I Love That Film: relationship between audiences and films

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching.

Part 5 on the effects of film.

Part 6 on fandom.

Fandom: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 6

Films do not just have the potential to have an effect on audiences but also audiences can have an affect on films. With fandom it can go both ways. Fans are people who love a particular film, genre, character or star and they share camaraderie with other fans. Sometimes being a fan can involve a huge range of activities such as attending conventions, dressing up, writing fan fiction, blogging, starting a website, attending premieres, collecting merchandise, writing fan mail or even getting into film production and referencing the films you are a fan of.

Though the films have clearly had an effect on the fans by making them get obsessed and turning the film into a hobby for the person, the fans also have an impact on the film. They turn it into more than a film, making it a cultural phenomenon such as Star Wars. Fans are now becoming filmmakers so Kevin Smith references Star Wars in most of his movies and J.J. Abrams is now making a Star Wars movie after being a huge fan of the original. Fans have expanded the Star Wars universe by writing their own fan fiction and their continuing love for the franchise has led to more and more sequels. Some fans have even gone as far as to call ‘Jedi’ their religion and some Trekkies have learned the (fictional) language Klingon from Star Trek. Some Avatar fans were even reported to be feeling depressed or suicidal as they could not visit the fictional planet Pandora. How much of this is really believable is debatable but there can be no doubt that fans take films very seriously and films can have a big impact on peoples lives.Check out this story on the tension between fans.

Did you miss...?

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching.

Part 5 on the effects of film.

Read more:

Part 7 on pre and post-viewing experiences and conditions of reception.

Are you a fan? What do your fan activities consist of?

The Effects of Films: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 5

Despite the fact that most people reject the idea that cinema audiences are a completely passive mass who do not question or interpret films in different ways, some theorists have argued that films can have serious and damaging effects on viewers. In the past, the media (particularly tabloid newspapers) have been quick to blame films and video games when individuals have committed terrible crimes. The murder of the three year old James Bulger by two ten year old boys was blamed on the murderers having been exposed to the film Child’s Play 3 with calls for the film to be banned despite no real evidence that the boys had seen the film. Natural Born Killers and A Clockwork Orange were also blamed for copycat violence with the argument that some people see bad things in films and want to copy them.

The main effects that people are concerned about are desensitisation, fear, violence in society and viewer aggression. If people see a lot of violence in films, the argument is that they might become desensitised to real life violence. The more blood you see on screen, the more you get used to seeing blood and the less shocking it will be. The concern is that particularly children could be affected if they see too much violence and pain on screen, perhaps they will not feel as strongly about it when they see it in real life. This could make them dangerous human beings that do not empathise with people in pain and therefore they would be capable of being more violent in real life.

Similarly if there is more violence in films, there is an argument that society will become more violent. Films will make audiences feel that violence is an acceptable part of life and being violent is an acceptable way to behave. If film characters solve their problems with fights and killing the bad guys, people might follow. This also ties in with viewer aggression. If a viewer watched lots of violent films or films that make them angry, they might be more aggressive. I have had more than one student in the past tell me that watching a film like The Football Factory actually does make them want to fight. Again the real concern is children who are considered to be more impressionable. Will watching Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers or even Spiderman or Lord of the Rings make them more aggressive and enjoy the idea of fighting more? However this is why we have the BBFC and age ratings to stop children from seeing things that society deems unsuitable. The BBFC are very good at researching what the public views are on things like sex, violence and swearing. However they still occasionally but very rarely ban or cut films that they argue are too offensive or ‘dangerous’ even for people over the age of 18 due to harm these films could supposedly cause.

The other effect that might be a concern is that with all this violent entertainment, vulnerable people may actually start to fear society and other people. If an elderly, frail person watched a film like Harry Brown or Kidulthood, it may make them fear London youth because of the stereotypes it presents. Horror movie watchers might be more afraid of being alone, women could be more afraid of men and the threat of rape and all because of violent films that people watch for entertainment.

Did you miss...?

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching.

Read more:

Part 6 on fandom and film fans.

Part 7 on pre and post-viewing experiences and conditions of reception.

I'm curious about this one. What do you think about the media effects debate? Can films turn us into monsters? Do movies create pscychos? Or do movies make psychos more creative? Drop a comment below if you have an opinion on the matter...

