1. Audience Expectations
Film Conventions and How They Impact Viewer Experience and Filmmaker Choices

2. What Movies Mean to You
The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them. ~Mary Schmich The quotation above suggests that personal taste and experience shape the kinds of movies we gravitate towards. Keeping this quotation in mind, answer the following journal prompt in your film notebook.

3. What Movies Mean to You
Journal: Conventions are the rules of character, setting, narrative, and style that are characteristic of a certain genre, or type, of film (i.e. romantic comedies, Westerns, horror films) What is your favorite film genre? What conventions do expect your favorite genre to follow? What film(s) have you seen that broke with conventions/expectations? What was the effect of this?

4. Film Conventions and Analysis
Using expectations to read film critically:
Does the movie conform to the accepted conventions of a particular genre, or does it move beyond it?
Does the movie tell the narrative (story) in a conventional manner, or does it overturn expectations about structure or characters?
Does the film’s “look” enhance its themes, or do visual elements introduce irony or tension?

5. The Viewer’s Perspective
Casual viewers – focus on personal/emotional responses to film
Critics – evaluate the film using their specialized knowledge of film: narrative structure; technical innovations, similar films, genre
Scholars – write within the broader scope of the study of and history of films.
In this class you’ll be a mix of “casual viewer” and “critic”

6. How Do Films Mean? Personal attributes:
Individual Knowledge and Cultural Experiences
Preferences (personal taste)
Formal training (Film Studies Class in College)
Expectations

7. How Do Films Mean? Filmmaker’s choices: Organization / Structure
Genre conventions – characteristics of the type of movie
Director and Casting (Movie Stars)
Allusions – references
Style

8. Styles of Film Classical: Realist: Formalist:
Associated with Hollywood filmmaking
Storytelling takes precedent over realism or aesthetic innovation
Realist:
Focuses on characters, place, and the spontaneity and digressiveness of life (documentary feel)
Privileges the common, everyday over a structured story or aesthetics
Formalist:
Explores abstract ideas through stories and characters
Use visual techniques to call attention to themselves as artistic exploration