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AudienceBy…..

Kate Hurst

Mark Piper

Julie Innes

Elly Sheen

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Objectives• To introduce key audience theorists

and explain their ideas and concepts• To show a rough timeline of audience

theory development.• To apply the ideas to a chosen film text• Highlight key quotes from the readings• To identify common threads throughout

the readings.

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Our readings….• Laura Mulvey ‘Visual Pleasure and

Narrative cinema’ (1975) + ‘Afterthoughts’ (1981)

• Martin Barker and Kate Brooks ‘Bleak futures by Proxy’ (1999)

• Uma Dinsmore –Tuli ‘The pleasures of home cinema…’ (2000)

• Shakuntala Banaji ‘Intimate Deceptions’ (2005)

• Bell Hooks ‘The Oppositional Gaze’ (1999)

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Film Texts...‘Million Dollar Baby’

2004

Directed by Clint

Eastwood

‘Pulp Fiction’

1994

Directed by

Quentin Tarantino

‘The Searchers’

1956

Directed by John

Ford

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Timeline‘Hypodermic syringe Model’

Mass Audience theory

Passive, homogenous mass, mindlessly receiving media texts

Developed by Frankfurt school of thought due to the worries about propaganda

during WW1 and WW2

Developed the term ‘moral panics’

1920’s

1940’s

‘Two Step Flow model’

Developed from the presidential election campaign of 1940

Suggests that the media do not have full power over opinions, introduces ‘opinion

leaders’ into the equation – they have more effect over people than the media

Sometimes referred to as ‘limited effects paradigm’

1948

Introduction of the basic ‘Uses and Gratification model’

Developed by Lasswell

- Surveillance

- Correlation

- Entertainment

- Cultural Transmission

1960’s

‘Cultivation Theory’

Developed by George Gerbner

States that media effects are amplified by the

amount of exposure to the medium

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Timeline

1974

1975

1980/1990

1999

‘Uses and Gratification model’

Developed from Laswell by Katz and Blumer

Audience interaction as an active process where by audiences are used media texts to gratify themselves

Laura Mulvey ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative

Cinema’

‘Male Gaze theory’

‘Reception Theory’

Based on Stuarts Halls ‘encoding/decoding model’

Active audience theory based on the idea that audiences read media texts in different ways although the institutions put forward a preferred

reading for the audience to consume.

Barker + Brooks – ‘Bleak Futures by Proxy’

And

bell hooks ‘Oppositional Gaze’ and

black female spectatorship

2000

Uma Dinsmore –

Tuli ‘The pleasures of

home cinema…’

2005

Shakuntala Banaji ‘Intimate

Deceptions’Hindi

cinema and values

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Uma Dinsmore-Tuli – The pleasures of ‘home cinema’ (2000)• Research carried out for Screen in • Autumn 2000.• Purpose of research– address impact of

technology (VCR) on audience viewing habits.

• Readdress some widespread assumptions made about viewing films in the home.

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Methodology• Qualitative• Small scale – 20 interviewees / 70 questionnaire respondents• ‘Passionate about cinema’ – recruited

through NFT & Home Entertainment magazine

• Drawing on ‘pleasures’ gained from home viewing; particularly the use of the remote control.

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Assumptions• The act of video viewing is in a constant

state of ‘flux’ due to the fluid nature of the medium; i.e. fast-forward, pause etc.

• ‘Damage’ is inflicted on narrative by these capabilities of the medium.• The VCR creates an ‘anti-cinematic’ experience.

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Results….

• Repeated viewings – wide-spread tactic; 97.1% frequently re-watched tapes in their collection.

• Sample preferred uninterrupted / undisturbed viewing.

• Repeated viewing – encourages deeper exploration and further knowledge of text.

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Results

• Remote often used to ‘complete’ the text.

• Environment adapted to provide attentiveness.

• Medium helps to forge a ‘respect’ for the text and often provides ownership

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Conclusion

• VCR use can – • Enhance the filmic experience in

more intimate and personal ways that the cinema environment ever could.

• Provide an intensely focused activity.• Promote informed viewer control.

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the pleasures of dvd – Pulp Fiction(1994)

The name of Quentin’s company is taken from one of his favourite films - Jean Luc Godard’s ‘Bande a Parte’

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The drawing effect is another homage to the

unexpected anti-cinematic conventions of

the French New Wave

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The dance competition is actually inspired by an

earlier film Jean Luc Godard’s ‘Bande a Parte’

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Quentin says his favourite musical sequences have always been in Godard

[Films]

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Jean Luc Godard’s A Bande à parte (1964)

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++

the text DVD special features

encourages re-watching of text

re-reading / reinterpretation of text

=

=

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bell hooks

• hooks is an American intellectual feminist and social activist.

