Watching brief. What do you do when you watch a film

WATCHING BRIEF

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What do you do when you watch a film? Just watch it, you may say, but is that really the case? In recent years we have got used to interpreting the visual image to such an extent that we are no longer aware that we do it. No televisual broadcast is without the influence of its director; nothing we watch on the silver screen is unbiased or ‘real’. But we interpret the signals that the film director and his or her crew are sending to us.

One of the obvious choices open to a director is the organisation of the plot, or storyline, of the film. It can be organised in straight chronological order; it can switch between 'times', or it can consist of flashbacks, either in chronological order or in random. The latter organisation is likely to appear confused to the viewer who may .interpret the confusion as representing the slate of mind of the protagonist. Linked to this is the characterisation of the protagonists in the film - the viewer is led to liking or disliking them, approving of them or despising them through character traits, appearance, voice or actions. The director decides whether a character should arouse audience sympathy and identification or not. In this way, the audience does not have a choice when it comes to their interpretation of the characters; they are led to making certain choices.

One way of ensuring that the audience identifies with the 'right' character in the film is by presenting the action from the viewpoint of that character, either explicitly by using the character as a narrator, or implicitly by using point of view (looking at the action through his or her eyes). This kind of decision is not limited to the fiction film only, but can be employed to similar effect in documentaries. In the same way, stylistic features can be u in both fiction films and documentaries.

There are a number of stylistic ways of putting across 'meaning' in a film. One such way is the use of different types of lighting. Certain types of lighting can cast shadows creating impressions which are impossible to ignore, lighting a horror figure such as Dracula from under the face casts eerie shadows and emphasises the contours of the face in a very unnatural way. This lighting will always make a figure appear sinister. (Similarly, camera angles can be used to give an impression of a character's personality - if positioned below the character, he or she will appear intimidating. A character can be filmed from various distances, from extreme close-up (showing part of the face only) to extreme long shot in which the figure is barely visible. This is clearly used for extensive shots of cities and landscapes. An extreme close-up can cause a certain amount of discomfort in the viewer: feeling so close to another human face forces an intimacy which may not be welcome.

In addition to the decisions made by the director during filming are those made afterwards during editing. Both the choice of where to edit and how to edit can be very influential on the viewer's perception of the film. Edits can be made which give a very jerky, disjointed impression to the film; fades can be used to show time passing. (This is where the image fades down to black or white and then a different image gradually fades back up.)

After editing sound is added to the film. Think how certain types of music conjure up different feelings and expectations in the viewer. What do you expect of the film if the title music is slow and melodic, or, on the contrary, if it is loud, rousing and dramatic? For the first you'd expect a love story or perhaps a family drama; for the second you'd expect an adventure story. Imagine the effect if the director chooses to mix conflicting music and images. This music, like all the other features addressed here, forms part of the set of conventions and shared symbolisations which allow us to interpret the meaning of the broadcast.