Elicitation of Emotion State by Film - Essay Example

Elicitation of Emotion by Film Elicitation of Emotion by Film Introduction Film can elicit a variety of emotions from the audience. The most prominent application of the emotion elicitation are commonly applied among social scientist interested in eliciting emotional response in the laboratory for research purposes. The inherent emotions elicited by films includes disgust, contentment, sadness, grieve, fear and happiness. Different types of films are therefore more likely to evoke divergent emotions. It is also possible for a single film to evoke different emotions in single individuals. Apart from film, other methods have as well been used to elicit emotions. These include hypnosis, repeated phrases, music and facial muscle movement. Of all the methods used in elicitation of emotions, films are the only easily standardized method and entail little deception that is mostly seen in other methods. Films also present a higher degree of ecological acceptability in that they combine both the visual and auditory stimuli. As a consequence of the combination, films easily elicit a variety of emotions. The ability of a film to evoke an emotion is then compared to other films (Plantinga, 2009, p.71). Films can also elicit various cognition patterns to the audience. General cognition such as memory, assimilation and meta-cognition are enhanced by the film. Most cognitive effects of films relates to the information presentation and the atmosphere induced by the film. It is a normal phenomenon for instance, violence film to elicit violence. The elaboration of this effect is related to the significant cognitive effects of the film. The film Crash elicits a variety of emotional state in the audience. The emotional states elicited majorly relates with the theme of the film and the characters’ interaction in the film (Coan & Allen, 2007, p. 52). Crash Film Crash is a recent film produced in 2004. Paul Haggis is the producer, co-writer and also contributed to its direction. The film addresses two major concerns including racial tension and the social tension in Los Angeles, California. Crash was inspired by a real life experience where Haggis Porsche was suffered a carjacking in 1991 at Wilshire Boulevard (Villalba & Redmond 2008, p. 72) The characters for the story include a white attorney and the wife, a black detective who had a younger brother and a gang associates. There is a white racist police officer who annoys his more critical partner. It entails a Persian immigrant and an industrious Hispanic locksmith who is a family man. The films stand outs distinctively from other films in that is relatively impartial about the issue of racism. There is no direct attack on the White or the Black American on racism. The act of racism as well is elaborated to eminent from a pure act of ignorance and misconception rather than from malicious personality. Most characters in the films were recognized for their outstanding role in the film. Among the outstanding characters in this film included Don Cheadle, Ryan Philippe, and Michael Pena among other actors. The film has received several academic awards overtime due to its outstanding quality and the relevance in addressing the subject matter. It has received six nominations to the Academic Awards, Screenplay and the 78th Academy awards (Villalba & Redmond, 2008, p. 70). The Crash in elicit and shape a variety of emotional states throughout its plot. The film presents a gross miscommunication among and between its main characters that makes the crash into each other. Throughout the watching of the film, viewers experiences transient emotional states which are shaped by the storyline. The emotional states derived from Crash include; anger, amusement, surprise, excitement, fear and disgust. As the viewer watch through the movie, there is a typical mixture of reaction due to revelation of the divergent characters in the story (Sato, Noguchi & Yoshikawa, 2007, p.66) Cognition Cognition is well brought out in the Crash Film. The movies is based on a multi-ethical character set up that shades light into the racial tension that occurs in the set-up. It captures the normal lifestyles of different groups of citizens in a 24-hour schedule in Los Angeles. The film imparts various cognitive states into the viewer. The most outstanding cognitive state elicited by the film includes; Understanding Understanding is much elicited from different approaches of the film. Due to the diverse nature of the characters, the divergent and the typical traits are manifested. Lt. Dixon for instance is seen persuading Tom Hansen not to file a case against John Ryan for the racial prejudice against Christine. Dixon is committed to preserving the dignity and integrity of their department. At this point, the viewer clearly understands the divergent nature of Dixon as a police officer. There is a manifestation of conspiracy to hinder the justice