film art

A cognitive schematic analysis of film

Gregory George Hale

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Doctor of Philosophy

2009

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Abstract

This research used two short films to investigate whether schema theory has value for researching and designing film experiences.

The first study used the neutrally rated Ice Cream Dream to qualitatively analyse talk from ten viewers, for research and design contributions based on schema theory. The analysis was systematic and driven by the data, with bottom up analysis iteratively structured by emergent schematic categories. The viewers talk indicated confusion about the film content and included talk on schematic structure in the film. The second study developed a method of schematic analysis to investigate schemas in a case study in good structure, The Wrong Trousers. The films content was systematically logged, with aggregate schemas and re-interpretive schemas emerging as structuring the film, with the schemas causally linked together. The third study used schematic analysis to investigate Ice Cream Dream, both as a comparison to The Wrong Trousers and for research and design contributions from schema theory. Aggregate schemas were only partially evident, with content weakly linked causally or unlinked. The fourth study examined if non-interview based viewers talk would contribute additional insights and design implications from schema theory, using 65 online movie reviews of The Wrong Trousers. Systematic analysis revealed strong positive reactions focused on aggregate schemas plus two high salience elements (the techno trousers and the penguin).

This research has revealed that schema theory is powerful in identifying research based insights into film of value to film researchers and professionals. Twenty three design implications resulted from the four studies, revealing that schema theory is powerful in design terms. The further research, as correctives to the weakness of the research, will include schema based studies of other films, the development of a systematic Schematic Analysis Design Method (SADM) and the development of a schematic modeling language for film.

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Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................. 2 Acknowledgements.................................................................................. 12 Authors declaration ............................................................................... 13

Chapter 1. Literature Review ............................................................. 15 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 15 1.2 Aims and approaches ....................................................................... 15

1.2.1 Rich descriptions of film experiences .................................... 18 1.2.2 Choice of experiences to research............................................. 19

1.3 The changing context of film ........................................................... 21 1.3.1 Ubiquitous interactive devices and content............................... 22 1.3.2 Web 2.0 ..................................................................................... 23 1.3.3 Convergence.............................................................................. 26

1.4 The search for an integrating framework ......................................... 27 1.4.1 Philosophical approaches to experiences .................................. 28 1.4.2 Theorising film experiences ...................................................... 29 1.4.3 Narratology................................................................................ 35

1.4.3.1 Aristotles Poetics .............................................................. 37 1.4.3.2 Story issues in modern narratology.................................... 38

1.5 Schema theory .................................................................................. 40 1.5.1 History of schema theory .......................................................... 40 1.5.2 Structure of schemas ................................................................. 41 1.5.3 Schema in films and viewers reports ....................................... 42

1.6 Choice of research approach ............................................................ 43 1.7 Initial research questions.................................................................. 47

Chapter 2. Investigation one viewers talk on short film Ice Cream Dream . .................................................................. 50 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 50 2.2 Method ............................................................................................. 51

2.2.1 Design........................................................................................ 51 2.2.2 Ethical issues ............................................................................. 51 2.2.3 Participants ................................................................................ 52 2.2.4 Materials.................................................................................... 52 2.2.5 Procedure................................................................................... 54 2.2.6 Data analysis ............................................................................. 55 2.2.7 Coding nomenclature ................................................................ 57

2.3 Results and Discussion..................................................................... 59 2.3.1 Enjoyment scores ...................................................................... 59 2.3.2 Summaries................................................................................. 60 2.3.3 Real Life Reflection category grouping .................................... 61

2.3.3.1 Real-Life Reflection Film ............................................... 61 2.3.3.2 Real-Life Reflection Actors ............................................ 62 2.3.3.3 Real-Life Reflection Personal ......................................... 64 2.3.3.4 Real-Life Reflection General .......................................... 66

2.3.4 Specific Film Aspects................................................................ 67 2.3.4.1 Specific Film Aspects-Actions........................................... 68

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2.3.4.2 Specific Film Aspects Location ...................................... 70 2.3.4.3 Specific Film Aspects Costume ...................................... 71 2.3.4.4 Specific Film Aspects Prop ............................................. 73 2.3.4.5 Specific Film Aspects Camera ........................................ 76 2.3.4.6 Specific Film Aspects Sound .......................................... 77 2.3.4.7 Specific Film Aspects Hair ............................................. 79 2.3.4.8 Specific Film Aspects Cast ............................................. 79 2.3.4.9 Specific Film Aspects Dreams (identity) ........................ 80 2.3.4.10 Specific Film Aspects Dreams (transitions).................. 82 2.3.4.11 Specific Film Aspects Credits ....................................... 83 2.3.4.12 Specific Film Aspects Starts and Ends.......................... 85

2.3.5 Intentions, Expectations ............................................................ 86 2.3.5.1 Film Makers Intentions ..................................................... 87

2.3.6 General Film Expectations ........................................................ 88 2.3.7 Character Observations ............................................................. 90

2.4 Concluding discussion and further research .................................... 91 2.4.1 Report structures and schemas .................................................. 92 2.4.2 Overview of design implications .............................................. 97 2.4.3 Six design implications ............................................................. 98 2.4.4 Conclusion and issues for further investigation...................... 100

Chapter 3. Investigation two schematic analysis of short film The Wrong Trousers ................................................................................. 103 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 103

3.1.1 Issues arising ........................................................................... 103 3.1.2 Methods of analysing film content and problems ................... 104

3.2 Method ........................................................................................... 106 3.2.1 Materials.................................................................................. 106 3.2.2 Analysis and coding procedure ............................................... 108

3.2.2.1 Factual logging and the Shot Description Document....... 108 3.2.2.2 Schematic map schema structure and slot tables .......... 110 3.2.2.3 A structuring schema....................................................... 110

3.3 Results and discussion.................................................................... 111 3.3.1 An expanded typology of schemas.......................................... 111 3.3.2 Nomenclature and identification of behavioural schemas ...... 111

3.3.2.1 Nomenclature of behavioural schemas ............................ 111 3.3.2.2 Identification of behavioural schemas.............................. 112

3.3.3 Schema map for The Wrong Trousers .................................... 115 3.3.4 Having breakfast schema...................................................... 116

3.3.4.1 Identification .................................................................... 116 3.3.4.2 Design implications.......................................................... 117

3.3.5 Having a birthday schema ....................................................... 118 3.3.5.1 Identification .................................................................... 118 3.3.5.2 Design implications.......................................................... 120

3.3.6 Getting ready in the morning(1) schema .............................. 122 3.3.6.1 Identification .................................................................... 122 3.3.6.2 Design implications.......................................................... 122

3.3.7 Financial crisis schema......................................................... 123 3.3.7.1 Identification .................................................................... 123

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3.3.7.2 Design principles.............................................................. 124 3.3.8 Getting a lodger schema ....................................................... 124

3.3.8.1 Identification .................................................................... 124 3.3.8.2 Design principles.............................................................. 125

3.3.9 Decorating a room schema ................................................... 126 3.3.9.1 Identification .................................................................... 126 3.3.9.2 Design implications.......................................................... 127

3.3.10 Bad lodger schema.............................................................. 128 3.3.10.1 Identification .................................................................. 128 3.3.10.2 Design principles............................................................ 128

3.3.11 Getting ready in the morning (2) schema ........................... 129 3.3.11.1 Identification .................................................................. 129 3.3.11.2 Design principles............................................................ 129

3.3.12 Having breakfast (2) schema .............................................. 130 3.3.12.1 Identification .................................................................. 130 3.3.12.2 Design implications........................................................ 131

3.3.13 Faithful pet dog subverted schema .................................. 131 3.3.13.1 Identification .................................................................. 131 3.3.13.2 Design implications........................................................ 133

3.3.14 Leaving home schema ........................................................ 133 3.3.14.1 Identification .................................................................. 133 3.3.14.2 Design implications........................................................ 134

