POPULAR CINEMA FILMS IN THE CONTEXT OF TURKEY: FILMS OF 2000’S.
NİLÜFER ÖCEL, Ph.D.
[email protected] Istanbul University (Turkey)
Abstract Today, most of the countries are having dilemmas when the cinema going action is considered. These either having the technical substructure required as to watch their own “home cinemas” or watching the films in a cinema saloon as the traditional audiences, somehow consume cinema films mostly. It may be possible to say that even the large or nuclear families having one or more television sets at home are consuming cinema films more than the other television programs in circulation. But, thinking of the classical cinema audience in general, it might be possible to see that on one hand, they are forced to go to the cinema in order to establish a (special) community having outdoor activities, but on the other hand, all the technological and economical conditions are provided to make them comfortable enough at their home cinemas providing an intragroup communication atmosphere. Therefore, apart from the individual choices, popularity of the cinema films and the way they are introduced to the societies, the way they are advertised to become popular are the questions to be analyzed. As the target cinema audience, we are all very active. We are all surrounded by the news about the artists and the producers. The new type of scenario writers or “decision makers” keeps our knowledge updated all the time when we have a newspaper in our hands or when we surf along with the television channels or internet sites. Though it is surprising to see that cinema industry in Turkey is having its hardest days on its national basis, the foreign films in the cinemas have no complaint at all. They seem to be popular in Turkey as they are all around the world since the “global decisionmakers” have great campaigns for them to make them blockbusters everywhere in the world. The paper aims to present the cinema industry in Turkey in the 2000’s. Giving examples from the national and international films shown and the plots presented to the society, the paper aims to discuss the relationship between the most welcomed plots and the box office rates. The films shown in the 2000’s would be classified depending upon their popularity and depending upon their plots. After these classifications the box office rates would be considered as well as the newspaper headlines and other media factors contributing to the popularity of the films. The paper would seek the answers to some questions such as “Why certain plots become more popular than the others?” or “Why certain characters / producers are preferred to the others?” The data collected would mainly consider the cinemas and the target audience in Istanbul, in Turkey. Considering the social, economical, technological and psychological aspects of the question, a survey is going to be conducted. Considering the data collected about the box office rates and popularity, the concept of home cinema in Turkey and the present situation and the future of the Cinema Films will be questioned throughout the paper.
POPULAR CINEMA FILMS IN THE CONTEXT OF TURKEY: FILMS OF 2000’S.
Introduction “Everyone has a dream. A small number of people pursue that dream and an even smaller number have the opportunity, resolve, dogged determination and personal attributes to turn the dream into reality.” says Josh Hall, Gartmore Investment Managers. (Nebauer, 1996: vii) Today, cinema is the dream of everyone. The concept of cinema is a dream world for many people. It is a dream world to “live in” or to “live with”. Many people would like to “live in” it. It is a life-style for many individuals: some would like to take part in it just to become famous and rich; there are many television programs giving the tips on how to become famous or they spend hours introducing new challenges to the audience through designing contests, competitions, to choose the new “stars” etc. Many people would like to be in the places such as Cannes, whenever there is a film festival just to be able to attract the attention of the famous directors, movie or newsmakers. There are a huge number of people working in the film production industry. People write scenarios, spend days in the montage sets, people make music, people make costumes, people build new buildings just for the sake of a new film. There is an army of people working as the advisers or waiting to play an ordinary role in one of the films. Some people wait for the box office rates of the new films to start the next episode, some critics wait for the new films to write on. The newspaper writers are ready to comment on any new film or actress; some academicians wait for the films to have theoretical analyzes or audience researches and the audience is always ready to purchase for whatever is introduced to them. Some others use the cinema world to “live with”: They prefer to watch the films only. Silently consuming the products and searching for a place in those for themselves. Cinema industry is covering all around through their news, ads, and official licensed products, representing or reminding us the famous film themes, scenes or actors/actresses. The music/video shops are full of the recordings of famous sound tracks and VCD-DVDs and even game formats of the films. In fact the film is not only a product itself but also the resource of many other related by-products. The circle around the film is getting larger and thicker everyday making it a profitable value to invest on and a prestigious way of consumption. The only thing you should do as the audience is just to choose the themes you like or vote for the popularity of the films. Cinema is the fantasy world of the past, today and tomorrow. Thinking of the thousands of films produced in a year all over the world, many people contribute to the industry individually through the first hand experience as the actors, actresses, directors, camera crew, editors, etc., and many others, through advertisements, programs on TV and the news on the newspapers just to make sure that there is an action in the cinema “sector” and to make sure to create the motivation enough to enable all the others in the society or perhaps the people in different societies to get the largest share possible. This share is not only a social, economical, political share of the masses but also the motivating factor enabling the mobility, participation of millions of individuals to the world of enjoyment and aesthetic pleasure as any cinema film can produce. Some are satisfied and some have disappointments, yet everyone expects to get something more of it next time.