Media Literacy and Intertextuality: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 4

Another major factor or framework of interpretation that must be considered is the media literacy of the viewer. If someone is very educated about the media, as in they have done a media course or they watch a lot of special features on DVD’s and are very aware of how media texts are constructed, then this is likely to have an impact on their enjoyment and interpretation of a film. A viewer who is more media literate will likely be aware of how the text is positioning them and may therefore be less suggestible to the messages of the film. This viewer will be more aware of how the preferred readings of a film are constructed and may therefore resist the ideology or messages of the film more than someone who is less aware of how films construct meanings and provoke specific emotional responses.

For example some viewers may find Kidulthood to be a realistic depiction of London’s youth whereas others may see it as a sensationalistic film that stereotypes London teens in order to sell more tickets at the box office. Some viewers will not enjoy fantasy films as much because they are overly aware of how the special effects are created and this ruins the magic for them. Some viewers may appreciate the films of Tarantino more or less than others because they are more or less aware of the references to other films that Tarantino alludes to. They may also enjoy a film such as Pulp Fiction more because they find the structure challenging and interesting compared to a traditional narrative whereas others may find the non-linear narrative confusing and pointless.

This also ties in with intertextuality which is where a film references another piece of media. This can be deliberate or unavoidable. For example spoofs such as Scary Movie deliberately reference other films such as Scream in order to parody them and make viewers who are aware of the film being referenced, laugh at the imitation. People who have seen Scream are more likely to enjoy Scary Movie as they will be more familiar with the target of the mockery. Tarantino on the other hand pays homage to films he loves such as Lady Snowblood in Kill Bill or City on Fire in Reservoir Dogs by imitating them but not to mock them and make people laugh.

However intertextuality can also be less deliberate and almost unavoidable. This is often the case with genre films and the use of stars. Any time a filmmaker wants to make a slasher film where a killer stalks a bunch of kids and stabs them one by one, that film will always have unavoidable references to the whole slasher sub-genre of horror. Similarly, any time a filmmaker casts a star such as Will Smith for example, the viewer is likely to be reminded of previous Will Smith films. If I see Will Smith on a poster, I suspect he may save the world (or at least be the hero) because I’ve seen him do this a few times. I see Jim Carrey and I expect a comedy. This can be used to sell a film or it can be used to subvert expectations but either way, the use of certain generic conventions or stars can impact the experience for the viewer, particularly if they are media literate or very knowledgeable about films.

Did you miss...?

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching.

Read more:

Part 5 on the effects of films.

Part 6 on fandom and film fans.

Part 7 on pre and post-viewing experiences and conditions of reception.

Frameworks of Interpretation: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 3

Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that the audience is made up of individuals who all read and interpret films differently from each other. What makes us individuals are a range of things and these could be considered our frameworks of interpretation. For example I am a (vaguely) young white British man who has been through higher education and is (probably considered) middle class. All these factors such as my age, my class, my ethnicity, my education and even my past experiences will all have some bearing on the way I read and interpret a film. Though I might agree with many other people, there could also be differences. For example my interpretation of a film might be very different to an old African lady. Though the film may have a preferred reading, there may be some differences in the way people interpret it due to their differing frameworks of interpretation.

Examples of this can be found everywhere. Where I found Avatar to be about a so-called ‘primitive’ species of aliens that taught a human that he should be more respectful of his surroundings and nature and the environment, others criticised it for portraying the aliens as savages and for the use of African-American and Native American actors in the roles of the aliens. I interpreted it as James Cameron suggesting that the ‘primitive’ cultures were honourable, noble and cared for the planet, whereas the humans (often played by Americans and Europeans) had basically destroyed Earth through carelessness and greedy consumption of natural resources. However others consider it a patronising view of non-white cultures and criticised it for having a white hero who has to save the savages. Perhaps some critics with different frameworks of interpretation to my own were more sensitive to these issues than I was.

Did you miss...?

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching.

Part 5 on the effects of films.

Part 6 on fandom and film fans.

Part 7 on pre and post-viewing experiences and conditions of reception.

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Pleasures of Film Watching: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 2

Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that audiences do not all just watch whatever they are told to watch and instead different individuals consume different films for different reasons and pleasures. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggested by Blulmer and Katz indicates that there are four main pleasures that audiences gain from films; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

Diversion is probably the most common reason people choose to watch films. Quite simply many viewers will watch a film just to get away from the problems and reality of their own lives. This is why most big Hollywood blockbusters offer pure escapism. They tell easy to understand stories where good usually triumphs over evil and people can go home feeling good. They can provide us with emotions we may not always feel in the mundane routine of our everyday lives, making us laugh, cry or scream. Many films even take us to fantasy lands like Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings or far off planets like in Star Wars, allowing us to completely escape the reality of our lives.