3.3.15 Antagonists plan equipment schema .............................. 135 3.3.15.1 Identification .................................................................. 135 3.3.15.2 Design implications........................................................ 136

3.3.16 Getting ready in the morning (3) subverted schema........ 136 3.3.16.1 Identification .................................................................. 136 3.3.16.2 Design implications........................................................ 137

3.3.17 Lodger seeking accommodation schema............................ 138 3.3.17.1 Identification .................................................................. 138 3.3.17.2 Design implications........................................................ 138

3.3.18 [Re-interpretative] Antagonists criminal plan schema...... 138 3.3.18.1 Identification .................................................................. 138 3.3.18.2 Design implications........................................................ 139

3.3.19 Spying schema.................................................................... 140 3.3.19.1 Identification .................................................................. 140 3.3.19.2 Design implications........................................................ 140

3.3.20 [Re-interpretative] Antagonists heist plan outworked ... 141 3.3.20.1 Identification .................................................................. 141 3.3.20.2 Design implications........................................................ 142

3.3.21 Getting ready in the morning (4) subverted schema........ 142 3.3.21.1 Identification .................................................................. 142 3.3.21.2 Design implications........................................................ 143

3.3.22 Captured(1) schema............................................................ 143 3.3.22.1 Identification .................................................................. 143 3.3.22.2 Design implications........................................................ 144

3.3.23 Escape schema.................................................................... 145 3.3.23.1 Identification .................................................................. 145 3.3.23.2 Design implications........................................................ 145

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3.3.24 Chase schema ..................................................................... 146 3.3.24.1 Identification .................................................................. 146 3.3.24.2 Design implications........................................................ 147

3.3.25 Captured (2) schema........................................................... 147 3.3.25.1 Identification .................................................................. 147 3.3.25.2 Design implications........................................................ 148

3.3.26 Faithful pet dog restored schema..................................... 149 3.3.26.1 Identification .................................................................. 149 3.3.26.2 Design implications........................................................ 149

3.3.27 Financial crisis - resolved schema ...................................... 150 3.3.27.1 Identification .................................................................. 150 3.3.27.2 Design implications........................................................ 150

3.3.28 Walking off into the sunset schema.................................... 151 3.3.28.1 Identification .................................................................. 151

3.4 Concluding discussion and further research................................... 152 3.4.1 Schema structures.................................................................... 152

3.4.1.1 Schema structures in Act One .......................................... 153 3.4.1.2 Schema structures in Act Two ......................................... 155 3.4.1.3 Schema structures in Act Three ....................................... 155

3.4.2 Design implications................................................................. 156 3.4.2.1 Within schema design implications.................................. 156 3.4.2.2 Between schema design implications............................... 159

3.4.3 Further research....................................................................... 162

Chapter 4. Investigation three schematic analysis of short film Ice Cream Dream . ............................................................................ 164 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 164

4.1.1 Issues arising ........................................................................... 164 4.1.2 Research questions .................................................................. 165

4.2 Method ........................................................................................... 166 4.2.1 Materials.................................................................................. 166 4.2.2 Analysis and coding procedure ............................................... 167

4.2.2.1 Factual logging and the Shot Description Document....... 168 4.2.2.2 Schematic map schema structure and slot tables .......... 169 4.2.2.3 Behavioural schemas a structuring schema?................ 169

4.3 Results and discussion.................................................................... 169 4.3.1 An expanded typology of schemas.......................................... 169 4.3.2 Nomenclature and identification of behavioural schemas ...... 170

4.3.2.1 Nomenclature of behavioural schemas ............................ 170 4.3.2.2 Identification of behavioural schemas.............................. 170

4.3.3 Schema map for Ice Cream Dream ......................................... 170 4.3.4 Selling ice cream from van (1) schema ................................ 171

4.3.4.1 Identification .................................................................... 171 4.3.4.2 Design implications and integration with viewers talk... 172

4.3.5 Causally unlinked elements [Harry/alter ego]......................... 175 4.3.5.1 Identification .................................................................... 175 4.3.5.2 Design implications and integration with viewers talk... 176

4.3.6 Putting valuables into bank - daydream schema .................. 177 4.3.6.1 Identification .................................................................... 177

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4.3.6.2 Design issues linked to viewers talk ............................... 178 4.3.7 Causally unlinked elements [Concerned parent talk].............. 179

4.3.7.1 Identification .................................................................... 179 4.3.7.2 Design implications linked to viewers talk..................... 180

4.3.8 Causally unlinked elements Harry/alter ego (2) dream ..... 180 4.3.8.1 Identification .................................................................... 180 4.3.8.2 Design implications.......................................................... 181

4.3.9 Selling (prize winning) ice cream from van (2) - dream. ..... 182 4.3.9.1 Identification .................................................................... 182 4.3.9.2 Design implications and link to viewers talk.................. 183

4.3.10 Causally unlinked element Parent wakes child .................. 184 4.3.10.1 Identification .................................................................. 184 4.3.10.2 Design implication ......................................................... 185

4.3.11 Selling ice cream from van (2) schema .............................. 186 4.3.11.1 Identification .................................................................. 186 4.3.11.2 Design implications and link to viewers talk................ 187

4.3.12 Causally related elements [Harry/alter ego].......................... 188 4.3.12.1 Identification .................................................................. 188 4.3.12.2 Design implications and link to viewers talk................ 188

4.3.13 Child making friends schema ............................................. 189 4.3.13.1 Identification .................................................................. 189 4.3.13.2 Design implication and link to viewers talk ................. 189

4.4 Concluding discussion and further research................................... 190 4.4.1 Schema structures.................................................................... 190

4.4.1.1 Schema structures in Act One .......................................... 191 4.4.1.2 Schema structures in Act Two ......................................... 191 4.4.1.3 Schema structures in Act Three ....................................... 192

4.4.2 Design implications................................................................. 193 4.4.2.1 Within schema design implications.................................. 193 4.4.2.2 Between schema design implications............................... 195

4.4.3 Further research....................................................................... 198

Chapter 5. Investigation four viewers online talk on short film The Wrong Trousers.................................................................................. 199 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 199

5.1.1 Issues arising ........................................................................... 199 5.1.2 Research questions .................................................................. 200

5.2 Method ........................................................................................... 200 5.2.1 Design...................................................................................... 200 5.2.2 Participants .............................................................................. 201 5.2.3 Materials.................................................................................. 201 5.2.4 Data collection......................................................................... 204 5.2.5 Data analysis ........................................................................... 205

5.3 Results and discussion.................................................................... 205 5.3.1 Word Count ............................................................................. 206 5.3.2 User movie summaries ............................................................ 206


5.3.3 Story summaries in user comments......................................... 208

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5.3.4 Positive talk in material which is not a story summary........... 216 5.3.4.1 Identification .................................................................... 216 5.3.4.2 Positive talk on Story..................................................... 216 5.3.4.3 Positive talk on laughter ................................................... 217 5.3.4.4 Animation......................................................................... 217 5.3.4.5 Positive talk on Chase ...................................................... 218 5.3.4.6 Design implications.......................................................... 218 5.3.4.7 Conclusions and Future Research .................................... 220

Chapter 6. Summary and conclusions.............................................. 223 6.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 223 6.2 Summary of thesis .......................................................................... 223 6.3 Methodological contribution .......................................................... 228

6.3.1 Semi-structured interviewing, prompted recollection............. 228 6.3.2 New method of analysing film structure schematically .......... 229 6.3.3 Use of online movie reviews................................................... 230

6.4 Results contribution........................................................................ 231 6.4.1 Film design implications for a schema based approach .......... 231

6.4.1.1 Design practice of film content creators .......................... 231 6.4.1.2 Design implications whole film .................................... 232 6.4.1.3 Design implications between schemas.......................... 234 6.4.1.4 Design implications within schemas ............................. 235

