A Clockwork Orange – Final session

Session aims and outcomes

Construction – Micro Elements

• Camerawork • Character alignment • Narrative • Sound • Mise en scene • Editing • Emotional response to topic

15 mins Task

• You have 15 mins to watch these clips and decide how the Director has constructed it to create an emotion response from the audience

• Extension: Link to the theories how might different audiences view it?

PleasureStories gain emotional responses from listeners, readers or viewers. Effective storytelling encourages us to feel human emotions by allowing us to sympathise, empathise or even identify with characters and their narrative experiences. As spectators (and as readers) we presumably find this process to be pleasureable or we would not return time after time to films (and stories), but in what ways is it pleasurable? Entering the window of the hotel room at the opening to Psycho would seem to encourage the notion of film as voyeuristically pleasurable, but what is the connection between voyeurism and emotional response? What sorts of emotional response does voyeurism bring about? Are we being permitted to give rein to a type of human interest in others that might more normally be considered socially unacceptable? If so, what sorts of emotion do we experience at this point?

Pleasure

• What sort of pleasure do audiences get from watching the eye lid scene in “Clockwork Orange”?

• Think of a film and a specific scene within it and explain what pleasure there could be in watching it….

Remember link to theories

• Key Theories

Hypodermic Needle Model • HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL: Also referred to as Magic Bullet Theory. Hypodermic

Needles are needles which put things in, most commonly we think• of hypodermic needles being used by drug addicts.

• Therefore the Hypodermic Needle Model explains that people watch/read media texts and they believe every part of every media message they are told. They consume

• it like a drug straight into the brain. It is the effect of BRAINWASHING someone. If the hypodermic needle model is to be believed then audiences are PASSIVE.

• This theory fits well into the concept of advertising- if the concepts of “the best product on the market” and “you can’t do without one of these” are reinforced during adverts then people will believe they need them and therefore buy the products.

Uses and Gratifications• Communication is never a simple matter of sending a message to a receiver as if delivering

a parcel, but involves interactive participation by the receiver. Stuart Hall described three main ways spectators tend to respond to the way they are positioned.

A preferred reading: where spectators accept the response andpoint of view that filmmakers intended.•An oppositional reading: where spectators reject the response and point of view that filmmakers intended.

A negotiated reading: where spectators only partially accept the response and point of view that filmmakers intended (modifying it with views of their own, treating it with some scepticism). Emotional response is very closely linked to the opinions and points of view, values and attitudes which films convey. That is a reminder that a powerful way of raising issue is by appealing to an emotion.

Uses and Gratifications

Some “Uses” and “Gratifications” for Audiencemembers include:Diversion: escape or emotional release from daily pressurePersonal Relationship: virtual companionship &sociability of discussing TV with others.Personal Identity: comparing your existence withwhat you see.Surveillance: finding out what’s going on in theworld- Voyeurism.

Projecting Illusion: Film spectatorship and the impression of reality

(Richard Allen)

• “Contemporary film theorists argue that, for a number of reasons, the cinematic image appears to spectators as if it were reality, but this appearance is an illusion. In fact, the cinematic image provides an impression of reality…”

• “Cinema is a form of signification that creates the appearance of a knowable reality and hence confirms the self definition of the human subject as someone capable of knowing that reality… the reality are the “effects” of a process of signification”

Projecting Illusion: Film spectatorship and the impression of reality

(Richard Allen)

• “Contemporary film theorists construe the film spectator as a passive observer of the image who is duped into believing that it is real. In fact, as I shall argue, the film spectator knows it is only a film and actively participates in the experience of illusion that the cinema affords.”

Feminist Readings

• It is worth noting that some films may evoke certain responses from feminists and or different ethnic groups etc

Task

• In groups Write an answer to the following question:

• Group 1: In a Clockwork Orange 2 how far do you think the Director is able to manipulate the audience into an emotional response (link to “uses and gratifications model”)

Group 2: Do the same linking to “Hypodermic Needle Model”

Extended Task

• You will need to select three films which you feel evoke a strong emotional response from the audience. You will study these in depth and ultimately respond to example exam questions on them.

Select four scenes to analyse in depth

Element Emotional Response created

Camerawork

Mise en scene

Editing

Sound

Narrative

Complete a table similar to this for each scene – there should be a number of points in each section.I will be given you some formal essay questions later as part of your exam prep.