Film: Relationship Between Fan and Production

### **Reasons for Production**

There are many reasons to why filmmakers produce their pieces of work. These reasons go beyond strictly entertainment purposes. Henry Jenkins in his article "If it Doesn't Spread It's Dead" discusses the purposes for creating spreadable media, in a discussion about the links between participatory culture and viral media. The three main reasons he gives are as follows:

1. To bolster camaraderie and articulate the (presumably shared) experiences and values that identify oneself as part of a community. ("bolstering their identity")
2. To gather information and explain difficult to understand events or circumstances.
3. To establish the boundaries of an “in-group”. - See more at: henryjenkins.org

Of the aforementioned proposals, there are specific examples that fall under each category.

**To bolster camaraderie:** This particular category can be explained as the producer wanting to create support for something. Examples of this could be things like war movies or documentaries. This is a very prominent thing in American Culture, as there are hundreds of war movies that are created to "bolster camaraderie" among American citizens, or those who identify themselves as American. Some critics believe that certain films were created as propaganda in order to gain support for military engagement from the public spectrum. Others believe the films are created to spark pride among viewers, strengthening nationalism. For example, the film *Red Dawn* was a film produced in 1984 at the height of Cold War tensions between America and the Soviet Union. It was a film that became widely popular because of the context behind the film of the "Red Scare" or fear of communism. It can been argued that this film was created with the purpose of raising spirits of Americans, using real emotions to gain favor from the public over issues of communism.

**To gather information and explain difficult to understand events or circumstances:**This category within the

film industry is best described by documentaries. Documentaries are usually created with intentions of driving some social change, or in an attempt to explain a particular event through the perspective of those involved. For example the documentary titled *Food Inc.* was created in an attempt to explain the corruption of the industrialized American food industry, and the serious health consequences resulting from this industry. The agenda proposed by the filmmakers was to spark an activist movement about restructuring the American food industry. *Paradise Lost* was also a popular documentary that had considerable social effects. Anjela J. Aguayo composed an article analyzing these effects, specifically in participatory culture and the mass media perspective.

*Although nothing was unusual about the broadcasting of the documentary, the public reception of the film was extraordinary. The Paradise Lost documentaries became a nexus around which audiences congregated as juror-citizens. The films successfully generated and sustained an activist media culture by unifying and politicizing viewers through viral online networking, public deliberation, and the creation of an instrumental counter-public that also utilized traditional modes of political agitation in the world before social media.-* Anjjela J. Aguayo "Paradise Lost and found: Popular documentary, collective identification and participatory media culture.

The article then goes on to talk about the social repercussions of the film, resulting in a long term public movement against Arkansas' judicial system and law enforcement. This however does not prove the author's agenda behind the creation of the film, yet it shows the power that films can have in creating a participatory community.

**To establish the boundaries of an in-group:**

This might be the most difficult sector to explain when it comes to production, the idea of an in-group can be fit multiple descriptions but the one I want to focus on derives from a participatory perspective. An in-group can be described as a group of fan communities that result from the production of art forms, especially with the film industry. There are large communities of fans that have come about from the mass spreading of films. These communities have evolved and expanded with coming of new technologies, particularly social media and other internet platforms. There is a widely used term called "fandoms" used to explain the vast communities of fan followers.

To read more on fan cultures of film culture see "Participartory Culture: Fan Participation in Film"

### **Sources:**

Jenkins, Henry. "If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead (Part One): Media Viruses and Memes." *Confessions of an AcaFan*.

Aguayo, Angela J. "Paradise Lost And Found: Popular Documentary, Collective Identification And Participatory Media Culture."*Studies In Documentary Film* 7.3 (2013): 233-248. *Film & Television Literature Index*.