Using eye tracking as a method to analyse how four subjects respond to the opening Omaha Beach la... more Using eye tracking as a method to analyse how four subjects respond to the opening Omaha Beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998), this article draws on insights from cinema studies about the types of aesthetic techniques that may direct the audience’s attention along with findings about cognitive resource allocation in the field of media psychology to examine how viewers’ eyes track across film footage. In particular, this study examines differences when viewing the same film sequences with and without sound. The authors suggest that eye tracking on its own is a technological tool that can be used to both reveal individual differences in experiencing cinema as well as to find psychophysiologically governed patterns of audience engagement.
Historically, a great deal of audience research within film studies either rests on an imagined v... more Historically, a great deal of audience research within film studies either rests on an imagined viewer, or involves qualitative memory work, interviews and focus groups. There is nascent work on the neurological and physiological transformations that viewers undergo while watching a film (Hasson 2008), but little empirical work on what the eyes actually focus upon; at what viewers actually gaze at when watching a movie. The eye-tracking technology employed by the authors of this chapter affords us the opportunity to find out what viewers actually gaze at, for what length of time, and with what intensity. However, the authors of this chapter consider sound to be one of the key determinants in directing or influencing gaze patterns: we recognize that as an object of study film is an audio-visual medium with a complex and multi-layered sonic field in operation.
Drawing on cinematic theories of sound, and neuroscientific understandings of the eye and the gaze, we undertake a comparative analysis of two film sequences: the ‘chase sequence’ from the animated film, Monsters, Inc. (Docter et al. 2001), and the first five minutes of the Omaha Beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998). Both films involve complex sound design, moments of perceptual shock, spatial and temporal shifts in sound, and heightened sonic agency.
Six viewers were eye tracked, and the data gathered analyzed through a combination of close textual analysis and the statistical interpretation of collated gaze patterns (with the generation of heat and contour maps, for example). The viewers were shown these sequences twice: once with its normal audio field playing, and once with the sound taken out. In this chapter we interpret this data to answer the following questions: to what extent do viewers’ eyes follow narrative-based sound cues? How does the soundtrack affect viewer engagement and attention to detail? Is there an element of prediction and predictability in the way a viewer sees and hears? Do viewers’ eyes ‘wander’ when there is no sound to guide them where to look? Ultimately, we ask how important is sound to the cinematic experience of vision?
Using eye tracking as a method to analyse how four subjects respond to the opening Omaha Beach la... more Using eye tracking as a method to analyse how four subjects respond to the opening Omaha Beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998), this article draws on insights from cinema studies about the types of aesthetic techniques that may direct the audience’s attention along with findings about cognitive resource allocation in the field of media psychology to examine how viewers’ eyes track across film footage. In particular, this study examines differences when viewing the same film sequences with and without sound. The authors suggest that eye tracking on its own is a technological tool that can be used to both reveal individual differences in experiencing cinema as well as to find psychophysiologically governed patterns of audience engagement.
Historically, a great deal of audience research within film studies either rests on an imagined v... more Historically, a great deal of audience research within film studies either rests on an imagined viewer, or involves qualitative memory work, interviews and focus groups. There is nascent work on the neurological and physiological transformations that viewers undergo while watching a film (Hasson 2008), but little empirical work on what the eyes actually focus upon; at what viewers actually gaze at when watching a movie. The eye-tracking technology employed by the authors of this chapter affords us the opportunity to find out what viewers actually gaze at, for what length of time, and with what intensity. However, the authors of this chapter consider sound to be one of the key determinants in directing or influencing gaze patterns: we recognize that as an object of study film is an audio-visual medium with a complex and multi-layered sonic field in operation.
Drawing on cinematic theories of sound, and neuroscientific understandings of the eye and the gaze, we undertake a comparative analysis of two film sequences: the ‘chase sequence’ from the animated film, Monsters, Inc. (Docter et al. 2001), and the first five minutes of the Omaha Beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998). Both films involve complex sound design, moments of perceptual shock, spatial and temporal shifts in sound, and heightened sonic agency.
Six viewers were eye tracked, and the data gathered analyzed through a combination of close textual analysis and the statistical interpretation of collated gaze patterns (with the generation of heat and contour maps, for example). The viewers were shown these sequences twice: once with its normal audio field playing, and once with the sound taken out. In this chapter we interpret this data to answer the following questions: to what extent do viewers’ eyes follow narrative-based sound cues? How does the soundtrack affect viewer engagement and attention to detail? Is there an element of prediction and predictability in the way a viewer sees and hears? Do viewers’ eyes ‘wander’ when there is no sound to guide them where to look? Ultimately, we ask how important is sound to the cinematic experience of vision?
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Drawing on cinematic theories of sound, and neuroscientific understandings of the eye and the gaze, we undertake a comparative analysis of two film sequences: the ‘chase sequence’ from the animated film, Monsters, Inc. (Docter et al. 2001), and the first five minutes of the Omaha Beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998). Both films involve complex sound design, moments of perceptual shock, spatial and temporal shifts in sound, and heightened sonic agency.
Six viewers were eye tracked, and the data gathered analyzed through a combination of close textual analysis and the statistical interpretation of collated gaze patterns (with the generation of heat and contour maps, for example). The viewers were shown these sequences twice: once with its normal audio field playing, and once with the sound taken out. In this chapter we interpret this data to answer the following questions: to what extent do viewers’ eyes follow narrative-based sound cues? How does the soundtrack affect viewer engagement and attention to detail? Is there an element of prediction and predictability in the way a viewer sees and hears? Do viewers’ eyes ‘wander’ when there is no sound to guide them where to look? Ultimately, we ask how important is sound to the cinematic experience of vision?
Drawing on cinematic theories of sound, and neuroscientific understandings of the eye and the gaze, we undertake a comparative analysis of two film sequences: the ‘chase sequence’ from the animated film, Monsters, Inc. (Docter et al. 2001), and the first five minutes of the Omaha Beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998). Both films involve complex sound design, moments of perceptual shock, spatial and temporal shifts in sound, and heightened sonic agency.
Six viewers were eye tracked, and the data gathered analyzed through a combination of close textual analysis and the statistical interpretation of collated gaze patterns (with the generation of heat and contour maps, for example). The viewers were shown these sequences twice: once with its normal audio field playing, and once with the sound taken out. In this chapter we interpret this data to answer the following questions: to what extent do viewers’ eyes follow narrative-based sound cues? How does the soundtrack affect viewer engagement and attention to detail? Is there an element of prediction and predictability in the way a viewer sees and hears? Do viewers’ eyes ‘wander’ when there is no sound to guide them where to look? Ultimately, we ask how important is sound to the cinematic experience of vision?