6.4.2 Schema theory and film ........................................................... 237 6.5 Higher level contributions , limitations and further research......... 238 6.6 General conclusions ....................................................................... 239

Appendix One: Interview Schedule (Investigation One)....................... 241 Appendix Two: Sample Transcript (Investigation One)........................ 259 Appendix Three: Shot Description Document (Investigation Two) ..... 274 Appendix Four: Shot Description Document (Investigation Three) ..... 286 Appendix Five: Sample Movie Reviews (Investigation Four) .............. 298

List of References .................................................................................. 309

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Tables Table 2.1 Segmentation of Ice Cream Dream in three act form ........... 53 Table 2.2 Coding categories: Real Life Reflection ............................... 61 Table 2.3 Coding frequencies: Real-Life Reflection-Film .................... 62 Table 2.4 Coding frequencies: Real-Life Reflection-Actors ................. 63 Table 2.5 Coding frequencies: Real-Life Reflection-Personal.............. 65 Table 2.6 Coding frequencies: Real-Life Reflection-General ............... 67 Table 2.7 Coding categories: Specific Film Aspects............................. 68 Table 2.8 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Act ................... 70 Table 2.9 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Location ........... 71 Table 2.10 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Costume ........... 73 Table 2.11 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Properties ......... 75 Table 2.12 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Camera............. 76 Table 2.13 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Sound ............... 78 Table 2.14 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Hair .................. 79 Table 2.15 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Casting ............. 80 Table 2.16 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Dreams (ID) ..... 82 Table 2.17 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Dreams (Trans) 83 Table 2.18 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects-Credits.............. 84 Table 2.19 Coding frequencies: Specific Film Aspects- Starts/Ends ...... 86 Table 2.20 Intentions, Expectations......................................................... 87 Table 2.21 Coding frequencies: category Film Makers Intentions.......... 88 Table 2.22 Coding frequencies: category General Film Expectations .... 90 Table 2.23 Coding frequencies: category Character-Observations ......... 91 Table 2.24 Coding categories with no design implications ..................... 97 Table 2.25 Summary of design principles from coded segments............ 98 Table 3.1 Segmentation of The Wrong Trousers ................................ 107 Table 3.2 Sample extract from the Shot Description Document ......... 109 Table 3.3 Schema structure table......................................................... 116 Table 3.4 Instantiated schema slot table, Having Breakfast ............. 118 Table 3.5 Instantiated schema slot table Having A Birthday............ 120 Table 3.6 Instantiated schema slot table Getting Ready (1) ............. 122 Table 3.7 Instantiated schema slot table for Financial Crisis ........... 124 Table 3.8 Instantiated schema slot table for Getting A Lodger ........ 125 Table 3.9 Instantiated schema slot table, Decorating A Room......... 127 Table 3.10 Instantiated schema slot table, Bad Lodger ...................... 128 Table 3.11 Instantiated slot table, Getting Ready (2) ......................... 129 Table 3.12 Instantiated schema slot table, Having Breakfast (2)........ 131 Table 3.13 Instantiated schema slot table, Faithful Pet Dog/Friendship- Subverted.... ................................................................................... 133 Table 3.14 Instantiated schema slot table, Leaving Home ................. 134 Table 3.15 Instantiated schema slot table, Antagonists Plan Equip.136 Table 3.16 Instantiated schema slot table, Getting Ready (3) ... Subverted........ ........................................................................... 137 Table 3.17 Instantiated schema slot table, Lodger Seeking Accommodation................................................................................. 138 Table 3.18 Instantiated schema slot table, Antagonists Plan Equip. 139

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Table 3.19 Instantiated schema slot table, Spying .............................. 140 Table 3.20 Instantiated schema slot table, [Re-interpretative]Antagonists Heist Plan Outworked......................................................................... 142 Table 3.21 Instantiated schema slot table, Getting Ready in the Morning.. (4) Subverted .................................................................................. 143 Table 3.22 Instantiated schema slot table, Chase................................ 144 Table 3.23 Instantiated schema slot table, Escape .............................. 145 Table 3.24 Instantiated schema slot table, Chase................................ 147 Table 3.25 Instantiated schema slot table, Captured........................... 148 Table 3.26 Instantiated schema slot table, Faithful Pet DogRestored149 Table 3.27 Instantiated schema slot table for Financial Crisis-... Resolved.. .............................................................................. 150 Table 3.28 General design implications at the within schema level...... 158 Table 3.29 Slot design implications at the within schema level............ 159 Table 3.30 Design implications at the between schema level ............... 160 Table 4.1 Segmentation of Ice Cream Dream in three act form ......... 167 Table 4.2 Sample extract from the Shot Description Document..168 Table 4.3 Schema structure table (non-schematic elements indented) 171 Table 4.4 Instantiated schema slot table, Selling Ice Cream From Van............................................................................. 172 Table 4.5 Instantiated schema slot table,Putting Valuables Into Bank....................................................................... 177 Table 4.6 Instantiated schema slot table, Dream Selling (Prize ) Winning Ice cream From Van.. ............................................................. 183 Table 4.7 Instantiated schema slot table, Selling Ice Cream From Van . ............................................................................. ..187 Table 4.8 Slot design implications at the within schema level............ 195 Table 4.9 Design implications at the between schema level ............... 197 Table 5.1 Coding categories for user summaries (quotes uncorrected)207 Table 5.2 Coding categories for story summaries ............................... 210 Table 5.3 User comments citing causal elements in story summaries. 213 Table 5.4 Design implication of positive talk...................................... 220 Table 6.1 Film designer attitudes......................................................... 232 Table 6.2 Whole film design implications........................................... 233 Table 6.3 Between schema level detailed design implications............ 235 Table 6.4 Slot design implications at the within schema level............ 237

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Figure Figure 5.1 Extract from user comment (summary relocated)207

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Acknowledgements

My primary thanks go to Professor Andrew Monk (supervisor, University of York) for his enthusiasm, interest and insight. Primary thanks also to Microsoft Research (Cambridge) for funding the first three years of this research, and to Fabien Peticolas and Ken Wood, my industrial supervisors at Microsoft Research (Cambridge) for their interest in the project.

Thanks also to Peter Wright, Padriac Moneghan and John Mateer for their interest and for their positive challenge, as members of my Research Committee.

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Authors declaration

I declare that all the material presented in this thesis is based on my own work. Prior to writing this thesis in its final form, the following papers were

written by myself, apart from the first one listed, which had authorship as indicated.

2009 Cognitive Approaches to Entertainment and Fun Experiences. Special interest group submission accepted for CHI2008, but insufficient time for revisions. With groups approval, will resubmit to refereed international HCI conference in 2009. G. Hale with J. Hoonhout, C. Lindley, F. Myr, E. Ollila, C. Thimm and J. Verhaegh

2007 Pumping up the Fun on Web 2.0. - Can Psychology Give a Helping Hand? Presented at Towards a Social Science of Web 2.0 2007, York, United Kingdom.

2007 SIFT: Schematic Instances For Transmedia. Workshop position paper presented at ACE 2007 workshop, Transmedial Interactions and Digital Games, Salzburg, Austria.

2006 SCUSI? Story Content Using Schematic Instances: Possibilities and Problems in Using Schema Theory for Story Content Generation. Late poster presented at TIDSE 2006 workshop on interactive storytelling, Darmstadt, Germany.

2006 SCUSI? Story Content Using Schematic Instances. Workshop position paper presented at TIDSE 2006 workshop on interactive storytelling, Darmstadt, Germany.

2006 Insights into the Design of Computer Entertainment from Schemas in Film. Paper presented at TIDSE 2006, Darmstadt, Germany.

2005 What could simple computing be? The case of the electronic matchbox. Poster presented at the Microsoft, Less is More conference, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

2005 A qualitative exploration of entertainment experiences. Paper presented at ACE2005, Valencia, Spain.

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2005 Re-conceptualising fun through viewers experiences to build new home system interfaces. Paper presented at HOIT 2005, York, United Kingdom.

