Ideology Essay

“How valuable has ideological analysis been in developing your understanding of the themes of your chosen films?”

In order to explore various themes, filmmakers often utilise cinema to spread their ideologies to the different forms of audiences. These can be drastically different depending on the circumstances under which a film is made. An example of this can be seen in the differences between Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012) and La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016).

As an independently made film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) is more free to explore the ideologies of its filmmakers. Along with this, it was Benh Zeitlin’s first full length film and the second of only three films. Many independent films are have low budgets – with this film specifically having a budget of $1.8 million – and thus are unable to gain the attention of large audiences which forces them to focus upon making their narratives stand out to the small groups that they try to appeal to and often debut at film festivals, with Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) itself being shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012 before getting released a few months later.

Due to being made outside the Hollywood Studio system, Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) is able to more deeply explore various forms of ideologies through its use of implicit positioning. This is most noticeable in the way that Zeitlin tries to position the audience to view Hushpuppy and her community as underdogs and thus make them emphasise with such characters more easily. This is reinforced around an hour into the film once the authorities arrive to aggressively remove them from their homes where the audience are likely to see these authorities as obstacles for the protagonists to overcome even if such actions would be for their greater good in the real world. This is in part shown through their resistance against these authority figures even after they are placed in the emergency shelter. There are various points throughout the film where Zeitlin pulls inspiration from real world events such as the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Similarities can be seen between the hurricane and the film’s events during the sequences containing the storm and later the portrayal of treatment in the emergency shelter as it is shown to be overcrowded and basic which may hint at an ideological view that Governments should aim to improve the quality of aid they give to victims of natural disasters.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) most clearly follows the Marxist film theory. This theory is based around a film’s ability to challenge conventions established by Hollywood in some form. Within this film, the director adheres to this theory through the use of artificially shifting the focus of the audience to specific areas of the screen by implementing a shallow depth of field on most camera shots which puts the background out of focus and in turn places more of an emphasis on the content in the foreground in order to create a larger sense of connection between the audience and characters. This means that the audience are more likely to and also builds the expectation that members of the audience will become motivated to form individual interpretations for themselves.

However, another theory that the film can be argued to follow to some extent is the feminist theory through the type of character that it follows as it centres around Hushpuppy’s life and the struggles she is forced through as a result of the life she and her community live. The largest of these struggles that she goes through takes place near the end of the film where she and several of her friends try to find her mother after her father becomes gravely ill. Throughout the film, she is forced to have grown up responses to the events she is involved in from the way she was raised by the adults in the Bathtub community with this aspect being most prominently seen in the first act before the flooding. Zeitlin positions the film’s perspective to follow Hushpuppy to present the audience with the effects such a lifestyle has on a child.

In contrast, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) is able to reach mainstream audiences through its link to contemporary Hollywood although it still manages to find its own niche within the romance genre with its element of the jazz culture. One way it was able to do this was through the greatly expanded budget Hollywood films are capable of receiving in comparison to indie films as La La Land received $30 million in its budget.

La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) can be viewed as using a neutral positioning through its intention to act as an escapist film where an audience is more likely to view it as merely a form of entertainment especially as many Americans were seeking ways to escape from the real world through the use of media at the time of its release but this does not prevent Chazelle from implanting his implied ideologies into the film. By focusing on different forms of artists, Chazelle explores an idealised view of the American Dream – most likely chosen as a result of its production under the oversight of Hollywood Studios – through the characters actively pursuing their aspirations to various degrees of success with one achieving their goals and the other failing to do so. Several of the ideologies seen in the film were inspired by films of the genre released during the Golden Age of Hollywood which is used by the director to subvert the expectations of the audience by leaving the main characters separated with the use of one of the three types of endings often used in Hollywood romance films of the era.

However, it is possible that certain audience members may pick up on unintentional ideologies that were brought into the film through decisions made by the director throughout the production such as the lack of diversity accurate to the reality of Los Angles. Beyond this, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) adheres to dominant ideologies within American and wider Western culture through the romance portrayed involving what would traditionally be viewed as the perfect heterosexual relationship.

