Thursday 15 May 2014

Essay Plan: Spectatorship

1. Introduction
Define Spectatorship, what it involves. Apply Spectatorship as active individual interpretation (emotional/spectacle/intellectual) alignment, identity.
Choose:
Your thesis on how contemporary films show a more varied interpretations, either greater diversity or spectacle experiences, and participation between the audience and film. To what extent, your argument, which relevant critical approaches & texts.

2. Dominant/traditional approach to film Male Gaze, psychoanalysis & mirror stage. Male-centric view apply to Clockwork Orange as historical text. Examples of readings from this approach (alignment & identity) with analysis of micro aspects.

3. Links above to examples from readings to Black Swan (indie context) Fantasy, fragmented identity, psychoanalysis. Emotional, spectacle intellectual - Factors? Judgment: what extent is gender significant? There is still mileage in these critical approaches but readings from oppositional gazes.

4&5. Context of societal change and recognition of oppositional gazes & alternative readings. Black swan and Your Case Study choice - explain emotional responses, Factors and readings from other pov. Judgment: what extent is gender significant?

6. Fandom & technology, define how fandom adds an extra dimension to Spectatorship in terms of identity (Spider-Man comicon, Marvel vs Zombies, Star Wars, LotR) and Factors - examples here are the participation of the spectator with the text: individual interpretation by reworking & appropriating the film (gay or feminist versions) Hunger Games and Twilight a female fandom or fan made films. Emotional responses and fantasy: a return to the mirror stage but also for women?
7. Spectatorship with Blockbusters prioritises the spectacle using CGI and 3D to fight online piracy free movies. Vs cine literate audience, watching diversity inc exposure to foreign controversial film. Watch movies online and isolated, the emotional response less a shared experience or 'event'?

8. Conclusion - depends on the nature of the question and how you tie in the above. Predictions for the future of Spectatorship, fandom reinventions of film texts. Is there still relevance to the Male Gaze or the use of Psycholanalysis - can this be expressed/read in a more complex way? Is the Fandom an extention of the Mirror Stage - Is the film experience for spectators more relevant in constructing identity on a subconscious level? Has technology been a positive influence on spectatorship or has it devalued film so it must be controversial or spectacle driven to stand out?

Wednesday 7 May 2014

5.3 Seminar notes: changes in spectatorship & audience experiences

Changes

Change 1. Spectatorship & The Gaze
Dominant male perspective (psychoanalysis and mirror stage, male gaze) to a greater variety of interpretations, recognition of oppositional gazes from male dominated (contemporary last 10 years)

1970s (UK INDEPENDENT) Clockwork Orange - RAPE, VIOLENCE, CONTROL
Male POV, male Gaze
No black characters
Female characters are victims of rape and murder
Homosexual teacher is a threat and perverted

Alignment is with a teenage sociopath, rapist, murderer, but tortured and controlled by the state behaviour control leads to contemplating suicide. Pity? Freedom of the individual?

2010's
(US INDIE) Black Swan - has psychoanalysis, mirror stage and male gaze (dominant view) but also open to female and queer gaze.

Your own film has oppositional Gaze. (CHECK IF IT IS INDEPENDENT)

FOREIGN 'HYPED' FILM

Change 2. Watching film individual basis (internet piracy streaming online distribution of film) lesser so in cinema and therefore together
Audience can change how you view - watch it in episodic instalments, or 'Binge viewing' of franchises
You pay for it in a cinema you have more investment in the film...

Pleasure: Intellectual Interpretation
- no longer such a social event emotional/outrage reactions from others 'a shared experience': talk about it, share opinions argue about beliefs & interpretations (FACTORs - experience) - take this away left you...
Emotional: Reactions & Factors (experiences) 
- lesser impact Comedy & Horror (laugh & scream together),
DOES THIS MAKE YOU MORE DESENSITISED TO EMOTIONAL IMPACT?
WHAT DOES A DIRECTOR HAVE TO DO TO RAMP UP THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT TO THE FRAGMENTED AUDIENCE?
- Alignment with the character, a stronger relationship with them...FILTH, (additional sequels & reboots) Kubrick did it - good thing: Sophisticated (a return art form - techniques that directors used in the 'golden age' 1970s Blockbusters spectacle FORMULAIC the same) CAN NOT RELY ON SPECTACLE because not on the big screen.
POV - handheld camera PARANORMAL ACTIVITY - alone, by yourself (setting in a more isolated and secluded way that relate to where you are watching it)  IMMERSION
GOOD THING!
- Provocative & Disturbing, Controversy & Sensationalisation (girl wearing least amount of clothes for attention?)
Densensitised
SPECTACLE not provocative ideas, but VISUALS. Less intellectually pleasurable, is this lazy filmmaking? Is there a meaningful narrative behind the Hyped
HUMAN CENTIPEDE