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Questioning Cinema Going There is a psychology of cinema going that has long been recognized and exploited by governmental and educational agencies as well as by commercial interests. The experience of seeing a film emphasizes the vivid visual presentations in which images are already fully established, easily identified and easily followed, even on the elementary levels. Garth (Garth, 1980:89-90) states that film is an unusually strong type of communication process, because the viewer is willing, even eager to receive what the communicator has to offer. Cinema going is an action, a mobility requiring both “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation. There are many factors and problems in the context, starting from the process of control and production mechanisms, up to the level of consumption. It has its own participants, objections taking place in certain situations. It has its base values, strategies and outcomes. It also has impacts and certain conditions to be fulfilled. Throughout this paper, the cinema and popular cinema films would be questioned in order to find out the real “decision makers” enabling the masses and individuals to participate into the process. The main idea of the paper could be summed up as to underline the fact that the cinema film industry, having its own grantors and concessionaires, introduce a certain aspect of life rather “imposing and teaching” the audience how to live, how to behave, how to sacrifice, how to love, hate and fight as well as how to obey. These deductions lead the masses to shape themselves as to become the ideal “audience” of the cinema films or the “members” of a “zero-institution” as Levi Strauss calls it. Whereas the concessionaries and their power in the cinema industry are increasing every day through the income they get from the audience, the audience is becoming more and more spell-bound as the circles around them get denser and leaving them no way out. Cinema going activity is still popular and respectable in any society. The values associated with the cinema going activity could be summed up as the wealth/power or well-being, social/respectable status, education/or being skillful and communication. The action itself could also be associated with the individual values such as love, respect, existence, unity, dignity, sharing, sacrifice, modeling, leading, etc. The “Cinema Going” activity grasps so much of a world that could be reflected in many different words (see the appendix) and concepts. It seems that any activity or concept is somehow related with one or more aspects of the cinema experience. Cinema going is not only an individual decision but also a social habit or activity. In fact, in its core it also has a kind of a tendency to escape from the reality and even the society. But, contrary to the belief that this escape in never towards out of the society, but into a smaller and rather ambiguous society to share the similar values.
Time Factors Popularity and the other effects of the media chain should show all its impact in a certain time limit. Time factors are as important as the economical, political, social, geographical scope of the concessions; the concessionaires are, after all, attempting to realize, over a considerable period of time, profitable returns on the investments made by them. Accordingly, all of the concessions run from one to ten years through the main products or 317
related concepts and products. However, the policy concerning the duration of concessions has undergone a major change in the new technology and communication era. The grantors, for the purpose of controlling the duration, have certain expectations requiring the motivation and mobility of the masses through the ads convincing them the popularity of the film just to lead higher box-office rates or sells through the official licensed objects such as the posters and souvenirs or anything related with the film or its theme, etc. From the point of view of the film producers it is almost inevitable to create a kind of a pseudo-demand for the popularity of the films as it is also irresistible for the pseudoaudience since it is a kind of an expected encounter after having all the information through the other products such as the news and ads surrounding them. It is believed that the recycling ads and programs about the films put such a pressure on the audience, become so informative that the audience is forced to see the film at the end in order to fulfill and complete the previously given information all about it. But all this should take place in a certain time cluster. This is another force for the audience. In a way, the audience is forced to go to the cinema before its VCD or DVD versions are released or a television channel agrees to show the film. It is not only getting the current information or keeping themselves updated but also to have something to say about their own experience. It’s not only going with the stream, it is more prestigious to have the information before anyone-else. Only in this way they could keep their places in certain upper groups of the society. By going to the cinema, the individual feels himself getting ready to get the drop on someone. Because in the competitive, aggressive nature of man’s world, where the threat of defeat is never-ending, only the lucky to survive. The competition is so strong and the life-style often depends on learning to be the fast, being the first to move with the starting signal. It’s just keeping a steady eye on the surrounding circumstances; the victory goes to the one who gets the drop on the other. The struggle for success is perhaps more competitive than in the films they watch. It may seem to be a very innocent detail but it has a very cumulative effect when you get the jump on the others. The exposure to the message or rather the popularity of the message becomes more effective with the media combinations. People in the developed countries usually do not rely upon a single medium for their information. But, the media combinations make the messages seem to be more effective than they are in fact. In this case, television and radio provide more instantaneous coverage, but the print medium provides the detail that fleshes out the story. It is difficult to conclude that one medium has more influence on public attitudes than another when it comes to the popularity of the films. People expose themselves more to the medium that they like and trust most. The general tendency is that people watch television but they rely on printed material for in-depth coverage of current events, critical commentary, controversial issues, and opinion positions. The popularity of the cinema films are exemplified as the superiority of the film on the others. The director or the cast or the technical equipment used or all flourished. Throughout these media combinations cinema going is introduced as a symbol rather than a normal behavior. There is a great tendency to assume that there is a symmetrical relationship between the cinema going or watching a popular film and other things having similar status, power, responsibility, and so forth. The people lacking this opportunity are considered to be stagnating and usually excluded from the discussions about the things what is seen. The people having similar experiences are accommodated at a different level of the society, establishing a different group, having a shared agenda. In a way, in order to keep up with the balance the individuals are forced to go and see the film. This might cause a kind of coercive power (power that derives from 318