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Chapter 1. Literature review

1.1 Introduction

This chapter firstly reviews the aims and approaches of the thesis (section 1.2). Then it reviews the changing context of film and entertainment (section 1.3). The chapter then reviews the search for an integrating framework for film experiences, examining philosophical, film and narratalogical approaches (section 1.4). This review identified patterns in general and schema theory in particular as a possible candidate for an integrating framework for understanding film experiences (the thesis uses schemas for the plural, rather than the more dated schemata). The chapter then considers schema theory (section 1.5). Schema theory is examined as a suitable candidate for building a framework of film experiences with value for both researchers and designers of film and so is used in this research. The chapter then discusses the research approach (section 1.6) and concludes by identifying the initial research questions, set in the context of the literature cited (section 1.7).

1.2 Aims and approaches

This research constituted an investigation of the application of schema theory to two narrative short films (The Wrong Trousers and Ice Cream Dream). The overall aim of the research was to examine the use of schema theory (see Chapter One) in relation to developing a new approach to researching film and offering new insights into the design of film. The target audience for the research is researchers with a cognitive interest in film and film professionals involved in creating films.

The aim of the first study (reported in Chapter Two) was to investigate viewers talk prompted by the viewing of Ice Cream Dream. The approach was to show the film once right through, then show it again in sections and have the viewers report their experiences from the first viewing. The talk was

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systematically categorically analysed, grouping speech elements into related categories. The study sought to identify what report structures viewers used in their talk, whether these report structures linked to schema theory and whether any design implications could be drawn. The study found that participants were using language that suggested they were accessing schematic elements related to the film, with participants able to summarise the film and active in building their reported understandings of the film. Nevertheless, conflicting schemas as reported in the talk reflected confusion about the films content. Design implications including identification of the active nature of the reported viewing experience, the need for visual clarity and the avoidance of incommensurate schemas. Because study one only investigated viewers talk, there was a concern that material in the structure of Ice Cream Dream of

potential relevance was not being reported. This argued for a further study comprising a structural and schematic analyses of Ice Cream Dream. The lukewarm rating for Ice Cream Dream also argued for a structural analysis of a highly rated film next, as a new context for applying the schema theory approach being developed and as a case study in excellence. A schematic structural study of the highly rated The Wrong Trousers was therefore undertaken next.

The aim of the second study (reported in Chapter Three) was to schematically analyse The Wrong Trousers. After examining problems with some extant analytic methods, a systematic and schematic method of analysis was developed through the analytic process of analysing The Wrong Trousers. This approach was driven by the films content, with a particular emphasis on mid and high level structures in the film. The analysis revealed that The Wrong Trousers is strongly and causally structured around nameable aggregate schemas (breakfast as a nameable aggregate of lower level nameable action schemas such as drinking a cup of tea). Additionally, re-interpretative schemas were used in the film, which reinterpreted previous aggregate schemas. Design implications included the possibility of hiding continuity errors through fast actions, manipulating the presentation of schemas for

different effects and using prototypical slots in isolation to suggest a whole

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schema. For the next study, would this method of schematic analysis of the neutrally rated Ice Cream Dream be valuable in this new context and also link to material from study one?

The aim of the third study therefore (reported in Chapter Four) was to analyse Ice Cream Dream using the new systematic and schematic method of analysis developed in the previous study. This analysis revealed that Ice Cream Dream is weakly structured around intermittently occurring aggregate schemas, with weak causality and with some film content causally unlinked to the developing story. Linkage to issues identified in study one were also reported, such as clearly identifying the schema in use at any moment in the film, having film elements causally linked together and prompting an understanding of the protagonists problem and how the problem is solved. Design implications included the need for strong causality throughout the film, integration of all elements into the story, stronger use of aggregate schemas and a greater crisis and resolution in the films story. A concern from study one (though care was taken to prevent this) was that viewers reports might have been affected by the interview context. To deploy the schematic approach in a totally different context and therefore avoid this possibility (as well as test the approach in a new context) a schematic investigation of viewers reviews about The Wrong Trousers on the Internet Movie Database was conducted (there were insufficient reports to do such an analysis for Ice Cream Dream).

The aim of the fourth study (reported in Chapter Five) was therefore to schematically investigate viewers talk in relation to The Wrong Trousers, as reported in online movie reviews on the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com). The approach was to download the corpus of reviews, removing unsuitable reviews. The talk was then systematically categorically analysed, grouping speech elements into related categories, aiming, as with the first study of viewers talk on Ice Cream Dream, to identify what report structures viewers used in their talk, whether these report structures linked to schema theory and whether any design implications could be drawn. Reviewers talk was coded on praise, with particular emphasis on comparison with similar films and the

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uniqueness of the production method (claymation). Almost a third of the reviews contained story summaries and these focused on aggregate schemas such as financial crisis or on elements such as lodger. Therefore story summaries (for this film with this corpus of reviews) seemed to make use of aggregate schemas as a structuring device. Design implications included using strong and causally linked aggregate schemas in the film, ensuring that aggregate schemas are strongly emotional and using schematic analysis to ensure that a film being developed compares well with other similar films already available to the viewing public.

The thesis concludes with a summary of the four studies undertaken and then details the contributions made (Chapter Six). Methodological contributions of this research include a new method of schematic analysis that could be used in film studies and film creation and the use of online content to investigate cognitive phenomena in films. Results contributions of this research show that schema theory has general value for film analysis and design, with implications for the professional practice of film professionals and design implications throughout the film (at the level of the whole film, between schemas and within schemas). The thesis concludes by suggesting that further research, as a corrective to the limitations in the research, could be focused on investigating real time viewers responses to film, structure in other films in relation to the

new schematic approach developed in this research and the creation of a formal Schematic Analysis Design Method for film, extended and deepened by further schematic research on many other films.

1.2.1 Rich descriptions of film experiences

There is currently expansive growth in new types of entertainment, forms of

film content and outlets for film content, facilitated by new technologies, new content and changes in context of use (e.g., Ofcom, 2007; Beer and Burrows, 2007; Hale, 2005a; Gates, 2004). These developments are creating research and design imperatives in relation to entertainment generally (not covered specifically in this research) and for film in particular, which this research

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addresses (because of films possible generalisability on some dimensions to other entertainment, see section 1.2.1, below), to provide rich research based insights (e.g., McCarthy and Wright, 2004) for film researchers and film professionals. Indeed, other disciplines have been marked by an extension of research into areas such as experiences, pleasure, fun, entertainment, mediated experiences generally and experience design (e.g., McCarthy and Wright, 2004, Shedroff, 2001; Blythe, Overbeeke, Monk and Wright, 2003; Green and Jordan, 2002; Cherny, Clanton and Ostrom, 1997), which have relevance to considerations in relation to film.

Yet terms such as fun, pleasure and entertainment are multidimensional, hard to operationalise and subject to large individual and contextual variation (Dube and Le Bel, 2003; Vorderer, Klimmt, and Ritterfeld, 2004; Vorderer, 2001; see also Blythe and Hassenzahl, 2003). This represents a challenge to quantitative experimental work, particularly in the light of the complexity of

film experiences and the desire to develop rich research insights of use to researchers and film designers. Conversely, as Bartlett suggested in his studies of remembering (1932), it might be expected that an inductive psychological and qualitative investigation (though he doesnt use the term, qualitative) would yield insights that are rich, grounded, insightful theoretically and also useful in design terms (McCarthy and Wright, 2004; for examples see Clarke and Duimering, 2006; Hale, 2006; Hale, 2005a). A qualitative approach is accordingly used in this research.

1.2.2 Choice of experiences to research

The choice of film itself to research was a challenge, given the multiplicity

of entertainment experiences that could potentially be researched. Selection criteria to identify those experiences that might be most productively be researched are required. Selection criteria of mass uptake, story, maximum visual design potential and maximum sonic design potential were used in this research, as will now be discussed.

