppressive atmosphere.
  • Use of music - reaches a crescendo at the point here the butterfly emerges from the display, demonstrating to the audience a key symbolic code, helping them to understand the complicated narrative
  • Low key lighting and desaturated colour grading in the scene where Camille returns home emphasises to the audience a potential hermeneutic code, and forces the audience to negotiate their own perspective on the narrative. This enforces a polysemic reading of the text.

Sex scene at the end:
  • French word for orgasm "le petite mort"- " the little death". Has explicit relationship to Lena loosing her virginity and Camille dying at the same time. 
  • Conventions of supernatural genre- Camille has a bond to her sister- she feels with Lena feels.
  • Mise-en-scene of Lena's boyfriend's clothes 

How does the Les Revenants trailer target its target audience?
  • Shows themes of violence (blood, people punching each other etc).       
  • Targeted towards English speaking people (an international audience) as the writing and subtitles are all English.
  • Quotes from the Sunday Times,  a British newspaper to target a British audience.
  • Trailer is made to make the show seem like it has a lot of action to attract fans of that genre.
  • Its an atypical horror show that is hard to sell.
  • It encourages audiences to take an active reading- going for a smaller target audience.
  • Les Revenants invites target audiences to negotiate the reading.
  • An example of merchandise is the book.
  • Fan merchandise- for fans who want to show their love of the show.

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