In this article I am going to look at my favourite genre of film - action movies!

I will explain different audience theories, how we receive and interpret action
movies, our viewing experiences and fandom.


What is an audience?- An audience is a target market a media producer wants to reach.
Individual audience members consume and use the media to fulfil certain needs.
ME AND MY MOVIES

AUDIENCE THEORY


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AUDIENCE THEORY
Films can have various effects on audiences from causing an
emotional response to causing copycat violence. Audiences however
can also affect a film and particularly the longevity of its popularity and
its status in our culture. Audiences are made up of individuals however
and it is impossible to say that a film will have the same impact on each
individual viewer and also that a film will be read or understood by each
viewer in the same way. It is a complex relationship that deserves
further exploration.
Active vs. Passive Spectatorship
One of the fundamental debates in film theory is whether audiences are
made up of individual active spectators or a passive mass of unthinking
consumers who watch what we are told to watch and fail to question
what we are told or the messages of the media we consume.
Active spectatorship theory suggests each viewer is different and many
people in the audience will question the film and react to it in different
ways to others, not just blindly accepting the messages. Active
spectators do not just consume what they are told to watch by
marketing that is aimed at them but instead choose different films to
watch for different reasons.
The passive spectator theory on the other hand suggests we are all the
same and our intelligence, life experiences and everything else that
makes us individuals does not affect our reception of the film.
Perhaps it can be argued that some filmmakers try to turn the audience
into passive spectators by filling their films with very obvious,
unambiguous preferred messages. For example the use of various
codes such as music, lighting and cinematography in order to try and
get as much agreement. It is made very clear how the filmmaker wants
the audience to think and feel about the characters, story and events in
the film. For example in Titanic when Jack dies there is very sad music
on the soundtrack and he is played by Leonardo DiCaprio who
audiences are very familiar with. Everything about the way the scene is
shot and edited makes
everyone in the audience
agree that it is sad that Jack
has died.

CONTENTS
Active
spectatorship
Users and
gratifications
theory
Reception
theory
Intertextuality
Pre and post
viewing
experiences
Fandom


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Others wish to encourage active spectatorship by making their films more open to individual
interpretation and making it easier for people to read the film differently and respond to it in different
ways. For example Pulp Fiction is told in a non-linear fashion and so the audience has to construct the
real chronology of the story in their own head. The film does not have heroes and villains either. There
is very little that tells the audience how to feel at certain times or what to feel about certain characters.
Spectators think for themselves about whom to be sad about if they die or even who is the main
character of the story. The reverse chronology and the revelations in the final scene reveal that the
character is somebody quite different to what the audience had been previously led to believe and it
takes a very active mind to decide how to feel and interpret the film by the final scene.

Users and gratifications theory
Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that audiences do not all just watch whatever they are told
to watch and instead different individuals consume different films for different reasons and pleasures.
The Uses and Gratifications theory indicates that there are four main pleasures that audiences gain
from films; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.
Diversion
Diversion is probably the most common reason people choose to watch films. Quite simply many
viewers will watch a film just to get away from the problems and reality of their own lives. This is why
most big Hollywood blockbusters offer pure escapism. They tell easy to understand stories where good
usually triumphs over evil and people can go home feeling good. They can provide us with emotions we
may not always feel in the mundane routine of our everyday lives, making us laugh, cry or scream.
Many films even take us to fantasy lands like Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings or far off planets like in
Star Wars, allowing us to completely escape the reality of our lives.







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Personal relationships
Some people may use films as a substitute for personal
relationships. A classic example of this is a viewer
choosing to go and see a romantic comedy because they
are single. The idea of a relationship or finding a happy
relationship is played out in the film. Similarly films that
are about groups of friends may help a person to feel like
part of a group. In films like the American Pie series or
The Inbetweeners, viewers might find characters that they
would like to be friends with and watching a film is like being in their company.

Personal identity
People may watch a film for reasons of personal identity. This
is where a viewer watches a film because they see themselves
reflected in it, whether it be one specific character or a certain
subculture of lifestyle. Some people choose to watch violent
films about football hooliganism such as Green Street and The
Football Factory because it is a lifestyle that they can relate to.
The viewer may even learn some of their values from the text.

Surveillance
Finally surveillance is another pleasure of film watching that means finding films that might contain
information that is useful for living. For example watching documentaries such as Michael Moores
Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11 might educate the viewer about the current state of America.
I might also watch world cinemas to learn more about cultures that are foreign to me. For example the
films City of God and La Haine teach the viewer about what it is like to live in poor areas of Brazil in
France. While this could be considered escapism from my own life in Britain, they could also contain
information that is useful in my life.








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Reception theory
Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that the audience is made up of individuals who all read and
interpret films differently from each other. What makes us individuals are a range of things and these
could be considered our frameworks of interpretation. All factors such as age, class, ethnicity, gender,
education and even past experiences will all have some bearing on the way people read and interpret a
film. Though the film may have a preferred reading, there may be some differences in the way people
interpret it due to their differing frameworks of interpretation.
For example Avatar is about a species of aliens that taught a human that he should be more respectful
of his surroundings and nature and the environment, where as some criticize the movie for portraying
the aliens as savages and the use of African-American and Native American actors in the roles of the
aliens. I interpreted it as James Cameron suggesting that the primitive cultures were honourable,
noble and cared for the planet, whereas the humans (often played by Americans and Europeans) had
basically destroyed Earth through
carelessness and greedy consumption of
natural resources. However others consider
it a patronising view of non-white cultures
and criticised it for having a white hero who
has to save the savages. Perhaps some
critics with different frameworks of
interpretation to my own were more
sensitive to these issues than I was.


