Topic 10 Audiences

As an audience member when I watch films I would normally enjoy the film more if I am watching it in the dark, the music score needs to be amazing and I love when I can bring myself into the world or mind of the characters.
The best place for me to watch a film is at the cinema. Not only is the size of the screen huge but because of the atmosphere. I love when the lights go out and the whole room goes quiet and that everyone in the room is about to experience a film that they possibly have never seen before.
When I watch a film it’s the music and sound that draws me in to the emotions of the story. The surround sound system used in most cinemas lets me not only see and hear the emotions of the story but also get engaged with the vibrations of the sound that you get from good quality equipment, I have yet to experience at any home environment.
As part of the Melbourne International Film Festival I went and watched The Butterfly Tree. Before I watched the film, I attended 2 separate seminars on the film. The first with the music composer, Caitlin Yeo and the 2nd with the two main actors of the film, Melissa George and Ed Oxenbould. In the Caitlin Yeo workshop, she showed us clips from the film, without and then with the music. This was a very good process and I was also able to connect to the characters in the film more because I knew the composer’s ideas behind the music score. In the workshop with the actors they spoke about getting into character and how they deal with emotional scenes. A scene was then played where Melissa George’s character, Evelyn, was upset after having a double mastectomy and I found it interesting that she only did one take for this scene. Experiencing this meant I was able to watch the film from a completely different perspective. I found myself feeling a lot of respect for the film I was about to view…having the director, Priscilla Cameron and Melissa George in the same room had something to do with this too.
Having a cinema-type environment at home is something I would look at getting at some stage and also finding different ways to help the audience connect to films, that I create in the future.