Alfred Hitchcock once said of films that “creation is based on an exact science of audience reactions”
Many years after that shower scene, audience reactions are becoming an exact science – Neuroscientists
are looking at how we watch movies to figure out which styles of filmmaking have maximum
control over viewers’ brains.
It’s popularly being called “neurocinema”.
In one study, participants watched 30 minutes of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in an fMRI
machine, so their brain activity was being recorded.
The researchers compared the pattern of activity in participants' brains and found it was remarkably
similar.
During particular scenes of the movie, activity in certain brain areas increased and decreased
at the same time across the participants and their eyes tracked the same areas of the screen.
The researchers suggested it was an indication those scenes were more engaging.
A follow up study compared the participant’s brain activity watching The Good, The Bad
and The Ugly to watching other things–like an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, an
episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and a real-life 10 minute unedited shot of a New York City
park.
The researchers again used the similarity of the participant’s brain activity as a
measure of how engaging the scenes were.
They found the Hitchcock episode evoked similar brain activity across all viewers in over
65% of the cortex, the outer layer of the brain.
Similar activity was seen in 45% of the cortex for the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but only
18% for Curb Your Enthusiasm and 5% for the real-life New York City park.
The study shows that Hitchcock could orchestrate the responses of different brain regions in
a timely fashion across all viewers.
Of course, fMRI can’t evaluate the artistic and aesthetic value of a movie.
And some movies and TV shows aim to control the audience’s reaction more than others.
It depends on the director's style and intentions.
But soon we could see the audience sitting in the directors seat.
It’s been suggested films of the future will be so interactive that they will respond
to your brain activity while you’re watching them – so they can be the most engaging.
It’s like the ultimate choose your own adventure… that could end up being the true definition
of a horror film.
Neurocinema can objectively measure some of the entertainment value and audience reaction
to movies, TV shows and advertisements; and we can use the results to refine how engaging
and emotionally effective they are.
But it can't tell us who will walk away with this year’s Oscars -- although big data
can.
Check out Forward Thinking to find out how something as seemingly unpredictable as an
Oscar can be forecast using the right methodology.
There’s a whole new meaning to lights, camera, action.
Let me know what you think - and your Oscar picks - in the comments.
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