Some people may use films as a substitute for personal relationships. A classic example of this is a viewer choosing to go and see a romantic comedy because they are single. The idea of a relationship or finding a happy relationship is played out in the film. Similarly films that are about groups of friends may help a person to feel like part of a group. In films like the American Pie series or The Inbetweeners, viewers might find characters that they would like to be friends with and watching a film is like being in their company. I’m not sure I fully agree with this one and think it may apply more to TV shows like soap operas rather than films.

On a perhaps more concerning note, many people may watch a film for reasons of personal identity. This is where a viewer watches a film because they see themselves reflected in it, whether it be one specific character or a certain subculture of lifestyle. Stoner comedies are a perfect example of this. People who smoke certain substances are much more likely to relate to the stoner comedies of Jay and Silent Bob, Cheech and Chong or Pineapple Express. Similarly some people chose to watch violent films about football hooliganism such as Green Street and The Football Factory because it is a lifestyle that they can relate to. The viewer may even learn some of their values from the text. For example when I first saw Fight Club, I was taken in by much of what the revolutionary character Tyler Durden said found my own beliefs altered after watching the film.

Finally surveillance is another pleasure of film watching that means finding films that might contain information that is useful for living. For example watching documentaries such as Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11 might educate the viewer about the current state of America. I might also watch world cinemas to learn more about cultures that are foreign to me. For example the films City of God and La Haine teach the viewer about what it is like to live in poor areas of Brazil in France. While this could be considered escapism from my own life in Britain, they could also contain information that is useful in my life.

Next up in part 3 I will be looking at Frameworks of Interpretation and Media Literacy and how this affects the relationship between audiences and films. Part 1 on active vs passive spectatorship is here.

Did you miss...?

Read more:

Part 5 on the effects of film.

Part 6 on fandom.

Part 7 on pre- and post-viewing experiences and conditions of reception.

Active Spectatorship: The Relationship between Audiences and Films Part 1

Films can have a huge amount of effects on audiences from simply causing an emotional response to some would argue much worse effects such as causing copycat violence. Audiences however can also affect a film and particularly the longevity of its popularity and its status in our culture. Audiences are made up of individuals however and it is impossible to say that a film will have the same impact on every single viewer and also that a film will be read or understood by each viewer in the same way. It is a complex relationship that deserves further exploration. Over the next couple of weeks I will be looking at active spectatorship, the pleasures of film watching, the effects of films, fandom, different viewing experiences and things that affect our interpretation of films.

Active vs. Passive Spectatorship

One of the fundamental debates in media theory is over whether audiences are made up of individual active spectators or a passive mass of unthinking consumers who watch what we are told to watch and fail to question what we are told or the messages of the media we consume. Active spectatorship theory suggests each viewer is different and many people in the audience will question the film and react to it in different ways to others, not just blindly accepting the messages. Active spectators do not just consume what they are told to watch by marketing that is aimed at them but instead choose different films to watch for different reasons. The passive spectator theory on the other hand suggests we are all the same and our intelligence, life experiences and everything else that makes us individuals does not affect our reception of the film.

Perhaps it can be argued that some filmmakers try to turn the audience into passive spectators by filling their films with very obvious, unambiguous preferred readings. Others wish to encourage active spectatorship by making their films more open to individual interpretation and making it easier for people to read the film differently and respond to it in different ways. A preferred reading is where the producers of the text encode it with meaning using various codes such as music, lighting and cinematography in order to try and get as much agreement over the meaning of the text as possible. It is made very clear how the filmmaker wants the audience to think and feel about the characters, story and events in the film. Blockbusters generally have a clear preferred reading, so for example in Titanic when the protagonist Jack dies there is very sad music on the soundtrack and he is played by Leonardo DiCaprio who audiences are very familiar with. Everything about the way the scene is shot, edited and scored makes everyone (mostly) in the audience agree that it is sad that Jack has died.

On the other hand some other films encourage spectators to be more active and to have to think about how to feel and respond to the film. For example Pulp Fiction is told in a non-linear fashion and so the audience has to construct the real chronology of the story in their own head. The film does not have heroes and villains either. There is very little that tells the audience how to feel at certain times or what to feel about certain characters. Spectators think for themselves about whom to be sad about if they die or even who is the main character of the story. Similarly the ending of Memento leaves the viewer with a great deal of ambiguity about how to feel about the protagonist. The reverse chronology and the revelations in the final scene reveal that the character is somebody quite different to what the audience had been previously led to believe and it takes a very active mind to decide how to feel and interpret the film by the final scene.

Next up in part 2, I will be looking at the many different pleasures of film watching.

Check out the rest of the posts in this series:

Part 2 on the pleasures of film watching.