DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
1
Directors Direct Writers Writings Name: Preston L. Ezell I.D. #: 0002713229 Class: T101 Friday 9:05am Discussion Assignment: Creative Work Assignment 2 A.I.: Sade Oshinubi Indiana University
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
2
Keywords: Film, Perceptions, Psychological, Identification, Characters, Behaviors, Attitudes.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
3
Abstract This article explores 5 different articles that report on the effects of film in our everyday lives. They are opinionated sources that offer professional information and views on the intensity, relativity, and duration of films power. This effect matters, because it could possibly be the very reason behind why we are who we are. Identification and relation to characters are covered thoroughly, while Jaun Jose Igartua’s, “Film Involvement and Narrative Persuasion: The Role of Identification with the Characters,” article is analyzed closely. Building off identifying with characters, this article asks and answers why we go to the movies, what we get from it, and how it changes us.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
4
Directors Direct Writers Writings Everyone knows the stars of the screen; Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Aniston, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, etc. These actors and actresses have created characters that have been with us through the good times and the bad, not only to entertain viewers, but to also act as role models. More than simple eye candy, providing a good laugh or cry, these characters offer insight towards life and therapy for the heart. The viewing experience has us locked into the lives that characters in a dramatic storyline lead. Hanks feels sad, and so does the viewer. Aniston is hurt, and so is the viewer. DiCaprio is out for redemption, and the viewer is walking right alongside him with a right mind to destroy the bad guys. There is certainly some level of concern and emotion involved in viewing dramatic films, but does this emotional impact roll out of the body along with the credits? Or is there a state of mind and heart carried away from a film that changes lives forever? You have probably heard somebody say, “it’s just a movie,” implying a belief that movies are simply entertainment and nothing more. While emotionally demanding films are without a doubt dramatic and entertaining, more so they have the power to transport us into situations we might never encounter, changing our attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
5
The analyzing of these changes started from searching the online Indiana University research database, “EBSCOhost” for five journals that were selected to find out why we view films, how we view films, what we get from films, how we get what we get from films, and how much of an impact a film can have on a viewer. The sources that were chosen were found using a variety of keywords such as: film, emotions, society, impact, psychological, movies, perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, permanent, and characters. One appropriately emotional script, The Notebook, was also retrieved from the Internet for the purpose of analyzing specific dialogue or storylines that might be used in dramatic films to affect the viewer emotionally. The primary source is an article written about a movie of Rwanda this past June. It was found through extensive searching on Google. These sources were chosen because they are evidence that support the claim that film is more than just entertainment, and that it has the power to change a viewers attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors, or in other terms, that relate more to “Media Life, that film is living and teaching us actively. Where does all this change begin? An emotionally demanding film’s components are simple, as they are made of a setting, a story, a plot, characters, and a meaning. Together these pieces form an experience that can leave the viewers with anything from the happiest smile to the saddest frown. However, when the pieces are broken down and analyzed one stands out more than the rest, characters. Berys Gaut (2010), sides with researchers that believe the identification with characters is where attitude, perception, and behavior change begins; “Some, including Amy Coplan… … maintain that film audiences can identify or empathize
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
6
with characters and that this is the important aspect of their emotional engagement with characters” (p. 136). The character of a film is the vessel in which emotions are carried and projected to the viewer. Without characters that, in one way or another, can relate life’s tragedy, happiness, and spontaneity to the viewer, there is no power behind film, or any story for that matter. Identification and relation are the keys to emotionally affecting a viewer. Characters do not necessarily have to be human, but do necessarily have to connect with the viewer on some emotional level, or else the viewer will be lost in a collection of moving images tied to meaningless dialogue, witnessing stories in disorientation. The audience must be supplied with a character that truly engages a relatable life. If there is nothing to identify with, a viewer cannot be emotionally in sync with a character’s story or meaning. These stories are selected from an endless library of preconceived experiences, thought up or actually experienced. Since The Great Train Robbery in 1903, the first recorded film, innovated the film industry as an entertainment business, movies have been evolving right alongside the human race. The entertainment factor of movies is still apparent, but a factor of experiential education has significantly made its way into the movie industry. So if relation to a character is the key to a film’s emotional connection and the seed of film changing ones attitudes, perceptions, and behavior, is this relation imposed or invited? Well, according to Jaun-‐Jose Igartua (2009), It is both; “Identification (with a character) can act as a dependent variable and also as an independent variable” (p. 2). Identification acting as a dependent variable and also an independent variable is simple to understand. Igartua (2009) is saying that if the viewer has already