Given the character journey Mia goes through in the film, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) can be argued to be influenced by the feminist film theory. In the case of this film, both Mia and Seb are presented as being realistically flawed people rather than the stereotypical form of protagonists seen in other mainstream films. Despite this, there are arguments to be made on both sides as to whether each character is passive or active within their own story with Mia in particular appearing to be in need of emotional and motivational support from Seb to attend the audition that kick starts her successful career in the third act. By the end of the narrative, Mia emerges as the more successful of the two characters in every way which implies a reversal of hers and Seb’s roles in the core of the narrative and her change in character since her introduction.

Both Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) and La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) express clear ideologies in their narratives that effectively influence the audience. However, Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) is more free to express the beliefs of its director in spite of its lack of access to a worldwide audience unlike La La Land (Chazelle, 2016).

Spectatorship: A Plan

Question – “How far do your chosen films demonstrate the importance of visual and soundtrack cues in influencing spectator response?”

Intro: One of the most important aspects of film is Spectatorship through the way that the messages of individual filmmakers and their films are interpreted. Over time, various film theorists and film critics have developed various beliefs on how audiences interact with films.

Audience: Many theorists believe that there are two central ways for audiences to interpret films through the belief of whether they watch films actively or passively. Theories surrounding active participation within films include the idea that audience members openly position themselves within the story to sympathise with the events and characters taking place on screen and thus can take in various different interpretations such as the Uses and Gratifications Model developed by Blumler, Gurevitch and Katz. By contrast, the Hypodermic-Syringe Model (initially formed in the 1930s) expresses the idea that the audience only receive the messages that the filmmakers intend them to. However, this model is often viewed as being somewhat flawed as these messages are seen as only being surface level interpretations.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) more easily follows the Uses and Gratifications Model through intending for the audience to actively participate in the film as a result of the focus on character. However, the Hypodermic-Syringe Model can still be viewed as being an interpretation of how an audience would react to the film through the way that the director has positioned the audience to become sympathetic towards the main characters and the Bathtub community they live in. Across the film, various visual and audio choices are used to indicate when extra emphasis is placed on Hushpuppy, most often through the use of point of view shots or voice-overs. An example of the former is seen in the sequence where the characters first enter the evacuation centre to make the audience sympathise with them more whereas the latter is used to explore Hushpuppy’s true thoughts on events.

In the case of La La Land (Chazelle, 2016), the audience is most likely to mirror the Uses and Gratifications Model and interpret the relationship between Seb and Mia based on related personal experiences on an individual basis. Early in the film’s release, it received largely positive reviews although it has been looked back upon with criticism towards its characterisation and lack of accurate representation of Los Angeles. La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) is also outwardly identified as an escapist film which can impact the way that various audiences approach it which can lead to someone with an outside view believing that the audience would be more likely to watch the film passively to temporarily remove themselves from real world issues. The clearest example of the Hypodermic-Syringe Model in the film is the belief that such an audience should feel overjoyed for Mia and Seb throughout it and saddened by their separation by the end of the film. Within most mainstream Hollywood films, the soundtrack is intended to be used as a way to manipulate the audience into feeling certain ways towards various situations in the sequences they’re used in with La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) using uplifting music to represent the relationship between the two main characters.

Film readings: The idea of film readings results in three major ways to view a film based on how an audience’s reaction compares to the intentions of the filmmaker. The three central readings are the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings. Within Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012), these readings are prevalent with the preferred reading being a criticism of the modern world through the exploration of those that it rejects through the portrayal of the characters as social outcasts. However, most audiences are more likely to interpret this as the characters being individuals who merely want to live peacefully without restrictions from their Government in spite of their inability to raise their children in such an isolated. Finally the oppositional reading is based around the belief that the film romanticised the lives of third world communities as a form of escapism from the reality of the situation presented to the audience.

