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Movies on Our Minds
The Evolution of Cinematic Engagement
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Book Presentation:
• Explores perceptual, cognitive, and emotional reasons for our cinematic engagement with popular films
• Unpacks the evolution, culture, and technological changes in hundreds of popular movies released across a century
• Reveals patterns derived from cinematic devices that are mapped back onto psychological principles of engagement, linking them to biological and cultural shifts
This book traces the development of popular cinema from its inception to the present day to understand why humankind has expanded its viewing of popular movies over the last century. Drawing from his extensive work as a psychologist studying artistic canons, James E. Cutting presents hundreds of films across a wide range of genres and eras, considers the structure of frame content, shots, scenes, and larger narrational elements defined by color, brightness, motion, clutter, and range of other variables. He examines the effects of camera lenses, image layout, transitions, and historical functions to classify different kinds of shots. He explains the arcs of scenes, the larger structure of sequences, and the scene- and sequence-like units that have become increasingly prevalent in recent years.
The book then breaks movies into larger, roughly half-hour parts and espouses the psychological evidence behind each device's intended effect, ultimately exploring the rhythms of whole movies, the flow of physical changes, and the cinematic polyrhythms that have come to match aspects those in the human body. Along the way, the book considers cultural and technological evolutions that have contributed to shifts in viewers' engagement by sustaining attention, promoting understanding of the narrative, heightening emotional commitment, and fostering felt presence in the story.
Movies on Our Minds asks critical questions about how our emotional processes and the way our experiences of movies have changed over the course of cinematic history, for a cutting-edge look at what makes popular movies enjoyable.
About the Author:
James E. Cutting, Susan Linn Sage Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Cornell University James E. Cutting is a Susan Linn Sage Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Cornell University, and a Fellow of the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image. He has written extensively on artistic canons and how we perceive the world around us. He has also worked in the entertainment industry at the one-time Atari Sunnyvale Research Laboratory.
Press Reviews:
"The goal of this engaging, readable narrative is to depict the psychological mechanisms filmmakers exploit to manipulate viewers' perception and attention and how the process corresponds to encoding and retrieval of information and to subsequently experienced emotion, all within historical context." - G. C. Gamst, CHOICE
"Movies on Our Mind covers a wide range of topics and research methods, making it an essential read for anyone interested in the psychology of cinematography. The book provides valuable insights for cinematographers who want to understand the potential impact of their creative decisions and for psychologists seeking quantitative methods to investigate the impact of formal features on viewers' narrative engagement with cinema. With its diverse research fi ndings and thought-provoking ideas, this book is a must-read for those who want to delve deeper into the fascinating intersection between psychology and film." - KE Bálint, Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind
See the publisher website: Oxford University Press
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