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
7
experienced the story, or a similar story, in the film they can relate to the characters with familiarity and look at the situation through a personal lens, or if they have not experienced the story they can learn how to deal with such a situation by identifying with characters and mimicking how the characters handled the situation. For example, if the onset of a break up between character A and character B occurs in a storyline, a viewer might look back at their own past and think something along the lines of, “it was her fault, because all he did was love her, that’s how it happened with my ex,” or “this space will be better for them mentally, it was for me.” A simple example, yes, but applicable to many well-‐known films such as, The Notebook, Bruce Almighty, or The Titanic, to name a few. Igartua (2009) means that this viewer may have been in the situation before or rather seen it before, and judging by how they once perceived it predetermined motives will control a viewer’s reasoning behind a character’s actions, and how the characters will be affected. The character, since he or she has no defense mechanisms being a character on a screen, is inviting the viewer to apply his or her own related experience to the story. So the viewer remains in a sense of control as they review and critique the actions played on screen from the mental framework their past has constructed. In this sense there is no change in a viewer’s attitudes, perceptions or behaviors, just an application of the ones that already exist. On the other hand a viewer might be inexperienced in the situations on screen. Their mental framework might include a view towards a break up, but does not include attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors involved in a break up because they have yet to experience such. The onset of a break up between character A and
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
8
character B in a storyline is new ground for the viewer. Let’s look at a specific example; in the movie The Notebook Noah and Allie were once teenage lovers from different worlds, but broke up and went separate ways. Long story short, after some years, Allie, engaged to another man, ends up finding and paying a visit to Noah to see how things are going. Noah wants her back, and his method of doing so involves putting it all on the line with brutal honesty. In Jeremy Leven’s (2004) dialogue, Allie is about to get in her car and says, “Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we're already fightin’” to which Noah replies, “Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-‐in-‐the-‐ass thing” (Leven, 2004).
And it works. Allie ends up coming back and marrying Noah. So in this way Igartua (2009) says that the viewer is inviting the characters experience, and applying it to his or her own life, learning a method of love. Eventually this viewer might come across a situation where someone they love is not in love with them, but following Noah’s actions, makes that person fall in love with them. Noah’s actions have created a template that the viewer used in their personal life and changed their perception towards love. This is what Igartua (2009) means by, “relation acting as an dependent or independent variable;” relation to a character depends on the viewer’s experiences, either changing how the viewer, from their own experience, perceives the character or changing how the viewer, from the characters experience, perceives situations in their own life.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
9
What Igartua (2009) neglects however, is the possibility that a viewer has partly experienced the situation, but has not exactly experienced it the same way. The way I see it is that the viewer is likely to bring along some sort of past experience that relates with the one of screen on a variety of levels, but, hypothetically, ends up realizing that what they said was no where near as honest as Noah’s confession. Perhaps they now see that it would be more effective to put everything on the line instead of considering consequences. The change in attitude, perception, and behavior is still there, just in a variation of levels and intensity. So in this sense there is, in fact, either a change in attitude towards relationships, a change in perception of how love works, or a change in behavior during the presentation of such a situation, perhaps even a combination of the three. The characters are no longer strangers after their introduction, but rather insightful friends. This universally accessible source of experiential education (movies) is shaping our race, and molding minds. It is almost equivalent to debate with a colleague or a life-‐evolving conversation with a friend, as the viewer listens to the character and responds physically, mentally, or emotionally. Although this research provides very useful information, there are holes. The hypothetical situation of the viewer critiquing actions of a character, through the lens of past experience assumes a storyline that is composed only of exact events a viewer has already experienced in their own lives. The viewer has most likely not experienced all events or situations exactly the same, but rather a few somewhat the same. Also, age could affect the amount of maturity that someone soaks up from the break up between two characters. Personal passion could affect the care of two
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
10
broken up lovers rejoicing. An entire movie is bound to have at least some experiences that the viewer may have not yet witnessed or may have a different outcome than their personal experience. So a mix of viewing with past experience and viewing without past experience is likely the case for most viewers. At some level the viewer is gaining experience and applying experience, which will ultimately lead to attitude, perception or behavior change.
