The Creator's Intention vs. The Audience's Perception in Filmmaking

Some of the most productive exercises undertaken in this class were the group critiques of all our multimedia work. The most important lesson I learnt from these sessions is that once a piece of work is released into the public domain the intention of the creator is for the most part disregarded. How we construct our narratives is a serious consideration if we expect to convey our message effectively. If you are presenting to an audience, it is important that their needs and expectations be considered if your message it be conveyed at all- we don’t often create videos to reassure ourselves of our own understandings about the world. The moment your work is left to the interpretation of an audience, the intention of the artist, and his own understanding of the piece must take a back seat to what others get from the work- it has to speak for itself. This sometimes functions to either weaken or strengthen the piece created.

Our classmates were always very receptive and forgiving. They filled in the blanks where our editing, and creative process didn’t or couldn’t. They asked us to clarify things that sometimes should have been clarified in the work, and gave us the benefit of the doubt when we helped them make sense of an inconsistency in the work presented. In the virtual world of the Internet, though, audiences are not always as forgiving. Mediocre work, or work that is based on spurious arguments, are ripped to shreds in the blogosphere and on mainstream media platforms, before the author ever has a chance to share his original intention.

While I was making my final video I never thought much about my audience. I had a story to tell, and I was going to tell it the best way I knew how. Sometimes this is enough, because the story you have to tell is one that others want to hear, but it is never easy to gauge this. Time and time again filmmakers create works that only appeal to niche markets, whose support is sometimes not sufficient to recover all costs spent in creating the project. Commercial filmmakers and producers have to always consider, what is the intended audience? What research is available to suggest that the content of the proposed work would appeal to this audience? Is the argument chosen to be examined the best argument that can be derived from all the footage shot? What length is most suitable for a film of a particular genre?

There are many small details of my film that a non-Jamaican wouldn’t recognize. The scenes depicting everyday life in Jamaica speak to my childhood, and the poverty endured by my family, led by my mom who never finished high school. Few people would understand the significance of this to my life today. The music speaks directly to Jamaicans of my generation and my parent’s generation, as an acknowledgement of the many problems faced by Jamaicans, and the hope we have for the future. There are many proverbs in our language that speaks to the sentiment in these songs- times are hard, but so long as we can breathe we will be thankful. The final videos of the men’s 100m final and the men’s 4 x 100m relay final, two world-record breaking performances, were watched live by most Jamaicans in 2008. Many of us can tell you the winning times, and will remember where we were as we watched the Jamaicans conquer the world.

Was the work successful? I believe it was, but I don’t have any measure- such as ticket sales- to determine how audiences perceived my work. Perhaps we should have been asked to make 30 second trailers, and have each student select five films they desire to watch. Though, I guess we can’t depend solely on audiences for an appraisal of quality; everyone is looking for something different, and may choose based on which films gives the most laughs, for example, as opposed to the film that is best edited and that explores an interesting topic. After all my efforts at creating visual arguments in class, I think it is most important to consider and understand the dynamic relationship between a creator and his audience, as well as to find ways to ensure that purpose and perceived purpose are comparable. As we are often counselled, every creative decision must be deliberate, and every critique should be anticipated.

Between Identities

Hello there!

This week we'll be changing the pace a little. I had the good fortune to interview a Dartmouth students whose life story exemplifies well the challenges inherent in adopting singular identities, and also the issues that arise when one travels from one nation/ culture to another to reside. Enjoy!

I am Black. I Demand Reparations for Slavery!

Over the last few days the subject of personal "history" came up in a few of my conversations.

In this post I'll share with you the conversations I had, and maybe you can help me to answer these questions. I have some immediate responses, but I understand well that I have certain biases and am looking forward to your take on all this.

In the trailer below for the documentary Meeting David Wilson, David seeks to find the answer to the question, "what is wrong with Black people?"



Now as I watched this video a number of thoughts came to mind. To what extent should we feel responsible for the actions of our forefathers? How is it fair to expect that this White man should feel some immense guilt for slavery, beyond what we all feel, because his parents were fortunate enough hundreds of years ago to be a part of an unjust but acceptable system of exploitation? Reparations? For what? For the struggle of your fore-parents, of for your struggles, which are a legacy of the oppression that began centuries earlier? And who should pay? Surely not the descendant who has nothing to do with what we now consider the immoral actions of his ancestors.

To the extent that I don't see why this man should be responsible for the lives of his fore-parents, I'm having a hard time understanding this connection David Wilson feels with his ancestors who were slaves. I am the direct descendants from slaves, and indentured Indian workers, but I have always tried to understand Jamaican historical events within their context. It doesn't seem fair for me to despise coloured Jamaicans who may be direct descendants from the plantocracy, even though I can see very clearly how Jamaica's legacy of slavery has shaped the island in a myriad of ways. Then there is the going back to Africa bit. Huh? I would go out on a limb and say that David Wilson has more in common with a Caucasian American than he does with someone from the Ibo tribe in Nigeria, or wherever he went to reconnect with his "roots". We've convinced ourselves that our identities are wound up in our given race/ethnicity, ignoring the powerful influence that our cultures and societies have on our identities.

China Towns are not accurate representations of China. They are the imagined Chinas of immigrants and their descendants. Sure, Chinese people preserve many of their cultural practices in these communities, but their perspectives are coloured by their experiences as immigrants in a way that detaches them from life in their home countries. I am no longer just Jamaican, whatever that means, because my individual has been shaped extensively by cultures elsewhere. Do I start a search now for my "authentic" Jamaican identity? I guess I could, but what would it look like? Further, when there comes a time when I have lived outside of Jamaica longer than I have lived on the island, what claim do I have to a purely Jamaican identity?

In one of my classes we are reading Beloved, by Toni Morrison. It occurred to me then that because Toni Morrison is a Black woman her narrative about slavery society would be perceived as more authentic than anything a White American could write, but why? Besides the written accounts by people who lived in that time, which everyone has access to, why is Morrison's imagined portrayal of plantation life considered personal and authentic? And if a White person had written Beloved (Is that even possible, you question) how differently would we read the story?

At lunch last week my friends and I were discussing the excesses of Mugabe's family. Bona Mugabe, the president's daughter, studies in Honk Kong and students in Zimbabwe once protested this, saying that she should be made to study in Zimbabwe, and be forced to contend with poor infrastructure, and life in general. I wondered then, how she must feel, knowing that she has the opportunity to study abroad and live well while the majority of her nation suffers, because of poor policy decisions pursued by her father. One of my lunch dates spoke up, saying that it would be unfair to expect this girl to bear the burden of all the ills committed by her father.

She was born into a life she did not choose, and surely it is not easy for Bona to reject her parents, and deny them the opportunity to give her the good life they can afford to give. The criticism then got a little more personal as my friend said that if her parents were not elites in the West African country they fled, they could have died. Must she feel guilty that her family had the option to run away when things turned ugly though most of the people in her country couldn't?

We all lead lives bound up in history. How loosely can we define our personal histories? Can we claim the history of our parents as our own? Can our histories be in the past? To what extent are we responsible for the actions of those we have directly descended from? For how many generations? If Bona shouldn't be held responsible for Mugabe's dictatorship (maybe you disagree), why should the White descendant of slave owners be expected to feel shame and guilt, and even pay reparations to the descendants of slaves? Why should African-American history be more personal to Toni Morrison whose ancestors have a very subjective perspective of slavery? Is the White man's perspective not valid, or should it not be because we now judge it to be immoral? Why do first generation immigrants insist on their children learning the parent's native tongue in a foreign country? We wouldn't want the children to "lose" their culture, but don't they gain culture by virtue of being in a new country with new practices?