Change 3. Greater Diversity of film being watched?
More diversity in what the audience watch: foreign cinema, independent cinema, 'cine literate' greater understanding and appreciation of diversity of cultures and film experiences (not just diet of Hollywood)
HYPE OVER CRAFT?
FOREIGN FILMS = NATIONAL CINEMA - are our expectations that they have MORE TO SAY?
NYMPHOMANIAC - LARS VON TRIER
Unsimulated sex scenes THEY ACTUALLY ARE HAVING SEX !
Shia Lebouf shagging in a film for real. Controversial - people want to see this aspect
Career - TRANSFORMERS - to be fair (porn doubles - but still...) Artist
INITIMATE - 'suited to the solo spectator' 

Nymphomaniac
Nymphomaniac poster.jpg
Volume 1 theatrical release poster
Directed byLars von Trier
Produced byMarie Cecilie Gade
Louise Vesth
StarringCharlotte Gainsbourg
Stellan Skarsgård
Stacy Martin
Shia LaBeouf
Christian Slater
Jamie Bell
Uma Thurman
Willem Dafoe
Mia Goth
Sophie Kennedy Clark
Connie Nielsen
Michaël Pas
Jean-Marc Barr
Udo Kier
CinematographyManuel Alberto Claro
Editing byVolume I:
Morten Højbjerg
Both volumes:
Molly Marlene Stensgaard
StudioZentropa Entertainments
Heimatfilm
Film i Väst
Artificial Eye
Les Films du Losange
Distributed byFrance:
Les Films du Losange
Germany:
Concorde Filmverleih
United States:
Magnolia Pictures
Release dates
  • 25 December 2013(Denmark)
  • 1 January 2014(Belgium and France)
  • 20 February 2014(Germany)
Running timeVolume I:
117 minutes
[1]
145 minutes 
(Uncut)[2]
Volume II:
124 minutes
[3]
CountryDenmark
Belgium
France
Germany
[4]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4.7 million
($2.35 million per film)
Box officeVolume I:
$12,161,483
[5]
Volume II:
$4,093,644
[6]
Both volumes:
$16,255,127

In October 2013, a series of posters were released, each depicting the film's characters during the moment of orgasm.[22] Along with the appetizers and the character posters, five theatrical posters (three for the complete feature and one for each volume) and an international trailer featuring some of the explicit sexual scenes, were released.[citation needed]


Plot

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Lisbeth Salander with Mikael Blomkvist
Swedish release poster
Directed byNiels Arden Oplev
Produced bySøren Stærmose
Screenplay byNikolaj Arcel
Rasmus Heisterberg
Based onThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by 
Stieg Larsson
StarringMichael Nyqvist
Noomi Rapace
Music byJacob Groth
CinematographyEric Kress
Jens Fischer
Editing byAnne Østerud
StudioYellow Bird
Music Box Films
Alliance Films
Lumiere
GAGA
Distributed byNordisk Film
Release dates
  • 27 February 2009
Running time152 minutes
CountrySweden[1]
LanguageSwedish
Budget$13 million[2]
Box office$104,384,415[2]
The critical consensus is: "Its graphic violence and sprawling length will prove too much for some viewers to take, but Noomi Rapace's gripping performance makes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo an unforgettable viewing experience."[3] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 76% based on reviews from 36 critics.[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars, noting that "[the film] is a compelling thriller to begin with, but it adds the rare quality of having a heroine more fascinating than the story".[5]

Spectatorship: Emotional? Intellectual? Spectacle - the rape scene?
Interpretations: Male Gaze, Queer Gaze, Female Gaze?

