Spectatorship

Question 1

Murray Smith’s three stage process of identification

Answer 1

(positioning - seeing the world through a particular characters eyes, done by POV shots or eyeline matches)
1. Recognition - recognising a character and knowing how to place them as a particular type (through semic codes) or because of their narrative function
2. Alignment - experiencing the story through the protagonist (perhaps through framing or POV shots) we literally see the film through their eyes. often involuntary and we dont realise
3. Allegiance - we chose to associate imaginatively with a character based on their worth and appeal. we’re on their side

Question 2

How can Murray Smith’s three stage model be applied to WB?

Answer 2

Recognition - Ree is the hero (propps theory): the person on a quest, leading the narrative
Alignment - we know she’s the protagonist because there are many POV shots and she is in every scene in the film, the whole film is from her point of view
Allegiance - the audience pity Ree because she has to look after her mother and her siblings, also she is about to lose her house because of her dad

Question 3

What are the multiple spectating selves?

Answer 3

social self
cultural self
private self
desiring self

Question 4

What is social self?

Answer 4

gaining satisfaction from having a similar response to other spectators with similar values

Question 5

What is cultural self?

Answer 5

gets references and meanings generated by the memory of other films/TV/news
example: reboots or sequels

Question 6

What is private self?

Answer 6

generates personal and unique meanings based on personal memories eg films you watched when younger

Question 7

What is desiring self?

Answer 7

someone who brings conscious/unconscious energies to the events in the film that may have little to do with the films surface content. eg watching something and aspiring to be like someone is the film

Question 8

Rick Altman’s three different pleasures

Answer 8

1. affective: a strong emotion is aroused eg a melodrama which offers the spectator to cry
2. cognitive: intellectual responses, genre requires puzzling and deciphering clues and seeing how the filmmaker subverts expectations
3. visceral: the spectator experiences a gut response. the film offers use of film language to elicit a physical response such a revulsion or like a roller coaster ride

Question 9

Mental scheme

Answer 9

individuals naturally tend to categorise stimuli in order to simplify their environments, which facilitates the development of schemas/mental representations of the world

Question 10

Genre cues

Answer 10

the clues which spectators use to understand their watching experience and to place the film into a mental scheme. example: cactus, tumbleweed, men on horseback = western. i should expect violence and a shootout

Question 11

Genre pleasure

Answer 11

genres are essentially basic level categories which people use to simplify their movie watching experience - including when deciding which films to watch