Watershed Thick Description
Situated on Bristol’s bustling waterfront, alongside a plethora of bars and restaurants, Watershed is now an exciting hub for the ever-growing creative art scene the city has to offer. Boasting an eclectic mix of independent and world cinema, including their currently longest running film, ‘Bait’. A poster on the front window, clearly advertises and highlights the extensive list of what’s on and forthcoming. Films including ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’, ‘Monos’ and ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’. Looking at the weekly listings in the front window, immediately gives you the sense of what kind of audiences they are marketed towards and therefore causes you to assume what type of audiences go to this cinema. Certainly, a more alternative, non-conventional moviegoer, someone who appreciates the art-form of independent cinema.
Watershed has a prominent blue and white sign on the front of the building, this colour scheme continues throughout the building. As you walk in to the small box office/foyer area downstairs, which offer an extensive selection of snacks you’d typically expect to see in a cinema but also an equal display of healthy options that fit in with Bristol’s popular healthy eating culture. You immediately notice an array of films and posters advertising the various events they host here. One particular focal point which stood out, was the amount of film festivals the cinema has on offer. Including; Afrika Eye, Slapstick Festival (which I attend annually), Encounters and Bristol Festival of Ideas. What I found very interesting and equally important, was the number of these festivals that are focused on young and inspiring film-makers from around the world. Watershed bases its ethic on a strong sense of community involvement that provides a platform for these inspiring film-makers to express their ideas, highlighting the sense of inclusiveness and support. As you continue upstairs to the naturally well-lit cafe and bar, you instantly notice the almost run-down aesthetic that the building illustrates, keeping the large industrial vents and its original steel structures. Before opening in 1982, the Watershed was originally used a transit shed and fell into a state of disrepair. After a major refurbishment, the building was kept alive and still manages to maintain its rustic look.
Across town, situated in the colossal Cabot Circus shopping centre is the Showcase cinema. Surrounded by commercialised commodities, the showcase has a more formulaic aesthetic; high ceilings, tall walls, spacious and a dark purple colour scheme. Although a multiplex is recognised as a convenient cinematic experience, it can still be seen as a banal, tedious encounter for some. It features numerous screens, dotted around the foyer, highlighting the forthcoming listings, which include ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’, ‘Joker’ and ‘Malificent: Mistress of Evil’. This immediately gives you an insight into the audience the cinema attracts. Carrying on past the ticket desks, there is a long counter on the left, with multiple tills, selling popcorn and largely Coca Cola products. On your right-hand side is a trendy bar area which offers an array of drinks including cocktails and champagne. The cinema in general has no emphasis on locality in terms of produce. Indicating the principal focus is aimed at gaining financial capital as a company.
Watershed however, is more than a cinema, it’s a place to socialise or to use as a creative space. As you walk into the bar/cafe area, it has a thriving atmosphere, full of scholars, students and on this occasion, tucked away into the corner, an OAP club playing bridge. The well-stocked bar, clearly prides itself in offering a wide range of different local beers, from breweries such as Butcombe (Bristol), Twisted (Westbury) and Bath Ales, as well as Bristol based Wogan coffee who provide the cafe with their produce. I also noticed a young, potentially student-based team who work behind the bar. All of these elements add to the community etiquette that the Watershed so proudly conveys. Beyond the bar/cafe area and separated by a red brick arch, you’ll find three rooms dedicated to conferences, private meetings and events, all of which have alluring views of the harbourside below. In addition, Watershed is home to the Pervasive Media Studio, which is a diverse space exploring creative technology.
There are currently three, well sign posted, screens in Watershed (soon to be four) which vary in size. With a capacity of two hundred, Cinema One is the main screen in the building, boasting state of the art technical specifications and the host to all of the major films that they offer. Cinema Two and Three containing forty-two and one hundred seats respectively, used mainly for smaller screenings, lectures and presentations. In comparison to the staggering thirteen screens that the Showcase contains, this is a noticeable difference that resembles the consumption ethic the multi-plex applies. In addition to purchasing your ticket at the Showcase you are offered an array of different seating options varying in comfort and of course cost, which vastly differs from the small, bunched up seating on offer at the watershed. For a six-foot four man, I must appreciate the Showcase’s seating options but yet acknowledge that the Watershed’s audience are generally more interested in the film on offer as opposed to comfort.
After seeing ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ at the Showcase, it was evident that these cinemas are built to house the Hollywood blockbuster and can’t deny that you get the full, immersive experience for the duration. After walking around The Watershed, you can’t help but notice the importance of the local influence and the impact it has on the venue. Everything from the sponsorable cinema seats (which contain individual plaques) to the personal democratic reviews and messages that people leave on the wall above the stairs.
Even though the Showcase is a convenient and comfortable way of experiencing cinema, its priorities lie within the constraints of gaining profit. On the other hand, Watershed is firmly concreted within Bristol’s thriving artistic scene, offering a contrasting and alternative experience.
