New Social Practices of Audiences: Community Engagement in Filmmaking

Abstract

Cinema has gone through various stages in becoming a locus for collective production throughout its existence. Due to new technologies and changes in users’ social practices, that cinema is the product of the film director is no longer the main conviction about cinema. The opportunity to participate in production processes, thanks to the opportunities provided by new media, has shifted the focus from the director to the audience. This has brought up the opportunity for self-expression across various communities in different parts of the world. This medium is considered to be a new sphere in which various groups have the chance to get involved in the filmmaking process.  In terms of users' engagement with the media of their choice, individuals have gradually achieved more control on the production and marketing processes in film industry. With the concept of “Community Filmmaking,” a burgeoning common practice, means, as communities now have direct or indirect access to mass participation in filmmaking. As a result of the changing economic, social and cultural practices of present day, crowdsourcing has become more widespread and available. This article traces the changing social practices of audiences and new audience patterns due to their involvement in the filmmaking process in terms of digitalization through the term crowdsourcing by focusing on the collaborative process of this method.  In this article, the concepts of connectivity and collectivity will be analyzed by two  specific examples. First case is  “Life in a Day”, a crowdsourced documentary that has been completed by the participation of 80.000 prosumers from 192 nations. The second case is “Transformers Premake,” which is described as a desktop documentary, discusses the changing form and aesthetic in filmmaking in addition to the production method, all of which relate to users' engagement and crowdsourcing. 

Keywords

• Community Filmmaking,Engagement,Crowdsourcing

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