Spectatorship and Beasts of the Southern Wild

How are we ‘constructed’ as audiences? We are constructed as members of a ‘potential’ audience: Through hype Word of mouth Social issues We are also ‘actual’ audience members – fully self aware

How does film form attempt to ‘steer’ our engagement with the characters? Camera movement gives the illusion of physically ‘moving’ us around the screen Range of shots = intimacy/distance/directed attention/emotional engagement Mise-en-scene What we are allowed access to onscreen How we are ‘managed’ by editing – association/emotion Character perspective – POV/narrative structure Voyeurism/desire/etc.

How are we interpellated by the film and what does this mean? Louis Althusser: We are all ‘subjects of ideology’ by society and its systems. In film, we are largely invisible and taken for granted as the subject. Whaaat?

Interpellation We are taken for granted as an imagined audience – the hypothetical spectator We ‘lose ourselves’ to the film experience and this is a basic pleasure of the movie experience Classic Hollywood narrative cinema encourages this passivity Our critical facilities are suppressed

BUUUUUUUTTTT… Do you agree? Consider: Your actual engagement with film – how are we using the medium? The social practices offered by modern technology (e.g. Tweeting your thoughts as you watch) Do we automatically take on the film’s viewpoint? Does class/ethnicity/gender/sexual/cultural identity influence our response? Response or responses? (structuralist film theory) Preferred/negotiated/oppositional readings?

Is there a target audience for the film? Where might exhibition of this film actually take place? How might different audiences react to the film? How are we actually engaging with the film?

Does the film challenge or support mainstream hegemony? Ideas, attitudes or practices so dominant that they appear to be ‘common sense’ E.g. The Hollywood style of clear genre, narrative realism, etc. is ‘normal’ (not constructed)

How does the film characterise itself as an independent film, different to mainstream cinema? Mainstream characteristics: Often unchallenging Genre is usually clear Narrative usually clear Character motivations are generally hegemonic Cinematic style is generally conventional Our understanding and expectations are generally predetermined by experience

Does Beasts of the Southern Wild encourage active or passive spectatorship?