Spectator
vs
Audience
Film studies distinguish between the response of social groups, collectives of people – an audience – and the response of the individual – a spectator.
•Spectatorship
is concerned primarily with the way the individual is positioned between
projector and screen in a darkened space
•The
audience ceases to exist for the individual spectator for the duration of the
film
•Although
the spectator is singular, a figure alone before the screen, spectatorship
tries to generalise about how all spectators behave
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC:
spectatorship+ ideology
independent film -production context
spectatorship:
- Passive
- Active
- Dynamic interaction with film narrative
- Uniformity or diversity
- Preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant readings (reception theory)
- Impact of different viewing conditions on response
- The analysis of narrative, visual, musical, performance, genre and Auter cues
ideology: a critique of American society and binary opposites:
BEN JACK
liberalism/progressiveness VS traditional convention
Antiestablishment VS status quo
liberal education VS traditional education
power freedom VS order conservatism
questioning and rebelling against status quo VS conserving and preserving the status quo
KEY SCENE - SWEET CHILD OF MINE
NARRATIVE:
-Dancing around the fire
primitive and tribal
- sequence towards the end
shows they are a strong unit
despite what they want
VISUAL CUES:
-all shots characters are in the centre, not on edge -sutured
-our focus, target film
-its a funeral
-over shoulder-fire
-panning landscape
-cuts to a different child
-looks like they're in heaven
PERFORMANCE
-cheerful
-synchrony with each other- family unity
-each child has different functions that act as one
-dad acts as the conductor
-sense of relief-catharsis for spectator
sweet child paragraphs:
The sweet child O' mine scene in which the family gather to cremate there mothers body. They are seen to be cheerfully dancing and singing in a tribal manner and going against the status quo of what a 'typical' cremation ceremony would look like. At this point, the spectator begins to become active. Because as perceivers we are processing how different there ceremony is and their way of doing things seems much more authentic and liberating way to celebrate death. Therefore as spectators, we are in a position to deeply process whether their way of life is better or worse than the traditional conventional way of living.
In terms of performance, each child is playing a different instrument or singing and they each have their own function but they act as one. This signifies that they have strong unity as a family, despite the family dispute that happens throughout the film concerning they way the dad has raised them without the traditional schooling and raised them to be anti-establishment like himself. However in this scene for Ben and the spectators it a acts as a sense of relief for him you can tell by the way he acts as passive conductor watching his children sing and dance to this song symbolises he has completed his mission in teaching his kids 'the right way to live'. This scene sums up the resolution to the film, how the family survives the battle of living under the oppressive society and instead chooses to live how they want through their own methods of freedom. This gives the spectator a sense of catharsis because it represents the end to there struggles and therefore is satisfying for us to see them live how they want to without disturbance.
the panning of the landscape and the costume of the family is very ethereal as if they are not in this world and not from this world, the close-up shot of the clouds then a shot of their mother on top of the fire. As well as the sublime scenery all sets the image of heaven on earth for the spectator.
Dinner sequence analysis:ideology
-mum/harper and husband-telling children how lesley died
-vs ben-straight out with it
-ben reflecting chomskys philosophy of learning/language
-ideological clash-ben rejecting nuclear family-middle class value
-typical American family-ben is perplexed by their view
-ben pushes his belief and boundaries onto family
The dinner sequence represents bens overall mindest on his opposition of the traditional amercan set up of a nuclear family, and its
Stuart Hall:
cultural theorist/political perspective/Marxist ideologies
representations are never transparent or authentic
never a window on the world
mediated reality
dynamic and active spectatorship
preferred reading- reading an interpretation :
accepting, colluding with the messages, values and ideologies of the text-film
reception theory :
with reference to a sequence you have examined explain and analyse how reception theory enhances our spectatorship:
oppositional reading :
rejecting messages, resisting, reality, or representation values and ideologies are rejected
relevant for a more active approach-also for specific groups-on the margins: gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class
negotiated :
negotiating a reading which both accepts and rejects aspects of films messages/values
Aberrant readings:
de-coded or interpreted differently to the intended messages/meanings
constructing meanings of your own from that text/film
EXAM STYLE QUESTION:
With close reference to the dinner’ sequence analyses how a critical approach you have studied enhances your understanding of the films’ ideologies
The dinner sequence starts at the beginning of Act 2 and represents bens overall mindset on his opposition of the traditional American set up of a nuclear family which jacks family symbolises behaving as a conventional American family. which directly opposes Bens position of anti-establishment and rebelling against the status quo, which resembles the works of Chomsky who has been referenced by ben throughout the film specifically the celebration of ‘Chomsky day’. Specifically when harper and the father explain how Lesley died, but disguising the real reason, however ben, seemed perplexed on why harpers feel the need to ‘protect’ the children from the truth and he intervened and blatantly and honestly informed the children that she killed herself.
Consequently there opposing views on how children should be informed on mental illness caused conflict over the table, and ben pushes his beliefs and boundaries onto their family. Causing the spectator to decide which family they align with, which depends on their own views on how to raise children, overall this creates an internal deepened processing within the spectator. In terms of mise-en-scene
