How far is the emotional response to mainstream films triggered by specific techniques used by film makers?

How far is the emotional response to mainstream films triggered by specific techniques used by film makers?

Film makers often use specific techniques to elicit an emotion response from an audience, whether that response is shock, fear, sadness or anger they are influenced by the film makers decisions. One aspect that film makers look at is gender; they know that different film will affect the two genders differently. For example the scene that involves a mock castration in ‘Hard Candy’ will shock men more and create a bigger emotional response from males than it will from females because of the nature of the scene. On the other hand females are more likely to cry or be angered by the scene in ‘Sex and the City’ where Carrie is left at the altar than a male would as it is more of a woman’s nightmare than it is a male nightmare. The film maker will be keeping gender in mind when deciding on the content of their film to know who the emotional response will come from, men or women. However some films do cross the gender boundaries and can create an emotional response in both the genders.  ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is a film that does this because the storyline is based around the war and male bonding which will create upset among males when one of them dies, but it also shows a vulnerability of the males which appeals to a female audience and could create sadness in them too. A recent film that has become well known for its ability to trigger an emotional response in both genders is the animated film ‘Up’ which has had, as reported, grown men crying just as much as women. The scene that is said to trigger this response is a carefully crafted, silent montage of the main characters life with his wife before her death and uses those techniques to create the sadness in the audience.

Another technique used to trigger an emotional response from an audience is the use of narrative and genre conventions. The audience may feel a stronger emotion if they expect something to happen and it does not, for example in the film ‘Titanic’ the audience expects Jack to survive and to live happily ever after with Rose as that is the conventions of a romance film, but instead he dies and she has to go on alone. This creates a higher response as the audience has been trained to expect one thing and is cheated out of the ending they want. Also the use of other narrative techniques such as flashbacks can create a high emotional response, such as in ‘The Notebook’. If the notebook had no flashbacks it would not be as upsetting as the audience would not have as strong a grasp on the characters back story so would not care about them as much, the flashbacks help to create a strong connection to the characters which heightens the emotional response of the audience. Also it can work the other way, in the film ‘Funny Games’ the rules of film are broken when one of the characters rewinds the film and lets it play out differently. The audience is robbed of the satisfaction they are feeling when the female character who has been tortured finally gets the upper hand the torturer rewinds the film and stops her from doing it. It creates a very angry response and a shocked on as well because it takes away the victory the audience wanted, and expects, and replaces it with the bad guys winning.  

One of the main techniques that proves that film makers use of specific techniques trigger an emotional response in an audience is the use of shock. Shock is an emotion easily manipulated by the film maker, for example films like ‘Hostel 1 + 2’ , ‘Saw’ and ‘Ichi the Killer’ are classified as torture porn and use graphic violence, gore and sadism to create shock in an audience. Other films take more subtle approach for example the use of mis-en-scene in the sloth scene in ‘Se7en’ where the two detective walk into a dingy, cluttered room full of pine tree air fresheners.  The shock is set in from the moment they enter the room and comes to a climax when the ‘dead’ man in the bed jumps awake. These are techniques that the film-makers have purposefully used to elicit shock from the audience.

However, even though in a lot of cases the emotional reaction of an audience is heavily influenced by specific techniques used by a film-maker, occasionally there are other reasons. For example context is a very big factor in whether or not an audience member has a specific emotional response to a film. A lot of audience members will be more upset by a film when watching it alone in their own home than they will when watching it in a cinema full of people. In the same way people are often more prone to find things amusing and laugh loudly when they are with other people than they are when they are by themselves. Also an emotion can be altered by over viewing, if a shocking scene (for example the tendon cutting scene in Hostel) is viewed more than once then the viewer may have become more desensitized to it so will not find it as shocking as someone coming to the scene freshly.

Another aspect that stands in the way of an emotional response is the position of the spectator. If someone has experience a certain event, such as the loss of a family member or an emotional break up, then they are more prone to have an emotional response than someone who has not. If a spectator who has never experienced loss watches a film where one of the characters is dealing with the death of a loved one they are less likely to be as emotionally responsive than those who have dealt with something similar in their life. Gender, ethnicity and age can also be a factor, for example a younger audience is more likely to laugh at films such as ‘American Pie’ while an older audience is more likely to be upset by a film like ‘The Notebook’ about an aged couple. Another aspect of the spectators position is whether they are a pre-existing fan or are coming into the film with no prior knowledge. Film like; the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Twilight series and Sex and the City will all have pre-existing fan bases that will have a stronger emotional tie with the character and their situations so will have a stronger emotional response.

In conclusion, film makers do use specific techniques to create an emotional response in an audience but that response is still dictated mostly by the spectator themselves and what they bring with them to the film.