Session Three Quirky and The Hipster Audience Department of Film & Audiovisual Culture, Masaryk University Dr. Richard Nowell ¨ ¨I. Quirky and Audience-Targeting ¨ ¨II. The Hipster Mindset ¨ ¨III. Quirky and Hipster Life Lessons ¨ ¨To develop a demonstrable understanding of: ¨ ¨I. The Hipster Mindset. ¨ ¨II. The Hipster and Cultural Interests. ¨ ¨III. Quirky Cinema as Therapeutic Cinema ¨ ¨ ¨The Auteurism through which Quirky Cinema is often understood is used to offer an explanation for the films distinctive content and themes ¨ ¨However, as they usually bypass industry dynamics, such accounts do not address the role of audience-targeting in Quirky film assembly ¨ ¨Instead, they conjure the figure of the authentic, autonomous director to suggest personal preoccupations are the guiding force behind assembly ¨ ¨This discourse upholds indie values, but only by fantasizing Indiewood as a romantic neverland free of everyday corporate checks and balances ¨ ¨This coincidence of shared interests between filmmaker and audience overlooks the more calculated and strategic dimensions of assembly ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨From Chick Flicks to Family Films and beyond, Hollywood cinema is usually envisaged with target audiences in mind ¨ ¨The risks of handling costly one-off goods is reduced if they are marketable and appealing to sizable market segments ¨ ¨This is the case with indie-branded products too, even if it is suppressed by stakeholders wishing to protect indie values ¨ ¨However, such products are consciously tailored to embody the perceived interests, values, and tastes of a targeted public ¨ ¨Attracting the ever-changing hipster psychographic has profoundly influenced the content and themes of quirky films ¨In a 2013 paper, Newman considered how conceptions of the hipster audience shaped quirky cinema and other indie products of the 2000s. ¨ ¨In so doing, he provided an analytical framework in which we can imagine the type of audience to whom quirky is overtly addressed … ¨ 1. How does Newman define the hipster? ¨ ¨2. What roles do maturation play in this subculture? ¨ ¨3. What roles do culture play in this subculture? ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Newman uses “hipster” as a convenient shorthand for various historical youthful subcultures that have developed in the US (and beyond) ¨ ¨He suggests that the figure of the hipster is ambivalent about traditional adulthood; that they retain aspects of childhood well into adulthood ¨ ¨He suggests they use culture performatively, parading their vanguard taste to generate prestige within and from their imagined community ¨ ¨Hipsters are seen to prefer indie branded culture on the basis that such things truly are an authentic alternative to a devalued mainstream ¨ ¨Issues around personal development, the performative use of style, and the subscription to indie values, are also central to the Quirky format ¨Seen this way, the hipster is a fragile figure who uses culture as a shield behind which to repel fears about growing up ¨ ¨Herein lies the hipster paradox: their identity suggests they are prime candidates for emotionally supportive media … ¨ ¨But their personae of ironic detachment makes them unlikely to accept such support lest doing so exposes their fragility ¨ ¨Quirky’s irony affords hipsters an alibi so they can covertly process their pains by quietly engaging with its sincere core ¨ ¨Hence why quirky cinema centralizes eccentrics coping with the social and psychological challenges of everyday life ¨ 1. How does this film depict hipster characters? ¨ ¨2. What roles does culture play in their lives? ¨ ¨3. What roles does this suggest the film might play in the lives of real-world hipsters? ¨ ¨This film encourages hipsters to integrate sincerity into their lives while maintaining a healthy dose of ironic detachment ¨ ¨It advances the spiritual and social rewards of sincere media connoisseurship, cast as a justified retreat from a tough world ¨ ¨It also suggests that a measure of ironic detachment is really needed in order to cope with life’s trails and tribulations ¨ ¨But it warns against fully retreating into irony, suggesting it threatens self-absorption, emotional coldness, and arrogance ¨ ¨Hence Enid’s personal maturation involves becoming less cynical, less judgmental, and open to wonder in the world ¨ Millennial Malaise 33: Ghost World – The Avocado ¨Seen this way, the film positions itself as a roadmap for hipster identity, albeit one that offers some tough life lessons ¨ ¨It reminds hipsters that their pursuit of hip status is a fool’s errand given the contested nature of what constitutes cool ¨ ¨It goes as far as to suggest that the fractured nature of