- Spectacle: 3D & IMAX, BLOCKBUSTERS 

AVATAR

Change 4: Fandoms & the relationship/experience of the film 
LOTR: A marked change from something considered 'sad', 'obsessive' or 'geeky' becoming accepted into the mainstream. Could celebrate their fandom.
Film experience has moved beyond the text to the collaberation, community and identification process surrounding the text.

1970's - 2010's: internet allows relationship with the audience: similar arguments to the Music Industry in AS Media Studies.
1960's Star Trek & Star Wars, the internet has facilitated the sharing and collaberation of fandom around the text. 
Must have relationship with them to have the shared experience, community
Dress up 
Identification (mirror stage, fantasy) and appropriation of characters, re-imagined for a queer audience
Fan made fiction surrounding the marketing and distribution of the film.
  • Fiske defines three fan "reactions" to their text of choice:
  • 1) semiotic productivity is when fans use their object of fandom to create social meaning in theirown lives (ex. a fan who gains confidence watching his or her favorite character on TV).
    2) 
    enunciative productivity is when fans express their fandom to the outside world through speech or appearance (ex. fans wearing their favorite team's jerseys).
    3) 
    textual productivity is when fans create texts based on their object of fandom (ex. fan fiction).
SWEDING 
fanatic loyalty

Thursday 1 May 2014

Fridays Lesson - Flipped Classroom

Dear Mr Dixon

I've set up a lesson for you to facilitate over the next 2 Fridays. This is an opportunity for the class to teach you what the exam is about.

See the last 2 posts on the blog. We will run this as revision seminars for the rest of the Module where they teach you about the exam content a a revision presentation format - the class will decide on how to conduct the revision session (trains, ven diagram, boxes - whichever they think is suitable from what you suggest and explain these are), they supply the content and assess you using the blog.

The class need to assess your learning with an assessment by the end of the Module, applying the above to the Case Studies

Week 1 is the presentations based on the Oppositional Gazes

Those presenting:
Danica
Layla
Jasmine
Luke
Peter

By the end of next week the things they need to teach you and apply to our Case Studies over the next

Next Week: Mr Dixons learning outcomes are:

1. What is Psychoanalysis and how is it applied to Film Criticism

2. How does it apply to our Case Study texts Black Swan & Clockwork Orange?

3. What is the Mirror Stage and how does it apply to the texts - key scenes - what meaning do these critical approaches reveal about message of the film or relationships between characters?

4. What has the above got to do with gender - why significant?

5. What is significant about the Male Gaze to the above?

6. What are oppositional GAzes?

7. What different reading do they offer from the students own Case Study: START HERE AND ASK DAVID AND MARTIN & BEX - they presented on BLACK GAZE & FEMALE GAZE.

8 Why are we looking at 3 different texts? Over time?



You will need to find a way of doing this to effectively teach Mr Dixon's (keep his attention and meet his learning style) - not just "chalk and talk" - that does not mean you cannot discuss. Each student will be involved and take a different area.

Is this okay with everyone?

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Mark Scheme for feedback



Oppositional Gazes




1. Recap on Black Swan and how Freud and Lacan apply to these films - key example of scenes & Micro. (influence/relationship of parental/authority figures, repression subconscious, identity, sexual fantasy, psycho-sexual themes phallic/yonic, violence)

What message or meaning can we interpret about the story and the events in the film?

Does the Male Gaze apply - examples and why?

Is the director deliberately using this for an intellectual pleasure or spectacle and emotional?

What links are there to Clockwork Orange - our historical text. How does it compare in it's use of Psychoanalysis (parental/authority figures, repression subconscious, identity, sexual fantasy)
How does it show the development of the significance of Gender in Spectatorship since 1970's?



2. Present your oppositional gazes - Queer Gaze, Female Gaze, Black Gaze

1. What make it different to the Male Gaze?

2. Apply it - how does it offer a different reading to the film from this perspective?

3. Analysis: what is the meaning behind the film from this perspective - is it intellectual, spectacle or emotional pleasure

On a contemporary film of your choice using reviews, ratings and google scholar to apply an

Reviews: Kermode, Egbert, Bradshaw
Google Scholar references


Present with key scenes that show your analysis of the oppositional gaze and how it is constructed (micro) to create response in the spectator

How does this relate to Theories of Spectatorship & Alignment?

