Teaching inception
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This document outlines teaching methods for analyzing the film Inception based on spectatorship theory. It suggests conducting debates about how different factors influence audience interpretation, such as a viewer's mood, context, and life experiences. Key topics of debate include the spectrum of passive to active audiences, emotional manipulation, and preferred readings. Techniques like narrative elements, character development, and cinematography are also discussed in the context of how they position audiences and create meaning. The goal is to get students to examine their own reactions to the film and consider different theoretical perspectives on spectatorship.
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Teaching inception
- 1. Teaching Inception New WJEC A2 Specification from 2017
- 2. Starting points Conduct a student poll: Who has seen the film? ✓ X
- 3. If the class haven’t seen it... Inception as a chess game Interrogate student reactions at each stage Explore the idea of intellectual responses, emotional responses, visceral responses Get students to become “aware of themselves as viewers” Which reactions come first? Why? What is informing these reactions? Explore the techniques which create audience effects Explore external factors which might affect the uniformity of the viewing experience
- 4. Spectatorship debates: “The interplay between the director’s intentions , the audience’s readings and the external factors at play while they watch are what account for our different reactions to any given film” - Nolan The spectrum of passive to active audience behaviours Is there an element of emotional complicity in allowing ourselves to be manipulated? When we watch films, do we KNOW how the director wants us to react? The notion of preferred, oppositional and negotiated readings
- 5. If the class have seen it... Flip the classroom: Get them to watch it again Discuss the ending… What is its significance? Does anyone AGREE on its significance? Does anyone LIKE the ending? What does this reveal about us as spectators? Teach through debate
- 6. Audience debates: What factors outside of the film might affect your interpretation of the film? Mood Prior knowledge of the director What you were looking for when you chose it Prior knowledge of the film Viewing context Life experiences
- 7. Active Audience debates (Uses and Gratifications) Information Social interaction, integration and identity Personal identification and reinforcement of personal identity Entertainment, diversion and escapism Education and learning
- 8. Viewing Context debates Key questions Who are you watching with? How does technology affect immersion levels? When are you watching it? Does shared viewing heighten or mitigate emotional response? Where are you watching?
- 9. Narrative and Genre Narrative arc Narrative restrictions Narrative chronology Narration and narrative point of view Genre expectations Micro-elementsCharacterisation Character representation and construction Character development or journey Character alignment Binary oppositions Mise-en-scene: Setting, costume, props, iconography Cinematography: Shot angles, focal length and movement Editing and VFX Sound, music, dialogue Debating the role of techniques Can you link them together and explain the link? Can you prioritise them in order of importance in creating meaning? How does each one position the audience?
- 10. Spectatorship debates: “The interplay between the director’s intentions , the audience’s readings and the external factors at play while they watch are what account for our different reactions to any given film” - Nolan The spectrum of passive to active audience behaviours Is there an element of emotional complicity in allowing ourselves to be manipulated? When we watch films, do we KNOW how the director wants us to react? The notion of preferred, oppositional and negotiated readings
Editor's Notes
- To start the topic, I would take a straw poll of who has and who hasn’t seen the film:
- To start the topic, I would take a straw poll of who has and who hasn’t seen the film: If nobody has seen it, trace Inception as a chess game between the spectator and the director, getting them to interpret at each stage Explore the idea of emotional, visceral and intellectual responses, and which come first: You can even get the students to do a “reverse DVD commentary” where rather than commenting on the director’s point of view, they are describing the experience from an audience’s point of view Get students to become “aware of themselves as viewers” Which reactions come first? Why? What is informing these reactions? Explore the techniques which create audience effects Explore external factors which might affect the uniformity of the viewing experience
- The interplay between the director's intentions and the audience's reading and external factors are what accounts for these differences. This difference can be characterised as the spectrum from passive to active audiences: Preferred readings, negotiated readings, oppositional readings, and aberrant readings Do we even know how the director intends us to react? No, so we must be making our own minds up through our own readings Is there an element of emotional complicity whereby we allow ourselves to be manipulated willingly, or at least suspend our critical faculties or disbelief?
- If they have seen it, get them to watch it again So if I were teaching it, I would flip the learning, get the students to watch it at home or in Film Club, and I would start with this very debate: What happened in the end? You will note that no two answers are alike. At its heart, the study of spectatorship is the study of factors which could account for our different reactions to a film.
- Start by getting students to look at different external factors which might affect their PERSONAL view of this film: From the Popplet: Mood, your life experiences, your knowledge of film, of this director, your surroundings
- What they were looking at the time (Uses and Gratifications): Information; Education and learning; Personal identification and reinforcement of personal identity Social interaction, identity and integration Entertainment, diversion and escapism
- Get them to examine their viewing context: Who they are seeing it with, where they are seeing it, and when they are viewing it Importantly, they should remember that a shared viewing context can both heighten and mitigate emotional responses
- The interplay between the director's intentions and the audience's reading and external factors are what accounts for these differences. This difference can be characterised as the spectrum from passive to active audiences: Preferred readings, negotiated readings, oppositional readings, and aberrant readings Do we even know how the director intends us to react? No, so we must be making our own minds up through our own readings Is there an element of emotional complicity whereby we allow ourselves to be manipulated willingly, or at least suspend our critical faculties or disbelief?