ability to remove another’s actual choices or perceptions that choices are available. Power that derives from force or the threat of force.) All these factors and messages establish a kind of “metacommunication” rather than the real communication (of the film) with the audience. Considering the information got through this metacommunication, namely the ads, news and personal experiences of watching the film, it’s all “hush-hush”. It’s just a type of communication on a certain type of communication. As in the lines of Diken & Laustsen (Diken & Laustsen, 2001) there is a rule of the cinema goers club: “You do not speak abut the Films” but rather treat this knowledge as a secret that unites the members of the smaller prestigious society. Because “.......if information becomes all too obvious, its attraction would disappear”. If there is a piece of information you get by the grapevine, it is whispered into your ear with the understanding that you will not pass it on to the others. You feel honored and excited. You are one of the special few to get this information. You cannot wait. You must quickly find other ears to pour the information into! And so the information, secret as it is, begins to spread – nobody knows how far! At the end it’s all the part of the metacommunication but not the communication itself! Everyday, the newspapers, the television channels introduce us new films showing the most challenging scenes in them and giving information about the actors/actresses taking part in those. They even comment on them by giving them stars, advising the most attractive ones to an unknown audience. Would you like to be one of them? Do the comments appeal to you? Do you get the same aesthetic pleasure as the others in the group? How far! So, this information could describe false as well as true reports about the cinema films. It is just like a game: Is it true? Who says so? You really have to be something of a genius to know how much, if any, of the information that comes to you “By the Grapevine” is true or false. Still, in the words of an old American saying, the man who keeps pulling the grapevine shakes down at least a few grapes. (Malkoçoğlu, 1986) So, it’s better to go and watch the films rather than waiting for the reports to reach you by the grapevine. Tyler states that (Tyler, 1947, p. xiii) “movies are dreamlike and fantastic, their assumptions are simple, the existence of the unconscious mind as a dynamic factor in human action, and the tendency of screen stories to emphasize – unintentionally – neuroses and psychopathic traits discovered and formulated by psychoanalysis. Thus, Hollywood movie-makers are used to combining their own automatism of mental and physical behavior with that of the characters of their products.” People like to be some part of the mysteries and myths. That’s why they create myths or contribute to the created ones. At this point, we may consider all the information and the ads and metacommunication of the films as a type of myth creation. And people would like to be part of it through either talking about it or buying objects related to the film themes or actors/actresses. It is believed that the by-products of the films sell more than the film itself. Film-book-television tie-ins help assure an audience. Movie soundtracks can also be very profitable tie-ins as well as the toys and other accessories for children or family. Video Homes, DVD-VCD formats also become more popular for those who would like home entertainment or to have their own film archives/collections. Considering the big Hollywood studios and the amount of money spent for even a single film and a total of thousands of films in a year, the budget for the cinema films is becoming higher and higher everyday as well as the institutionalization of the cinema films and their 319
producers. Yet, the target “audience” lack such an advantage and the individuals are left alone on purpose to face all the ads and popularity to make their decisions only to the extent that which film to choose rather than choosing or not. Although there was an almost complete lack of well-defined base values at the disposal of the grantors only a few decades ago, now, they all have adequately developed wealth and power bases to support their economical, social, political independence and exterritorial integrity. With the discovery of the fantasy world, the situation in these production processes has changed significantly. When we look at the situation today, it would be easy to see that to maintain their prestige and enhance their image in the communication era, the filmmakers, producers have channeled their ideological, economical and motivational efforts through their own organized media of communications – radio, television, newspapers, magazines and books to disseminate information as to their policies and achievements and also to show what beneficial changes they have brought about in the economic and social conditions of the whole system. Instead of being affected through the conventional and modern technology and the individualization of the communication channels, the cinema industry is still fighting against all the others and perhaps covering them all under a larger umbrella. Thus, it is becoming more and more impossible to stay out of the circles they produce day by day.
Cinema -The Individual and The Society Whether for instructional, persuasive or purely commercial purposes, film provides many advantages as a mass medium. The concept of cinema is so much involved with the society that usually a question is asked if it would be possible to talk about the pure relationship between cinema and the individual without being shaped by the society. Although the individual filmmaking and watching opportunities shape the current world of technology we live in, there has always been the belief that cinema is a kind of social event. Cinema saloons are always considered to be the “public places” rather than the places for the individuals. Perhaps, the ironical point or rather a dilemma should be underlined here is that these saloons both have the function of escaping from the social realities for the individual, yet bringing the individual into another pseudo-society that everybody experiences the same adventure throughout the film but nobody knows each other or talks to each other apart from accepting this silent membership of the secret intrasocial enjoyment. Thus, cinema going is usually associated with being sociable, individually being involved in an activity such a going out, taking place in the society, planning for something, etc. But, this habit is usually implanted with the values and traditions, attitudes and expectations of the society. When we look at the films from the point of the view of individual, cinema films tell us stories: Stories of the others. Thus, going to cinema films would be interpreted as a kind of willingness to take part in that storytelling action, rather passively at the beginning and gradually expanding the moral of the stories-previously told, into our individual attitudes, behaviors and expectations. Every story would have a certain type of impact on the masses and the individuals. The problem is “whose story it is” and “how willingly we accept those stories” to interfere our own individuality. Each story is a passage leading the individual to communicate with his/her “self” or “identity”, whereas it may make more sense to argue his/her “position” in life, society, his/her identity and “the others”.
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Stephenson argues that films tell us a special story vividly, commanding attention. “Further, it plays to a captive audience and generally under ideal condition. Cinema saloons are designed to minimize outside interference and to concentrate all attention on the screen. Films have a pleasurable connotation, and whether instructional or not, they are regarded as play, not as social control.” (Stephenson, 1967) Cinema films are the confessions of the others - or perhaps the “self”. It is a kind of the redistribution of the values arising from an experience: the love, pain, sin and the mistakes or happiness of the others. Thus, the individuals going to cinema are just the “observers” of the “others” who would also take some lesson from what they have been told. Perceptions die hard. Those stories would certainly have an impact on the readers as being the pieces of the same big puzzle or different puzzles to shape the non-existing world of the individual to lead him/her to built a “better” self and a more pleasant world. Once the perception is achieved there would certainly be connotations and denotations related to it. Thus, the stories are never left behind, but rather added to each other and accommodated just like the “1001 tales” carried through a life-time to be revised, implemented, reshaped and remembered. That means every film, and every bit of the film, (scenes, colors, characters, music, feelings, moral, etc) would build a different layer in the world of the individual and the “self” would be the total interpretation of these different stratificational “self”s. Depending upon the different readings made by the different readers throughout the time, these stratificational layers could have different meanings and interpretations. Fearing (Fearing, 1972:120) asks the questions: What is the nature of the impact of the content of motion pictures on the audience? What do people get out of the films they see and why? And he answers. “The question is raised regarding the stimulus value of the motion picture. This is a question of the cultural values in our society which films express and the extent to which films communicate these values. In order to understand this extraordinarily complex process which involves both expression and communication, it is necessary to know something about the content of the film, the psychological needs of the persons who are exposed to it, the immediate setting, and the social and cultural forces operating on the persons who make films and the audiences for whom they are intended”.
