Cognitive Study of film viewing
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filmnoir1
- Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:36 am
Cognitive Study of film viewing
Here is an interesting article about a study being done at NYU on how people's brains react to film viewing.
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Belmondo
- Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:19 pm
- Location: Cape Cod
Glad to see more evidence (not that any was needed) that Hitchcock is a master at manipulating our perceptual, emotional and cognitive state.
The article concludes by stating that this type of study may be of use to the film industry in determining how movies are viewed ... please don't go there ... we will only find confirmation that core mainstream audiences want fast edits, sexy babes and stuff that blows up real good.
The article concludes by stating that this type of study may be of use to the film industry in determining how movies are viewed ... please don't go there ... we will only find confirmation that core mainstream audiences want fast edits, sexy babes and stuff that blows up real good.
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the dancing kid
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:35 pm
Cognitive film studies has been a minor branch of the field since the late nineteen eighties. I think there have also been some recent experiments concerning the Kuleshov Effect and how individual parts of the brain react to different visual stimuli. I'm not sure how useful that information is to film scholars (as opposed to neuroscience people working with film), but I guess it's worth something to know that long-standing theories can be explained in a quantitative, verifiable way.
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colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
It looks like the study is showing the difference between tightly structured, controlled experiences a film takes you on and films that leave a lot more room for the viewer to create their own narrative coherence and structure from seemingly random events (for example Psycho or Frenzy compared to Twentynine Palms or L'Humanite).
I'm not sure I would conclude that that makes one type of film 'better' than another (I love films that are as masterfully constructed as Hitchcocks as much as anybody but at the same time I love films that let me construct my own meanings, maybe see more than was intended and that give me room for independent thought just as much). I think that it shows more that a viewer needs to approach different films in different ways to fully appreciate either experience. If you go to one 'type' of film expecting the opposite kind of experience then of course a viewer may end up confused and disappointed.
I'm not sure I would conclude that that makes one type of film 'better' than another (I love films that are as masterfully constructed as Hitchcocks as much as anybody but at the same time I love films that let me construct my own meanings, maybe see more than was intended and that give me room for independent thought just as much). I think that it shows more that a viewer needs to approach different films in different ways to fully appreciate either experience. If you go to one 'type' of film expecting the opposite kind of experience then of course a viewer may end up confused and disappointed.