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Firstly, the entertainment experience should have mass uptake, since a large user base maximises the possibilities for further research after this project. This means that novels, theatre, graphic novels, comics, computer games and film are potential candidates but interactive stories and pervasive games are currently not, since they remain a minority form.

Secondly, because some of the most complex and engaging mediated human experiences involve story, a structured telling that prompts responses in people, story should be a central part of the experience. Story might be expected to ensure longevity of this research in an entertainment context which is rapidly changing (Ofcom, 2007; Beer and Burrows, 2007) since the fundamentals of story are pervasive (see Bordwell, 1989; Mandler, 1984) and may be unvarying, even as the presentation of story in film and also other media artifacts becomes more sophisticated, multi-textured and distributed across different modalities. Story is still weak in computer games (strongest in adventure games but weakest in first person shooters). Computer games accordingly drop from the list of potential candidates to research, despite having good visual and sonic design possibilities, leaving novels, film, graphic novels, comics and theater as candidates for research.

Thirdly, the chosen experience should offer extensive visual and sonic design potential. Novels fail this test on both visual and sonic grounds. Graphic novels and comics have no sonic content and the visual content is static, a substantial limitation compared to film and theatre. Theatre offers visual design possibilities, but the viewpoint tends to be fixed: the audience is seated and the action usually takes place in real time on a stage, with little possibility of instant cuts in time, space and point of view. Novels, graphic novels, comics and theatre therefore drop from the list of potential candidates to research. Even if some computer games had strong story content, the best candidate from the computer games category, adventure games, suffers from a slow pace due to the conventions of the interface point and click to where you wish the character to go and watch him or her walk there, then click from a range of text based options for character behaviour a design limitation in

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relation to fast visual events as well as a general design limitation, since pace is now under control of the user rather than the designer. Additionally, because computer games are real time, the constant visual transitions of time and space as used in film are unavailable to designers and camera viewpoints in computer games can only be partially manipulated in play, representing a further visual design limitation. Computer games therefore fail this criteria, as well as the first criteria of story. Film, in contrast, offers strong story

possibilities, with unlimited visual and sonic effects and a totally free visual viewpoint that can instantly move to different times, spaces and viewpoints via cuts or other transitions. Film was accordingly used for this research.

Additionally, if it turns out that the distinctive aspects of other entertainment experiences can be included into a psychological framework for film, then such a framework may be able to make a contribution to the research of these other experiences (something to be researched beyond the scope of this project). This contribution might be expected, both because of convergence in content where film often has a central role and because of underlying psychological regularities that might span different entertainment experiences.

Film also offers the potential for rich insights into story, which could inform the research of story in other artifacts such as theatre, graphic novels and comics also not undertaken in this researh. Such insights might also have value for considering how first person shooter computer games could have enhanced story content. Film also offers the potential for rich insights into visual design possibilities for theatre, computer games, graphic novels and comics. Interactivity remains an issue in generalising from a film based framework to interactive entertainment, but does not represent an insuperable difficulty, especially as computer games already contain cutaways - essentially short filmic sequences.

1.3 The changing context of film

As well as the digitisation of film content via DVD and DVR (Digital Video

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Recorder), film product itself has been undergoing a digital revolution. With more films being made on high definition video, the U.K. Film Council seeking to move to a digital theatrical distribution model, high definition television uptake increasing and film piracy increasing (Ofcom, 2007; Hale, 2005a; UK Film Council, 2004), more films are available digitally than ever before - and so are now more readily available for consumption on the move, whether as whole films, sequences, or stills.

Currently, developments in, and conflict amongst, new services and technologies is happening so quickly and with so many parameters of change that it defies research attempts to understand and map (Beer and Burrows, 2007; Ofcom, 2007). Three significant changes are however discernable.

1.3.1 Ubiquitous interactive devices and content

Film is now more available. In 2005, this author wrote how, in the future, digital entertainment would be available anytime, anywhere (Hale, 2005a, italics added). In 2009, digital experiences are available anytime, anywhere, principally via mobile telephones. In 2004, 86% of households in the U.K. owned at least one mobile telephone (Ofcom, 2004c). By 2007, mobile telephony at a reported rate of 100% ownership (Ofcom, 2007) had made interactive devices ubiquitous.

In 2004, 3G mobile telephones were just coming to market (Durman, 2004), with the offer of a much increased range of digital experiences for users facilitated by two 3G technical developments: always-on broadband connection at speeds of up to 384 Kb/s, with potential speeds up to 1 Mb/s (Ofcom, 2007) and high-quality colour displays. These technical advances facilitate the enjoyment of services such as fax, email, web access, videoconferencing and movie-related content such as trailers, machinima, tie-in competitions, music videos with high quality audio and multi-player mobile gaming Bill Gates view of digital entertainment, everywhere (Gates, 2004). In 2004, services were still being rolled out in time for the Christmas

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season, with billing structures not finalised, a factor which might have hindered uptake because consumers worry about the cost of their mobile calls (The Work Foundation, 2003). By 2007, billing structures and services were in place. In 2005, 7% of users had a 3G subscription. By the first quarter of 2007, this number had risen to 11%. Additionally, in 2004 technical issues were a concern, with 3G networks sparse and slow growth predicted (Durman, 2004). By the end of 2006, 11.2% of mobile subscribers were able to connect to a 3G network, and 80% of handsets able to read XHTML code, a necessity in rendering websites for mobile telephones (Ofcom, 2007).

Although computing based devices in the form of mobile telephones are now ubiquitous, there remains a gap between the capabilities of mobile telephones and users awareness of these capabilities and a gap between users awareness of these capabilities and their use of them. For example, 44% of all users are aware their mobile telephone can access the internet, but only 13% report having done so; 27% of all users are aware their mobile can download video clips but only 7% have done so; 32% of all users are aware they can download music, but only 11% report they have done so; only 4% of mobile subscribers say they play mobile games daily (all these figures, Ofcom, 2007). Interactive devices in the form of the mobile telephone may now be ubiquitous but peoples experiences of digital entertainment, everywhere (Gates, 2004) remains partial, though potentially rising: mobile call minutes per year rose from 52 billion in 2002 to 82 billion in 2006, a 58% increase. It may be that current broadcast advertising of mobile sports services such as football video clips, new 3G handsets and the 2009 Christmas season will add both to user awareness of device capability and actual usage of this capability. These changes greatly add to the potential for film delivery to customers.

1.3.2 Web 2.0

In 2005, this author wrote about how users were creating and distributing content (including film content) via the internet (Hale, 2005a). Now discussion of user generated content has coalesced around Web 2.0 (e.g., Beer and

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Burrows, 2007; OReilly, 2004), with users active in producing and uploading content onto the internet via such sites as MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database and others (www.myspace.com; www.youtube.com; www.wikipedia.com, www.imdb.com). In 2007, YouTube, for example, reached a monthly audience of 37 million users who typically viewed 2,500 clips, a daily usage figure per person of approximately three minutes a day (Ofcom, 2007), though usage is still low in comparison to mainstream media such as television.