Popularity of the Cinema Films: Decision-Makers It is frequently expressed that films are “pure entertainment” providing a means of escape from the world of reality. An opposing view pretends to put the films into a point far from being “just/mere” entertainment or “escapist” entertainment; films have definite and presumptively bad effects on the population. For these, Hollywood is the synonym for sin and its main function is to provide “dreams” for millions. Since the essential role of motion pictures in our society is to entertain and amuse or to afford an opportunity for a harassed and anxiety-ridden population to “get away from it all” by escaping into a land of phantasy. The term “entertainment” is psychologically ambiguous. (Fearing, 1972:122). It might be very interesting to see that different cultures and societies show different reactions to the same film. Thus, the popularity and entertaining factor attributed to that film would be just a vogue one. In fact, the popularity of the cinema films mostly owes too much to the decision makers. Here we see not only the promotion of the activity of cinema going but also the 321
consumption of the films and all the film related products. Thus, cinema is introduced to the society as a kind of industry covering most of the other industries as well as many social, economical and political functions related to the communication areas. Since the term “decision-makers” may roughly include all participants – international organization, nation-states and filmmakers as well as private business associations, television channels and newspapers- directly or indirectly involved with the problems created by the exploitation processes of filmmaking, advertising and cinema going activities. These decision-makers could be divided into three groups: national decision makers, regional decision makers and global decision makers. In outlining the common characteristics of the national decision-makers, it is perhaps more appropriate to start by considering the dynamics of direct filmmaking opportunities, technical and creative side of the filmmaking process in a specific country as well as the socio-economic factors and the society dynamics affecting this process. Within this context, the suppliers have in their capacities as parties to the filmmaking process, become accustomed to assuming two roles. In one role, they appear as claimants, presenting either their claims or the claims of their successors in interest and designated beneficiaries in the arena of authority. In the other role, they frequently act as self-appointed decision-makers settling such claims. A claim here basically means an utterance “There is a film to be watched”. Depending upon how much their profit is, they both make the concept desirable and encourage the audience to take their seats in the cinema saloons or prepare programs to increase the effectiveness in facilitating, and maintaining a co-operative atmosphere in the interest of the filmmakers let it be the national or the international ones. However, to the extent that these claimants have had recourses to the strategy of campaigns, advertisements and freeing the dynamics of the society, they also keep the records of published and unpublished data referring to the natural development of their efforts in terms of profit. This is not only important knowledge to be used in the future attempts but also the proof of their contribution to the process. It is difficult to find a bilateral agreement between the different participants of the national decision-makers such as the television program makers, cinema programs, giving place to interviews with the directors or actors/actresses, challenging scenes from the ongoing or incoming movies, striking news from the film sets, etc. as well as the newspapers, contributing to the promotion of certain films through the VCD’s they disseminate, through the news of two or three pages for the popular films, etc. All these material seeming to be “ad hoc” prepared by the national decision-makers aim to pursue the audience consume the film. The arbitrariness of the messages seem to be “original” so much that it may be very difficult for the ordinary audience to realize that these are all the organized, “made up” scenarios of the decision/image-makers. All these things “about the film” create a kind of virtual reality for the audience that they prefer to taste the “reality”the film itself. Exploitation of the film and anything related with the film is so vivid and so capturing that even the most disinterested person in the society could know all the details about the film and at the end come to a point to choose seeing the film after such consumption “about it”. The film distributors, the giant institutions and usually the members of the monopoly are included into the “regional decision-maker” category. These are the ones giving support the certain blockbusters, designing regional campaigns, having a kind of exclusive compulsory propaganda about the filmmaking process and certain films. These decision-makers have a tremendous role in initiating, developing and establishing the necessary contacts with the 322
national decision makers as well as the national audiences. Furthermore, the creation of such a decision-making body on the regional level is quite feasible and profitable. Once the objectives are decided it would be quite easy to formulate it for different societies and have a comparative study on the collected data. On the global level, there are various organized and unorganized decision-making bodies participating in the process of representation, advertising, budget coordination and campaigns. The process of rendering an impartial decision is an intellectual task to which the decision-making body must obviously devote a great deal of care if it is to reach the best profitable conclusion. The task itself consists of seven “authority functions”: intelligence, prescription, recommendation, invocation, application, appraisal and termination. (McDougal, Lasswell & Vlasic, 1964: 113-126) The intelligence function consists of gathering information about past trends and making estimates of the future. This function once decided by the global decision-makers could be reduplicated by the regional and national decision-makers as well as the individual media channels. The prescription function refers to the methods and procedures by which “propaganda” can be made as authoritative enough to direct and organize the event. The recommendation function includes the promotion and advocacy of alternative policies. This function is generally performed by some organs other than the decision-makers. The invocation function is employed by those who raise particular community prescriptions as relevant to the each individual product. The application function refers to the choice of prescription, (the advertising campaigns, designing and inserting the film-related products etc.) which, if carried out in a competent manner, may result in the achievement of the world-wide objectives. The application function is still a difficult task because it not only depends upon the regional and national decision-makers as well but on the individual viewers or spectators. Deciding that the application function is fulfilled and individuals were affected through this fulfillment is a bit difficult since there could be many other directive factors in the dynamics of the individual – “self” and the circumstances s/he’s in. The contemplation and evaluation of the reasonableness of a decision and the compatibility of that decision with the established community/society goals is the appraisal function. The final step in the process of decision is the termination function. In an abstract sense, it refers to the modification or termination of the community prescriptions in the light of