• Work focuses on the interconnectivity of race, class and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate dominant value systems.

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The Oppositional Gaze

• Developed from a socio-economic look at the ‘gaze’ of black people.

• Historical development from Slavery.• Reinforced by - Lack of representation of

black people - Bad representation of black

people - Hollywood/TV industry

obsessed with white supremacy

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The Oppositional Gaze

• Although oppositional gaze works with both genders hooks main ideas from this article are based on female spectatorship.

• From this perspective black women place themselves outside the pleasure of looking.

• Do not identify with the characters/plots• Fully aware of construction

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Application to a film text – ‘Million Dollar Baby’• Textual analysis - Subtle differences in colour of robes - Musical intro is different - Background of the black female

character can be demeaning - Behaviour of the black female

character is negative ‘nasty’.

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Application to a film text – ‘Million Dollar

Baby’ - She is being reprimanded by the ref

for cheating. - She is the reason for the main

female protagonists downfall, thus we as a general audience are forced into a position of hatred towards this character.

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Key questions

• How would the black female audience of today ‘gaze’ at the character and feel about the way she is being represented?

• Can they position themselves within her character? Identify with her?

• Do modern audiences in developed countries even notice?

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Other key ideas

• Relate to Laura Mulvey ‘male gaze’ theory

- representation of black women• Discusses her interaction with black

female spectators of all ages• Lack of representation of black

females in feminist theory.• Black female audiences do not just

resist, they recreate.

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Psychoanalysis as a political weapon

The name of the Father and the Law

The male language of psychoanalysis Alternative cinema – reacting

against these assumptions and obsessions. Sets out to analyse beauty – and destroy it - creating a new language of desire.

The magic of Hollywood – skilled and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure -unchallenged and mainstream.

Scopophilia – peeping tom – voyeurism and that which is so manifestly ‘shown’. Women as image.

The love affair between image and self image in childhood – the mirror – loss and reinforcement of ego leading to moments of recognition.

Women – looked at and displayed. Woman as showgirl combining the look within the film and the audience

The fragmented body parts in close up: Dietrich’s legs.

Women are the one who makes the hero act as he does – in herself she is of no importance.

Male role to take the story forward – audience identifies with the male protagonist who controls events – he is a figure in a landscape – free to command the stage.

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The spectator fascinated by his own ‘like’ - being ‘shown’ the self – giving a satisfying

sense of omnipotence as ‘he’ delivers the

action.

The male protagonist is free to command the

stage, articulate the look, and create the

action/narrative.

The passive female form laid out for enjoyment – connoting male fantasy.

She is isolated, on display and for the male star

alone. However…

Anxiety is created by the ascertainable absence of a penis – creating castration anxiety – there

are 2 options

The male unconscious can investigate the

woman and demystify her.

Punish, devalue or save the guilty

object, typified by film noir.

Hitchcock – the hero sees precisely what the audience sees - the man is on the right side of the law – just – the woman on the wrong, the audience are drawn in

to share his gaze, voyeuristically.

Turn the object of anxiety into a fetishised beauty,

satisfaction based on the look alone

Sternberg - achieves the perfect fetish object – broken up into close ups, stylised - both the content of the film and the receptor of the spectator’s look. Her most erotic moments occur in the male hero’s absence.

Summary – the three looks: - The camera

- The audience - The characters within the

screen

Mulvey Diagram

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The male protagonists on the loose in the landscape –

searching for the lost woman…

Plot Synopsis: Ethan Edwards, returned from the Civil War to the Texas ranch of his brother, hopes to find a home with his family and to be near

the woman he obviously but secretly loves. But a Comanche raid destroys these plans, and Ethan sets out, along with his half-breed nephew Martin, on a years-long journey to find the niece kidnapped by the Indians under

Chief Scar. But as the quest goes on, Martin begins to realize that his uncle's hatred for the Indians is beginning to spill over onto his now-assimilated niece. Martin becomes uncertain whether Ethan plans to

rescue Debbie...or kill her.

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The woman – in the domestic setting, waiting. The caption for the first picture is, ‘When a

woman talks…’ The second image is reading the long awaited letter from the absent man.

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Watching and waiting …the return

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Rescued!

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Publicity shots for Rear Window – the male gaze at work

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The fragmented female

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And now?

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Barker and Brooks - ‘Bleak futures by proxy’ (1999)Current research strategies are limiting:• Centrality of psychoanalysis• Language of “limits and constraints” imply boundaries• Unidimensional model of textual determinism vs. audience

freedomHow might we differently understand the ‘text’ if we begin from the

range of audiences’ uses and responses?

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Judge Dredd – Bleak Futures by Proxy 1999 –Barker and Brooks

• Questions the research asked?• Snobbery of phsychoanalytical model – we

understand what you are thinking/how you are responding…

• These attitudes constrain the ways we look at audience response.

