Moving Image Production Has Always Been Lead By The Audience’s Demand For New Sensation

Throughout the history of films the audience has always had a thirst for something more intense and sensational than the last thing they saw, however does the drive for something new overshadow the plot and performance of the actors for something more visually engaging.
The Great Train Robbery was created in 1903 and was considered a milestone in film making, and although only 12 minutes long it featured many new innovative filming techniques such as cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, as well as various explosion and smoke special effects. It also includes one of the characters who took part in the robbing of the train shooting his pistol at the camera at the end of the film. If we compare the plot of the film to the spectacle that it created at the time it is easy to see that the purpose of the film was to shock the audience, and this was portrayed in their response to the film with the majority of the audience being stunned, especially at the end where one of the robbers shoots at the audience. One explanation as to why films have always tried to create more shocking visual experiences was through the success of this early film, with directors following trying to gain the same success with the same tactics.
To gain a better point of view on the question the film Dead Man’s Shoes could be compared. Dead man’s shoes is a British psychological thriller, with a budget of £723,000 which makes it a lot cheaper than most films. It was co-written by Shane Meadows and Paddy Constantine, and was inspired by a lot of the crimes and injustices that both men experienced when they were young. The film is set in the Peak District and features a paratrooper named Richard returning to his small hometown to enact a violent revenge on the tormenters of his younger brother Anthony, who suffers from learning disabilities. Once Richard has killed all but one of his brother’s tormentors we realize that the Richards disabled brother who had been with him throughout the film was merely a figment of his imagination and the gang had let Anthony die whilst Richard had been off on duty, this tragedy had led Richard to go quite insane. The film ends with Richard forcing the last member to kill him so he could “lie down with his brother”.
The film features next to no special effects and is set in a very stark and unglamorous location. This film definitely uses its deep plot and emotional psychological exploration to make its audience think about injustice and morality. However it does have its fare share of action with regular drug usage and strong violence, however none of this is glamorized and the actions feel more repulsive than entertaining. The audience reaction to this film is in ways similar to the Great Train Robbery in that both audiences were scared and unsettled my much of action and violence in the films; however the Great Train Robbery fails to enlighten the audience.
Avatar is a very recent Sci-Fi film with an extremely high budget of 237 million dollars. The film itself is shot using CGI, this is to make the content of the film possible. The film is set in the future were a space colony of humans try to force out a civilization of aliens from their home planet in order for the humans to mine an extremely rare and valuable element. The film has stunned audience with is luscious visual content which rocketed the film to be the most profitable film ever made. In terms of plot substance the film does grapple with some of the contemporary debates such as exploitation of resources and the destruction of culture; the film does not however explore these themes in particularly deep or insightful way, mainly because the grandeur of the film acts detaches the audience from a lot of the emotional and moral tensions. This sense of detachment form involvement of emotion is increased through the films distribution in that it can be watched in 3-D, this increases the visual sensation even more but does not increase the profundity of the film.
As a conclusion it is easy to deduct that as filming and visual technology becomes more advance we will see new breeds and generations of film based around the idea of shock and spectacle so as to make full use of the extent of the technology. However films that feature heavily around deep, profound and complex plot lines have been running almost throughout the history of film making and they do not intrinsically change. The increasing accessibility to film technology must also be taken into account, low budget films with rawer and starker content are being brought more to the forefront and often reaching the mainstream. These films usually include a more relevant and insightful viewing experience.
Perhaps all people who enjoy watching films are looking for something to create a different sense of feeling or experience to what they are used to, keeping this in mind it is quite easy to see why the majority of film audiences gravitate towards films which include bold and rich visual sensation because they are easier to consume as the audience members don’t have to emotionally or mentally involve themselves in a visually intense film as much as a film with a complex and deep plot line; It could be said that cinema is not being associate so much as an exhibition for artistic media but more for just another night out for entertainment.