changing conditions, tastes, tendencies and driving forces. The outcomes of the particular choices of prescription and application of the general policies will, in the long run, affect the distribution of values among immediate senders and receivers, and within the communities in which they interact. More importantly, decisions affect the kind of comprehensive public order, dynamics, mobility, economy and dignity which the general community seeks to maintain, secure and protect. The main role of the individual and the society is to choose from among the products available, and this choice reflected for example in the box office results as their “vote” for or against the distributors or creators. The outcome this vote determines the prestige, power and in fact, the career of the distributors and creators: the director of a successful film is overwhelmed with job offers; the director of an unsuccessful film may have difficulty in obtaining another job. Thus, popularity of a film has crucial impact for most of the people involved in. Gans talks about the “high culture creatures” (Gans, 1969: 162-171 cited in 1972, McQuail, 381) who are very much concerned about their position in a society in which popular culture is politically and culturally dominant. To him, although distributors and creators for any 323
given product tend to come from the same taste culture, they often have conflicting ideas. Creators have what might be called a producer-oriented view of their culture, while distributors are more consumer-oriented. “Creators want to create good or important or entertaining or tradition-breaking products, they are primarily concerned with improving their aesthetic techniques and with “educating” their audiences, trying to go to the fore of public demand, both in the mass media and in high culture. Distributors on the other hand, are concerned first wit attracting and satisfying not the largest possible audience, but the largest possible audience from those taste publics which they define as their “market”. ” Gibson and Hanna (Gibson and Hanna, 1992:387) argue that films in the 1990s reflect the society. These tend to emphasize the themes and types of action that the public wants. Filmmakers produce works that either mirror the reality, or mirror the fantasy of the adolescent and adult world. Filmmakers understand the themes that arouse interest in the viewing public, so they develop products that reflect the general themes ticket holders are likely to enjoy. They function as gatekeepers by developing themes that appeal to the entertainment and message needs of society. They ask themselves “Will the message sell?”
Motivation and Mobility Attitudes regarding the nature of the impact of motion pictures assume that films have effects but they are reciprocal to the socially determined needs of the audience. This view assumes that there is a broad functional relationship between the thematic content of films and the needs of the mass audience. Each film is another exposition to the audience to introduce a wide variety of situations, and thus provided with patterns of behavior which the audience may accept or reject. Thus each film creates a motivation for the individual and the mass audience to watch for another. Considering the Consumer Motivation Process, motivation refers to the underlying drives that contribute to our purchasing actions. (Arens, 1996, p.114) These drives stem from the conscious or unconscious goal of satisfying our needs and wants. Needs are the basic, often instinctive, human forces that motivate us to do something. Wants are “needs” that we learn during our lifetime. Motivation cannot be observed directly. When we see people eat, we assume they are hungry, but we may be wrong. People eat for a variety of reasons besides hunger: they want to be sociable, it’s time to eat, or maybe they’re bored. It’s the same with the cinema going. People could go to cinema for various reasons. Thus, all the box-office rates do not really refer to the motivation of the masses to see that specific film. There might be individual or intrapersonal factors influencing the people to have a certain tendency. The most important function of the decision makers today is to create the motivation to lead the mobility of the audience as to choose the films to be watched in the cinema saloons. Motivation here refers to the factors that determine a person’s desire to do something; in this respect choosing, watching, and consuming whatever produced by the filmmakers. Audience could be affected differently by different types of motivation, whereas there could be different factors affecting different types of audiences in the same society or in different societies. Popularity of the cinema films could be counted as one of those factors. Two types of motivation are sometimes distinguished: 324
a) Instrumental motivation: wanting to do something because it will be useful for certain “instrumental” goals. In this case the audience could have some instrumental motivation to go to the cinema in order to reach the instrumental goals such as getting a higher status in the society, having something to talk about, proving that s/he could afford such a leisure, etc. b) Integrative motivation: wanting to do something in order to communicate with people of another culture. In this case, the audience could have some integrative motivation as to know more about the “other” culture, the “other’s experience” and perhaps to associate or integrate itself to that “other”. Integrative motivation could also show itself as to lead the individuals to be a respectable member of a smaller group which has an “intragroup communication”. In this case, the communication among members of a group could be shaped through the films watched and experiences gained through the watching activity. In order not to be excluded from such an intragroup communication the group members try to go with the stream and watch or consume whatever should be consumed. This is a kind of belongingness to a specific group which is rather closed to the other members of the society. Once you’re in the group, you need to have some effort to stay in the group. Motivation could be given through different ways. Intrinsic motivation is the inner motivation of the individual leading him/her to his/her choices and consumptions. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is the outer force putting some pressure on the individual as to lead him/her through a previosly predetermined path. People are usually affected by their intrinsic or extrinsic motivation types when they are making their choices, giving their decisions or developing their attitudes. Which way has more emphasis on the decision making process of the individual and why has always been the question. In other words, “do the people in the society have ever a chance of making their own choices or are they affected by the others in the society” is the question. When the consumption of the cinema films is considered, cinema going is expected to be a “motion” and “mobility” on the side of the individuals. In its core it requires a kind of “going out” to a kind of an excursion. It is a kind of a trip to the cinema saloon and the virtual reality. But regarding the theories of motion, today, we may put it in different ways. Having a separate and special place to watch the “Cinema Films” the Cinema Saloons have a specific function and impact. Watching the film in a cinema saloon is not comparable to watching it at home cinemas, on television or PC as it is becoming more fashionable in nowadays. Perhaps it is the motion in the film (motion picture) requiring the motion of the masses or individuals, changing their places and sitting in their comfortable seats in the cinema saloons. Taking this point of view it would be better to have a look at the motion as a concept. According to definitions (Grolier, 151-152) motion is change of position. “If a body changes its position with respect to some center assumed to be at rest, the body is said to be in motion. Motion may be “linear” that is, in a straight line, or may be “rotational”, as is that of a wheel rotating about an axis. Motion may be composed of both linear and angular velocities.” In this case, when applied to the cinema consumer’s case, the second law emphasizes the connection between the advertisements, popularity and the audience as the mass. For linear motion, (for the audience follows the cinema films coached by the regional or global decision-makers) the acceleration is proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass of the body, the number of the people in the society. 325