delivery to Ryan. Ryan as well adores her mother who is a hard drug user. It’s a sarcastic to note that Ryan who is a police officer protects her mother who breaks the law by use of hard drugs. The understanding acquired from the film is that the general society set-up is culminated with unbelievable instances that is contrary to the normal believes. The viewer is taken through understanding of the deeply rooted racial prejudice in the multi-racial American society with a clear elaboration of the vice. Farhad and her daughter Dorri face such a racial prejudice from the Persian gun seller. The shop owner views Farhad as a terrorist, malicious referring to him as Osama. At that instance, disagreement break between the two of them and the Persian shop owner forces the Farhad and her daughter out (Aurier & Guintcheva, 2015 .p. 62) A clear and concise understanding of the real racial tension not only in the Los Angeles society, but also to the whole multi-racial American society is manifested. The superiority, inferiority and fear related to race can therefore be clearly understood from the predicaments emanating from the film (Schaefer, Nils, Sanchez, and Philippot, 2010, p.75). Memory Any films induce and enhance the memory of the viewers. The Crash is cognitively builds the viewer’s memory through its complicated storyline. The flow of activities through events as they unfold down the plot of the film elicits a strong memory built-up in the viewers’ minds. Crash is a series of events that occurs in the contemporary society. Relation of various events in the storyline is elicits memory, expand and facilitate its development (Taulbee, 2006, p.54). Imagination Imagination is a key cognitive element well elaborated in the Crash Films, as a basic principle, play a vital responsibility in enhancing the imagination expanse of an individual. Crash film has boldly steps up the viewers’ imagination on the real world. The events that unfolds behind the screen in the actual world might not necessary concur with the people’s actual take. The imagination on the actual issues facing the real life of individual are highlighted by various characters such Lt. Dixon. He is a custodian of justice but blocks the same course of justice he is employed to protect. From the experiences of the Crash viewer, the film shows a significant milestone in building the cognition in the viewers. The cognition built is the film acts as a link to the emotional states elicited and shaped throughout the viewing of the film. As noted earlier, various emotional states are induced in the film as a consequence of the observed cognitive influences of the Crash (Visch, Tan, & Molenaar, 2010, p. 66) Emotional States Elicited in the Crash Various emotional states are elicited and changes are derived from the viewing of the Crash. The most important emotional states heightened by the film include; Anger Crash is formed majorly around the themes of race and emotions. It also highlights hoards of emotional interaction and responses between and among the characters of the film. It’s important to consider at this point what exactly are the formal and stylistics affects how emotional states such as elicitation of anger in the film. The film content and form efficiently addresses the recognition, memory, interference making, judgment and the imagination of its audience. Since the Crash film addresses the emotional aspects of the audience, it authentically presents the human cognition process and thus evokes emotional response in the audience. It brings an important external illustration of the audience emotional response. Anger is elaborated in several scenes throughout the film. For instance; The first instance is the Ryan confrontation of the HMO administrator Shaniqua Johson. Ryan is calling g on behalf of his sick father to inquire about his father’s condition. The father had been diagnosed with a bladder disease but Ryan feels that the father is suffering from prostate cancer. He therefore the father treated outside the HMO network of doctors. He fears that the father’s complications cannot be handled effectively by such doctors. Ryan rang the HMO administrator and uses abusive and racist language when the administrator declines her request. When Ryan visits the Shaniqua that night, he is frustrated by the bureaucracy and the hindrances thereof. He however apologies for his overreaction and claims not to be getting sufficient sleep over the past couple of days. He explains that he feels frustrated by the pain of her father. Shaniqua however, still declines to help and Ryan blows in fury and anger again. He informs the administrator that she must be aware that several whites were as well qualified to get that particular. Ryan laments that that Shaniqua could have been compassionate enough to understand her predicament and be of help. He is concerned about her father’s concerns. The father had lost her contract and all the employees. Shaniqua