One feature of Web 2.0 is the re-use and personalization of existing media content such as films (Bolter and Grusin, 1999), shown most clearly in the production of videos and other entertainment artifacts by fans, involving pastiche, spoof and new contexts for familiar media offerings (e.g., Atomfilms.shockwave.com and ifilms.com for example; see also Jenkins, 2006). With Web 2.0, the consumer can be both creator and controller of content, a democratisation facilitated by availability of software based creative resources, low software costs and low technical barriers to entry, as seen in text, video and games examples:

Text: comment and information in Wikis and blogs democratised by specialist online software accessible to all

Video: democratised by the availability of low-cost video cameras, mobile telephone video and still cameras and low cost or free bundled-in computer video editing software

Games: democratised by the availability of low-cost and easy to use games creation software with point and click selection of pre-created software entities (characters, environments and properties such as weapons) with preprogrammed adjustable behaviours implemented

A number of issues in relation to Web 2.0 need further research, beyond the remit of this doctoral research. Firstly, the conception of Web 2.0 as a democratising opportunity for amateurs in relation to film is open to refinement (Hale, 2007), since there is considerable professional and semi-professional activity on Web 2.0 sites. So, YouTube hosts substantial amounts of

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professionally produced video material (music videos, movie trailers masquerading as amateur footage). YouTube also hosts machinima short films made using computer games with in-game editors and video capture of game sequences which require high levels of technical expertise to produce and may often be created by professional programmers or dedicated media companies, as well as enthusiastic amateurs. Despite this colonisation of Web 2.0 by professionals, two of the most popular video clips on the internet, Numa Numa and Star Wars kid (BBC News, 2006) were created by amateurs using simple technologies, with simple content. Secondly, in an age of snack entertainment (e.g., Miller, 2007), story may include other messages such as the story behind the story: Numa Numa becomes a story of unexpected success and multiple versions of the original video; the Star Wars Kid becomes a story of unauthorized uploading, bullying and a law suit (BBC News, 2006; Wired News Report, 2003). Thirdly, examination of claims that story itself is changing (Cieply, 2008) as new forms of entertainment are being developed need to discriminate between story as narrated by a designer and story as created by a user in the absence of overt narrative structure embodied in an entertainment artifact, beyond the scope of this research on film. Yet there are psychological regularities in how we segment events and make sense of them (e.g., Tversky et al., 2002), so story may be more resistant to change than is currently realized. Finally, new forms of stylistic schemas are developing. Machinima film productions, for example, have stylistic signatures (schemas) as a result of the technical context from which they spring: in-game editors do not offer full control of characters, resulting in stylized, awkward and unsubtle body movements derived from a pre-programmed and limited repertoire, giving a distinctive texture to machinima productions (see Shurtleff, 2007).

Web 2.0 means that viewers can and increasingly will actively reconstitute film content according to their preferences and desires, whether as an expression of personal creativity or for other reasons. Due to its popularity as a

form of mass entertainment, amateurs on Web 2.0 face increasing levels of activity and competition from professionals. In online films this may mean that

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professionals are making use of a film grammar that has developed over the last hundred years to effectively tell stories amateur productions may suffer in comparison.

1.3.3 Convergence

Film content is now available across many devices. In 2005, this author wrote about how entertainment providers were expanding digital entertainment by increasingly integrating content from different media (Hale 2005a). By 2007 convergence the coming together of technical delivery, devices and new forms of content was a pivotal theme in discussions about communications technology and entertainment (e.g., Ofcom, 2007; Cisco, 2006), yet convergence and 3G devices and services are now mainstream. The picture is not all positive, as technical challenges identified earlier (Drucker, 2007; Peleg, 2007) and device proliferation (e.g., Oulasvirta and Sumari, 2007) remain concerns.

Convergence has been driven partly by the replacement of analogue content with digital content, which in turn has facilitated networks and devices working together with different media and potentially with each other as well as heightening broadband availability and uptake (Ofcom, 2007). These developments have together offered providers the chance to provide mixed media content, distributed in new ways (ibid.). Convergence means that triple play offerings (telephone, broadband data and cable television) are becoming common, with quad play (the addition of mobile) on the horizon (Yedwab, 2007), all offering possibilities for film creators.

Convergence is having a wholesale effect on film, through content and rights management, packaging (portals and content, bundles and channels), distribution over networks and devices, navigation to content (e.g., electronic programme guides), consumption and new forms of content (Ofcom, 2007). New forms of film content include integrated media experiences across multiple channels, offered to consumers via newspapers, websites, TV/radio,

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mobile and so forth. Games can now include the physical world of consumers real lives, such as in the game, Uncle Roy All Around You (Blasttheory, 2003/2009). This spilling over of computer games into, and interleaving with, real life is likely to be heightened by the development of location aware mobile telephones which can be used as the basis for new multi-player games such as electronic shoot-em-ups played out in real life (Norris, 2003). Snacking forms of consumption (Pearlstein, 2008) offers producers the opportunity to slice entertainment products into many more configurations: a music CD can result in over 400 separate stock keeping units (ibid.), with multiple distribution possibilities that significantly impact on revenue generation possibilities from film.

The upshot of convergence as media companies create and market their products to generate multiple streams of revenue is that content in general and film in particular starts to come to consumers from all directions in all formats (Cisco, 2006, p.5). The snacking implicit in some delivery modalities such as mobile telephony do not necessary mean the end of traditional content creators, rather they may in fact mark a whole new beginning (Cieply, 2006), increasing the need to develop a suitable integrated framework for researching and designing film experiences in these new contexts, something beyond the scope of this research on film to consider.

1.4 The search for an integrating framework

This section starts with a brief review of philosophical approaches to experiences. Then research into film is reviewed, revealing a preference in the discipline of film studies for non-empirical and political approaches, with a limited influence of cognitive based approaches. Since there is a lack of cognitive research in film studies, the discipline of narratology is then examined, to see what research frameworks and concerns are prevalent and might also be suitable candidates for a psychological framework of film experiences. Across these different accounts, schema theory and schematic patterns were a recurring theme, making schema theory a plausible candidate

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for an integrating framework of film experiences. Schema theory also seems to offer a suitable foundation for an integrative account of film experiences due to its psychological background. It was accordingly concluded that schema theory forms a suitable choice for an integrating framework of film and so was used in this research.

1.4.1 Philosophical approaches to experiences

Aristotles conception of experience matches the traditional approach in philosophy of experience as that a buzzing, blooming confusion of sense- impressions that, through repetition and memory, comprise the world as understood by us (King, 2003, p. 3), a cognitive explanation in terms of sense, memory and imagination (ibid.). Aquinas claims that sense perceptions provide input related to specific instances but not universal instances with the intellect abstracting from what is perceived to the universal instance by removing its individualizing conditions (King, 2003, p. 10). This abstracting process reveals the true form that lies underneath the perception, the form that is universal, in a process that takes place prior to conscious

experience (ibid.). For Dewey, an experience becomes such when it becomes a whole, with its own individualizing quality and self-sufficiency (Dewey, 1934, p. 35). An experience flows and has a unitary whole though its parts can be perceived which is greater than the sum of the parts. For Dewey all experiences have an aesthetic quality to them, a structure that is only

complete when the experience has finished and is created into a unity by emotion, with patterns discernable across experiences (Dewey, 1934).

A recent approach to experiences that roots itself in the conception of

experience as internal and subjective a felt-life phenomenon has been put forward by McCarthy and Wright in their technology as experience account (2004; see also Wright, McCarthy and Meekison, 2003). This account aims to go beyond existing accounts: of usability and its dimensions; accounts of users as cogs in virtual machines; accounts of users as social actors and accounts of users as consumers. Instead, McCarthy and Wright focus on peoples felt life,

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an account rooted in the emotional, sensual and aesthetic aspects of interaction. They suggest four threads of experience the sensual, the emotional, the compositional and the spatio-temporal. These strands operate wholistically as people dialogue with artifacts such as films in their use of them, making sense of their interactions by anticipating, connecting, interpreting, reflecting, appropriating and recounting (McCarthy and Wright, 2004; see also Wright et al., 2003). In this account, experiences cannot be designed, only designed for and prompted (McCarthy and Wright, 2004; Wright et al., 2003). This approach is qualitative, investigative and illustrative, seeking to capture peoples different accounts.