Popularity and Advertising The popularity of the cinema films is usually associated with the advertisements. Starting by the 1970’s cinema advertising is seen as the clever use of media money, especially between newspapers and outdoor media, along with a healthy dose of cinema advertising. The main reason for that was the lack of commercial television channels or their poor advertising capacity especially in the European countries if not in USA. Here, the cinema films and the cinema going were seen as the opportunity to be advertised in. Jean- Marc Schwars, “A Brief History of Ad Time.” As traditional advertising media become more expensive and audiences become more fermented, many advertisers seek new ways to reach their customers. Several types of alternative media seem to be potentially viable options. Advertising in cinema saloons cinema advertising- is growing but controversial practice. A decade ago the audiences were used to boo and hiss during the commercials in cinema films, but today studies show that % 77 of viewers recall the cinema ads the following day, compared to 20 % of for the TV ads. Some cinema saloon chains prohibit filmed advertising for fear of offending their audience yet some others predetermine the minutes advertisements allowed. Day by day the decisionmakers find new ways of reaching to the cinema audience assuming that they are the cream of the crop. Trying to reach to these people the producers also pay a fee to have the product inserted into the movie. Such product placement is becoming more common - and perhaps more controversial. Yet, these messages are rather inserted into the individuals rather unconsciously, and not many of them remember what they have perceived throughout the film. Each advertisement would have an effect on competition, as well as the consumer demand and choice. It would also have an effect on the product value and prices. After a decade or two, the cinema itself became such an industry that it is not seen only as an advertising medium but also the product to be advertised to contribute to its popularity.
The Findings The demographics of the sample group are as follows. The number of the people answering the questionnaire is 279 and % 30 of them is female. Having an average of 21.50, the sample group has 21 % between 18-20, 66 % between 21-25 and the rest is between 25-31. The sample group covers the 30 % of the first year students, 17 % of the second, 34 % of the third year and 19 % of the fourth year group of students. Considering the structure of the number of the students at school such a table could be useful. Journalism
Year 1 2 3 4
326
Female 55 55 41 75
Male 73 59 54 100
PR & Advertising
Radio Television Cinema Female Male Female Male 41 62 46 48 46 39 44 29 40 27 21 24 48 68 33 30
Total 325 272 207 354 1158
Sample Group 96 46 70 67 279
Percent 30 % 17 % 34% 19%
Findings: 1.
Tendency of going to cinema is “Once a month”: What we found out that mostly the students tend to go to cinema once a month with a percent of 67 %. The other group going to cinema once a year covers 43 % of the group and the ones having a tendency of going to cinema once a week is only 12 %. What’s more the findings show us that the public school graduates tend to go to the cinema more than the others.
Public School Anatolian High School Super High School Private Colleges
2.
216 21 21 20
Once a year 38 3 1 1
Once a month 52 5 7 3
Once a week 8 1 1 2
Foreign Language Register is not a factor: Knowing a foreign language might affect the participation into the world of the “other”. In this case, the integrative motivation could play an important role. Knowing English fluently as to follow a film or not might have a crucial importance in the establishment of the audience since not everybody might have the right reading speed to follow the film or enjoy developing such a skill. Most studies and interviews give us clues how reluctant the audience could be to the films if they do not have enough comprehensible input. In this respect, the person having a kind of foreign language register through the background education before encountering the watching activity might have a better vision, understanding and experience of what s/he is been exposed to. The best way of checking this language input was to check their background education. In Turkey, it is believed that rather than the public schools, the other schools have a better education concept –considering the foreign language contribution to the individual they are believed to be providing more language input through their programs. That’s why, considering the importance of the background education, we wanted to analyses if there could be any relationship between their choices they made and the graduated high school.
Graduated High School Anatolian High School 8% Super High School 8% Public School 77%
Private Colleges 5% Foundation Colleges Unknown 1% 1%
327
3.
Income is highly important: The cinema going activity is highly related with the individual and total income of the people. As it is about 5 million Turkish Liras which is equivalent to about 2 Euros cinema is usually considered to be an expensive leisure for most of the people even in Istanbul. Thus the income of a student might not be enough to let him/her go to the cinemas as frequently as it could be desired. Though this is the case, we just wanted to check the individual and family income of the students to get an idea of not only of their economic capabilities but also of their social status. It could easily be seen that the higher the rate of their income the more the frequency of cinema going activity. Though it is not surprising that most of the low income students could not even afford to go to the cinema once a year. Income and Frequency of Cinema Going 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Once a month
Once a year Once a year Once a week Once a week 0-150 million
4.
Once a month
150-300 million
300-500 million
Other
Accommodation is one of the factors affecting the frequency of cinema going: The sample group mainly has the family accommodation (56%). Accommodation with friends seems to be the second preference among the sample group (18%). Accommodation with relatives (8 %) and individual accommodation (6%) are not so popular. The rest of the students live either in governmental or private foundation dormitories (9%). Thinking that accommodation has a kind of motivational factor on the individuals, the questionnaire aimed to have access to the information on the individual accommodation facilities in order to enable find out the correlation between the living conditions and cinema going frequencies. Accordingly, the following data was yielded throughout the questionnaire. Accommodation and Frequency of Cinema Going
328
s or
D at io
n
H Fo un d Pr iv at e
O th er
m ito rie
on e
s om
e
Al
ito ri e
iv e
or m tD
nm en er
ti o n
G ov
od a m m
s
nd s
el at R ith
w
e om H Ac co
Fa m
ily
Ac co m
m
od
at io
n
w
in
ith
Fr ie
Is ta n
bu l
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
5.
