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Papers by Carolyn Michelle

Research paper thumbnail of The Saga Begins: Mapping Audience Reactions to An Unexpected Journey

This chapter describes and interprets the main perspectives that emerged in surveys of audiences ... more This chapter describes and interprets the main perspectives that emerged in surveys of audiences for An Unexpected Journey conducted between February and June 2013, including those of Enchanted Hobbit Fans, Bored and Disillusioned Hobbit Critics, Disappointed Tolkien Readers, Critics of Technological ‘Enhancements’ and Mildly Entertained Casual Viewers. It notes that critiques of blockbusterisation were somewhat muted at this stage, deferring to concerns about textual fidelity and distracting visual effects. The chapter also draws on longitudinal data to illustrate the transformations that occurred over time, by comparing responses expressed during the pre-viewing period with those articulated post-release. In so doing, it explores whether, and to what extent, prefigurative structures of meaning and emotion came to provide important frameworks for interpretations of the first Hobbit film.

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Research paper thumbnail of Researching Audience Engagements with the Hobbit Trilogy: A Unique Methodological Approach

This chapter provides a detailed overview of the unique methodology adopted for the Hobbit Audien... more This chapter provides a detailed overview of the unique methodology adopted for the Hobbit Audience Project. It begins by outlining the key insights from previous research on Tolkien fandom and audiences for Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy that helped inform the project’s core questions and research focus. Then, it explains the rationale for conducting a large-scale longitudinal investigation of transnational receptions of the Hobbit trilogy, focusing in particular on the potential to make contributions to theory-building. To that end, the chapter also outlines the Composite Multi-dimensional Model of Modes of Audience Reception, which provides the theoretical framework for the project, before detailing the specific methods employed to gather data, including Q methodology, conventional questionnaires and interviews.

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Research paper thumbnail of Adaptation, Anticipation and Cinematic Desire: Prefigurative Engagements with a Blockbuster Fantasy Franchise

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire, 2017

This chapter explores the ways in which receptions of the Hobbit trilogy were prefigured by Tolki... more This chapter explores the ways in which receptions of the Hobbit trilogy were prefigured by Tolkien’s written works, Jackson’s earlier Lord of the Rings trilogy, and an array of marketing and promotions materials, news coverage, discussion and debate. Drawing on data from an online pre-viewing survey, the chapter outlines the main shared viewpoints of 1000 respondents before The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s (AUJ) release and documents their prefigurative activities in anticipation of a long-awaited cinematic experience. To further clarify the orientations and expectations of those who later participated in multilingual post-viewing surveys for AUJ, the chapter outlines the specific constellations of meaning, value and affect that pre-viewers were ascribing to The Hobbit in advance of seeing it.

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Research paper thumbnail of Making global audiences for a Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ feature film: Marketability, playability and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Journal of Fandom Studies, 2016

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Research paper thumbnail of The Hobbit hyperreality paradox

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2015

The 3D high frame rate version of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film was touted as offering one of... more The 3D high frame rate version of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film was touted as offering one of the most realistic and engaging movie-going experiences to date, its innovative projection technologies promising to greatly enhance viewers’ sense of immersion in the fantastical world of Middle-earth. However, our empirical research suggests the specific combination of technologies in The Hobbit had paradoxical perceptual and experiential effects. Whereas the groundbreaking hyperrealistic aesthetic enhanced both spectacular and narrative immersion for many viewers, a significant number experienced this same visual aesthetic as unconvincing and distracting and as undermining suspension of disbelief. In this article, we identify key factors contributing to polarization among Hobbit viewers on aesthetic grounds and offer empirical insights into how emerging cinematic technologies may be reshaping film spectatorship.

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Research paper thumbnail of Pleasure, disaffection, 'conversion' or rejection? The (limited) role of prefiguration in shaping audience engagement and response

International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2016

This article examines the extent to which prefigurative ‘horizons of expectations’ shaped audienc... more This article examines the extent to which prefigurative ‘horizons of expectations’ shaped audience engagements with Peter Jackson’s 2012 film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ( AUJ). Whereas previous research often focuses on examining prefigurative materials, discussions and debates themselves, this article draws on audience surveys conducted before and after the film’s release to illustrate the impact of prior hopes and expectations on post-viewing responses. While Hobbit pre-viewers were often deeply familiar with various prefigurative materials and intertextual resources, AUJ nonetheless retained the capacity to delight, confound, impress and distress viewers in ways that superseded pre-existing structures of meaning. Thus, while our findings illustrate that processes of reception potentially begin prior to and continue beyond initial moments of viewing, they also affirm the need to engage – theoretically and empirically – with the complex specificity and fluidity of actual rec...