comment betrays her intentions of not helping the situations of Ryan’s father and notes that, if the father had come in person, he could have approved the request. Unfortunately, the father did not come in. The response further gravitate Ryan’s anger and intensified his racial nature. The event that unfolds at this point of the scene influences the whole plot of the film and connects to actions in other scenes. These actions significantly built on the emotional aspect of the film. Ryan resulting furious anger later leads him in stopping the SUV car belonging to black couples. He sexually harassed the black man’s spouse without a proper reason. In a great paradox, Ryan surprisingly and heroically pulled out Christine, the black man’s spouse who he assaulted in the ultimate scene of the film from her overturned jeep. Ryan undertook the risky step of saving Christine in order to redeem his lost dignity. From their earlier encounter with Christine and the look at her eyes, he knew he was the cause of her pain, grieve and suffering. These unfolding events depict Ryan as not out rightly bad individual. Despite him making bad decision and pronouncement at certain times, he is a real compassionate man full of humanity. Ryan diverse and varied characters and emotions is core to achieving emotional outcome to various audiences. Eliciting Audience Anger by Characters’ Anger Application of the cognitive approach aids in the comprehension of the diverse anger emotions elicited by the film on the various groups of audience. It is this reason that Crash appealed so much to other people while at the same time disgusted other sets of the audience. The audience anger can be understood in the context of the characters’ anger. First, Ryan anger can be understood in terms of contending socio-ideological systems contemporarily known as the emotionologies. Ryan draws his anger from a diverse perspective. He is angry about the anti-white racism, his father’s suffering, the bureaucracy and the rigidity of the HMO system. The scene of Ryan interaction with Shaniqua represents an epitome of the effect of the characters’ anger on the audience. Ryan sees the difficulty associated with the insurance as specifically associated with racism. In the film, every viewer is also limited to the racism factor in the whole insurance issue. According to their cognitive perception, they are bounded in their racial groups and their emotional response and other responses are determined by their prevailing conditions in those groups relative to other groups. Understanding and reaction to Ryan anger can be understood in a way that reveals surprising outcomes. Different group of viewers can be deduced who reacts differently to Ryan anger. There are viewers who recognizes with his anger. Other viewers distance and completely sideline themselves from the anger whereas and other viewers draw their anger from the politics associated with the scene. The reason for these mixed reaction can be attributed several factor and terms. Among the terms includes appreciation of the character’s goal, empathy for the character, the involved politics among other factors (Bednarski, 2012 p. 67). Different Emotion Elicited In the context of the above diverse groupings of individuals and their emotional factors, different emotion can be elicited. The viewer who accepts and follows Ryan emotions is bound in a self-interest mentality. They literally appraise the underlying cause of his anger and become angry because they fall in the same category. The majority of the viewers will experience emotional states elicited by their empathy to Ryan situations. Such viewers are not locked up within their self-interest but are victims of the film plot. The concept of viewers in empathizing with characters emotions for the various speculative reasons denaturize the emotions ideology. Majority of the viewers will tend not to identify with Ryan anger. This is as results of the racist aspect of the anger. Such a multi-culturist viewer will however develop anger and frustrations over Ryan’s other predicament such inability to help his father but with a clear goal he is not racist. The viewer’s justification in developing anger is when Ryan helps Christine, a black later out of her car and serves her from burning. To the viewer’s therefore, Ryan’s racist acts and pronouncement at the initial stages of the film is masked with his anti-racist action in the accident scene. The viewer ultimately upholds the film as emotionally justifying and satisfying because it reinforces the cultural believes of a multiculturalist viewer (Bednarski, 2012 p.64). Other viewers, however, will develop anger due to the Crash film as a whole. Such a viewer will have a range of issue to elicit such emotions. They will develop anger concerning Ryan. The anger is due to the Ryan racist nature. Most viewers will tend to abhor and detest such action and therefore develop anger. Ryan is also playing