Session One The Comfort Viewing Mode Department of Film Studies & Audiovisual Culture, Masaryk University Dr. Richard Nowell ¨Structure: 6 2-hour sessions [21.09; 05.10; 26.10; 09.11; 30.11; 14.12] ¨ ¨Methods: Integrated seminar discussions and framing lecturettes ¨ ¨Preparation: 2 x screenings & 1 x reading with preparatory questions ¨ ¨Organization: All screenings and readings will be discussed in depth ¨ ¨Slides: Uploaded to MS TEAMS soon after each session takes place ¨ ¨Assessment: 1 x 1500-2000-word essay (choice of five prompts) ¨ ¨Feedback: One-page grade explanation emailed soon after receipt ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Topic: Anglophone Comfort Viewing (1980s to the present day) ¨ ¨Methods: Conceptual, textual, industrial, and social ¨ ¨Aim: Explore how comfort viewing has operated as a mode of assembly ¨ ¨Approach I: Spotlight the pastoral aspirations of key media output ¨ ¨Approach 2: How such objectives enrich understandings of media history ¨ ¨Outcome: Understand audiovisual media using a Comfort Viewing Mode ¨ ¨To develop a demonstrable understanding of: ¨ ¨I. Comfort Viewing as a critical category ¨ ¨2. Comfort Viewing as a mode of media assembly ¨ ¨Elite/elitist audiovisual culture is historically unwelcoming to media that seeks to foster positive audience sentiments ¨ ¨Such subcultures deploy elevation strategies to legitimize their association with fairly low-prestige cultural products ¨ ¨This has led to stakeholders citing formal experimentation and sociocultural critique as indices of a media text’s value ¨ ¨Output deemed to fall short in these areas is typically devalued as mindless trash unworthy of serious discussion ¨ ¨This phenomenon has intensified after #Metoo due to the mainstreaming of judgment-driven Marxist critical analysis ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Perhaps in response, this period also saw Comfort Viewing proliferate as both a genre label and a loose set of meanings ¨ ¨Where Marxist analysis values social responsibility, Comfort Viewing stresses the therapeutic potential of certain media ¨ ¨It (re)imagines media output as a delivery system for personal wellbeing; as “me time”; as a deserved cultural “cheat-day” ¨ ¨Despite its prevalence in contemporary audiovisual culture, Comfort Viewing has received next-to-no scholarly attention ¨ ¨Yet, we can develop understandings of this topic by exploring work on an earlier but comparable topic: “feelgood cinema” ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨A standout example of such work is Egan & Mackley’s small-scale study of audience experiences of Mamma Mia! as a “feelgood film” ¨ ¨Their arguments furnish us with transferable insights into the qualities and affects that distinguish Comfort Viewing as a mode of assembly ¨ ¨I. Why do the interview subjects consider Mamma Mia! a feelgood film/experience? ¨ ¨II. Do these qualities also characterize your own experiences of Comfort Viewing? ¨ ¨III. What other qualities characterize the content and consumption of Comfort Viewing? ¨Connection: Identifying similarities to the characters and their situations begat a rewarding sense of empathic fondness ¨ ¨Sincerity: Cheerful performances and imperfect vocals posited a sense of fun, authenticity, and unpretentiousness ¨ ¨Familiarity: Well-known songs and predictable scenarios offered a retreat from more challenging, downbeat media ¨ ¨Uplift: Joyful characters, no villains, and upbeat musical numbers generated a feeling of wellbeing for interviewees ¨ ¨Nostalgia: ABBA, and characters reflecting on their pasts, summoned positive memories of interviewees’ own youth ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨While work on “feelgood” focuses on audience perceptions rather than media production and content, its findings still support this endeavor ¨ ¨As Janet Staiger famously argued, audience understandings of media are heavily determined by discourses industry stakeholders produce ¨ ¨Audience experiences are shaped by exposure to industrially produced artifacts, and industry seeks to serve the perceived needs of audiences ¨ ¨What genre theorists called “critical categories” (those designated by audiences) and “industrial categories” (formats) therefore often overlap ¨ ¨So, from Egan & Mackley (and others), we can identify a