Embedded Files
Creators want audiences to react to their work. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by evoking specific moods.
Creators want audiences to react to their work. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by evoking specific moods.
Mood (atmosphere) - the emotional state that a text evokes in its audience.
Introduction
Introduction
Humans are emotional creatures, and we get emotional when experiencing a text.
One of the most effective ways for creators to engage audiences in the underlying themes of their texts is by evoking specific moods. This encourages audiences to feel positively or negatively towards the subject matter of their work.
Okja
Okja
Let us consider the 2017 Korean film Okja, directed by Bong Joon-ho, as an example of how a creator can evoke specific moods in their audience.
The film is about the relationship between a young girl, Mija, and the cute—albeit giant—pig she grew up with. The pair were raised in the picturesque Korean countryside, where lush colours and natural sounds evoke a mood that is relaxing and comforting for the viewer.
As the narrative progresses, however, the titular pig Okja is taken to the vast metropolis of New York, where a dark, metallic colour palette, and harsh artificial sounds, elicit feelings of unease. Because the audience has experienced the heartfelt relationship between Mija and Okja, they are encouraged to feel anxious when they are separated, and joyous when they are eventually reunited.
In addition, Bong also motivates the audience to feel strongly towards the subject matter of the text: factory farming.
Okja, the audience learns, is a genetically-modified pig who is intended as the first in a line of engineered livestock for humanity to consume. Because the audience has come to care about Okja, they are encouraged to feel outraged at the thought of such a creature forced to live in a factory farm for this purpose.
Understanding Mood
Understanding Mood
Creators like Bong Joon-ho try to make people feel a certain way towards the subjects of their work.
To achieve this, they use all the elements and techniques available to them to cast specific characters or situations in certain lights. This encourages audiences to feel, for example, warmth or disdain towards something, which they will hopefully take with them once the textual experience is complete.
As students of English, we should also consider how creators try to influence the mood of their audiences. By linking this process to a creator's purpose, and the underlying themes they are exploring, we can provide much richer interpretations of the texts we study.
Editor's Notes
Editor's Notes
When it comes to creators evoking a specific mood in their audience, an appeal to emotions can strongly influence how a person feels about something.
Unfortunately, we saw this play out in tragic fashion during World War II.
Throughout the 1930s, the Nazis produced propaganda films, textbooks and pamphlets which encouraged people to fear, mistrust, and ultimately despise Jewish people. Because these texts evoked such a powerful mood in the German population, the horrific acts of the Holocaust were allowed to take place.
We must remember that texts which elicit strong emotions have real power, and part of our studies in English involves thinking critically about the consequences of these texts.
Google Sites
Report abuse