Despite the wide range of potential experiences available to human beings, certain structures and structuring processes can be suggested: abstraction to ideal conceptual types (Aristotle and Aquinas, reported in King, 2003) resulting in integrative wholes (Dewey, 1934) comprising patterned threads of experience built up by processes of sense making (McCarthy and Wright, 2004), with a corresponding implication that perceived boundaries between patterns facilitate their discrimination (e.g., Tversky, Morrison and Zacks, 2002). Philosophical accounts offer principles by which experiences may be had and understood but say little about specific experiences such as film experiences, with the exception of McCarthy and Wright, who use case studies to illustrate their model (McCarthy and Wright, 2004).

1.4.2 Theorising film experiences

Having reviewed philosophical and related accounts of experience, research on film experiences are now examined. As a matter of terminology, the term film experiences or just experiences will be used to stand only for film content experiences, excluding group and contextual aspects, such as when a group of friends watch a film in a cinema.

Film, with its strong visual sense, structured approach to storytelling and popular accessibility, is a paradigmatic example of visual story telling, a

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mimesis of real life in an immersive and intense experience. Directors structure the screenplay, shooting script and final film for impact, removing uninteresting material, intensifying interesting material and seeking to foster engagement through compelling story, interesting characters and appropriate use of music (e.g., Boorstin, 1995).

Enjoyable movie content can therefore be typified as exemplifying strong narrative drive, with interesting characters, structured visual elements controlled by a technical grammar, evocative music and affecting sounds. Movies can also be characterized in an age of ubiquity, convergence and Web 2.0 by delivery platform interconnectedness (forms of the movie are available across different media such as websites, mobile telephones, print media and computer games) and cultural interconnectedness (by referencing other movies through the use of similar scenes or by dealing with current political issues etc., Bolter and Grusin, 1999). The elements of a film working together prompt cognitive and emotional engagement, the experiential gestalt of a flow experience (Csikszentimihalyi, 1990). Films may therefore be conceptualised as experience machines (see Tan, 1996), or at least, machines for prompting experiences (e.g., McCarthy and Wright, 2004). It might be thought that a psychological approach would have been a natural choice of method for researchers in film studies. In fact film studies, due to its own politicised disciplinary culture never fully embraced psychological approaches, as will be discussed shortly.

Early work on film focused on quasi-experimental psychological work on editing, carried out by Russian filmmakers such as Kuleshov and Pudovkin in the early twentieth century (Carroll, 1988). The first attempt to articulate a psychological perspective and a psychological research programme on film experiences was by Munsterberg (1916) at a time when films were black and white, without sound and with leaders cards with story sentences on them accompanied by live music. After detailing the developments of film technology, Munsterberg considered aspects of the film itself. The very nature of the film medium meant that, in contrast to the theatre, it could use real

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backgrounds, change these backgrounds very rapidly by means of editing, show an unfolding story involving more than one location with interleaved scenes, use special effects to make impossible actions possible (ibid., chapter two, online version) and direct the attention through the use of close-ups to certain parts of the film (ibid.). Munsterberg considered the factors of importance to understanding the film experience were depth and movement perception, persistence of vision (his explanation is couched in terms of afterimages), attending and directed attention, emotional intensification and the effects of memory on the viewing experience to be important though he asks more questions than he offers answers.

Munsterbergs attempt to define a psychological and empirical programme of enquiry for film experiences was almost totally neglected by film researchers, being uncited in Arnheims work on art films as art (1933) and not cited until Bordwell (1985). Film researchers were interested in different questions and it would only be in 1985 that a cognitive approach was again suggested by a film studies specialist (Bordwell, 1985). The intervening period between Munsterberg and Bordwell (see Anderson, 1996; Noel Carroll, 1988) consisted of explorations of whether film was art and consequently whether directors as the integrating intelligence behind films were artists, in the 1950s. This was followed by investigations of film as language in the 1960s and 1970s, attempting to use semiology as a means of political engagement (Carroll, 1988) together with critical theory approaches shaped by Freud, Marx and feminism. In these approaches, films were conceived as being watched by viewers who had things done to them, as opposed to being active in processing and constructing the films (Bordwell, 1985). The final destination of film theory was a post-modernist approach where narrative became local and nothing generic can be said about it (Anderson, 1996; Carroll, 1988). Scientific or biology based approaches to film viewing were viewed with suspicion because of their scientific provenance and the concern about repressive consequences (Carrol, 1988; Bordwell 1989b).

The growing concern of two influential film scholars in the mid to late 1980s

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(Bordwell, 1985; Carroll 1988) about the ambiguity and unverifiability of existing film theory led them to a reappraisal of the value of empirically founded research. This reappraisal resulted in the limited promulgation of a tentative cognitive approach to film by Bordwell, in contrast to the prevailing political approaches (Bordwell, 1989b; see also Anderson, 1996).

Bordwells cognitive perspective was part of his larger project to formulate a poetics of narration (Bordwell, 1985), where narration was defined as the activity of selecting, arranging, and rendering story material in order to achieve specific time-bound effects on a perceiver. (ibid., pp. xi). For Bordwell, critical film theory underestimated the importance of the work of the spectator he argued for active viewers, his or her experience is cued by the text, according to intersubjective protocols that may vary (ibid., p.30), a constructivist view of processing involving both top-down and bottom-up processes (Bordwell also cites Bartlett, 1932), with schemas guiding the hypothesising of viewers (ibid.).

In Bordwells account (1985), schemas are central: they are knowledge structures which are characteristic of a concept or category, embodied in prototypes, the essential structures of which can be applied to many different situations (ibid., p. 34). Bordwell suggests that some schemas function as templates (ibid., p 35) that control and shape viewer processing by supplying an interpretative framework, such as the schema for the universal or canonic

story which in 1985 Bordwell questioned the universality of but in 1989a accepted (Bordwell, 1985, 1989a). This universal story consists of setting plus characters-goal-attempts-outcome-resolution. (Bordwell, 1985, p. 35), comprising schematic assumptions about the story and plot, processed by means of other perceptual schema related to people, actions and locales (Bordwell, 1985). In Bordwells account plot is altered to create effects in viewers, with other schemas operating to supply rules for interpretation or as

stylistic templates. Bordwell draws a distinction between story and plot: story is everything that could have happened in the storyworld (not the film per se) from the chronological start of events in the story world to their end, as if the

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events had flowed in an unbroken sequence. Story is not presented to viewers, rather plot is the actual form in which the story is presented. For Bordwell, the semantic content, the structure of schemas and the processing of schemas (Bordwell, 1985; Bordwell, 1989a) are all important with viewers building semantic structures that effect how they sample on screen data (ibid.). This run-time activity by viewers results in a representation of the unfolding film that also guides perception and comprehension, with the central goal of the spectators being to create a meaningful story for themselves:

the spectator seeks to grasp the filmic continuum as a set of events occurring in defined settings and unified by principles of temporality and causation. To understand a films story is to grasp what happens and where, when, and why it happens (Bordwell, 1985, p. 34)

Noel Carroll, writing a few years after Bordwells 1985 contribution, starts his account with a fundamental philosophical critique of contemporary film theory (as already discussed above, Carroll, 1988). In the politicised and for Carroll non-verifiable body of film theory, spectators were influenced ideologically to uphold capitalism (ibid.). For Carroll, however, film is less about ideology, codes and conventions and more about, amongst other complex issues, the fact that on-screen structures can be representational in the way that our normal perception is (ibid., p. 131).

Both Bordwell and Carroll want to avoid the dangers of theories that seek to explain everything about film. They share a methodological concern for soundly rooted theory (Bordwell, 1985; Carroll, 1988) that tell us verifiable things about the film experience. Writing a few years later, Bordwell (1989a) compares the cognitive approach to the film studies approach, in part defending the cognitive approach from claims that it is based on scientific ideology and therefore suspect. He points out that film scholars have ignored the scientific background of some of their own theoretical positions: film studies is a hermeneutic discipline[in which, therefore][t]heoretical doctrines that themselves are cast in narrative formare special favorites, telling stories that

only describe phenomenon (Bordwell, 1989b, p. 17). These stories form a

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descriptive meta language, but as Bordwell points out, descriptions are not explanations and a cognitive account has advantages over critical theory (Bordwell, 1989b), since it can identify problems and propose hypotheses. It also has practical value he cites work on colour perception and it can integrate research from other disciplines such as narratology (ibid.). Neither Bordwell or Carroll seem to fully subscribe to a cognitivist approach.