cluster of discourses that constitute a Comfort Viewing Mode of Media Assembly ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨CONNECTION: The CMV promotes building meaningful interpersonal relations as something that enriches human lives ¨ ¨SINCERITY: It promotes the superiority of honest, authentic expressions of an essential inner self devoid of pretense ¨ ¨FAMILIARITY: It invokes a sense of predictability through well-known formats, tropes, inter-texts, and “rewatchability” ¨ ¨UPLIFT: It promotes understanding for others, by inviting us sympathetically to appreciate their overcoming life-challenges ¨ ¨NOSTALGIA: It positions an imagined (often media) past as superior to the present and capable of inspiring a better future ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨These discourses are projected around a media text (via distribution and marketing) but crucially are also projected within the media text itself ¨ ¨Taken together, they represent a “Mode”; a filter or lens through which events are presented and through which viewers can experience them ¨ ¨This mode can be used to present myriad different stories, formats, aesthetic regimes, settings, characters, music, iconography (and so on) ¨ ¨It is built around a problem-solution model, wherein real-world problems are solved on the screen and thus potentially in front of it ¨ ¨The Comfort Viewing Mode therefore aligns the conduct and output of the commercial creative industries with that of the caring professions ¨ ¨I. How does Mamma Mia! position itself as Comfort Viewing? ¨ ¨II. Who do you think is the prime target audience for this film? ¨ ¨III. To what extent did you experience the film as Comfort Viewing? ¨ ¨MM! reflexively promotes Comfort Viewing, offering a heart-pounding, mood-lifting experience akin to taking stimulants ¨ ¨It does so by showing otherwise scattered individuals uniting around, and solving life problems with, upbeat media (ABBA) ¨ ¨It promotes inclusivity, picturing an international community comprising viewer surrogates like women, girls, and LGBTQ+ ¨ ¨It encourages mother-daughter viewing, addressing concerns they face alone and together: aging, loneliness, separation, love ¨ ¨Lest we miss these point, the film boasts myriad songs whose lyrics promote the psychosocial benefits of comfort media ¨ ¨ ¨I. How does Joe Pera Talks With You ¨ position itself as Comfort Viewing? ¨ ¨II. Who do you think is the prime target audience for this series? ¨ ¨III. To what extent did you experience the series as Comfort Viewing? ¨This series uses the Comfort Viewing Mode differently, aiming to be less an audiovisual stimulant than a sedative ¨ ¨It promotes striking a balance between a life built on comfort (viewing) and self-betterment through very mild risk-taking ¨ ¨It focuses on a unassuming man’s sincere efforts to connect with his community (and us, as the audience he addresses) ¨ ¨Joe has struggled to adapt to modern life due, it is implied, to childhood bullying, familial bereavement, and social anxiety ¨ ¨His retreat into a life of comfort (viewing) is offset by his embracing new experiences like The Who songs and romance ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxIvVunSZZk (8:50 – 12:13) ¨Comfort Viewing is usually associated with consumer choices that permit media experiences characterized by relaxation, coziness, and wellbeing ¨ ¨Yet, it is important we recognize that the concept of Comfort Viewing also describes a mode of calculated media production and assembly ¨ ¨This Comfort Viewing Mode is characterized by efforts to invoke an intersecting, complementary, mutually supportive collection of ideas ¨ ¨These media texts invoke Connection, Sincerity, Familiarity, Uplift, and Nostalgia so as to position themselves as mood-enhancing experiences ¨ ¨They seek to foster a sense of belonging, inspiration, hope, honesty, and security in order to help viewers manage real-world concerns and issues ¨The Comfort Viewing Mode enriches our understanding of industry history, including a period often reduced to cold, calculated profiteering ¨ ¨Topic: 1980s Feelgood ¨ ¨Readings: Brown, Feelgood Cinema. ¨ ¨Home Screenings: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) ¨ The Goonies (1985) ¨ ¨[Preparatory Questions on MS TEAMS and in the Syllabus] ¨ ¨Meeting: Thursday 5 October ¨