The origin of the main living area does not shape the cinema going frequency: Most of the students come from a city center or their families live in the city center. Mainly the students living in Istanbul are assumed to have an easier access to the cinema saloons and these are also believed to have a habit of cinema going. However, it is easy to see that there is no correlation between the life style and main living area. It is believed that living in a city center might provide an easier access to the cinemas and entertainment places and the students having their families living in the city centers could have develop a significant tendency to going cinemas regularly. The people living in the city center (73%) are higher than the people living in the sub-districts (12%). 34 % of the group has no tendency or habit of going to cinema. And most surprisingly, this group mainly (74%) consists of the ones living in Istanbul. (44%).
6.
There is a strong relationship between the living area and the frequency of cinema going: The people have a tendency of going to cinema once or twice a month mostly (55%). Only 34% of the people prefer to go to cinema once or twice a year and 10% once or twice a week. Considering the relationship between the areas lived and the frequency of going to cinema, the data proved a meaningful relation between these two categories. That means, it is easy to see that the people living in urban areas has the tendency of going to cinema more than the people living in rural areas.
Living In Urban or Rural Areas Center 120 100 80
Center
60
Center
40
Rural
Rural
20
Rural
0 Once or twice a year
7.
Once or twice a month
Once or twice a week
Scenario / Theme is the most important factor affecting the film choice: It is interesting to see the factors affecting the film choices. Perhaps these factors are not the unique ones for this specified questioned group of people but it is a good example of how the things could be promoted and turn to some specific choices could be followed through such a figure. The sample group preferences show that for the great majority of the people 82 % scenario has the highest importance. 74 % of the people give importance to the cast and 64% give importance to the director. It’s surprising to see that people half give importance to the Professional critiques and half to the critics of the friends or family members. Another surprising point is that the technical structure, budget and the comments on the TV programs have lighter affects on the people. 329
The Factors Scenario / Theme Cast Director The Comments of the Well-Known Critiques Prize Winning Films The Comments Written Experiences of the friends/family members National Cinemas Technical Structure / Budget The Comments on TV programs
Percent 82 % 74 % 64 % 51 % 50 % 50 % 48 % 46 % 46 % 45 %
8.
Inner motivation is more powerful than the outer motivation: Although almost all of these factors could be implemented through the society and through multiple effects of use of media, it seems that some of them are just a bit more individual choices and some are more the efforts of shaping the individual choices to a predetermined consumption of certain films. Thus, if we may talk about the factors such as the director, cast, scenario/theme, and an interest to certain national cinemas as the ones being more intimate matters of the individuals, would it be possible to assume that the inner motivational factors are more powerful than the media based external factors leading the individuals to certain films then?
9.
Popularity in inner social circles have more impact on the individuals than that of the outer social circles: Comparing the intrinsic motivational factors and extrinsic motivational factors in this table, it is interesting to see that people give just slightly more importance to the famous “top ten” lists or well known film critiques than the experiences of their friends and family members. Thus, this data could even prove that the popularity of the films in the eye of the individual is not produced by the media but rather through an inner circle of family and friends. Even if these media based information is considered to be high in the percentages, when the value associated to these factors is considered it could be easier to see grade them in the lower scales of the ladder.
1
330
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 First 5
Director
22 18 20 10
4
5
5
6
5
7
73
Scenario / Theme
53 19 12
3
6
4
1
0
1
2
92
Cast
14 34 19
7 10
6
4
6
1
0
84
National Cinemas
3
4
8 12
9 10
8
9 18 20
35
Technical Structure / Budget
2
3 11 14
7 12
9
5 17 21
36
Prize Winning Films
4
8
The Comments Written
1
9 15 18 16 11 15
The Comments on TV programs
1
2
The Comments of the WellKnown Critiques Experiences of the friends/family members
6
48
3
4
59
6 10 12 23 22 12
6
25
3 10
7 12 19 10 10 13 15
1
50
2
9 11 11 13
8 22
39
7
8 18 10 14 10 11 11
6
8
7 11
First 5 General
General Tendency and First 5 Important Factors
Vi su al Me di a
Na tio na lC ine m as
St ru ct ur e/ ...
