Style and The Audience
Most films conform to the Classical Hollywood narrative film style, which has a set of guidelines that the films tend to follow. The story in this style is told chronologically in a cause and effect relationship. The main principle in this film style is continuity editing, where editing, camera, and sound should be considered "invisible" to the viewers. In other words, attention should not be brought to these elements.
While many films conform to these guidelines, there are other films that ignore the guidelines and bring attention to the film techniques. The films violate the standard rules of film in order to have an innovative style or bring attention to certain techniques.
The director decides what is and is not on the screen. They help guide what the audience looks at and notices. Although the audience may not consciously notice film style, it still affects the viewer’s experience of the film.
When viewers go see a film, they have expectations about a film. Based on previous experience watching films, the audience expects that there are certain techniques that are commonly found in films. For example, after a long shot there will be a cut to a closer view. If a character is walking across the stage, the audience expects the camera to pan or follow the character’s movement. Viewers expect to interact with and be a part of the film, rather than simply being shown a group of images. These expectations come from experiences with both the real and film worlds. The audience expects films to appear like real life, and be shot according a certain style. Classical Hollywood narrative film styles and the conventions of other genres help to guide the audience in what to expect.
Read more about this topic: Film Styles
Famous quotes containing the words style and, style and/or audience:
“The difference between style and taste is never easy to define, but style tends to be centered on the social, and taste upon the individual. Style then works along axes of similarity to identify group membership, to relate to the social order; taste works within style to differentiate and construct the individual. Style speaks about social factors such as class, age, and other more flexible, less definable social formations; taste talks of the individual inflection of the social.”
—John Fiske (b. 1939)
“The flattering, if arbitrary, label, First Lady of the Theatre, takes its toll. The demands are great, not only in energy but eventually in dramatic focus. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a star to occupy an inch of space without bursting seams, cramping everyone else’s style and unbalancing a play. No matter how self-effacing a famous player may be, he makes an entrance as a casual neighbor and the audience interest shifts to the house next door.”
—Helen Hayes (1900–1993)
“One of the things that I discovered in lecturing was that gradually one ceased to hear what one said one heard what the audience hears one say.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)