1. The `Enlighteneď city part 1
Research design / theoretical frame / global set up
2. The `Enlighteneď city part 2
Case studies and experiences
3. Film audiences reconsidered
Experiences from contemporary
audience research: 1. young people in
Flanders / 2. LOTR / 3. arthouse
Philippe Meers
Visual Culture Research Group
University of Antwerp
Mazaryk University, Brno, 16 December 2008
1. Hollywood, Europe and cultural
identity
Young people andYoung people and
film consumption in Belgium
Hollywood, Europe and
cultural identity
* I ContextI. Context
­ contemporary film audience research project
* II. Discursive dichotomies
­ popular film culture and young people
­ Hollywood, Europe, national cinema and film
experiences
* III. Discussion
­ international audiences, transparant narration and
cultural dominance
I. Context
* Research gap
­contemporary international audiences for Hollywood film
* Belgium/Flanders and national/regional film culture
­Federal state & regional film culture: policy, language, dubbing,
film taste
­Multiplexes, TV and Hollywood
­Multicultural & multinational media environment?
* Qualitative audience study
­Interviews with 28 Flemish people (aged 16-20)
­Hollywood, Europe, national cinema and film experiences
II. Discursive dichotomies &
`nationaĺ horizon of expectation
FLEMISH FILM HOLLYWOOD
* QUALITY low high
* VISIBILITY low high
* REPRESENTATION old fashioned boring reality modern exciting fantasy
* GENRE drama, historical action, comedy, thriller, horror
* SETTING mundane Flemish attractive foreign
* STYLE simple, primitive sophisticated, high tech
* ACTING artificial realisticACTING artificial realistic
* LANGUAGE artificial the film language
* CINEMATIC REALISM low high
* THEMATIC REALISM high low
* IDENTIFICATION low high
* MEDIUM television cinema, TV, video-DVD
* REFERENCE old films on TV recent films in cinema
Contemporary Hollywood
as classic
* "Going to the movies" = watching Hollywood
blockbusters in the multiplexp
* The language of real movies
* "Classics" and short personal film history
European cinema as
insignificant other
* European film: an abstract concept
* French film: ni vu, ni conn!
* Italian film: `la vita  bella!'
* Spanish & German film: ?Spanish & German film: ?
* Film language &
language in film as barrier
Flemish national cinema:
a television affair?
* Ok, but never in the cinema / multiplex!
* Flemish film as television film
* Genre and history
* Teenpics, an exception
* Flemish film culture and
national cinema
III. Transparant narration and
cultural dominance
* Young people and Hollywooď Young people and Hollywood
* Dichotomy Hollywood/Flemish film vs multicultural film
experience
* Blockbuster as engine of popular media culture
* Nationality and horizon of expectation
* Audience research contribution
* Crosscultural film experience and popular film culture
* Transparant narration and cultural dominance
* Contemporary classical Hollywood cinema as mainstream
narrative
* Negotiation within industry boundaries & national context
2. Fandom and blockbusters
The reception of `the Lord of the Rings
-Return of the King' in Belgium
Fandom and blockbusters
Fandom and
blockbusters
Fandom
Fandom
Fandom
Fandom
Fandom
Fandom
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: focus groupsg p
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: focus groupsg p
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: focus groupsg p
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: focus groupsg p
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: focus groupsg p
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: focus groups
research ROTK: survey
research ROTK: surveyy
research ROTK: survey
research ROTK: surveyy
research ROTK: industry
research ROTK: industryy
conclusion: fandom reconsidered
conclusion: fandomconclusion: fandom
reconsidered
3. Cinephilia in the European city.
A study on art house audiences in
Antwerp and discourses on film
experiences in context
1. context
1 conte t1. context
2. concepts
2 concepts2. concepts
2. concepts
2 concepts2. concepts
2. concepts
2 concepts2. concepts
2. concepts
2 concepts2. concepts
3. research
3 research3. research
3. research
3. research
MuHKA_media
3. research
3. research
3. research
3. research
3. research
3 research3. research
3. research
3 research3. research
3. research
3 research3. research
3. research
3 research3. research
3. research
3 research3. research
4. discussion
4 discussion4. discussion
5. questions
5. questions
www.ua.ac.be/visualculture
www.ua.ac.be/philippe.meers
philippe.meers@ua.ac.be