A Bohemian Rhapsody: Audiences, Taste and Spectatorship in Moulin Rouge (2001)
Moulin Rouge! is a romantic musical and also the final film of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Red Curtain Trilogy’, a collection of films which coincidentally have no relation to each other, unlike a conventional trilogy. The one thing they do have in common is the theatre motif that reappears across the three films. Strictly Ballroom (1992) uses dance as the main theme, poetry in Romeo and Juliet (1996) and finally song in Moulin Rouge! ‘’To varying degrees, all of his films have embraced romance and decadence, fantasy and ribaldry, the body and the bawdy’’ (Wallace, 2014). The use of song and referencing of popular culture, becomes vital in the type of spectator the film attracts, forging a distinguishable soundtrack across a multi-generational audience.
Given the historical context of Moulin Rouge!, the film uses a selection of contemporary pre-existing music, an element that gives an entirely alternative take on the conventional soundtrack which invites a multigenerational audience to watch. This is because of the relationship that certain spectators will have with particular songs that feature. For example, the work of Elton John may impact the emotions of an older audience whereas the use of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ could have the same emotional effect but on a younger, more current, rock driven audience. “The relationship his audience has with these songs is unusually specific’’ (Van De Merwe 31). These relations can be put down to personal preference of course but also taste.
Peter Bourdieu believes that ‘’Taste is not about individual opinion, it’s about education and class power’’ (p18), which highlights that taste is associated with a particular background, education or class. ‘’…their relation to the various legitimate arts, painting, music, theatre, literature etc…’’ (p18). Bourdieu identifies art forms such as theatre and ballet to be under the ‘high culture’ bracket, which he believes to are associated with taste and a significant education. However, he also points out that forms like popular music and Hollywood films are linked to bad taste and with the working/lower classes. So, by applying Bourdieu’s views to the musical spectacular that is Moulin Rouge!, would induce a largely varied audience. But this would also imply that the audience for this film would have bad taste, due to the abundance of pop culture references throughout and the fact that it is a Hollywood smash. The number of pop references during Moulin Rouge! test the knowledge of the audience throughout, from the sultry courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman) who during the performance of ‘Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend’, resembles Marilyn Monroe’s performance of the same song during Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953), to the can-can dancers that perform at the Moulin Rouge, who are known as the Diamond Dogs, a reference to David Bowie’s 1974 studio album. All of these factors require a certain amount of cultural capital but given its ‘mass audience’ status, how important is this for the spectator to fully engage? Whichever way you look at it, it can’t be denied that Luhrmann’s extraordinary fantastical style can be appreciated from a general point of view and needs very little knowledge to understand what is being portrayed in terms of the narrative.
The ‘Red Curtain’ concept was started by Luhrmann to ‘’…entertain, enchant and stimulate the audience rather that to depict everyday reality’’’ (Koch, p1). In Moulin Rouge! he depicts this by keeping the traditional values of a conventional musical and blending in the modern musical elements, much like you’d see on a MTV video from the nineties. Continually intertextualising between elaborate song and dance throughout. Luhrmann intended the three films to depict a form of storytelling by utilising the different artistic expressions that are applied to each film, creating a powerful and lavish narrative. One reoccurring element that appears in the trilogy, is the evident beginning and ending of the narrative. An obvious fundamental aspect, but also highlights the uncomplicated foundations that the films are based around. For example, in the opening scene of Moulin Rouge!, we see a rather charismatic man, stood on a grand theatre stage who vigorously introduces the opening titles while the red curtains slowly pull apart. This immediately gives the spectator a clear indication of the film’s beginning, similar to one that would be portrayed at an actual theatre. The sequence also allows the audience to immediately identify with the film’s flamboyant nature.
What makes Moulin Rouge! different from other musicals are the daring visuals and originality of the narrative as well as what is portrayed on screen. Raking in a staggering £138 million at the box office (worldwide) since its release, the film was generally well received, ever since its initial screening at the Cannes festival. There were however, some mixed reviews from several critics, with many saying it was over the top and convoluted, questioning the deliberate inauthentic narrative and exaggerating the concept. Peter Travers from Rolling Stone magazine said that ‘’Surely Paris in 1899 never sounded like this’’, which is absolutely true. Many also felt that it steered too far away from the romantic, musical melodrama they were expecting. However, without the non-stop, million mile an hour dynamic, this film may not have been how the audiences received it. ‘’…McGregor’s rendition of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ functions simultaneously as the films authentic emotional refrain and clearest marker of its thoroughgoing inauthenticity’’ (Watson, p123).