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Research paper thumbnail of Modes of Engagement Among Diasporic Audiences of Asian New Zealand Film

The Communication Review, 2014

ABSTRACT The Communication Review Publication details, including instructions for authors and sub... more ABSTRACT The Communication Review Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

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Research paper thumbnail of An unexpected controversy in Middle-earth: audience encounters with the ‘dark side’ of transnational film production

Transnational Cinemas, 2014

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Research paper thumbnail of Q Methodology in Audience Research: Bridging the Qualitative/Quantitative ‘Divide’?

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Research paper thumbnail of (Re) contextualising audience receptions of reality TV

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Research paper thumbnail of Co-Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in New Zealand Television Advertising

Sex Roles, 2011

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Research paper thumbnail of Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

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Research paper thumbnail of Conclusion and Methodological Reflections on a Unique Project

This chapter highlights the wider contributions of the Hobbit Audience Project and relates its ma... more This chapter highlights the wider contributions of the Hobbit Audience Project and relates its major findings to wider processes shaping the conceptualisation and realisation of blockbuster franchise adaptations. The key theoretical insights that can be gleaned from this research are highlighted, along with their relevance to studying receptions of blockbuster adaptations more broadly. The chapter also outlines the project’s wider significance and contribution to audience and reception studies and reflects on the value of the pioneering longitudinal methodological approach used, its strengths and limitations and its possible applications for future research on audiences and media engagement.

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Research paper thumbnail of Co-Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in Advertising 1 Co-Constructions Of Gender And Ethnicity In New Zealand Television Advertising

This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a samp... more This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a sample of 2,120 New Zealand prime-time television advertisements screened in 2006. The study explored the following questions: With what product categories are male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters most commonly associated? What are the most common occupational roles of male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters? The results reveal highly stereotypical depictions of women and men within each ethnic category. White men dominated advertisements for foodstuffs, telecommunications and financial/corporate/legal services and were over-represented as professionals/white collar workers, while White women were over-represented in advertisements for household products, personal products, and medical products and featured predominantly as homemakers. Māori/Pasifika men were over-represented as athletes and service and sales workers. Non-White women featured prominen...

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Research paper thumbnail of The Rise of the Hobbit Critic: From The Desolation of Smaug to The Battle of the Five Armies

This chapter describes the major perspectives identified in post-viewing surveys relating to The ... more This chapter describes the major perspectives identified in post-viewing surveys relating to The Desolation of Smaug, conducted between January and July 2014, and The Battle of the Five Armies, conducted between January and May 2015. The chapter notes the emergence of increasingly critical and indeed polarised perspectives on the cinematic value, quality and impact of Jackson’s second and third Hobbit films. These critiques often expressed a more fundamental concern about the detrimental impact of key creative decisions that were seen to reflect underlying commercial imperatives. The chapter thus documents the crystallisation and intensification of audience ambivalence toward the processes and imperatives governing the cinematic adaptation, serialisation and blockbusterisation of Tolkien’s original novel.

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Research paper thumbnail of Returning to Middle-Earth, in Blockbusterised Form

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

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Research paper thumbnail of Framing audience prefigurations of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey : The roles of fandom, politics and idealised intertexts

Audiences for blockbuster event-film sequels and adaptations often formulate highly developed exp... more Audiences for blockbuster event-film sequels and adaptations often formulate highly developed expectations, motivations, understandings and opinions well before the films are released. A range of intertextual and paratextual influences inform these audience prefigurations, and are believed to frame subsequent audience engagement and response. In our study of prefigurative engagements with Peter Jackson's 2012 film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we used Q methodology to identify five distinct subjective orientations within the film's global audience. As this paper illustrates, each group privileges a different set of extratextual referents - notably J.R.R. Tolkien's original novels, Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings film trilogy, highly localised political debates relating to the film's production, and the previous associations of the film's various stars. These interpretive frames, we suggest, competed for ascendancy within public and private discour...

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Research paper thumbnail of Pioneering Cinematic Technologies and The Hobbit’s Hyperreality Paradox

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

This chapter analyses audience reactions to the Hobbit trilogy’s usual visual aesthetic, produced... more This chapter analyses audience reactions to the Hobbit trilogy’s usual visual aesthetic, produced through the combination of high frame rate, 3D and extensive use of computer-generated imagery. While intended to facilitate and intensify viewers’ experience of pleasurable re-immersion in Middle-earth, the combination of these technologies produced contradictory effects and visual artefacts that some viewers considered jarring and displeasing. The chapter shows that critical reactions to The Hobbit’s visual aesthetic were variously informed by individual commitments to a more traditional cinematic aesthetic, appreciation for The Lord of the Rings’ ‘gritty’ realism and an apparent clash between the technologies themselves, the latter of which generated a hyperreality paradox, disrupting narrative immersion for a small but significant number of respondents.