Considering this being the most likely case, we must be explicitly aware of
these personal effects to some extent, which suggests that we might select films with an emotional effect in mind. A goal in life, such as becoming an agent for the FBI, CIA, or SPEC OPS force, might lead a viewer to choose a James Bond movie. The realization of a movie’s effects allows the viewer to seek out developments for their personal lives, almost like a job training video. A not so cool teenager might explicitly attend a hip flick to pick up some tips. Tesser, Millar and Wu (1988) suggest that we make film choices deliberately, perhaps intentionally seeking the kinds of life-‐changing experiences Igartua (2009) talks about; “The Self-‐ Development function appeared to be important in providing information about life and vicarious emotional experiences” (p. 447). With their statistics they conclude that when a viewer is watching a film with the intent to develop a certain part of them, they soak up information about life and they feel or enjoy life through imagined participation in the experience of others (vicarious experiences). Their studies involved interviewing, surveying, and observing viewers, and resulted in an ultimate conclusion that movies are seen with emotional intentions, meaning that on some level viewers bring their emotions and experiences to be
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
11
tinkered with. In a sense this experience is almost a virtual reality, in which we can plug our minds into, and witness the world through a different set of eyes, walking in a different set of shoes. In this theater world we can kill a man, dump our girlfriends, experiment with drugs, or simply go to Disneyland and soak up the experience, developing our maturity level, weak stomach, moralities, or perhaps just our imagination. The characters that we look up to and rely on are really “we” in an alternate form represented on screen. They are our possibility time machine, which we can travel into the future with and witness possibilities with work, love, death, redemption, etc. Characters are our open a door to experiences yet to be experienced. As stated earlier, Hanks feels sad, and so does the viewer. Aniston is hurt, and so is the viewer. Leo just shot a man, and his facial expressions let the viewer know that it must have been the most terrifying and difficult thing he has ever had to do, but it was not his first time. These characters present reactions to situations that give second-‐hand experience to the viewer, but that second-‐hand experience is developmental to a viewer’s first-‐hand life experience. One can understand the emotions and potential reactions involved in certain situations through an actors personification, furthering the development of one’s life experience. Jaun-‐Jose Igartua’s “The Role of Identification with the Characters” (2009) goes hand in hand with Tesser et al. (1988) research. To develop oneself, one must identify themselves through the characters on screen, and through these characters one can get a taste of life before it happens.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
12
I know that I have had this experience many of times in my visits to the theater or blu-‐ray player. Being a film major, I feel it is my personal duty to watch the good, the bad, and the ugly, as it is, in my opinion, education towards the future making of my own films. This point is not as irrelevant as it seems. In this process of viewing poorly, average, and highly rated films, I am not solely keeping my eye out for technical and “story construction” education from the film, but rather the accomplishments the director and writer has made in affecting my emotions as well. Reflecting on this research it is clearly evident, at least to me, that areas in my life have been developed from a stimulation of film. For specificity, the movie Fight Club released me experientially. I lived fearing consequences and avoiding situations to prevent them, but when Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden delivered the line, “It is only after disaster we can be resurrected,” major reflection and change ensued. Possibly, these personal developments are from an implicit digging into my brain, with images and ideals of rebellion and negligence, coexisting with the explicit awareness of this line; after all, we have concluded that movie viewing is a combination of viewing with and without past experience. We have also concluded that this mix of viewing means the viewer must be explicitly aware of the attitude, perception and behavior change on some level. So must this mean that on another level attitude, perception and behavior change is implicitly occurring without an awareness of such, simultaneously with our explicit awareness? Movie attendance does in fact involve awareness and a desire to explicitly change and develop, while unawareness of implicit change is going on as well.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
13
Moonhee Yang and David R. Roskos-‐Ewoldsen (2007), writers of a study on product placement in movies, address this through their paper, “The Effectiveness of Brand Placements in the Movies: Levels of Placements, Explicit and Implicit Memory, and Brand-‐Choice Behavior.” They claim: “Recent research has demonstrated that memory may work implicitly without intention or awareness. Furthermore, this type of memory may be able to influence the interpretation of later events and choice behavior (p. 473).”
