How To Create An Audience Response

As I've developed my ideas for my final film, I've realised that one of my main outcomes I want to get from this film is making an impact on my audience and creating an emotional audience response. I want to successfully create emotion in the sense of empowerment for women, this is because when I have watched other adverts and short films similar to what I want to create (such as the Nike ads mentioned in blog post titled 'The Treatment' and short film 'Marry The Night' featured in my first blog post) I've always come away feeling a sense of empowerment. I realised I can't just make a film and hope my audience feels something from it, I need to research and look at other examples of good film communication to an audience.

I had a look at some online library books from AUB that could help me in understanding this better. I saw the book titled 'Voice and Vision : A Creative Approach to Narrative Film and DV Production' which I thought could help me in understanding creative a narrative to help communicate better. There was some quotes in the book I found helpful and impactful when applying it to my film making.

• "Filmmakers look carefully at films for what they express and how the filmmaker actually achieves that particular mood or emotion, or that specific narrative point, or how they develop a theme, or move you to laugh, or cry, or vote, through images, actions, and sound.” Watching other films that make me feel emotions whether that's happy, sad, excited, thrilled, scared... in order to help me see what devices are used to execute this.

• “It is essential that anyone hoping to tell stories with moving images develop a deep working appreciation for the concepts of mise-en-scène and montage, because it is here where we truly connect with an audience on the level of story information, meaning, and emotion.” The elements that make up the setting of my film will be my success in executing a audience response, that's including composition, production, design, lighting and costuming.

• “Emotion is aroused in the audience when they become participants in the drama.” Involving the audience in my short film will help them to relate to the content portrayed and make them feel involved. As this film will be targeted at a younger female audience I want to use younger female cast so they can relate to the film and see themselves in it, coming away feeling empowered.

I also had a read of the book 'Psychology At The Movies' to find some other helpful advice.

• 'Movies are a particularly vivid art form, making use of striking moving images and vibrant sounds to connect filmmakers to the audience through celluloid and the senses.'

• 'The meanings viewers form about a film will be so powerful and relevant that they will have an influence on people’s lives.' Making an impactful film can help to change peoples lives subconsciously, they will make small changes based on what they've seen without even being aware of it. This is great in terms of communication especially for a brand.

I actually read an interesting article online that spoke about psychological factors behind watching films, all in aid of proving watching films helps our mental health. It discussed how we have an emotional release when watching films, as films make us more comfortable expressing how we feel. Sad films in fact make us feel happier, we appreciate what we have more. Watching films make us make sense of our own lives through the act of story telling. They help us to escape our normality of everyday life. Watching something suspenseful releases cortisol (stress hormone) which is followed by dopamine. Getting this psychological information based on how we consume films will help me with understanding future films and portraying emotion in my current work.

I said in my Treatment that I wanted my film to feel personal and intimate to the viewer, with an array of different women being featured my audience can almost see themselves being in this film. I will achieve this through making

A visual inspiration for my film was films such as Lady Bird, Waves, Moonlight or Palo Alto. They all have this sense of hazy intimacy which is described as creating the feel of a memory (O' Falt, 2017) due to how they're carefully crafted without the bold camera work of a blockbuster. Lady Bird's cinematographer, Sam Levy, worked with colourist Alex Bickel, 'Moonlight' and director Greta Gerwig to produce this visual of a 'memory' within the film. Levy described this sensation as "you aren’t overly removed or too inside, we aren’t handheld, the camera isn’t another person in the room."

They looked at images from French photographer Lise Sarfati who has images of women from the 2000's which the women are described as comfortable behind the camera. This is said to be because she was a female photographer and made her subject feel comfortable, similar to Greta with her actors on set.

They speak about adding grain to the film to give it organic texture, making sure the original footage wasn't too sharp. This was more to help the film fit the 2003 aesthetic but it makes the film feel like a nostalgic memory stored deep in our brains. I would like to add a grain to my final images when I've finished filming as I think it will make the content feel more relatable, just like Lady Bird is for it's audience. It feels like a memory therefore it feels like we've experienced it. It's a great tactic and it really works on communicating with an audience.

I will use strong communication devices when filming my film and in post production to help portray a relatable moving image for other women to watch and feel empowered. I want the audience to have a visual experience that reflects feelings of nostalgia, comfort and intimacy and for them to walk away feeling inspired.

Sources:

Cherrier, M H. (2012). Voice and Vision : A Creative Approach to Narrative Film and DV Production. Saint Louis. Taylor & Francis Group.

O’ Falt, C. (2017). How Greta Gerwig’s Brilliant Use of Colours Turned ‘Lady Bird’ Into an Emotional Nostalgia Trip. [Online]. Available from: https://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/lady-bird-greta-gerwig-color-sam-levy-1201907175/ [Accessed 13/11/21]

Singer, J. (2018). How Watching Movies Can Benefit Our Mental Health. [Online]. Available from: https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-watching-movies-can-benefit-our-mental-health#4 [Accessed 10/11/21]

Young, S D. (2012). Psychology at the Movies. Chichester. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.