Participatory Culture: Fan Participation in Film

### **Background to Participatory Fan Culture**

The ideas of Participatory culture is been becoming a hot topic today with the increasing presence of technology and online participation. Yet this idea has been around much longer, prior to the creation of the internet. Fan culture has long been a thing within the creative arts community. From classic rock bands blowing up world-wide, to top grossing film series' such as Bond or the original Star Wars Trilogy; these pre-internet era culture forms still had the ability to create tidal waves of so called 'fandom' throughout the world. People have always used culture forms to help establish their identities, using these forms as a way to reach out to other's with similar interests thus creating communities of fan participation. The historical Woodstock festival of 1969 is a perfect example of pre-internet participatory culture, as it became an icon for the hippie movement where hundred-thousands of people established an identity for themselves within community driven by popular culture.

### **Internet Explosion:Evolution of Fan Communities**

With the rapid evolution of the internet and social media, the idea of fan culture has grown into a vast sea of online communities, displaying the modern fan culture seen today. At this point in time, there seems to be something for everyone. These online communities allow people to find a niche of others with similar interests, with little to no effort. Social media sites, more specifically Facebook, are home to thousands of fan pages and parody pages, some reaching followers in the millions. These online communities are especially prominent as part of the music and film cultures, but certainly not exhaustive to those two. For example there are thousands of websites, strictly dedicated to fan communities run by fans themselves. People take great pride in establishing a network for people like themselves, dedicating sometimes even years of their life to this fan community. The internet also allows a discretionary feature that was not seen before, as social media sites and other internet platforms allow people to explore things and participate without anyone knowing. This can be important because some people may not want to be associated with particular 'fandoms' in say a professional sense.

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### **Platforms Enabling Participation**

As discussed in the above section, the rise in internet usage, has been accompanied by a rise in fan participation. There is no single platform that can take credit for this explosion, because there are hundreds

of different online communities. For example, fanpop is an internet platform that acts like a social media website for fan pages of films, television shows, books, celebrities,etc. On these fan pages one will have access to hundreds of clips, thumbnails, and other more participatory features such as parodies or re-enactments. There are articles and even quizzes where fans can test their knowledge of their favorite pieces of film. There are 905 pages just under the 'movies' category, many with thousands of followers providing a plethora of different fan communities one can participate in. Each of these pages has thousands, some even in the hundred-thousands of fans that enjoy, or contribute, content to their favorite trends.

**Mockumentaries**

Mockumentaries are seemingly non-fictional pieces of work and presented as a documentary style parody. They use fictional events to make fun or criticize something, many times poking fun at societal issues like the videos below. A lot of mockumentaries, although considered comedy, have serious subject matter and possibly even agendas created by the producers.

**Critiques and Commentaries**

Perhaps the largest sector of participatory culture in the film industry is fan critiques. People create critiques of their favorite, or least favorite, films discussing the successes and shortcomings of the pieces of art.

**Funding From Online Communities**

Another sector of fan participation, comes from the establishment of online public funding accounts. In an article about her first hand experience with public funding and contributions

    De Michiel, Helen. "A Mosaic

Of Practices: Public Media And Participatory Culture." Afterimage 35.6
(2008): 7-14. Academic Search Premier.

Her article describes a success story about reaching out to people and establishing a community. It shows the tremendous affects that people can people can provide with their contributions. This is a great way for fans to contribute to their favorite projects, not only being applied to non-fictional works. There has been numerous start up accounts for films to be created, that people can contribute to. For example, the show Blue Mountain State, received almost two million dollars from donations by fans that wanted to see the project completed. [1]