What is wrong with simply observing the world?

Joshua Houston

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It takes an amazing level of self-control and open mindedness to observe the world as an individual without judgement, emotion, or bias, but to document your observations of the world through writing, film, and other media without bias is simply impossible. Every piece of media reveals a truth about its author and their opinions, but that doesn’t justify or condone creating overtly bias media that could be misconstrued as propaganda. An argument should be presented within a documentary, showing both sides of an idea or story in order for the viewer to be able to make up their own mind.

Documentary as a genre can be split up into 6 types of modes, or subcategories in which the level of director interaction or guidance is more or less. I’ve organised these modes from the most to least potential of bias, ‘observational’ being the least.

1. Participatory – Direct engagement with the subject / social actor. (eg. Forbidden Lies by Anna Broinowski, Louis Theroux
2. Performative – The filmmaker is the subject of the documentary (eg Supersize me Morgan Spurlock 2004)
3. Expository – exposes logical argument often in the form of a narrator (eg nature documentaries)
4. Poetic – Documentary emphasising visuals, music, rhythm and mood. Offers a more inner truth
5. Reflexive – Documentaries based on true stories, but re-enactments rather than real footage
6. Observational – Attempting to capture objective reality as a neutral observer / fly on the wall.

I’ve chosen Observational as the least bias, or most neutral form of documentary because of the director’s lack of physical involvement in the film, though it’s important to take into account the selective filming and editing that takes place to produce the finished piece of media. Despite its apparent neutrality, some observational films can be regarded as the most biased, for example, ‘Gimme Shelter’ is an observational documentary directed by Charlotte Zwerin, Albert Maysles, and David Maysles in 1970 about the Rolling Stones and a concert involving the death of multiple people, including Meredith Hunter who was filmed being beaten to death by member of a motorcycle gang called the Hell’s Angels. ‘Gimme Shelter’ is a great example of how it is impossible to simply view the world without bias, because although the directors of Gimme shelter didn’t physically appear in the documentary, the documentary specifically featured the reactions and opinions of the members of the Rolling Stones rather than the members of the audience or people affected by the deaths that took place. Because of this, the film can be regarded as biased towards the Rolling Stones, seemingly exemplifying them from the events that took place and relieving them of responsibility. The fact that the directors chose to show footage of Meredith Hunter’s death without any filmed discussion of the friends or family reveals the bias that they have as filmmakers, and their lack of empathy for those personally involved.

“The ethical debates about whether the Maysles should have used the footage have long since been forgotten as Gimme Shelter achieved classic status. It is a vivid portrait of a moment in time in America, but it also demonstrates the limits of documentary. We see a murder…” – Paul Byrnes (2015) ⁽²⁾

Participatory Documentary is arguably the most bias, because the filmmaker has not only chosen to document a story on someone or something, but they’re also willing to involve themselves in order to convey their thoughts and opinions of the topic. In saying this, the documentary itself may not appear overtly bias, but the director will likely have made up their mind about where they’d like the film to go. An example of a great participatory documentary (as well as expository documentary) is Forbidden Lies by Anna Brionowski (2007), which follows the true story about the writer Norma Khouri and her book about an apparent untrue story of her friend who was killed as an honour killing in Jordan for seeing another man titled ‘Forbidden Love’. Anna initially tells the story solely from the perspective of Norma, making her story seem personable and true. If Norma were to be the only subject observed, the audience would inexorably believe her story, however throughout the documentary Anna reveals more and more perspectives and evidence which imply that Norma is lying, Anna also converses with Norma about the statements which rendered Norma’s tale’s false, forcing an impulsive response.

I admired Anna’s participatory documentary techniques because although she had personally made up her mind about the fact that Norma was lying about the book and the events that took place, she gave Norma a chance to tell her side of the story before revealing to the audience the contradictory accounts of multiple other people. Whether or not Norma was telling the truth is still partially up for debate. We can conclude that through personally gathering and recording the facts and opinions from multiple people reveals a greater and more reliable truth, a truth that neutral observation could not achieve.

“The Art of a Good documentary portrait is to gain your subject’s trust, and then betray them”

-Anna Broinowski (2007) ⁽³⁾

Regardless of the mode of documentary that is being created, observing the world through a completely neutral lens is impossible, and attempts can result in being insensitive due to a lack of opinion variety. It’s evidentially important to show multiple perspectives regarding an account or story, as it can potentially reduce the possibility of false information. Despite the impossibility of film neutrality, upholding ethics and open mindedness as a film maker or director is still important, as it can result in reputability and respectability from audience, subjects, and social actors involved, making future film productions easier to produce.