This is the age-‐old idea of subliminal messaging in Coke-‐a-‐Cola commercials, and many others. What Yang and Roskos-‐Ewoldsen (2007) are saying is that the human brain picks up on experiences when a person is not even explicitly aware of it. There is a subconscious state that is taking in and processing information, which is later affecting our attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors without us even realizing it. This mix of viewing with and without experience is on a much deeper level, as it is intertwined with a mix of implicit and explicit awareness as well. The explicit level of awareness present in The Notebook hypothetical example stated earlier shows that the viewer is aware of the changed attitude, perception, and behaviors stimulated from the scene, and is now an explicit self-‐developer. Explicit awareness is realized and perhaps even practiced – the desire to be a boxer after viewing Rocky, the realization of mental health on Vietnam veterans after viewing Rambo, the plotting of festivities to be taking place in a parent-‐free house after viewing Risky Business, and so on and so forth. The desires can be drawn back to a source. For instance, the teenager who’s parents have left town for the week might be
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
14
innocently enjoying a movie night with a friend, watching Risky Business. Then it happens, the scene where Tom Cruise decides to experience a prostitute, explicitly aware, stirs up the teenager’s brain for planning of his or her own festivities. On the contrary, implicit awareness would be more of a subliminal effect and unintentionally practiced – the type of drive one may have in pursuing a boxing career after viewing Rocky, the level of sensitivity towards a Vietnam veteran after viewing Rambo, or the disastrous carelessness in plotting such festivities after viewing Risky Business may be picked up implicitly. As Yang and Ewoldsen put it, “this type of memory may be able to influence the interpretation of later events and choice behavior.” The personality one took towards their explicit goal to enjoy their parents’ time away is an example of implicit awareness. They may not realize how careless they were in the planning of their own festivities, and that this careless was implicitly picked up from Tom Cruise’s character’s carelessness. The way they behaved during their choice – “the interpretation of later events and choice behavior.” This awareness may not necessarily be able to string back to a source, as they are subtle everyday behaviors that one might feel is simply a part of their persona. They are not goals in life, big or small, but rather changes in one’s nature. Identifying with a character may be even more serious than Tesser et al. (1988) analyzed. Perhaps this identification changes our attitudes, perceptions or behaviors towards accomplishments or goals with explicit awareness, emplacing a character’s accomplishment in our own lives on one level, while changing our attitudes, perceptions or behaviors on the route taken towards those accomplishments with implicit awareness, emplacing a characters personality in
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
15
our own lives on another. Attitude, perception or behavior change might be, on the most serious level, “character identity-‐theft.” The television and characters in drama are affecting evolution; they are habitually shaping us as human beings, and we are doing the same to them, it is a cycle. Tamar Liebes and Elihu Katz (1986) put this cycle into clarity with a simple piece of advice. They say, “To study the effects of television don’t ask people about television, ask them about life” (p. 800). This is a clever way to simply say – Television influences life, life influences television. Writers read and live and write about it. Directors see and read these writings and film what they felt about it. Actors hear of and read scripts and listen to their directors and create characters that are about it. Viewers soak up the stories of these characters and relate and think about it, and then the viewer is the writer. They tell their friends, they post on boards, they review on