How much power do we say over what we watch?

• Does the internet provide a more extensive way for producers to target advertising?

• Does the internet provide fans a platform from which to shape their entertainment?

Fandom

Casual interest Insane behaviour

Draw a chart of fan interactions we can make with a film

Going to see a film

Going to see a film

Stalking a film star

Stalking a film star

• So how much control do we have over our entertainment?

• Who gains out of the internet more – producers or audiences?

• Controlling the way we experience our entertainment?

• How much influence do you imagine sites like this have on the studios?

• Are fans a niche market?

• Should films like this be solely aimed at the fan base?

Are fan sites a creative response to films?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZkqC4Lz8dU

www.thehuntforgollum.com/

Every week, Scott Davis and Austin Kennedy check out the latest, but not always the greatest films in the multiplexes. Everything from the biggest blockbusters, to the smallest indie films to the latest foreign films. Scott and Austin are film geeks by birth, keeping a critical eye on things, but bringing a lot of humor and energy to the proceedings as well. They don't always agree, but it's always entertaining.

Director sues over sale of replica film costumes•The Guardian, Wednesday 9 April 2008                                                        George Lucas, the director who dreamed up the lucrative series, is suing the prop designer who made the stormtrooper helmets and suits for the original 1977 film because he is selling replicas to fans for £1,800 a time.

'Stormtroopers' gather in Leicester Square for the premiere of Episode III.

Illegal file sharing

Key Issues

• Consider the extent of a fan’s involvement with film• How fans ‘consume’ film and film-related product• How marketing affects fans• How fans affect markets• Issues of fan ‘creativity’• Issues of piracy• The balance of power between fans and the film industry• What makes a ‘cult film’?• Theories of audience behaviour• How fans extend the promotional ‘life’ of a film• The impact of the internet on the relationships between

fans and the film industry

Sample question

• Are fans simply manipulated by the film industry to demand more of what they have had before or is fandom an active agency for change in the film business?