• How might we differently understand the film text if we begin from the range of audiences’ uses and responses?

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Methodology

• Audiences of Judge Dredd• Group interviews – Film Buffs and

teenage boys• General questions to develop discussion:

– How films are chosen– Previous knowledge of Judge Dredd– Important factors of the film

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Findings14-15 year old boys from a boys’ club:• Pleasures are futuristic technologies, violence, fast pace, FX• Described bleak futuristic imagery – guns,

violence, poverty and police out of control - as realistic: “Cos its getting like that isn’t it?”

• Pleasure of seeing today’s reality on the screen• Line between past and future is blurred

• High expectations of action and FX - the realism of plot complexities slows things down, and many boys were frustrated by this.

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Findings:•Film buffs/ middle class viewers:•Pleasure is recognised as purely escapist•Distance from their own lives•Violence considered unrealistic and therefore easy to watch•Vision of future described unrealistic – not scientific•Able to identify technology that is impossible•Lower expectations and more likely to be satisfied.

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ConclusionAn important factor of audience research should be the strategy of viewing – preparation, demands and use of experience.

For the working class boys FX, action and mucking about in the cinema were important demands of their experience.

• “A way of imagining their class situation, in the virtual absence of any languages or coherent experiences of class.”

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•Banaji firstly identifies that a film text encourages multiple meanings and is ‘infinitely polysemic’•She also identifies how meanings can be dependant on internal factors (religion/values), external factors (Nationality/Race) and social contexts. •Banaji refers specifically to Hindi cinema in the article and how Hindi cinema is treading some new ground (values represented within the films) to ensure an ongoing audience.

Shakuntala Banaji – Intimate Deceptions: Young British-Asian viewers discuss sexual relations on and off the Hindi film screen, 2005

•Banaji also acknowledges from her study some participants saw the value of ‘virginity’ as a universal value rather that specifically Hindi.

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•Jomir (a 16 year old working class British-Bengali) interpreted the scene as being a reflection of chaste cultural attitudes to gender roles and sex in South Asian cultures. His response to the scene is also coloured by a strong belief in the South Asian class system; the main protagonist’s honourable actions being the result of his middle-class status. It could be argued that Jomir’s response may be romantically tinged by dominant encoding of sexual roles found within many Hindi movies

•Ashok’s interpretation is drawn from personal experience of being a gay man in a traditionally sexually conservative culture. He, like many other gay and bisexual viewers of Hindi films, does not feel excluded by films featuring exclusively heterosexual characters, and manages to respond emotionally to the narrative situations.

•Manish’s interpretation and response to sexuality in Hindi movies is far more complex. A closeted homosexual, Manish has an ambivalent attitude to on-screen representations of sex – feeling that there should be more explicit depictions of sex on-screen to challenge older and more traditional viewers, but at the same time Hindi films should be instructional; teaching audiences about traditional Asian ways and family values.

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The three main assumptions challenged in the article were:•Snobbery – film critics can interpret the meaning of films for ordinary viewers•Misapprehension- the popularity of a film proves its ideological power over its audience•Prejudice – all non-Western audiences are the same

Whilst there was some same sex empathy, girls expressing the fears of young women of being, ‘shamed’, and letting down their families, and the boys’ discussion of the issue of virginity and male restraint, ‘they would be scared, they’d have something inside them telling them not to.’ There was also evidence of a sense of young women’s dilemma expressed by male respondents.

Another openly gay man spoke of ‘Bollywood films (that) have been part of me from day one…I’ll always make time for them…’ and expressed a range of empathetic responses, for the young girl in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, a male character who is the victim of rape, and a spurned housewife. Gay viewers did not appear to feel excluded or alienated by Hindi films’ rigid depiction of sexuality, and responded emotionally to the protagonists.

Viewers were able to separate their aesthetic enjoyment from their judgemental faculties and even when films were not ‘aimed at’ them, they were able to take pleasure in watching them. The viewers’ response clearly showed that they were able to speak from contradictory positions and sometimes transcend ‘essentialist assumptions …in their ability relish conventional films,’ despite the ‘intersecting subject positions’ they spoke from, in terms of race, gender and religion.

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The three main assumptions challenged in the article were:•Snobbery – film critics can interpret the meaning of films for ordinary viewers•Misapprehension- the popularity of a film proves its ideological power over its audience•Prejudice – all non-Western audiences are the same

Whilst there was some same sex empathy, girls expressing the fears of young women of being, ‘shamed’, and letting down their families, and the boys’ discussion of the issue of virginity and male restraint, ‘they would be scared, they’d have something inside them telling them not to.’ There was also evidence of a sense of young women’s dilemma expressed by male respondents.