sites, and they write papers for their APA projects about it. Writers, directors, actors, and everyone else are the viewers and the viewers are everyone else. Everyone spins his or her stories back and forth between each other, continuing the cycle. Film is the library of life education; Eric Kabera is a Rwandan director who experienced the Rwanda Genocide, in which 800,000 people were murdered in the course of 100 days. Eric sees so much potential in films, as he believes that they are more than simply entertainment. Erwin Winkler (2011) interviewed Kabera in June of 2011 asking about the Rwanda Genocide and what Kabera thinks of it. After explaining the genocide and how the people rebuilt their lives Kabera says, “Cinema should have a social responsibility, as well as cultural and economic importance.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
16
And it is an education tool.” It is Kabera’s goal to teach through his film the horrors and history of the Rwanda Genocide. Through schooling, common knowledge, and experience, one thing a film student comes to find is that yes, we as a species have grown into a media habitat. We drive cars that play music and video, we have computers that are a gaming console, as well as a television, as well as a book, as well as an mp3 player, and so on. The movies we watch are stories with characters of us. They have the power to change our attitudes, our perspectives and our behaviors from watching ourselves remind ourselves what we are capable, what we have accomplished, and what we will do next. Every idea is out there already made, being made, or waiting to be made. We live for our media and the media lives for us. It envelops our lives and educates their evolution. Our best teachers are ourselves. The best display of us is created no more perfectly anywhere else than in Hollywood. Aware and not, an influence is what the TV truly is. A big brother who we so inspiringly look up to, changing our attitudes, perspectives and behaviors on an infinite number of levels.
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
17
References Abraham Tesser, Karen Millar, Cheng-‐Huan Wu (1988). On the Perceived Functions of Movies. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.oberon.ius.edu/ehost/detail?vid=26&hid=111&si d=ab3e0e81-‐1bec-‐4cbf-‐90a4-‐ f5bfa0d0e94f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3 d#db=aph&AN=5370253. Berys Gaut (2010). Empathy and Identification in Cinema. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.oberon.ius.edu/ehost/detail?vid=28&hid=15&sid =ab3e0e81-‐1bec-‐4cbf-‐90a4-‐ f5bfa0d0e94f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3 d#db=aph&AN=53474809. Jaun Jose Igartua (2009). Film Involvement and Narrative Persuasion: The Role of Identification with the Characters. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.oberon.ius.edu/ehost/detail?sid=a3f49d96-‐920b-‐ 420f-‐982b-‐ 5c48ca487045%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhv c3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=45286641 Jeremy Levens, Jan Sardi, Nicholas Sparks (2004). The Notebook. Retrieved from
DIRECTORS DIRECT WRITERS WRITINGS
18
http://www.script-‐o-‐rama.com/movie_scripts/n/the-‐notebook-‐script-‐ transcript-‐mcadams.html. Moonhee Yang and David R. Roskos-‐Ewoldsen (2007). The Effectiveness of Brand Placements in the Movies: Levels of Placements, Explicit and Implicit Memory, and Brand-‐Choice Behavior. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.oberon.ius.edu/ehost/detail?vid=30&hid=15&sid =ab3e0e81-‐1bec-‐4cbf-‐90a4-‐ f5bfa0d0e94f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3 d#db=aph&AN=26199676. Tamar Liebes, Elihu Katz (1986). Media, Audience, and Social Structure (Book). Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.oberon.ius.edu/ehost/detail?vid=25&hid=111&si d=ab3e0e81-‐1bec-‐4cbf-‐90a4-‐ f5bfa0d0e94f%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3 d#db=aph&AN=13592903. Winkler, E. (2011, June 12). Eric Kabera: “Cinema is more than just entertainment.” Focus. Retrieved December 7, 2011 from http://focus.rw/wp/2011/06/profile-‐eric-‐kabera-‐%E2%80%9Ccinema-‐is-‐ more-‐than-‐just-‐entertainment-‐%E2%80%9D/.