Meanwhile, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) also displays these three types of readings. In this case, the preferred reading is that the two characters follow a love story in an attempt to achieve their goals in ways that makes the audience believe the relationship between the couple and are openly engrossed in the narrative. Along with this, the film is intended to be an exploration of the American Dream. The negotiated reading is based around the probability that audience members would only accept certain elements of the film on an individual basis (such as seeing the real world flaws of the relationship). In contrast to this, the oppositional reading would see an audience outright rejecting the ideas and narrative presented to them in the film out of beliefs that the ways characters try to accomplish their goals damage their relationship.

Essay conclusion: Overall, spectatorship can be used in conjunction with film ideologies to allow filmmakers to create effective impacts on the audience.

Ideology: A Plan

Question – “How valuable has ideological analysis been in developing your understanding of the themes of your chosen films?”

Intro: In order to explore various themes, filmmakers often utilise cinema to spread their ideologies to the different forms of audiences. These can be drastically different depending on the circumstances under which a film is made. An example of this can be seen in the differences between Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012) and La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016).

Beasts Of The Southern Wild intro: As an independently made film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) is more free to explore the ideologies of its filmmakers. Along with this, it was Benh Zeitlin’s first full length film and the second of only three films. Many independent films are have low budgets – with this film specifically having a budget of $1.8 million – and thus are unable to gain the attention of large audiences which forces them to focus upon making their narratives stand out to the small groups that they try to appeal to and often debut at film festivals, with Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) itself being shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012 before getting released a few months later.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild audience: Due to being made outside of the Studios of Hollywood, it is easier for Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) to ignore the expectations set out by its audience. To keep the film focused, Zeitlin places an emphasis on characters above action. Throughout the film, there are shots of Aurochs thawing from ice shelves and charging across America which give the audience the impression that the creatures would play some role in the film’s ending but once Hushpuppy encounters them, they just leave which may make the some audience members look back at the scenes containing them as being pointless in hindsight. For the entirety of the film, the audience is positioned with the intention to view the main characters as underdogs through their lifestyle and their vulnerabilities as a result of it.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild filmmakers: The central film theory followed by Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) is the Marxist theory through its ability to challenge the conventions of Hollywood films in some form in order to motivate the members of the audience to form individual interpretations for themselves. This manifests in various ways across the film through directing where the focus of the majority of the audience with a shallow depth of field on most camera shots. Another theory that it follows is the feminist through its presentation of Hushpuppy’s life and the struggles she is forced through both within her community and in the wider world. The clearest example of these struggles takes place nearing the end of the film where she and several of her friends try to find her mother after her father becomes gravely ill in which she attempts to have grown up responses to the events she becomes involved in from the influence of the adults in the Bathtub community seen in the first half of the film before the village got flooded.

However, the film also presents the locals as repressing emotion which leads to many of the adults being overly aggressive in ways associated with the hero stereotype. This even extends into the end of the film where Wink is dying of a long and debilitating illness. One possible way to interpret this is that it is bad to express emotions regardless as to whether the director intended for such a message to be present in the film and leaving them closed off and isolated in the real world. The filmmakers also put forward the idea that American police are often more aggressive than is necessary. This is presented in the midpoint where authorities initially remove the characters from their community and how oppressive the centre they are placed in feels.

La La Land intro: In contrast, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) is able to reach mainstream audiences through its link to contemporary Hollywood although it still manages to find its own niche within the romance genre with its element of the jazz culture. One way it is able to do this was through the greatly expanded budget Hollywood films are capable of receiving in comparison to indie films as La La Land received $30 million in its budget.

La La Land audience: Although La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) was produced under the jurisdiction of Hollywood, it was still able to at least somewhat bend the rules and restrictions placed on it by the studio that created it to shock the audience. Although there are various points in the film where the narrative diverts from the regular conventions of romantic films, the clearest of these is the film’s ending where the two main characters are separated from each other. However, although this ending seemed innovative to modern audiences, it originates from the Golden Age of Hollywood where films were controlled much more directly with this being one of the most common endings at the time where it was called the soft spot ending. In order to entertain and appeal to as wide an audience as possible, the film is centred around a very traditional straight romance between the two main characters. However, the film is able to avoid the expectations for the characterisation of the main roles as neither character is overly heroic and they are instead presented as flawed but more natural people.