Context of reception
This is where and how you engage with a text effects and the way it is received. Two examples are in a
cinema environment and a home environment. Cinema requires audience commitment as a decision
has to be made to visit the cinema, while the dark room and no talking policy focus the attention. Films
in a domestic environment may have an audiences full attention or be on during conversations, meals
etc or simply be left on as background.
Intertextuality
Intertextuality means that any text is the absorption and transformation of another. Some texts refer
directly to each other such as in remakes of films, extra diegetic references to the media/society e.g.
the Simpsons. The interpretation of these references is influenced by the audiences prior knowledge of
other texts.
A viewer who is more media literate will likely be aware of how the text is positioning them and may
therefore be less suggestible to the messages of the film. This viewer will be more aware of how the
preferred readings of a film are constructed and may therefore resist the ideology or messages of the


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film more than someone who is less aware of how films construct meanings and provoke specific
emotional responses.
For example some viewers may find Kidulthood to be a realistic depiction of Londons youth whereas
others may see it as a sensationalistic film that stereotypes London teens in order to sell more tickets at
the box office. Some viewers will not enjoy fantasy films as much because they are overly aware of how
the special effects are created and this ruins the magic for them. Some viewers may appreciate the
films of Tarantino more or less than others because they are more or less aware of the references to
other films that Tarantino alludes to. They may also enjoy a film such as Pulp Fiction more because
they find the structure challenging and interesting
compared to a traditional narrative whereas others may
find the non-linear narrative confusing and pointless.
This also ties in with intertextuality which is where a
film references another piece of media. This can be
deliberate or unavoidable. For example spoofs such as
Scary Movie deliberately reference other films such as
Scream in order to parody them and make viewers who
are aware of the film being referenced, laugh at the
imitation. People who have seen Scream are more
likely to enjoy Scary Movie as they will be more familiar
with the target of the mockery.
However intertextuality can also be less deliberate and almost unavoidable. This is often the case with
genre films and the use of stars. Any time a filmmaker wants to make a slasher film where a killer stalks
a bunch of kids and stabs them one by one, that film will always have unavoidable references to the
whole slasher sub-genre of horror. Similarly, any time a filmmaker casts a star such as Will Smith for
example, the viewer is likely to be reminded of previous Will Smith films. If I see Will Smith on a poster,
I suspect he may save the world (or at least be the hero) because Ive seen him do this a few times. I
see Jim Carrey and I expect a comedy. This can be used to sell a film or it can be used to subvert
expectations but either way, the use of certain generic conventions or stars can impact the experience
for the viewer, particularly if they are media literate or very knowledgeable about films.
Pre and post viewing experiences
The enjoyment of a film can also be affected by the pre and post-viewing experiences of the person
who watches it and where and how they watch it. For example if a viewer watched all the trailers,
promotional clips, interviews with the stars etc before a film is released, they may have extremely high
expectations of the film. This might mean the film fails to meet these
expectations. Comedies often have many of the best jokes in the trailers
of the films and these jokes will not be as funny when they are in the final
film if you have seen the trailer a few times. Similarly many trailers give a
great deal of the story away and show many of the best stunts. The
recent Fast and Furious 6 trailer seemed to have clips from all the major
set-pieces and therefore there was no sense of surprise when watching
the film. Prometheus was also a victim of its excellent marketing because


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people had huge expectations and the film was not as good as many had hoped.

Fandom
Films do not just have the potential to have an effect on audiences but also audiences can have an
affect on films. With fandom it can go both ways. Fans are people who love a particular film, genre,
character or star and they share camaraderie with other fans. Sometimes being a fan can involve a
huge range of activities such as attending conventions, dressing up, writing fan fiction, blogging,
starting a website, attending premieres, collecting merchandise, writing fan mail or even getting into film
production and referencing the films you are a fan of.
Though the films have clearly had an effect on the fans by making them get obsessed and turning the
film into a hobby for the person, the fans also have an impact on the film. They turn it into more than a
film, making it a cultural phenomenon such as Star Wars. Fans are now becoming filmmakers so Kevin
Smith references Star Wars in most of his movies and J.J. Abrams is now making a Star Wars movie
after being a huge fan of the original. Fans have expanded the Star Wars universe by writing their own
fan fiction and their continuing love for the franchise has led to more and more sequels. Some fans
have even gone as far as to call Jedi their religion and some Trekkies have learned the (fictional)
language Klingon from Star Trek.









Conclusion
After writing this article and researching action movie examples and audience theories there can be no
doubt that action movies are some of the most popular types of movies you are likely to see at the
cinema at any given time. Naturally, one of the main attributes of the action film is the violence, typically
seen in both fight scenes and massive explosions. Violence keeps us rooted in our seats and makes us
identify with the main hero and, of course, dislike the villain! Action movies are great if you want to
experience a real adrenaline rush without actually having to engage in any crime-fighting action
yourself. An action movie is certain to fulfiil these needs and you'll never have to look any further than
your local movie theater!