• ^{Nichols, N 2010, ‘Introduction to Documentary’, Indiana University Press, pp. 99-139.}

• ^{Byrnes, P 2015, ‘Gimme Shelter shows the day truth in cinema took a beating’ The Sydney Morning Herald}

• ^{Rigg, J 2007, ‘Interview with Anna Broinowski, director of Forbidden Lies’ ABC network}

There are Immersive similarities between Gambling Rooms both in the Melbourne CBD Crown Casino which focused on a range of gambling and a local Thornbury gambling bar, the Croxton Park Hotel, which focused primarily on slot machines. They both feature stimuli which contribute to the overall immersion of the space. This stimulus includes

• Controlled comfortable temperature
• Dimly lit, with flashing colourful lights that came from the electronic games, and titles used to allure people to play.
• Sound
  • Casino: Loud crowd chatter and noises involved in the games
  • Hotel/Bar: Music, noises of other people slot machines, and television

In this essay, I’d like to analyse in depth the stimuli which targets the human senses of sight and hearing immediately and obviously in a gambling room, but most importantly I will state that Human Conditioning plays a huge role in immersion within a gambling space, to an extent in which addicts constantly return despite potential negative consequences to their mental, social, financial or physical well-being.

Addiction and Immersion share many common grounds. Cambridge University defines Immersion as “the fact of becoming completely involved in something”. Media that regarded as immersive requires something out of the ordinary, which contrasts the immersion that takes place in a gambling room. To become addicted to something, that something needs to have an alluring initial immersive ‘hook’ to attract a viewer, user, or participator. The main thing that attracts people to a gambling room in the first place is partly the potential to quickly and easily earn money, though the way that the room is designed can keep people staying for longer than initially planned. Slot machines are the simplest form of Gambling, requiring no prior research or knowledge on how to use them, simply insert money, press a button and potentially receive a lot back. Most people, however, do not receive a lot back, yet kept coming back to use the machine after huge net losses. “Instead of inserting coins into a slot as in the past, players are more likely to insert paper money, bar- coded paper tickets, or plastic cards with credit stored on chips or magnetic stripes. To activate the game, they no longer pull a lever, but instead press a button or touch a screen. Denomination of play can vary from one cent to one hundred dollars, and players can choose to bet from one to as many as one thousand-coin credits per game.” (Schüll 2012) The first animated video screen slot machine was developed in 1976 in Kearny Mesa, California by the company Fortune Coin Co. And throughout the next 20 years, slot machines had moved into key position of the Casino Floor, generating twice as much revenue as all the “live games” put together. ­ ⁽¹⁾

It’s hard to say what the target market or audience with gambling, because it really targets a huge range of people from a range of social class. John C. Mowen, a Professor at Oklahoma State University, and Xiang Fang, an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin found that slot machine gamblers, unlike other gamblers, were motivated by escape, low self-esteem and excitement. Often in Casino construction design, they would avoid 90-degree angles, as it forces people to stop and reflect on where to go, instead “they want to curve you gently to where they want you to go” (Schüll 2012) which implies that many guests aren’t entirely sure of their plans for that night.

In all states of apart from Western Australia, slot machines are perfectly legal to be presented almost anywhere in Australia, including hotels, sports and RSL clubs ₍₂₎ Melbourne, Victoria has over 18,700 licensed gaming machines. Upon walking in to, Crown Casino, the home to over 2600 slot machines, ⁽³⁾ I was overwhelmed with the overall size and supposed wealth of the building. I was told that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures for security reasons, but there were bright neon lights against sleek metallic pillars, big fancy leather couches and chairs encompassed guests while wealthy looking corporate dressed guests engaged in games of Blackjack, Poker, Roulette, and many other fun looking activities. The sound was enormous, from the busy chatter of groups, and individuals keenly watching a man read out numbers which would reveal whether or not they would turn a profit that night. It felt large and spacious, yet still very full and lively. I can imagine that even if the room was completely empty, it wouldn’t feel empty, just because of the amount of light and colour that constantly seemed to envelop the room. The only thing I could imagine would make the room more immersive, particularly in a media production sense was if it had some kind of musical soundtrack accompanying my arrival, though obviously that wouldn’t work in reality.