Alignment - who are we positioned with, is this complicated by the Gaze - is this deliberate to get a message across (intellectual)?



Emotional Responses - how does adopting this 'Gaze' make you feel?
Factors that affect adopting this Gaze -  experiences, not being representative of the dominant group/approach

Conclusion: what does it offer to our response to the question - is Gender the most significant factor?

"How far does a spectator’s gender affect their viewing experience in contemporary cinema?"


Tuesday 22 April 2014

Set work for A2 Film today 22nd April

Welcome back after Easter break. 

I id not receive any of the essays I set the week over the break, so I have asked Mr Dixon to collect your studies in addition to the homework at 3:40 today.

The work is the post below this one.

Also due today is your analysis of spectatorship using your own example that demonstrates one of the Oppositional Gazes, to be included in your final paragraph for the essay and feeding into your thesis and conclusion - how signifiant is gender in a spectator's reception of a film?

Next week we are moving onto Spectacle driven Movies and Fandom so this is your last chance to get the exam essay submitted.

Post them to your blogs 

Homework for next week is to research audience fanculture surrounding either: 

Preliminary Reading
http://www.totalfilm.com/features/50-biggest-movie-fandoms
Theory: John Fiske on Fandom
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Fandom
Case Study on 'Jack & The Beanstalk'


the Marvel comics franchise (Avengers, Spiderman or Xmen)
or The Hunger Games 
or the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII
or (sigh!) Lord of The Rings

Q1. Who are these people (demographics: age, gender, subculture [geeks], sexuality?)
Q2. What evidence can you find (forums etc) to show they affect the Production & Marketing of these films
Q3. Comicon - how is this linked to Marketing & Distribution
Q4. What type of pleasures are offered (subcultural identity, spectacle, ideologies/values, mirror stage fantasy?







1.  Why is Fandom significant to our studies on Spectatorship? What links can you make between how audience interpretation and readings of film are  explored here?

'Queer' Reading of Lord of the Rings
Female Fandom & the Hunger Games

2. Fandom & Spectatorship:
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Fans-and-Fandom-FANDOM-AS-A-SOCIAL-ACTIVITY.html
These highly communal experiences, responses, and interpretations of fandom also translate into activities beyond simply viewing a highly anticipated and appreciated film. Film fans approach watching a film as just one stage within a wider process of consumption and production, with secondary texts such as promotional materials and reviews leading up to the moment of viewing, fanzine reviews and commentaries following the initial filmic encounter, and repeated viewings and the collecting of DVDs with their special features. Film fandom is never about just "going to see a movie."



3. DEFINITIONS OF FANDOM TERMINOLOGY
  • fandom can be defined or explained as the state of being a fan or all that encompasses fan culture and fan behavior in general, or the study of fans and fan behavior.
  • the definition of an audience is: an assembly of listeners or spectators.
  • the definition of fanatic is: marked or moved by excessive enthusiasm and intense uncritical devotion.
  • the definition of a fan is:
    1) an enthusiastic follower of a sport or entertainment or
    2) an enthusiastic admirer (as of a celebrity).
  • fandom is expressed individually (ex. a fan surfing the Web for sites about their favorite celebrity) and/or collectively (ex. a sporting event or concert).
  • Texts or commercial commodities are the objects of fandom (ex. celebrities, movies, music videos, teams, etc.)
  • Fiske defines three fan "reactions" to their text of choice:
    1) semiotic productivity is when fans use their object of fandom to create social meaning in their own lives (ex. a fan who gains confidence watching his or her favorite character on TV).
    2) enunciative productivity is when fans express their fandom to the outside world through speech or appearance (ex. fans wearing their favorite team's jerseys).
    3) textual productivity is when fans create texts based on their object of fandom (ex. fan fiction).
These are the most general of definitions. 



Conclusion - is gender still significant when applied to film fandom?

Post your thoughts as comments below