Another openly gay man spoke of ‘Bollywood films (that) have been part of me from day one…I’ll always make time for them…’ and expressed a range of empathetic responses, for the young girl in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, a male character who is the victim of rape, and a spurned housewife. Gay viewers did not appear to feel excluded or alienated by Hindi films’ rigid depiction of sexuality, and responded emotionally to the protagonists.

Viewers were able to separate their aesthetic enjoyment from their judgemental faculties and even when films were not ‘aimed at’ them, they were able to take pleasure in watching them. The viewers’ response clearly showed that they were able to speak from contradictory positions and sometimes transcend ‘essentialist assumptions …in their ability relish conventional films,’ despite the ‘intersecting subject positions’ they spoke from, in terms of race, gender and religion.

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Common Thread 1

• The extent of the audience’s identification with the protagonist, whether male or female, and the willingness of the viewer to attach themselves emotionally to the active protagonist.

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Common Thread 1...

• The protagonist as male – commanding the stage and the audience

• Mulvey draws attention to the fact that it is often a male protagonist who carries the flow of the narrative and creates the action in film. This is referred to critically in the Mulvey article; the male figure is seen actively in the landscape, and carries the interest of the viewer, whilst the female figure is fragmented, punished or gazed at voyeuristically. ‘It is the male role to take the story forward… the audience identifies with the male protagonist who controls events…he is a figure in a landscape,

free to command the stage.’

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Common Thread 1...

• The protagonist as action hero – doesn’t matter if he’s a she

• The Barker and Brookes article makes the point that audiences are able to dissociate themselves from the sex of the main character in Action-Adventure movies, as long as the hero is effective and able to commit to the action, ‘none of these (working class) boys we interviewed had any difficulty with the idea of female heroes in such films – as long as the hero, whoever s/he was, was adequate to the task set.’ These films and their heroes were seen as a

challenge to authority.

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Common Thread 1...• The viewer as critic – respect for the narrative drive• Possible identification of audience to/with a protagonist is

more tenuous in the Dinsmore-Tuli article. Here the research shows the audience’s willingness to subsume themselves to the narrative. Despite the viewer having the ability to fragment, or control the narrative of the films they watch at home, they choose not to, they showed respect for the director and the narrative drive, ‘to express this respect in its most heightened form, the viewers set aside the ego based activities of manipulation, and surrendered themselves to the pleasures afforded by the director. …the effects of such surrender are powerful, and continue to exert their force during repeat viewings.’

Todorov

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Common Thread 1...• Intersecting viewpoints – transcending assumptions• In the Banaji article the audience response shows a strongly felt

identification with both the female protagonist, and the issues surrounding her, as well as the male protagonist’s role, in which the importance of restraint, of not ‘doing’ is commented on by many interviewees. The question of the moral stance of the hero seems to be one that engages the audience more deeply than is shown by some of the other articles. Despite an oppositional view being expressed by some viewers ‘the perception of hypocrisy on the part of certain members of South Asian communities,’ this did not appear to stop a warm sense of identification.’ Many of them (the interviewees) spoke from intersecting subject positions that made their on screen…identifications appear contradictory…at other times it allowed them to transcend their essentialist assumptions …. In their ability to relish conventional films and see beyond…’ their ‘gender ‘their’ religion, gender or ‘their’ race.’

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Common Thread 1...

• The oppositional gaze – on guard

• The bell hooks article shows the development of an oppositional view, a lack of identification, for the black woman viewer, engaging only partially with cinema whilst remaining ‘on guard… I could always get pleasure from movies if I didn’t look too deep.’ She talks about a process of interrogating the work, and becoming actively oppositional, ‘black female spectators have had to develop looking relations within a cinematic context that constructs our presence as absence,’ absence and misrepresentation leading to a complete inability to engage on a real level with the protagonist, male or

female.

Incognito - a film by Julie

Dash – a black woman director

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Common Thread 2

• Extent that all the readings treat the audience as highly active.

• Barker and Brooks – “ They are often moved by them, learn from them and about them, love

to talk about them, debate them, categorise them, collect and swap them – and of course they are often disappointed by them. This last point draws attention to something central – committed audiences

make demands on their chosen media materials”

• Uma Dinsmore-Tuli‘stopping the film and breaking the narrative, or rewinding and

repeating the narrative, breaking all the rules watching a film in the cinema’

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Common Thread 2

• Banaji‘Impelled by the possibility that differing social contexts may themselves alter or inflect the meanings made by hitherto unconsidered sections of

Hindi film audiences’

• MulveyHollywood genre films structured around masculine pleasure, offering

an identification wit the active point of view…

• hooks‘As critical spectators, black women participate in a broad

range o looking relations, contest, resist, revision, interrogate, and invent on multiple levels’