The aim of this questionnaire is to explore cinema audience's opinions of films and experiences of film festivals. There was a time in which film festivals 'presented a seductive return to classical cinephilia with their promise of a unique, unrepeatable experience frequently offering a rare opportunity to view films on the big screen before they disappear into the ether or only reappear in DVD' (Czach, 2010, p. 141). But what have they become lately? After the technological development that we have witnessed over the years, are film festival still necessary? Why do we have to go to Venice or Cannes to see a film when, thanks to devices such as Sky on demand or Apple TV, we can have our own festival in our living room every night?. These are some of the questions I will ask to cinemagoers.
Questionnaire Design.
The design of the questionnaire is based on the descriptive survey format (Oppenheim, 2002); however, as it is just a first attempt at designing the questionnaire, I can predict that after having carried out the pilot work (ibid), the ordering of questions sequences could be changed.
The population taken in consideration in this research is cinema audience in the UK. As this category comprises a large scale of individuals (UK’s annual cinema admission is roughly over 150 million), it can be reduced to a random sample of 500 viewers who attended at least a show in one of the following cinemas in London: BFI, Curzon Soho, Prince Charles, Odeon West End, Coronet, Gate Picturehouse and Cineworld Haymarket. Both expensive and cheap cinema venues were selected to cover a wider range of audience.
The questionnaire will be conducted through the face to face method (Bryman, 2008) both on weekdays and weekends; this will allo...
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Czach, L. (2010) Cinephilia, Stars and Film Festival, Cinema Journal, 49, 2, 2010, pp: 139-145
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In the piece “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism,” Jean Luc-Comolli and Jean Narboni define the critic's job as the discernment of “which films, books and magazines allow the ideology a free, unhampered passage, transmit it with crystal clarity, serve as its chosen language” and which films “attempt to make it turn back and reflect itself, intercept it, make it visible by revealing its mechanisms, by blocking them” (753). Through their examination, seven film categories are outlined. Clue falls into the “E” category, which is defined as “films which seem at first sight to belong firmly within the ideology and to be completely under its sway, but which turn out to be so only in an ambiguous manner” (75...
In his essay, “It’s Just a Movie: A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes”, Greg M. Smith argues that analyzing a film does not ruin, but enhances a movie-viewing experience; he supports his argument with supporting evidence. He addresses the careful planning required for movies. Messages are not meant to be telegrams. Audiences read into movies to understand basic plotlines. Viewers should examine works rather than society’s explanations. Each piece contributes to Smith’s argument, movies are worth scrutinizing.
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
Lehman, Peter and Luhr, William. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
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Gunning, Tom 2000, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde.” Film and theory: An anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Blackwell, pp 229-235.
Genres are helpful in the general public as they give spectrum to different people and their different tastes. It also accommodates for any mood one may be in if they wanted to watch a film. It characterizes the films and sorts them into place for the viewer’s pleasure, “At all levels of the filmmaking and film-viewing processes, then, genres help assure that most members of society share at least some general notions about the many films that compete for our attention.” (Bordwell & Thompson, 2004: 110)
The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema - Phil Powrie, Ann Davies and Bruce Babington.
Cinema studies: the key concepts (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. 2007. Lacey, N. (2005). The 'Standard'. Film Language.
Barsam, R. M., Monahan, D., & Gocsik, K. M. (2012). Looking at movies: an introduction to film (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co..
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Going to the movies is probably one of the most enjoyable pastimes throughout the world. From western society to the Asian countries, watching movies is pleasant for nearly anybody. I currently work at the local cinema. Therefore I have decided to study the culture of moviegoers. I looked at many different aspects within the past months. I took time for myself in small, little, breaks to study and document the actions of the people. From their attitudes entering and leaving the cinemas, to the way they behaved and even the way they clothed themselves. I will be going into the field with a general question in mind of what I wish to learn. “How do individuals respond to each other in a moving going experience?” I will also look into how families communicate to each other compared to how a group of friends interact. In contrast to that outsider or etic outlook at our moviegoers, I will take an insider or emic perspective of the site and actually go out on my days off work and watch a movie portraying an actual moviegoer while no one in this culture within Stars will suspect a thing.
Movies take us inside the skin of people quite different from ourselves and to places different from our routine surroundings. As humans, we always seek enlargement of our being and wanted to be more than ourselves. Each one of us, by nature, sees the world with a perspective and selectivity different from others. But, we want to see the world through other’s eyes; imagine with other’s imaginations; feel with other’s hearts, at a same time as with our own. Movies offer us a window onto the wider world, broadening our perspective and opening our eyes to new wonders.
The aim of this research is to explore cinema audience's, festival goers' and workers in cinema views and experiences of film festivals, trying to understand what values they give to them and trying to figure out if they believe that in difficult times, such as the one we are living through, a film exhibition is still necessary.