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Research paper thumbnail of Reservoir hill and audiences for online interactive drama

This paper analyses the interactive experiences constructed for users of the New Zealand online i... more This paper analyses the interactive experiences constructed for users of the New Zealand online interactive drama Reservoir Hill (2009, 2010), focusing both on the nature and levels of engagement which the series provided to users and the difficulties of audience research into this kind of media content. The series itself provided tightly prescribed forms of interactivity across multiple platforms, allowing forms of engagement that were greatly appreciated by its audience overall but actively explored only by a small proportion of users. The responses from members of the Reservoir Hill audience suggests that online users themselves are still learning the nature of, and constraints on, their engagements with various forms of online interactive media. This paper also engages with issue of how interactivity itself is defined, the difficulties of both connecting with audience members and securing timely access to online data, and the challenges of undertaking collaborative research with...

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Research paper thumbnail of Unexpected Controversies Cast a Shadow Over Middle-Earth

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

This chapter focuses on a controversy that shaped public discussion and debate around the Hobbit ... more This chapter focuses on a controversy that shaped public discussion and debate around the Hobbit production before the first film’s release. The extended Hobbit union dispute, which threatened to derail the trilogy’s New Zealand production and prompted widely criticised reforms to New Zealand labour law, reveals much about how processes and imperatives of blockbusterisation are reshaping transnational film production. Audience reactions to this issue demonstrate how and why a transnational production such as The Hobbit can have varying degrees of salience for differently located audiences, while also demonstrating the potential for cinematic desire for fetishised cultural commodities to ultimately trump consideration of the conditions under which such commodities are produced.

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Research paper thumbnail of The Saga Begins: Mapping Audience Reactions to An Unexpected Journey

This chapter describes and interprets the main perspectives that emerged in surveys of audiences ... more This chapter describes and interprets the main perspectives that emerged in surveys of audiences for An Unexpected Journey conducted between February and June 2013, including those of Enchanted Hobbit Fans, Bored and Disillusioned Hobbit Critics, Disappointed Tolkien Readers, Critics of Technological ‘Enhancements’ and Mildly Entertained Casual Viewers. It notes that critiques of blockbusterisation were somewhat muted at this stage, deferring to concerns about textual fidelity and distracting visual effects. The chapter also draws on longitudinal data to illustrate the transformations that occurred over time, by comparing responses expressed during the pre-viewing period with those articulated post-release. In so doing, it explores whether, and to what extent, prefigurative structures of meaning and emotion came to provide important frameworks for interpretations of the first Hobbit film.

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Research paper thumbnail of Researching Audience Engagements with the Hobbit Trilogy: A Unique Methodological Approach

This chapter provides a detailed overview of the unique methodology adopted for the Hobbit Audien... more This chapter provides a detailed overview of the unique methodology adopted for the Hobbit Audience Project. It begins by outlining the key insights from previous research on Tolkien fandom and audiences for Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy that helped inform the project’s core questions and research focus. Then, it explains the rationale for conducting a large-scale longitudinal investigation of transnational receptions of the Hobbit trilogy, focusing in particular on the potential to make contributions to theory-building. To that end, the chapter also outlines the Composite Multi-dimensional Model of Modes of Audience Reception, which provides the theoretical framework for the project, before detailing the specific methods employed to gather data, including Q methodology, conventional questionnaires and interviews.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Adaptation, Anticipation and Cinematic Desire: Prefigurative Engagements with a Blockbuster Fantasy Franchise

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire, 2017

This chapter explores the ways in which receptions of the Hobbit trilogy were prefigured by Tolki... more This chapter explores the ways in which receptions of the Hobbit trilogy were prefigured by Tolkien’s written works, Jackson’s earlier Lord of the Rings trilogy, and an array of marketing and promotions materials, news coverage, discussion and debate. Drawing on data from an online pre-viewing survey, the chapter outlines the main shared viewpoints of 1000 respondents before The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s (AUJ) release and documents their prefigurative activities in anticipation of a long-awaited cinematic experience. To further clarify the orientations and expectations of those who later participated in multilingual post-viewing surveys for AUJ, the chapter outlines the specific constellations of meaning, value and affect that pre-viewers were ascribing to The Hobbit in advance of seeing it.