La La Land filmmakers: As a result of its place in mainstream cinema, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) is expected to follow dominant ideologies. The central ideologies pushed in the film are based around a romanticised view of the American Dream and the concept of the traditional belief of the perfect relationship. Even in the final scene, both views persist despite the characters having been separated with the American Dream view being presented through Mia succeeding in achieving her goals and the view of her and Seb’s relationship is preserved through a dream sequence of the two characters if they had stayed together. Through Mia’s role in the film, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) can be argued to be influenced by feminist film theory.

Essay conclusion (compare): Both Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) and La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) express clear ideologies in their narratives. However, Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) is more free to express the beliefs of its director in spite of its lack of access to worldwide audience unlike La La Land (Chazelle, 2016).

The Death Of Stalin (Armando Iannucci, 2017) Review

The Death Of Stalin (Armando Iannucci, 2017) is based around a satirical retelling of the days following Stalin’s death in the USSR (and thus historical accuracy was not a priority to the director). Steve Buscemi stars as the future Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during the rapid grab for power between the remaining politicians in the following days.

Despite overlooking, condensing or disregarding various elements of the historical events, the director still decided to give the audience some form of historical context to the events of the film. In the first and last scene, white text is used to keep the audience up to speed with the history surrounding Russia at the time. Along with this, there are various excerpts from Soviet articles of law to complete a more basic version of the same purpose. However, the most inaccurate way of giving historical context is through the use of giving the name and rank/title when each important historical figure is introduced as several of the titles given are merely the one that they are most famous for such as Molotov being named as Foreign Secretary despite having been removed from his position in 1949 and only regaining it after Stalin’s funeral.

Despite the fact that the topic is based on one of the darkest areas of 20th Century history, this film is a great black comedy. The most successful element of the comedy was the dialogue with Steve Buscemi getting some of the funniest lines as Khrushchev, especially “the room is only 75% conscious” when discussing with the other characters in the scene whether to get a doctor for Stalin. To build upon this, I also found it entertaining how the cast kept their original accents (mostly American or British based) which made the line delivery even funnier with a prime example being Jason Issacs keeping his Scouse accent in his role as Zhukov. Along with this, several of the comedic moments still hinted at the dangers of living in the Soviet Union as they originate from a fear for Stalin’s wrath early in the film as seen through the scenes in the theatre directly after the opening scene.

In conclusion, The Death of Stalin (Armando Iannucci, 2017) is an interesting interpretation of the events that it depicts although it is not a good display of the way they happened. I also feel that its comedy only appeals to certain groups of people. My overall rating is 4.1 out of 5 stars.

La La Land – Deep Dive

Context: La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016) was a film released as part of Contemporary Hollywood and initially shown at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on 31st August 2016 before being released to mainstream audiences in December of the same year. In contrast to independent cinema, Contemporary Hollywood only forms roughly 30% of American films per year. Despite this, they are able to receive much higher budgets and bring in more money through their box office runs (with this film having a budget of $30 million and making $449.3 million) through their ability to spend substantial amounts on advertising to pull in larger audiences and having a higher chance of being released globally. Along with this, several films from Contemporary Hollywood can easily rely on star quality to draw in fans of one or more actors in the film with La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) using this through their main actors Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. However, Contemporary Hollywood is often more artistically restricted as a result of oversight from the major studios that finance them which can lead to Contemporary Hollywood being seen as an undesirable option by some auteurs.

At the time La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) released, many in America sought out sources of escapism within the film industry which influenced the decision for its emphasis on the genre of musicals and the vibrant colours associated with them in modern day. Ever since their peak during the Golden Age of Hollywood, musical films have been used used as a form of escapism from issues in the real world.