a divided role in the film. Such viewers will see Ryan as a protagonist and an antagonist nature can also elicit anger. The viewer who conforms to the Ryan’s protagonist role get angered when he changers role, whereas those interested in the antagonist role equally get angered with the reverse of such role. Such a viewer will be angered from being manipulated to believe Ryan role as one but not the other. The last categorize of viewers will develop emotions from a political aspects and theoretical underpinnings. Such a viewer will specifically emotionally respond to decline Ryan perspective of view, his humanity and various subjectivity. The viewer’s emotion in regards to political aspects and theoretical underpinnings may be as direct consequence of other collection of factors. Among the factors includes the historical, economical and other factors such as racism among other factors. It’s therefore very difficult to combine concisely the various factors to give an accurate elaboration of the emotions evoked. Only certain cognitive protocols can allow for the combination of the diverse factors to explain the observed emotions (Bednarski, 2012, p.65). Most of the observed emotional models used in the above approach of the anger state classify humans in locked classes such as identities, views and other behavioral characteristics. In an actual sense, such models are not real in nature. The complex cognitive theory and considerations of the various ideologies gives an alternative options and significant benefits to the ethical studies. Such a cognitive model, for instance, aid in the analysis of the viewer elicited viewers’ emotional states in the Crash (Bednarski, 2012, p.63). Surprise Surprise is also elicited in the film Crash. From the viewer’s perspective, there several scenes that completely surprises them. The key principle is the miscommunication commonly experienced among the characters of the story. Two instances elaborate existence of this emotional state in the film. Hansen comes to pick Peter from his hitchhiking. Peter while on board realizes that there has a couple of similarities between him and Hansen. For instance he sees that Hansen has small statue of St. Christopher as his. Due to much similarities in common, Peter begins to laughs. Hansen stops the car and tells Peter to get out of the car if he wants to remain funny. In bid to clarify his talk, Peter extends his hands to remove the statue out of Hansen’s pocket. At this point, Hansen perceived that Peter is getting out ammunition to attack him. He moves swiftly to shoot Peter in the head. The viewers are surprised at the overreaction of Hansen towards such a small issue. They are also surprised at the striking similarities between Peter and Hansen. The unfolding events through the discussion from the striking similarities to the ultimate shooting elicit sense of curiosity and surprise to the viewers. In another instance, Farhad and Danielle’s encounter elicits surprise. Farhad is warned by Danielle about the conditions of his door frame. Due to his lack of good English comprehension, Farhad misunderstood Danielle and fails to replace the frame. However, at night, thieves broke into Farhad shop and steal his valuable. Farhad holds Danielle responsible for the theft. The flow of the encounter is a great surprise to the audience. Danielle intention was to prevent any possible theft that could result from the poor condition of Farhad door frame. Due to the crash in their communication, Farhad is surprising holding Danielle responsible for the theft. Conclusion Crash film elicits various emotional states to the viewers. The most outstanding emotional state achieved throughout the film is anger. The cognitive theory is used to analyzed and formally process the divergent factors affecting the emotions elicitation in the individuals. The model assumes that various individuals are locked in classes and division. As illustrated from Crash, the underlying factor that facilitated the observed emotions is different. The multiculturist will tend to develop anger by the racist culture of the main character. Following through the plot and storyline of a film also elicit an appropriate emotional state. Films, as a consequence of effects of eliciting emotional states, find application in social science laboratory to study emotions. Bibliography Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Aurier, P, & Guintcheva, G 2015, The Dynamics of Emotions in Movie Consumption: A Spectator-Centred Approach, International Journal Of Arts Management, 17, 2, pp. 5-18, Business Source Complete. Bednarski, J. D. (2012). Eliciting Seven Discrete Positive Emotions Using Film Stimuli. Thesis. 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Visch, V, Tan, S, & Molenaar, D., 2010, The emotional and cognitive effect of immersion in film viewing, Cognition & Emotion, 24, 8, pp. 1439-1445. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More