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Research paper thumbnail of Making global audiences for a Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ feature film: Marketability, playability and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Journal of Fandom Studies, 2016

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Research paper thumbnail of The Hobbit hyperreality paradox

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2015

The 3D high frame rate version of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film was touted as offering one of... more The 3D high frame rate version of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film was touted as offering one of the most realistic and engaging movie-going experiences to date, its innovative projection technologies promising to greatly enhance viewers’ sense of immersion in the fantastical world of Middle-earth. However, our empirical research suggests the specific combination of technologies in The Hobbit had paradoxical perceptual and experiential effects. Whereas the groundbreaking hyperrealistic aesthetic enhanced both spectacular and narrative immersion for many viewers, a significant number experienced this same visual aesthetic as unconvincing and distracting and as undermining suspension of disbelief. In this article, we identify key factors contributing to polarization among Hobbit viewers on aesthetic grounds and offer empirical insights into how emerging cinematic technologies may be reshaping film spectatorship.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Pleasure, disaffection, 'conversion' or rejection? The (limited) role of prefiguration in shaping audience engagement and response

International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2016

This article examines the extent to which prefigurative ‘horizons of expectations’ shaped audienc... more This article examines the extent to which prefigurative ‘horizons of expectations’ shaped audience engagements with Peter Jackson’s 2012 film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ( AUJ). Whereas previous research often focuses on examining prefigurative materials, discussions and debates themselves, this article draws on audience surveys conducted before and after the film’s release to illustrate the impact of prior hopes and expectations on post-viewing responses. While Hobbit pre-viewers were often deeply familiar with various prefigurative materials and intertextual resources, AUJ nonetheless retained the capacity to delight, confound, impress and distress viewers in ways that superseded pre-existing structures of meaning. Thus, while our findings illustrate that processes of reception potentially begin prior to and continue beyond initial moments of viewing, they also affirm the need to engage – theoretically and empirically – with the complex specificity and fluidity of actual rec...

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Research paper thumbnail of Modes of Engagement Among Diasporic Audiences of Asian New Zealand Film

The Communication Review, 2014

ABSTRACT The Communication Review Publication details, including instructions for authors and sub... more ABSTRACT The Communication Review Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

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Research paper thumbnail of An unexpected controversy in Middle-earth: audience encounters with the ‘dark side’ of transnational film production

Transnational Cinemas, 2014

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Research paper thumbnail of Q Methodology in Audience Research: Bridging the Qualitative/Quantitative ‘Divide’?

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of (Re) contextualising audience receptions of reality TV

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Co-Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in New Zealand Television Advertising

Sex Roles, 2011

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Conclusion and Methodological Reflections on a Unique Project

This chapter highlights the wider contributions of the Hobbit Audience Project and relates its ma... more This chapter highlights the wider contributions of the Hobbit Audience Project and relates its major findings to wider processes shaping the conceptualisation and realisation of blockbuster franchise adaptations. The key theoretical insights that can be gleaned from this research are highlighted, along with their relevance to studying receptions of blockbuster adaptations more broadly. The chapter also outlines the project’s wider significance and contribution to audience and reception studies and reflects on the value of the pioneering longitudinal methodological approach used, its strengths and limitations and its possible applications for future research on audiences and media engagement.

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Research paper thumbnail of Co-Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in Advertising 1 Co-Constructions Of Gender And Ethnicity In New Zealand Television Advertising

This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a samp... more This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a sample of 2,120 New Zealand prime-time television advertisements screened in 2006. The study explored the following questions: With what product categories are male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters most commonly associated? What are the most common occupational roles of male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters? The results reveal highly stereotypical depictions of women and men within each ethnic category. White men dominated advertisements for foodstuffs, telecommunications and financial/corporate/legal services and were over-represented as professionals/white collar workers, while White women were over-represented in advertisements for household products, personal products, and medical products and featured predominantly as homemakers. Māori/Pasifika men were over-represented as athletes and service and sales workers. Non-White women featured prominen...