Bordwells (1985) account is, by his own admission, incomplete it does not include emotion, aesthetics or the theory of art. From the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, a number of attempts have been made to offer a fuller account of film experiences (e.g., Anderson, 1996; Tan, 1996; Perrson, 2003; Smith, 2003). These more recent works have sought to build on more verifiable accounts examining ecological approaches where the experiences of a film

maps onto natural perception (Anderson, 1996), focusing on emotion as a prompted and spreading phenomenon that occurs and reoccurs throughout the entertainment artifact (Tan, 1996; Smith, 2003) or detailing a large variety of research findings from psychology applied to specific filmic phenomenon but without an integrating and organising framework (Perrson, 2003).

These modern approaches have problems. Firstly, the marshalling of research is not always done within the context of an integrating framework: there may be a focus on cognition or emotion or perception. Secondly, emotional response are seen as correlated with content rather than prompted by it content and experience are thus inappropriately conflated. Thirdly, there is a lack of context, with deracinated accounts offered rather than theoretically grounded empirical frameworks that engage with the phenomenology of the felt life (McCarthy and Wright, 2004), which represents a paradoxical disappearance of actual viewers from the experience. Fourthly, these frameworks work back from psychological principles to films, resulting in loose generalities, representing a paradoxical disappearance of any linkage to the actual film content of specific films. Finally, these accounts do not seem to have resulted in a productive research programme (see Persson, 2003 on valuable theory).

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Does schema theory give purchase in considering that other discipline of relevance to stories, narratology? The following section examines this issue.

1.4.3 Narratology

Narrative has been defined as an artificial encoding of a series of linearly organised causal relationships (Pinchbeck and Stevens, 2005, p.3) and can be defined as a type of script, that is a type of grammar that can be extended across different media (ibid., 2005). Stories enjoy special status over other forms of text, being culturally universal and particularly easy to remember (Graesser, Olde and Klettke, 2002). Also, comprehension of narratives has been shown to depend on regularities across individuals, cultures and media such as folktales, stories and comics (ibid.). It may in part be that stories are artifacts that have been both culturally and individually internalised, facilitating their processing. Alternatively, effective processing may be caused by the fact that narrative maps onto everyday experiences (Graesser et. al., 2002, p. 16; Graesser, Murray and Trabasco, 1994). Stories are universally distributed and there is a universal story structure that is widely distributed across folktales and other stories that consists of a protagonist, who has a goal, comes into conflict

with an antagonist, taking action, which results in a final consequence (e.g., Hiltunen, 2002; Graesser et al., 2002; Mandler, 1984). Narrative can be broken down into actual events (the fabula or story as it would be if it unfolded in real life, the event structure) and the version of events as narrated by a narrator (the sjuzet, the discourse structure, the plot).

Functionally, all stories share the common function of someone telling

something to someone about something (Kearney, 2002, p. 5, italics omitted). But what are these somethings and what do they become? Defining narrative as encodings of organised linear relationships (see above, Pinchbeck and Stevens, 2005) or events arranged in time-sequence (Forster, 1927, p. 44, 87) does not seem fully satisfactory to tell us what story is, the first definition because it lacks reference to the totality of the story, the second because it omits causality. Cohan and Shires (1988) offer a fuller definition:

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Story consists of events placed in a sequence to delineate a process of change, the transformation of one event into another. An event depicts some sort of physical or mental activity, an occurrence in time (an action performed by or upon a human agent) or a state of existing in time (such as thinking, feeling, being or having). The eventsbelong to a sequence[which]contains at least two events, one to establish a narrative situation or proposition, and one to alter (or at least merely to differ from) that initial situation. (Cohan and Shires, 1988, pp. 53-54, italics in the original)

Key terms in this definition are: events resulting in situations; sequence; change; human agent; initial situation and altered situation (i.e., the ending situation). Such a definition might suggest a two fold structure. In fact Cohan and Shires quote approvingly from Todorov (1977) following the quote (above), who outlines a three fold structure of a starting equilibrium, a state of disequilibrium, and an ending state of equilibrium reestablished. It is therefore more likely that Cohan and Shires (1988) are actually outlining a three stage model which matches Todorov (see Todorov, 1977), an event which alters the initial situation creates disequilibrium, resulting in a third stage of a new equilibrium, the altered situation that is not the same as the initial situation. This gives the following working definition of story, used for the rest of this thesis:

A story is a causally linked sequence of at least two events, establishing at the minimum three situations of an initial equilibrium, a disequilibrium and a new equilibrium, which happen to or is performed by one or more characters.

In this definition, the term characters replaces human agents (Cohan and Shires, 1988) because in stories characters may be animal, alien or personified objects such as buildings or weather states such as storms. Additionally, a term such as characters implies personality and influence and a term such as events implies a context of time and space (location).

In what follows (section 1.4.3.1, below), we first consider Aristotle, who has had high impact on thinking about stories. Then modern narratological story approaches and issues in relation to story are reviewed (section 1.4.3.2, below).

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These sections show that schema theory and schematic approaches to patterns have value and influence in the study of story, as they do in areas already considered above (sections 1.4.1 and 1.4.2). Following the work on Aristotle and modern narratological approaches, we move to consider schema theory within the discipline of psychology (section 1.4.4 below).

1.4.3.1 Aristotles Poetics

Aristotles Poetics has shaped consideration of story for centuries and has been influential on film (e.g., Howard, 2004; McKee, 1997/1999; Hiltunen, 2002). It has particular relevance for film structure (see below, investigations two and three) and also for viewers talk (see below, investigations one and four; more specifically in this thesis see the listings in section 1.7, below). For Aristotle, the first essential, the life and soul, so to speak, of Tragedy is the Plot; andthe Characters come second (Bywater 1920/1929, p. 38, capitals and punctuation in all quotes from Bywater as in the original), with Spectacle (ibid., p. 39) mattering least. The work should consist of an action that is complete in itselfwhich has beginning, middle, and end. (ibid., p. 40) suitable to the length of the story and its causal needs (ibid., p. 40). Wholeness also involves connection and causality (ibid., pp. 42-43), where the removal or move of one incident (ibid., p. 42) within the story will disjoin and dislocate the whole. For that [incident] which makes no perceptible difference by its presence or absence is no real part of the whole. (ibid., p. 42-43). Also important are reversal (Peripety in Bywater, see p. 46) and recognition (Discovery in Bywater, see p. 47). Reversal is a change in the situation from one state to its opposite, recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge, which implies surprise (ibid., pp. 46-48). A third part of plot is Suffering (ibid., p. 48) an action of injury or death (ibid.). The protagonist makes a mistake (ibid., p. 50) with negative consequences, with the emotions of the viewer being best aroused by the story rather than the Spectacle (ibid., p. 52). Aristotle also states that the Dnouement (ibid., p. 57) should come from the story, not from artificial means (ibid., p. 57). Finally, the story should always be probable, [a] likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing

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possibility (ibid., p. 84).

1.4.3.2 Story issues in modern narratology

Various terms have been used to try and identify the psychological state that readers go into when reading a narrative, such as transportation, trance, presence and flow. Transportation (Green, 2004) is where a reader engages with the narrative world at the expense of the real world. Trance, in a context of listening to stories, has characteristics such as: the experience seems real,

there is a lack of awareness of self and surroundings, people are receptive and time seems distorted (Sturm, 2001). Presence:

is an emergent property of a combination of cognitive and perceptual processes and stimuliindicat[ing] that a relationship has been established between stimuli within an organisms frame of referencea snapshot of the organisms management of

film art

Documents

Transcript of film art