1
INTRODUCTION
STUDYING FILM: CULTURE AND EXPERIENCE
KEY OBJECTIVES
• Define film studies and film culture, and discuss the various factors that create and distinguish it.
• Describe the role and impact of film viewers, and note how our experience of movies and our taste for certain
films have both personal and public dimensions.
• Discuss the ways in which film culture and practice are discussed in this textbook contribute to the film
experience.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
The Introduction is the first of three chapters that investigate the numerous forces (cultural, institutional, and
historical) that organize the film experience. It examines how film cultures in the twenty-first century see,
understand, and enjoy movies through an ever-expanding variety of media. The Introduction grounds students’
academic engagement with the movies within the context of their everyday experience of film culture. It
acknowledges that diverse expectations, ideas, and understanding shape how and why people choose, comprehend,
and respond to films. It encourages students to build upon their own lived knowledge of film culture as movie
viewers and use the economic, aesthetic, and technological models detailed in this book to study movies—thus
increasing their enjoyment and understanding of the changing film experience.
TEACHING THE OPENING VIGNETTE
A helpful way to begin class discussion about this or any chapter is by building a teaching technique around the
opening vignette. The documentary Room 237 described at the beginning of the introduction immediately considers
the ways in the film viewer engages imaginatively with a film, in this case Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. One
teaching option would be to screen a clip from Room 237 in class. But because some students may be unfamiliar
with Kubrick’s film, another option might be to ask students what films have sparked their interpretative
imaginations. No doubt film titles such as Christopher Nolan’s Inception and David Fincher’s Fight Club will be
offered as suggestions, as these films invite and encourage commentary and debate. Encourage students to share
more personal, less obvious titles that have impacted the way they enjoy and understand movies.
TEACHING FILM AS A DISCIPLINE
Film studies as a discipline is almost as old as film itself. The first serious study of the movies as art was
published only two decades after the medium’s public debut in 1895. Based on their own courses of study, students
can find multiple entry points into the field: business, art, chemistry, photonics, psychology, history, and economics,
to name but a few.
When teaching this chapter, the primary challenge may be to explain why students will be asked to do much
more in the course than just watch movies for credit, and why film studies is relevant, regardless of the student’s
major. Anybody can talk about film to some degree, but that basic familiarity is just the beginning of the
conversation.
DVD and Blu-ray supplements (a.k.a. “extras”) demonstrate the appeal of learning more about a film than what
is apparent on a single viewing and can be a great teaching tool. These extra features, often educational, are the
descendants of the travelogues and other scientific films that used to be presented by a live lecturer in the very
earliest days of motion pictures. Ask which extras the students have sought out for which films. Why? What did this
information add to their film experiences? Or ask whether there is a video that has frustrated them by its lack of
2
additional material. Point out how these supplements make viewers more aware of advertising campaigns and the
skills of below-the-line craftspeople like composers and effects specialists and thus enrich viewers’ appreciation of a
movie.
TEACHING FILM AS AN EXPERIENCE
Viewers in the United States are generally well versed in studio-produced, mainstream Hollywood movies, but
their film experiences vary according to the viewing communities and film cultures they occupy. The Film
Experience explores the commercial and artistic choices involved in making films and details the historical,
aesthetic, economic, and technological innovations that have shaped the medium. To this approach, student
spectators bring an active and wide-ranging engagement with movies that is shaped by their backgrounds, ages,
education, and geographical locations. With the aid of this manual, instructors can incorporate the diverse array of
their students’ film experiences into the course and underscore how studying film through a cultural lens connects
viewers’ responses to a deeper understanding of the role movies play in our lives through the simultaneous
psychological processes of identification and cognition. Additionally, the collective and individual study of the
movie clips available on the LaunchPad for The Film Experience Web site will enhance and nurture a shared cinema
culture in the classroom.
TEACHING THE VIEWING CUES
Film Spectators and Film Cultures, p. 11
What types of films do you identify with most closely? Are they from a particular country, era, or genre? Do they
feature certain stars or a particular approach to music or settings?
This prompt offers a great way to establish a culture of lively discussion from the very first class. Capture
answers on a chalkboard or white board. What are the commonalities and differences among these films?
TEACHING THE FORM IN ACTION
Identification, Cognition, and Film Variety, p. 12
For each of the films mentioned in the Form in Action, ask the class to come up with analogous present-day
movies for the categories mentioned. How did they find out about the latest Hollywood blockbuster? Would they see
an animated movie from another country? What insights do they feel a recent documentary could provide about its
subject? Do they agree that movies like Whiplash “solicit a demographic with access to art-house cinemas that is
comfortable with unlikeable characters, lesser known actors, and small-scale narratives” or even that it is truly an
independent film? Capture their answers and revisit them when you get to the chapter on genres.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY
During the first class meeting of the course, ask the students to pair up and interview each other. Pass out
worksheets. Instead of having students ask, “What is your favorite movie?” have them find out “Which movie have
you seen the most times?” or “What is the last movie you watched in a theater?” and “What is the last movie you
Classroom Discussion Prompts
• Did a movie ever scare you so much you slept with the lights on?
• Have you ever developed a crush on an actor?
• Has a movie made you want to visit a different country or experience a different culture?
• Has watching a movie ever sparked your interest in learning more about a historical figure or event?
• Have you ever dressed up as a movie character for Halloween?
3
FILMS CITED
The Act of Killing (2012)
America at the Movies (1939)
American Graffiti (1973)
An American in Paris (1951)
Avatar (2009)
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Fight Club (1999)
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Furious 7 (2015)
Gladiator (2000)
Hidden Figures (2016)
Inception (2010)
Into the Woods (2014)
L’Arroseur arrosé (The Waterer Watered, 1895)
The Look of Silence (2014)
Metropolis (1925)
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Ponyo (2008)
Room 237 (2012)
Rushmore (1998)