yearbook 2004/05 - The European Film College

FROM THE STUDENTS
[The] artists were controlled by what the producers
thought, the producers were controlled
by what the distributors thought (or what producers
expected the distributors would think),
distributors were controlled by what they
thought the cinema owners thought and the
cinema owners were controlled by what they
thought the audience wanted.
But what does the audience want? It was observed
that the average audiences mostly want
entertainment. On the other hand some serious
audiences want the reflection of life and taste
of art in a film. However, mainstream films, in
almost every country, are made mainly for business
purposes. Producers and directors exploit
the audience by stirring their basic instincts.
Thus reflection of life is rarely portrayed in
mainstream film and the taste of art is seldom
met.
However, what Jarvie says is partially true. Cinema
audiences are not so active that they can
control the thought of the makers. It is the producers
and directors who set agenda of sex and
violence in the film and mass audiences are easily
convinced as they see these things repeatedly
in film. Producers and distributors consider the
audience mainly as the ‘market’ that Dennis
McQuail depicted. Cultivating the ‘market of
mass audience’ through the portrayal of risqué
elements, mainstream film producers in Bangladesh
are for themselves, not for the audience
and not even for the medium itself.
Characteristics of Film
audience in Bangladesh
I did a study on social characteristics of film audience
in Bangladesh with one of my colleagues
in 2001. We were encouraged to do that study
by film makers, cinema owners and our students
at the Department of Mass Communication
and Journalism, University of Dhaka. The
University came forward with financial assistance.
Generally, the intention behind the study
was to throw some light on current cinema-going
people in Dhaka City, but an attempt was
also made to explore particular social characters
and watching habits of the audience.
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From the findings of that study, some results
have been emerged which might give you an
impression about film audience in Bangladesh.
Results are presented below:
1. Young adults and teenagers go to the cinema
hall to watch movie to a greater degree than
elders do.
2. Highly literate people do not go to the cinema
hall in a large number. On the contrary illiterate,
less educated and ‘average’ educated
people go there in a remarkable numbers.
3. People with village background are the major
part of the current cinema audience.
4. Not only the working-class people or the students
go to the cinema hall, but also the merchants,
businesspeople and housewives who go
in substantial numbers.
5. Movie going at the cinema hall is almost inversely
proportionate to the income of the audience.
6. People don’t go to the cinema to watch movies
frequently. A large number of audiences go to
cinema hall occasionally, numbers of regular
cinema-goers are very small.
7. All mass media play a role in the publicity
process of cinema but the effects of these mass
media are not the same, interpersonal communication
is the greatest influence on the potential
audience.
8. People like films based on social narrative the
most.
9. Most cinema-goers have the access to the other
audio-visual sources of entertainment thus
they are making particular effort to go to the
cinema.
10. There is a positive relationship between the access
to other audio-visual sources of entertainment
and going to movie at a cinema hall.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Generally, cinema is considered as a vital source
of entertainment and as a form of art as well.
Lenin observed, “To us, cinema is the most
important of all arts”. 6 However, people from
every walk of life need entertainment for refreshment.
Therefore, they like to go to cinema