Aesthetics: Chazelle was heavily inspired by the French director Jacques Demy, more specifically his film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), for the aesthetics within La La Land (Chazelle, 2016). On top of this, he also took inspiration from other forms of arts such as the paintings of Edward Hopper to influence the artistic style of the film. This style was based on the setting that the film takes place in as it was filmed on location in LA while using the unappealing real world buildings and locations help to contrast against the musical elements and the bright outfits of the main characters which represents the pursuit of dreams in the real world such as the way that the musical sequence that opens the film takes place on the bland and industrial environment of an American motorway with the greys of the roads contrasting to the bright colours of the cars and character clothing. Along with this, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) has an overall aim of achieving an organic and gentle look while using sweeping establishing shots to create atmosphere within the city environment.

Representation/Ideology: Across the film, artists are presented in a humanising way that demonstrates the kinds of sacrifices that they are often forced to make to achieve their goals. Both main characters display this representation throughout the film which leads to their relationship being strained throughout the plot and eventually leads to them being separated permanently. However, there is a noticeable absence of diversity as all except for one of the characters are white in-spite of the sizeable amount of mixed ethnic communities within Los Angeles which could be seen as subconsciously pushing some form of agenda to the audience.

Spectatorship: Despite receiving widely positive reviews when it first released, some audiences have criticised La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) in the following years on various points of the film’s plot. One notable area of criticism originated in the portrayal of Mia (played by Emma Stone) who comes across as being passive within the story and is motivated by Seb during most of the events (such as essentially forcing her to attend an audition towards the end of the film that turns out to be life changing for her) despite eventually becoming the more famous out of the two by the end of the film. The preferred reading is based around the film being an emotional romance between the two characters with a heavy emphasis on the American Dream in a way that becomes influenced by the Hypodermic Needle Model as a result of the film being intended to be watched mindlessly through attempts to escape from real world problems. In the other extreme, the oppositional reading presents the idea that Seb’s interest in jazz is an indulgent obsession that leads him to achieving little of value. Meanwhile, the negotiated readings are based around the interpretation that viewers may not believe the character romance of the film but see the pursuit of their dreams and aspirations as more realistic or vice versa.

Another alternate view of the film (initially proposed by Anna Leszkiewitz) is that the narrative is told from Mia’s point of view although she acts as an audience – emphasised through the various scenes involving her watching Seb performing – but uses this position to convey the key role that audiences play through her responses to Seb’s work and the inspiration she can take from him.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild – Deep Dive

Context: Despite the fact that Independent films making up over 70% of the American films with an average of 500 films a year, the split between box office revenue is still less than films created by studios (with an example that Independent films made up 41.7% of revenue for American Cinema in 2012 with $4.5 billion although it has often lower in the past) as they often rely on word of mouth to be advertised and thus are less likely to be viewed by the masses outside of events like film festivals due to the amounts that advertising cost. To compensate for this, most films created by independent companies have low budgets which force the director and crew to be more imaginative with how they use said budget.

Bob Rosen was a member of the Independent Film and Television Alliance that was crucial in creating the primary criteria for what independent films should aim to be which are to be not funded by Hollywood studios, valuing art above money, the desire to portray a personal vision and being experimental in content. The last point is most often the easiest to use as independent directors are more willing to take risks as their films are not intended for the mainstream audience.

Aesthetics: Given the events of the film, it is clear that Zeitlin was inspired by the devastation Hurricanes and other natural disasters cause with inspiration being drawn from the impact that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans at the edge of Louisiana in 2005 with the film taking place within the same state. The problems he wanted to portray were also consequences of inequality as well as the disaster itself. Within the film, Zeitlin often relied on using hand-held shots in order to give it a more realistic feel and present it as a documentary in an attempt to get the audience more invested in the characters although it can argued to be a budget saving decision. Along with this, there is a feeling of innocence throughout the film as a result of the decision to view the narrative through the perspective of Hushpuppy.