rs m em be
Te ch ni ca l
Fi lm s
Fr ien ds /fa m ily
Pr ize
W
in nin g
ue s Cr iti q
Di re ct or
Ca st
Pr in tM ed ia
Sc en ar io
/T he m e
100 80 60 40 20 0
10. Popularity means nothing if you do not have the money: The economical conditions of the individual could be very effective when it comes to purchasing for the cinema going activity. Especially, being a student could be sometimes a motivation for the individuals to spare some space, time and money for their individual activities. Yet, in Turkey’s conditions it might be very difficult for a student to go with the stream, to find enough budgets to see the films, especially for those coming from other cities and living in difficult conditions. Parallel to the general believes, it is easy to see how the economic conditions could be effective in the cinema going activity could be seen in the collected data. It is so crucial a factor that people decide whether to go to the cinema or not depending upon how much money they have. Yet, it is also interesting to note that there are also some people who could spare time and money if only it is the film they would like to watch. However, if there is a limited budget it could even affect the choice of the films as sparing the money only for the important ones. It is interesting to see that having a VCD or DVD of the film could also be possible for the people with limited budget. Consequently, there of course would be some opportunity to establish other smaller groups who would like to exchange their collections with their friends. Only a small percent of the people almost gave up the idea of watching the film in case of economical problems. However, this seems to be not a complete neglect. 31 % of the people give the decision of going to cinema or not depending upon their money. Yet, 26 % affords to go to cinema anyhow. For 25% of the people the amount of money they have effects their decision of which film to see. 20 % of the people rather to buy the VCD or DVD if they lack enough money to go to cinema. Economic Conditions / Cinema Going Decision of going or not! Going to Cinema anyhow! Decision of which film to see! Buying VCD or DVD! Not Sure
Percent 31 26 25 20 7
331
11. Cinema is the most popular choice: When it comes to the alternative ways of spending money, it is interesting to see that people prefer cinema more than the others, in general. The most valuable leisure seems to be cinema. The answer to the question of “If all were the same amount of money which one would you choose” is “The Cinema” Preferred Cinema Theatre Concert Book Newspaper/Magazine Cigarette/Chocolate Meet with the friends Neglectance
Percent 62% 21% 14% 37% 16% 12% 13% 7%
Income and Leisure Preferences 90
a
80
b
70
c
60
d
50 40 30 20 10 0 Cinema
Book
Theatre
Magazine Concert
Meet Friends
Cigarette
12. Popularity of the films is just a feather: It is so light that 34% of the people could not even remember the names of the films they’ve seen. It is important to note that slightly more than the half of them, (15 %) are the ones who would be going to cinema once a month. and the other half (17 %) claim to be the ones going to cinema once a year 13. It is interesting to see that 507 film hours are spent for the sample group. It means that the group spent time enough to watch 507 films. But in fact the real number of the films watched was only 138. Depending upon these figures one might assume that all the people of the sample group could find a chance of watching at least one film. But, that was not the case. There were 95 people (34%) who didn’t watch any of those films. That gives us enough clue as to state that cinema going is an activity of a special elite group of people. An the ones watching films rather have a habit of going to cinema frequently to cope up with the pace of changing films 14. Only the popular films have high box-office rates because only the popular ones challenge most of the audience. Most of the films have just low level preferences and these are watched by the minority of the group. There is a huge distinction between the 332
major audience and minor audience percentages. These might vary as much as the 30% and the 3%. It is very interesting that, when it’s preferred in low levels, finding two people having the same film experience is as difficult to find a taxi in Istanbul in a snowy day. To have a dyadic conversation about the film becomes almost impossible when the sharing rate is only at the level of 9.7 % whereas this rate goes lower as 2.8 % of the films to make it a triad – the films which were watched by three people. Only 1,4% of the films were watched by 4 people. What all these percentages prove us that there is not much tendency among the young people as it is assumed to go to cinema together or watching the film and discussing about it. The most popular film watched by the group reach the 15,46 % of the audience the other two films follow with the 8.7 %. The third popular film for the sample group covers 7,55% of the audience.
The Film Yüzüklerin Efendisi Matrix - Reloaded Matrix- Revolutions Okul Karşı Pencere Kill Bill Vizontele Tuuba Asmalı Konak Halka Hababam Sınıfı Karayip Korsanları O şimdi Asker Bir zamanlar Meksikaʹda İnşaat Dogville Piyanist
Percentage 33% 15 % 8% 8% 8% 7% 7% 6% 5% 5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
Duration / Week 2 21 8
First Week 516.521 774.350 520.882
Total Audience 815.671 1.470.316 903.041
3
50.489
116.304
11 21
931.814 161.393
1.776.335 550.372
9 25
33.179 358.555
358.057 1.657.051
1 6 4 29
85.890 81.970 11.264 35.979
85.890 245.789 27.595 257.161
It is interesting to note that the popularity of the films is quite parallel to the box office rates of them. The films rather believed to create metacommunication such as the “Fight Club”, “Die Another Day: 007 James Bond” (429.950) or “Charlie’s Angels” (279.783), “Down With Love”, “Gönderilmemiş Mektuplar” all have the lowest audience rates.
Conclusion Although it is very difficult to claim that the popularity of the foreign films in Turkey owe much more to the box office rates of the other countries, there seems to be some truth in it. The foreign films in Turkish context have a raw material to be used with their stories, challenging scenes from the films and comments of the well-known directors and critiques. Thus, the Turkish films in the Cinema industry in Turkey have a very small chance to be powerful enough as the others in the area. Though this is the case, Turkish Films such as Asmalı Konak or Hababam Sınıfı had the jump to claim as much as the others in the competition. In my opinion, the films could not be assessed through the box office rates or 333
the number of the weeks they occupied the cinema saloons but rather through their impact on the society. Thus, I believe that the data collected would mainly consider the tendencies of the Istanbul University School Of Communication Students rather than the whole target audience in Istanbul or in Turkey. Considering the social, economical, technological and psychological aspects of the film preferences and the frequency of cinema going issues this sample might not be all enough but rather provide valuable quantitative data. Considering the data collected about the box office rates and popularity, the concept of home cinema in Turkey should also be questioned.
References Arens, William,F., (1996), Contemporary Advertising, Irwin / McGrow –Hill, Diken, Bülent & Carsten Bagge Laustsen, “Enjoy your fight! – “Fight Club” as a symptom of the Network Society”, September 2001, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University Garth, Jowett & Linton, James, M., (1980) Movies as Mass Communications, 2nd Ed. Beverly Hills, California, SAGE Pub. Gibson, James & Hanna, Michael, (1992) WCB, USA. Grolier Universal Encyclopedia, (1970), Stratford Press, Inc., New York, Vol:13 Nebauer, Alan, (1996), Against All Odds: Around Alone in the BOC Challenge, McGraw – Hill Book Company Austraila McDougal, M.S., Harld D. Lasswell & Ivan A. Vlasic, (1964), Law and Public Order in Space, 2nd edition, New Haven: Yale University Press. Stephenson, William, (1967), The Play Theory of Mass Communications, University of Chicago Press
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