How do we identify with characters?

In this chapter, Smith discusses how audiences identify with characters in film, T.V. shows, and gaming, and the various strategies filmmakers use to invite audiences into a characters’ perspective. In the first few pages, Smith talks about the difference between visual pleasure of cinematic art and the intimate story telling that connects audiences with the emotions of a character. He points out that individualization is quite subjective as each person has their own experiences, but also argues that, filmmakers can use components of identification to put audience members in a voyeuristic position. Through spatial attachment, subjective access, point of view, and allegiance, producers are able to create ties to characters and purposely evoke emotion and provoke thought.

This chapter reminded me of the Black Mirror episode, “Bandersnatch,” where viewers choose how the episode will play out. This interactive episode literally gives the audience members control as each choice made changes what will happen as the episode progresses. This episode is the essence of identification, changing the viewer from a voyeur to an active decision maker. I was also reminded of the movie Rear Window when voyeurism was mentioned because it was one of the first movies to place the audience in the eyes of the main protagonist. This film was one of the main examples Laura Mulvey used in her argument on the existence of a “male gaze” in Hollywood.

I think the idea of interactive cinema will begin to increase after the “Bandersnatch” episode because it is a revolutionary way of thinking about identification, and is a new way of combining cinema and gaming. Although the viewer is not in complete control the producers create that illusion, and arouse feelings of fear, anxiety, and uneasiness about making the wrong choice. I also find it interesting how the use of identification and voyeurism in film goes all the way back to the start of cinema, and the ethical dilemmas it has caused even as our society and our entertainment has progressed into a modern age.