Representation/Ideology: Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) explores the state of lives in isolated communities which is displayed through the close link shared by the characters who are forced to rely on each other as a result of living in poverty. However, the adults are also presented as being harsh while raising the children in their community through the repression of negative emotions no matter how tough life becomes for them physically or emotionally in order to survive in their third world environment although it does allow them to become stronger and more independent, somewhat out of necessity. By contrast, the authorities who ‘rescue’ them from their ruined village in the later half of the film are presented as being overly aggressive in their duties which leads to them being viewed as unsympathetic to the audience through the poor conditions the main characters placed in while being forced to conform to societal norms. Thus this portrayal is likely a representation of how aggressive American police and other authorities can be when performing their duties.

Spectatorship: The film is intended for the audience to actively engage themselves with the narrative in order to connect them to the character focus of the story which acts as the core of the film. In order to do this, the film focuses almost entirely on Hushpuppy and thus places her in every scene to make it easier for the audience to relate to her as it presents the film as a display her everyday life. As is often the case, the director used the low budget to his advantage through using the cinematography and editing to prevent the audience from learning anything before the characters do so.

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Review

The version of Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) I most recently watched was The Final Cut released in 2007. In the (once) distant future of 2019, Humanity has created robots known as Replicants to act as a labour force. After an incident, Blade Runners become responsible for hunting down Replicants for retirement/destruction. Once 6 Replicants arrive on Earth, former Blade Runner Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) is tasked with tracking and destroying them.

The film’s themes and symbolism were extremely fascinating to me, even more so than in its sequel. Through the split of perspectives between the protagonist and antagonist that keep them separated until the climax of the film, the plot allows the audience to view the question of whether Replicants should be considered to be living from both sides of the argument within the film’s world to obscure the line of good and evil within the film. Along with this, it can be rewarding to watch the film multiple times attentively in attempts to catch subtle details that foreshadow various moments in the film and theories surrounding it such as whether Deckard is a natural Human or a Replicant with even people who worked on the film having different interpretations on the theory. My personal belief is that Deckard was human in the film.

The film’s central antagonist – Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) – was incredibly deeply written throughout the film with his desperation for survival being key to his characterisation which culminated to the intimidating scene where he confronts and eventually kills his creator. However, I feel that he lost this early into the confrontation between him and Deckard when he decided to fight in only his underwear and the later shot of him smashing his head through a wall made me laugh with a vague reminder of the “Here’s Johnny!” scene from The Shinning (Stanley Kubrick, 1980). Despite this, Harrison Ford’s performance was still able to be portray the fear that Deckard would have felt within the scene.

One thing that I found particularly interesting was the depiction of technological developments. Most notably, I found it interesting how the creators of the film believed that by 2019, Humans would have begun space travel and advanced robots but that they wouldn’t be able to create more modern or streamlined cameras. Overall though, I feel that Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) created an intriguing setting for its story to take place in which gives a sense of a deeply industrialised future.

In conclusion, Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) is a cinematic masterpiece and can easily be considered essential viewing for Sci-fi fans. My overall rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars.

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016)

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016) is a musical romance film following a pair of artists – a pianist (played by Ryan Gosling) and an actress (played by Emma Stone) – trying to achieve their dreams and quickly falling in love and driving each other further in their pursuits of happiness in their careers. As a mainstream American film, its story has vague influences from the Golden Age of Hollywood, specifically in its ending where the characters once again accept their feelings for each other for a final time before going their separate ways which is slightly reminiscent of the concept of the counter cultural ending from the Hollywood Golden Age seen in films such as Casablanca (Micheal Curtiz, 1942) where the lovers become separated by a film’s end. However, despite the film ending with a 5 year time jump and showing the characters losing touch, I was not overly effected by this final sequence emotionally.

