La La Land - Ideology and Spectatorship

Ideology

American Politics 2016:

• Donald Tump is elected PotUS
• Make America Great Again
• He wanted to build a wall between the USA and Mexico
• Trump supporters were more volatile and so 'safe spaces' for 'vulnerable' leftists had to be setup
• There have been violent protests on both sides, Alt-Right groups attacking Trump protests and vice versa from AntiFa (is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States), physically assaulting those they see as ‘white supremacists.’

Politics of Hollywood:

• The left is gernerally seen as more creative and so Hollywood leans slightly to the left
• Despite Trumps Tv/Film background he critizesed Hollywood saying:
• “It’s a terrible place. Really terrible… They’re treating conservatives very unfairly. They go after people they see as elites… and in many cases Hollywood is really terrible.”
• “…it is actually a very dangerous place. What Hollywood is doing is a tremendous disservice to our country.”

Jakie Stacey (Star Gazing, 1994):

• She argued that one of the most valuable assets for a film is its ability to transport a spectator away from reality and lose oneself in the fantasy of a story.​
• Given the highly tumultuous state of American society in 2016, it is fitting that a film steeped in fantastical escapism rose to such success.

The American Dream:

• Belief that anyone can achieve success if they work hard enough
• An ideology represented in the film

Spectatorship

General Aspects of Spectatorship:

• Viewer Response
• Audience Positioning
• POV

Active and Passive Spectatorship:

This debate depends of the queston of wether:

• Film audiences are homogenous, undifferentiated collections of people who are likely to respond to the films they watch in a more or less identical way or...
  
• Are they more individualistic in their viewing, reading and responding to a film's coded messages in a wide variety of ways?

• Filmmaker build stories which contain meanings wich they want to communicate (meanings, morals, values, ideology, etc). This can be done deliberately or unconsciously
• Viewers also bring to their own 'readings' of cinematic texts their own ideologies formed through upbringing, culture, past experiences, etc - Some are shaped by demographic factors (Gender, Age, ethnicity, Socio-Economic background, exual orientation)
• Our response to films can depend on HOW our own gender is represented. This concerns how our ‘situation’ – our daily lives, routines and relationships – can affect how we respond to films. This is how our culture – our upbringing, experiences and beliefs – affect our response. This also relates to our understanding of the world and our own ideological framework.
  
• The Uses and Gratifications theory suggests that we chose our level of engagement for one of the following reasons/pleasures Entertainment, Information, Identification and Interaction
• Spectatirs often switch between the two viewing perspective.…