Adjacent the energetic crowd were stone-faced individuals with eyes locked on the slot machine video screens in front of them, sitting on padded raised chairs mindlessly inserting note after note into these bright musical boxes playing happy energetic music in the major scale. Most of these people, unlike many other guests of the casino were not here for a fun night out, they were here desperately trying to earn back what they may have lost previously. I sat down, and the screen was initially so bright looking directly at it, that it made the area around it fade away into the darkness, making my only focus this screen positioned directly in front of me. I reached into my wallet and grabbed one of my 5 dollar coins to insert into one of the machines. The computerised spinner spun for a few turns while playing the cheerful music, occasionally making strange connections between the icons I didn’t much understand. This machine was both visually and aurally stimulating, and though the activity mostly consisted of me watching these computerised reels spin, there was a feeling of physical interaction using the sense of touch as I would insert more coins into the slot. It was clear that the machine was designed to lure you into immersion, rather than confront you with it. There were many buttons along the ‘dashboard’ of the machine, but only one seemed to be necessary, the one in which would begin the spin. On my third turn, the spinner paused to reveal that I had won 15 cents, and it flashed lights and colour to reinforce my win. My focus was very occupied on the screen despite the commotion around me, and at that point in time, I was completely immersed in this screen which offered a potential fantastic monetary reward, until suddenly the spinning stopped, silently revealing with a small black box that I had run out of money. I noticed that there was no sound, colour, or light that reinforced the fact that I had just lost 5 dollars. Even for the small amount of time that I had spent playing, turning away from the screen and leaving the room feel dark and mundane in contrast.

Photo I took at the Croxton Park Hotel

What makes a slot machine so immersive is more than just bright colourful lights and positive music, a huge contributing factor is human conditioning. The studies conducted by Ivan Pavlov suggest that reliable cues associated with some kind of a reward, will trigger a dopamine response, or the ‘feel good chemical’ in the brain. ⁽⁴⁾ This means that the enormous sound that I described earlier about the Gambling Rooms contribute to the overall immersion of the space for an addict, because while on a slot machine, they are conditioned to be in a constant state of anticipation of a reward, and there are noises which an addict associates with winning that are relentlessly being played and repeated in the gambling space by various other slot machines. The immediacy of the rewards, as well as the losses disguised as wins contributed to the reason in which slot machines are so successful ⁽⁵⁾ These ‘rewards’ are making a bet of 10 dollars, and winning 9 back. The machines celebrate the 9-dollar win with lights and music, when in reality, you’ve just made a 10% loss. Studies show that these ‘rewards’ can alter neuroplasticity in regions of the brain, and affect dopamine receptors to be triggered at these particular cues. Behavioural addiction involves the need to seek a natural reward like money, sex, food etc, despite negative consequences to a person’s mental, social, financial or physical well-being.  The long-term effects of addiction, both behavioural and drug induced affect a protein known as “FBJ murine osteosarcoma viral oncogene homolog B” or “ΔFosB” (DeltaFosB), and this protein contributes heavily to the development of pathological behaviour. ⁽⁶⁾ This is partly why addiction is so difficult to overcome, because over time, the brain has been hard-wired to elicit a dopamine response to external stimuli, and an individual can’t simply ‘turn off’ that dopamine response. To make matters worse for compulsive gamblers, as they develop stress because of their financial losses, they’re more likely to take extra financial risks that they wouldn’t normally take in order to peruse the reward further, and this not only goes for gambling, stressed individuals are more likely to binge eat, engage in sexual behaviour or take drugs (Sinha, 2001) ⁽⁷⁾

Addictions are immersive experiences that people feel the need to overindulge in to a point of negative consequences. Vibrant Colours and dynamic sounds contribute to an initial immersion, but Human Conditioning can help media practitioners keep immersion. While it’s difficult to present an audience with an immediate reward similar to a slot machine during a film or radio piece, the brain can be conditioned to associate cues with experiences, and that can create an anticipation that will keep audiences attentive to what’s being presented to them.  For example, in a Television series having a particular type sound track play for a scene featuring sexual stimuli, or when something humorous is about to take place. That way when that kind of soundtrack is heard, the audience can be in a state of anticipation for the scene to follow, which as previously stated, is a primary mode of immersion. Media can be created that’s addictive to watch, and as media practitioners, we not only need to be constantly searching for a way to initially allure audiences, but also keep their attention for as long as possible.

References:

1. Schüll, N. (2012). Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton University p3-5

2. https://www.vcglr.vic.gov.au/gambling/gaming-venue-operator

3. https://www.responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/31870/Fact-Sheet-Fact-Sheet-GIRO-Info-Pokies-in-Victoria-2015-2016.pdf

4. Karen L. Hollis, Mount Holyoke College, Pg 960 “Drug Tolerance and Addiction” Contemporary Research on Pavlovian Conditioning (1997) p961, 962

5. Sandy C. Chen College of Business, Oregon State University, Bend, Oregon, USA Stowe Shoemaker Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA, and Dina Marie V. Zemke The Hospitality College, Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA – Segmenting slot machine players: a factor-cluster analysis (2012) p25-27

6. Olsen CM (December 2011). “Natural rewards, neuroplasticity, and non-drug addictions”. Neuropharmacology

7. E Pool, T Brosch, S Delplanque, and D Sander, The University of Geneva “Stress Increases Cue-Triggered “Wanting” for Sweet Reward in Humans” (2015) p128