Across the film, although more common in the first half, there are various scenes based around musical pieces which initially makes the audience believe that the film would place an emphasis on this element of the film after the large scale musical sequence that opens the film despite them later being used sparingly. Although I often dislike musicals, I found myself enjoying the musical scenes that focused on the two main characters such as the piece roughly 30 minutes into the film as it felt more like a well choreographed dance that naturally flowed from a rest in the narrative rather than a dedicated sequence that grinds the narrative to a halt like the songs within standard musicals that I initially thought would form the majority of the film after watching the opening sequence.

Despite not being overly invested in the film, I was pleasantly surprised by La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) and what I thought would be the worst part of the film turned out to be particularly enjoyable.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012)

Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012) is a film following a child in a small community called The Bathtub as she deals with an alcoholic father and the threat of climate change. Towards the end of the film, the child – called Hushpuppy – sets out to find her mother and is able to come to terms with the fact that her father is dying. While initially watching the film, I found it enjoyable although certain aspects did negatively effect my opinions of it such as not seeing the value of the scenes involving Aurochs breaking out of blocks of ice and charging across the planet.

At various points in the film, Hushpuppy gives narrations based around her thoughts on the events around her. Although rare, there are also a few scenes containing first person shots from her POV (most notably when the residents of her community first enter an emergency shelter) as a further demonstration of the story being told from her perspective. The delivery of these motifs and the messages lying beneath them helped in allowing me to appreciate and enjoy the film more than I would have otherwise thanks to the performances from the main actors. The emphasis on hand-held shots combine with these elements to give the sense that this film is being presented as a documentary despite being set on nothing other than a stage-play although I did find its use distracting at times.

However, there were several ways that different groups of characters within the film are negatively represented. This is most obvious through the way that all but one of the adults in the village are presented as being alcoholic such as when one man drinks an alcohol bottle absentmindedly and falls into the lake that has formed from the flooding and heavily playing into the characterisation of the main character’s father. In the latter case, the character is demonstrated as being violent and stupid when drinking such as when he reacts to a thunderstorm by firing his shotgun into the sky at it while continuing to drink as he does so which in part reminded me of hearing news stories about Americans needing to be told to not shoot at hurricanes.

One of the central ideas that I picked up on in Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012) was the exploration of isolated communities and their positives and negatives which is displayed through the close link shared by the characters. However, they are shown to live in poverty and Hushpuppy’s father is unable to get adequate medical care needed to save his life. As a result of their poverty the villagers are displayed as only being able to use the most primitive techniques in activities such as fishing. By contrast, the mainland American authorities are presented as being overly aggressive in enforcing order and made to appear unsympathetic to the audience through their somewhat harsh treatment of the main characters and for the poor conditions that they put them in which gives a clear understanding why the characters would want to escape from what would otherwise be seen as a place of safety.

Spectatorship: An Introduction

Spectatorship is a modern film theory based on the various ways that people react to mass media and whether they do so actively or passively. Active spectators of media often use it as ways to explore concepts such as personal identity on an individual basis in what is known as the Uses and Gratification model.

By contrast, the Hypodermic Syringe Model is based on the belief that wide spread audiences react to films as a mass of similar views that blindly accept any of messages or themes put forward to them within the media they consume. However, one of the major flaws within this model is that it depends upon individual films only having one surface level meaning.

Along with these two models, there are also various types of readings that audiences can take away from films which are often split between preferred, oppositional and negotiated readings. The preferred reading is the reading that the filmmakers or institution intends for the audience to receive from the film or other piece of media. This can be done through presentation of ideas in ways that may consciously or unconsciously pushes people towards siding with the idea or concept in question.

The oppositional reading is formed through external factors that influence the way individuals interpret films such as social standing, gender, age or personal experiences. Along with this, the use of stereotypes may also make the audience more or less likely to reject the intended message of the film based on whether they are representative of the group they are intended to portray.

The negotiated reading is often a middle ground between the preferred and oppositional readings as audiences pick up on various messages they detect within the film and thus is more realistic than the other two types of reading. This results in the audience involving themselves more actively in creating their own meanings from the film as they often need to maintain full attention while watching the film to pick up on details for possible messages.