An Evaluation on Forms of Movie Watching and Interactive Cinema in Digital Age: Bandersnatch Movie

Abstract

Cinema is one of the stories telling tools. As Lumiére brothers invented the motion capturing camera called "cinematograph", cinema created a unique language. This language, called as cinematography, has evolved along with the production and watching rituals of visual stories. The audience watching movie in exchange for money is one of the main phenomena of this ritual. This situation also created the economy of motion picture production. The production companies were born and cinema became an industry. As a result of distribution and marketing systems and cinema halls becoming widespread, it has established a terrestrial watching network. While the terrestrial watching network is keeping its presence, along with the technological developments and new media, digital watching networks have also emerged. Digital networks influenced the narrative of cinema. With the introduction of the algorithmic language in the digital environment, the watching experiences have also changed. The audience has transformed from a passive position into an active position. The cinema industry is now in this process and faces a new audience profile. Digital network platforms are now a production company. There are films only produced for these platforms. The global circulation of the film takes place through these networks. Television, cinema and computer meet on this global roaming network and on digital platforms. So, after interactive television, interactive cinema has also entered our lives. The most typical example of this is the Bandersnatch movie aired in Netflix. The film presents a watching experience where the audience can manipulate the story just like a computer game and can change the flow of events. This is a new situation. The subject of this notice is the interactive cinema concept through the Bandersnatch film in which the audience plays an active role. In this study, the forms of manipulation of the audience and its effects on storytelling and plot will be examined.