Spectatorship is all about being disconnected from the reality, falling into the immersive experience you’ve chosen to be part of. ‘’The use of formulas in films is likened to a sleep of consciousness, where audiences are lulled by the familiar and the predictable’’ (Lovell and Sergi, p4). After undertaking a number of surveys, with the intention of comparing audiences, Lovell and Sergi revealed that the number of mass audience interested in ‘Light-hearted genres’ including musicals was far greater than an elite audience. There was a clear distinction between the ‘mass’ and the ‘elite’, with the mass audience evenly spread over a number of genres, including comedy, musicals and Sc-fi. However, the elite audience was far more favoured towards the ‘serious’ genre e.g. drama, crime and biography which maybe feature more of an ambiguous narrative or ending. This highlights that the mass audience are susceptible to a more accessible type of film and genre, ‘‘happy endings, colour, life and death endings’’ (Lovell and Sergi, p18). But overall a broad selection of choices was made, ultimately associating the mass audience with an eclectic, well-rounded taste. While the elite audience drew more critically acclaimed films from the poll, generally perceiving ‘’cinema as art rather than entertainment’’ (Lovell and Sergi, p18). When comparing these findings to Moulin Rouge! It is clear that it would be difficult to pinpoint a precise and distinct audience type, as Luhrmann succeeds in a genre defying, dazzling and breath-taking piece of cinema.
To conclude, Baz Luhrmann had the assumption that the audience should have a basic understanding to the countless references that are explicitly portrayed throughout the film. During the marketing of the Moulin Rouge!, Luhrmann and his team encouraged the public that it should be viewed by a varied audience, to witness his reinvention of the musical. Particular ideologies from the film certainly altered the opinions of some critics, but has to be said that a critical audience are likely to hold more cultural capital in order to understand the film as a whole. This is in no way to say that mass audience wouldn’t understand the film and it’s ideology’s, more the sense that their interpretation may be skewed slightly yet still fully appreciate the film for what it is. Whichever way the film is portrayed, it is undeniable that Baz Luhrmann created a unique, spectacular contemporary musical which is truly unforgettable, affirming Luhrmann as on the most creative auteurs of the generation.
Bibliography
Bourdieu, Pierre. ‘Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste’. London. Routledge, 1986, pp. 16-23
Koch, Anett. ‘’The Visual Aesthetics of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘’Red Curtain Cinema’’ ‘’. GRIN Verlag, 2014. pp.1-3
Lovell, Alan and Sergi, Gianluca. ‘What audiences go for: elite and mass taste’.Cinema entertainment: essays on audiences, films and film-makers. Open university press, 2009, pp. 4-22.
Travers, Peter. ‘’Moulin Rouge!’. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/moulin-rouge-97846. Accessed 7th December 2019
Van de Merwe, Ann. ‘Music, the Musical and Postmodernism in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge’. Music and the Moving Image Vol. 3, No. 3. University of Illinois Press, 2010, pp. 31-38.
Wallace, Amy ‘’Deep Inside Baz Luhrmann’s Creative Chaos’’. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/magazine/deep-inside-baz-luhrmanns-creative-chaos.html. Accessed 6 December 2019.
Watson, Paul. ‘Genre Theory and Hollywood Cinema’, in Nelmes, J. Introduction to Film Studies. 4th edition. London. Routledge, 2007.
Group Work Reflection
After deciding on my group, we aimed to meet up as frequent as possible to go over design ideas for the blog, as well as sharing ideas for our essay and thick description. Unfortunately, time escaped us and we left very little time for design. However, we decided to share the login details for the WordPress site, so that we could edit or update the blog if we felt we had suitable ideas to improve it.
During the process, we were all very happy to share our work with each other in order to touch on any improvements or changes that could not only improve the individual work but the overall quality of the blog as a whole. We needed our blog to stand out and look professional as well as being easy to navigate between our individual posts. It very soon became evident how easy It was to get carried away with the design and potentially neglect our actual work. We didn’t want anything flashy or convoluted, just an easy to navigate blog. I pointed out that considering our very basic WordPress skills, it would be best to keep it as simple as possible.
With an impending deadline around the corner, we all agreed to keep the blog design to a minimal. We just included ‘Main Title’ and a tab for each of our names, corresponding to the individual sets of work. I personally found WordPress quite a difficult and confusing platform to use, with my colleagues both agreeing. There were lots of restrictions in terms of what could be accessed, this was due to having a ‘basic’ free account as opposed to ‘pro’ account which obviously needs to be paid for. This blocked us from using particular layouts and add-ons, which could have improved the look of the blog.
I definitely thought that we all had a balanced input into designing the blog, although I thought that we could have met up a bit more, whether it was in class or at the library. We utilised any spare time during our Friday workshop sessions to work on the blog design and to look at other groups as examples. Generally, I found writing my essay a fairly straightforward experience, but the others were always happy to help with any issues I came across and vice versa. We hit a few minor problems whilst uploading our work onto the individual tabs on the site, but used guidance from the information we had gathered during our ‘Introduction to WordPress’ workshop in Week 2.
If I could change anything, it would be to arrange more meetings and delve into the blog design process in more detail. Although I am happy with the blog, I definitely feel like it could have been a little more aesthetically pleasing, with more time and attention. Overall, working in the group was an enjoyable and engaging experience where I never felt out of place, worried about asking questions or putting ideas forward. I wouldn’t hesitate to be part of the same group if a similar task were to arise in the future.
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