Category: Thesis

The film “The Untouchables” is a French film based on a true story about the real-life friendship between Philippe, a wealthy physically disabled man, and his African immigrant caretaker, Delacy. In this case, we can analyse the impact of emotional needs on audience satisfaction.

Emotional needs play an important role in a film like The Untouchables. Audiences often want to experience and emotionally empathise with the film and make an emotional connection with the characters. In this film, the emotional relationships and emotional shifts between the characters are one of the key factors that resonate with the audience.

Firstly, the friendship and interaction between Philip and Drasi triggers emotional resonance in the audience. Despite coming from different backgrounds and social statuses, they build a deep emotional connection, a true friendship formed through mutual understanding and support. The audience is comforted and moved by this display of friendship across racial and social differences, as it echoes the importance of belonging and interpersonal relationships among human emotional needs.

Secondly, the film shows the emotional transformation and growth of the characters. Philip is initially prejudiced and suspicious of Drasi, but as the story progresses, he gradually opens up, accepts Drasi and develops a deep friendship with him. This emotional transformation of the characters brings a positive emotional experience to the audience, making them believe in the malleability of humanity and the power of mutual understanding.

The satisfaction of this emotional need plays an important role in audience satisfaction. Audiences gain emotional satisfaction and enjoyment through their emotional empathy with the characters and their emotional transformation. They may feel touched and inspired by the beauty of humanity in the film. This emotional satisfaction can enhance the audience’s enjoyment and satisfaction with the film, making them more likely to recommend and review the film.

This week I have designed the broad framework of this thesis, presenting my ideas through different chapters in conjunction with the literature review. I also want to try to isolate the effect of emotional resonance on audience satisfaction and analyse it in a separate case study.

The relationship between happy endings and audience satisfaction

• Factors affecting audience satisfaction
• Emotional resonance and emotional peaks (Film Untouchability case study)

Statistical analysis and findings

• Do happy endings have higher box office?
• Young people are increasingly looking for direct excitement

Only commercial films with happy endings have a future, right?

• Analysis of a commercial film with a non-happy ending that scores high
• The impact of a large number of happy movies on the market

Conclusion

The introduction to the thesis was completed this week. A brief description of the source of my ideas and the starting point. It also briefly explains my analysis of the factors of audience satisfaction in this thesis. And the methodology that will be adopted.

There are many factors that go into evaluating a film for the audience, but in terms of audience satisfaction, they can be broadly divided into:

• Expectation – whether a film fulfils psychological expectations
• Plot – whether there are enough twists and turns
• Visual – whether it has enough beautiful images
• Emotion – whether it fulfils the audience’s expectations
• Feeling – whether it is worth recalling and thinking about

Through this thesis, I would like to explore the link between happy endings and audience satisfaction in commercial cinema by looking at these dimensions.

Title: “Exploring the Role of a Happy Ending as a Determining Factor for Audience Satisfaction in Contemporary Film and Television”

With a definite title in mind, I will begin my With a definite title, I will start to explore the direction of my research. Although I would like to use this thesis to clear up some of the confusion in my mind. But at all times the evaluation of a film is a very subjective matter. I would like to create a statistical survey to collect the opinions of some groups on this matter. I would like to divide the age group between millennials and Generation Z. I wanted to collect their views on this issue.

This week, I’m thinking about the final positioning of my title. I decided to start my research on the branch of commercial film and television works. I was not able to look up the definition of commercial film in wikipedia, but I did find something about it.

Commercial films are films that are produced and released for financial gain with the aim of making a profit. Such films are usually invested in and produced by production companies or film production teams with the aim of attracting audiences and achieving box office success. The goal of commercial films is to attract large audiences and achieve success at the box office through well-made storylines, visual effects and marketing strategies.

This is the definition I have obtained by visiting and searching various forums and websites, as the definition of commercial cinema is a common concept that is widely accepted and discussed in the film industry and mass media. At this point, the title of my thesis has been established .

On why it is important to look at the connection between happy endings and the work. In my spare time I often watch contemporary animation and films. I have come to realise that there are many works that had a high popularity and audience in the early days. However, when the ending did not have a happy ending that the audience would have liked to see, the word of mouth dropped and many critics on the internet would even vilify these productions. These phenomena can have a significant impact on the film and television industry, and happy endings can be an inescapable part of many films if commercial success and box office success are required. Many Hollywood films, including adaptations of classic works of literature, add happy endings that were not in the original novels.

After two weeks of research and reflection, I decided to focus my research on film. At the same time I was confronted with a completely new problem: happy endings are somewhat important in evaluating a film, but not as important. At the same time, for many niche films and art films, happy endings can even ruin the atmosphere of the film.

I need to be more specific and precise about a category or branch of cinema before I can discuss this topic.

This week I have continued my work on the comparison of film and games, and for my thesis I may need a lot of information to confirm my final research direction. For this I have tried to look at the perceptions of the different professions in these productions and I believe that the perceptions and reflections of these practitioners can help me effectively.

• Peders, B. (2018) Film vs. video games from a screenwriter’s perspective, WeScreenplay. Available at: https://www.wescreenplay.com/blog/film-vs-video-games-from-a-screenwriters-perspective/ (Accessed: 20 March 2023).

• Jones, S.K. (2021) Comparing storytelling in games & literature, Medium. Available at: https://simonkjones.medium.com/comparing-storytelling-in-games-literature-4e5ff6ca5a73 (Accessed: 20 March 2023).

In my research, I came up with an idea that fits my thinking. In a film, a character has an arrangement and a setting in the world of the film, and his actions are influenced by the plot of the first half of the film. Once the character is seen by the audience as being outside the original plot, it is a bad experience for the audience if the editor cannot explain it perfectly. In games, however, the player has more choice and can decide on many key aspects of the experience without conflicting with following the established storyline. Even for gamers, the ability to not follow the original story can be a catalyst for their experience. These two points can be seen as one perspective – character behaviour/choice is everything.

Having watched some of the videos on games and film, I realised that I had set my thesis concept too broadly at the beginning.
Games and films are the most common forms of entertainment in our time, and although it is often easy to derive similar satisfaction from these two different forms of entertainment, the logic and composition of their plots are often different. In fact, the logic and composition of their plots are often very different.

In cinema, a story with a ‘happy ending’ usually ends with the characters overcoming difficulties, achieving success and completing the ‘happy ending’, in most cases from a third-person perspective. in most cases the audience is brought in from a third person perspective.

In games, however, the situation can be quite different.
In the game, the player is seen taking on the role of a hero, traversing various difficult challenges and tasks. And the development and ending of the story depends on the player’s decisions. Unlike the film, the game’s ending can have multiple variations and paths because of the player’s choices. Each decision of the player affects the direction of the story and can sometimes even lead to a different ending. Therefore, because the audience is a participant, the plot has to be more logical and complex … at the beginning of the game’s design.
This example contrasts the differences in plot composition between games and films. In games, the players usually play the role of active participants, whose actions directly influence the progress and ending of the story. In film, on the other hand, the audience are passive spectators who cannot change the course of the story. But how to create a sense of atmosphere by just watching is a different design idea. So there is a clear difference between the plotting and logic of the game and the film, in the context of the audience getting a similar sense of satisfaction.
So I think that I need to specify a specific area for the ‘good work’ in my title, so that I can make some objective references. To get some reflections worth thinking about.