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Research paper thumbnail of The Rise of the Hobbit Critic: From The Desolation of Smaug to The Battle of the Five Armies

This chapter describes the major perspectives identified in post-viewing surveys relating to The ... more This chapter describes the major perspectives identified in post-viewing surveys relating to The Desolation of Smaug, conducted between January and July 2014, and The Battle of the Five Armies, conducted between January and May 2015. The chapter notes the emergence of increasingly critical and indeed polarised perspectives on the cinematic value, quality and impact of Jackson’s second and third Hobbit films. These critiques often expressed a more fundamental concern about the detrimental impact of key creative decisions that were seen to reflect underlying commercial imperatives. The chapter thus documents the crystallisation and intensification of audience ambivalence toward the processes and imperatives governing the cinematic adaptation, serialisation and blockbusterisation of Tolkien’s original novel.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Returning to Middle-Earth, in Blockbusterised Form

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Framing audience prefigurations of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey : The roles of fandom, politics and idealised intertexts

Audiences for blockbuster event-film sequels and adaptations often formulate highly developed exp... more Audiences for blockbuster event-film sequels and adaptations often formulate highly developed expectations, motivations, understandings and opinions well before the films are released. A range of intertextual and paratextual influences inform these audience prefigurations, and are believed to frame subsequent audience engagement and response. In our study of prefigurative engagements with Peter Jackson's 2012 film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we used Q methodology to identify five distinct subjective orientations within the film's global audience. As this paper illustrates, each group privileges a different set of extratextual referents - notably J.R.R. Tolkien's original novels, Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings film trilogy, highly localised political debates relating to the film's production, and the previous associations of the film's various stars. These interpretive frames, we suggest, competed for ascendancy within public and private discour...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Pioneering Cinematic Technologies and The Hobbit’s Hyperreality Paradox

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

This chapter analyses audience reactions to the Hobbit trilogy’s usual visual aesthetic, produced... more This chapter analyses audience reactions to the Hobbit trilogy’s usual visual aesthetic, produced through the combination of high frame rate, 3D and extensive use of computer-generated imagery. While intended to facilitate and intensify viewers’ experience of pleasurable re-immersion in Middle-earth, the combination of these technologies produced contradictory effects and visual artefacts that some viewers considered jarring and displeasing. The chapter shows that critical reactions to The Hobbit’s visual aesthetic were variously informed by individual commitments to a more traditional cinematic aesthetic, appreciation for The Lord of the Rings’ ‘gritty’ realism and an apparent clash between the technologies themselves, the latter of which generated a hyperreality paradox, disrupting narrative immersion for a small but significant number of respondents.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Reservoir hill and audiences for online interactive drama

This paper analyses the interactive experiences constructed for users of the New Zealand online i... more This paper analyses the interactive experiences constructed for users of the New Zealand online interactive drama Reservoir Hill (2009, 2010), focusing both on the nature and levels of engagement which the series provided to users and the difficulties of audience research into this kind of media content. The series itself provided tightly prescribed forms of interactivity across multiple platforms, allowing forms of engagement that were greatly appreciated by its audience overall but actively explored only by a small proportion of users. The responses from members of the Reservoir Hill audience suggests that online users themselves are still learning the nature of, and constraints on, their engagements with various forms of online interactive media. This paper also engages with issue of how interactivity itself is defined, the difficulties of both connecting with audience members and securing timely access to online data, and the challenges of undertaking collaborative research with...

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Research paper thumbnail of Unexpected Controversies Cast a Shadow Over Middle-Earth

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

This chapter focuses on a controversy that shaped public discussion and debate around the Hobbit ... more This chapter focuses on a controversy that shaped public discussion and debate around the Hobbit production before the first film’s release. The extended Hobbit union dispute, which threatened to derail the trilogy’s New Zealand production and prompted widely criticised reforms to New Zealand labour law, reveals much about how processes and imperatives of blockbusterisation are reshaping transnational film production. Audience reactions to this issue demonstrate how and why a transnational production such as The Hobbit can have varying degrees of salience for differently located audiences, while also demonstrating the potential for cinematic desire for fetishised cultural commodities to ultimately trump consideration of the conditions under which such commodities are produced.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Making global audiences for a Hollywood 'blockbuster' feature film: Marketability, playability and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012

This article interprets two key concepts in movie marketing (marketability and playability) throu... more This article interprets two key concepts in movie marketing (marketability and playability) through an empirical examination of the effects of commercial interpellation of audiences for a Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ fantasy film, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). The article reports results of two online surveys of Hobbit audiences, one in November 2012 in the weeks preceding theatrical release, and one in February–June 2013 among post-viewing audiences, employing a mixed-methods approach that includes Q sorting and a questionnaire. We identify and describe five main pre-release and five main post-viewing audience groups, showing that the film had greater marketability than playability. Three of the pre-release audience groups expressed a high degree of anticipation to see the film, but only one post-viewing audience group expressed a high degree of enjoyment, while the others expressed various degrees of disappointment. We discuss the attributes of the film that most affected the film's marketability and playability for each of the audience groups during the interpellation process from prefiguration to reception.

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