cultural hierarchies may even lead to social ostracization ¨ ¨It also suggests a life of complete hipsterdom is out-of-reach given the practical need to secure housing and an income ¨ ¨It suggests to hipsters that hipsterdom can morph into an avoidance mechanism impeding psychosocial development ¨ ¨ ¨1. How does this films depict hipster characters? ¨ ¨2. What roles does culture play in their lives? ¨ ¨3. What roles does this suggest the film might play in the lives of real-world hipsters? ¨ ¨Newman discusses this film’s attempts to secure the hipster audience, and its apparent failure to appear credible to them ¨ ¨He rightly discusses how the film positions cultural taste as the main force shaping the couple’s relationship and breakup ¨ ¨This marks the film as made for people with such tastes and thereby suggests culture like itself builds a taste community ¨ ¨This predictably provoked a backlash from folks who felt it was an inauthentic attempt to piggyback “their” subculture ¨ ¨I propose, however, that this misses the point the film seems to wish to make about the cultural politics of hipsterdom ¨Less a clumsy stab at a hipster-friendly romcom, this is a brutal satire of the hipster, as self-absorbed and narcissistic ¨ ¨Beneath its cutesy veneer, this film concerns one hipster’s unhealthy obsession with a manipulative sociopathic hipster ¨ ¨Apparent outward sincerity is presented in Tom as unhealthy idealization and devaluation, in Summer as cold indifference ¨ ¨It suggests a total embrace of sincerity risks us losing the distance we need to evaluate character and conduct ¨ ¨It positions itself like Tom’s buddies: a sage warning against losing touch with reality when seduced by hipster identity ¨ ¨ ¨Conceptions of the changing nature of hip youth have driven efforts to secure this sizable, high-investor audience segment ¨ ¨The American movie business has been at the forefront of such efforts, seeking to retain the young people who drive its profits ¨ ¨US importation of European art cinema involved attracting and building an audience of permissive, spiritual leftist Beatniks ¨ ¨The Hollywood Renaissance involved attracting and building an audience of educated politicized left-liberal baby boomers ¨ ¨Smart Cinema and Gen-X Cinema involved attracting and building an audience of cynical media-literate Generation Xers ¨ ¨ ¨Quirky Cinema represents a newer example of audience targeting that straddles two distinct generational mindsets ¨ ¨Both exemplified the Metamodern Condition, a mindset in which cynical detachment coexists alongside a new sincerity ¨ ¨Theorists argue this perspective derives from a desire to find purpose amid existential crises, even if it seems hopeless ¨ ¨This Metamodern perspective is usually associated with the idealistic but ultimately self-serving millennial generation ¨ ¨However, it also characterizes Generation Xers who have moderated their cynicism as they grew older and successful ¨ ¨Auteurism’s framing of content as resulting from directors’ obsessions foreclosed consideration of quirky as an audience-targeting strategy ¨ ¨Yet, Quirky Cinema is part of a long history of major film companies aiming to attract young(ish) audiences by tailoring content to their tastes ¨ ¨Quirky Cinema is tailored for the hipster subculture, which pursues hip by using indie culture to project ambivalence about traditional adulthood ¨ ¨Seen this way, the hipster is a sensitive soul who hides behind culture as a means of coping with pressures of growing older in a challenging world ¨ ¨Quirky Cinema uses its ironic-sincere mode to covertly raise issues relevant to such audiences so as to offer them support without losing face ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨The first half of this course sought to broaden understandings quirky by addressing the key shortcomings of Auteruism ¨ ¨Through the figure of the all-powerful director, Auteurism can uncritically reproduce indie values, and sideline key aspects ¨ ¨In particular, we have seen how quirky can be in fact be seen as a textual model that sells indie values to hipster audiences ¨ ¨This provides a textually, industrially, and culturally sensitive framework in which to consider issues relating to the format ¨ ¨In the second half, we examine quirky’s preoccupation with father figures and its surprising socio-political engagement ¨Before all this, we shall focus on what is perhaps Quirky Cinema’s most controversial character-type, asking whether it really is that sexist ¨ ¨Topic: Manic Pixie Dream Girls ¨ ¨Readings: Vazquez Rodriguez, 168–201. ¨ ¨Home Screenings: Submarine (2009) ¨ Ruby Sparks (2012) ¨ ¨[Preparatory Questions on MS TEAMS and in the Syllabus] ¨ ¨Meeting: Thursday 3 November ¨