This week in preparation for my next project brief I explored Berys Gauts article, Empathy and Identification in cinema.

• Gauts suggested there are two kinds of emotions in cinema, artificial emotions (that are reactions to film technique, such as a beautiful shot, fantastic editing) and representational emotions represented at story events or characters (and there situations) that are represented in film. For example at the beginning of Richard Linklater’s new film ‘Everybody wants some’ he starts with a pretty car driving down the street to The Knacks ‘My Sharona’, its beautifully shots and makes me quite excited. Its through film technique that he draws feeling (excitement). However at the end of Sleepless in Seattle where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan finally get together my emotions are drawn more from the characters and there stories than any specific film technique.
• Gauts then talked of story directed emotions-feeling suspense and curiosity towards a story (like a murder mystery) and character directed emotions when the viewer fears for them, admires them etc. Its essentially when the viewer starts seeing the story from a particular characters perspective.
• Theorists maintain that the audiences ability to identify and empathise with character is a key ingredient and a major factor in there emotional engagement with the characters. A minority of theorists believe identification is impossible, that the viewer is always at a distance and what occurs isn’t identification, but absorption, assimilation.
• Affective identification is imagining feeling what the character feels. The audience (irregardless of the characters emotion) imagines feeling that emotion (because we have felt it before) it allows us to identify with that character. Its essentially imagined empathy, we have a conception of the state the protagonists in and we allow this conception to guide our imaginings.
• Empathy is genuine feeling, the feelings are raw and honest. For example a 12 year old me crying at the end of Titanic-I actually feel/weep for the characters.
• Identification is imagining from the outside, whereas empathy is imagining from the inside, both require imagination in order too connect with the characters feelings, it also requires our own preconceptions (and how we perceive the events, hurdles, the character is attempting to overcome).

My Current Idea 

• Juxtaposing (artificial emotions and Identification) with (representational emotions and empathy). I could potentially construct aa quintessential western in one way and through various techniques create artificial emotions and identification and then re-write and film the scene a different way that explores genuine empathy and taps less into film technique and more into character.
• I’d imagine the artificial one would have more shots, bigger soundtrack whereas the representational one with be less filmic, slower paced and the emphasis will be on the character rather than the event.