Позитивные изменения. Том 3, № 2 (2023). Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 2 (2023) - страница 23

It is gratifying that more and more people, including those who set the trends in the film market, are now beginning to understand that cinema is actually the most convenient channel for working with society. Namely, promoting new meanings, articulating problems and their solutions, interpreting the reality, defining behavior patterns. The film is the most comprehensive way to move the viewers, engage them emotionally through empathy or associating oneself with the characters. This has a tremendous impact on shaping or changing each individual’s behaviors and value systems.

Cinematography is a conductor of a certain ideology (in the broadest sense of the word, as per Sergei Eisenstein’s view); that is, a system of worldviews, a convoluted combination of experience, knowledge, customs, traditions, morals, norms, ideals, morality, corresponding to a particular society. Cinematography is largely responsible for the value orientations ensuring the preservation of society, its structure and forms of life (Mikhailova, 2018). This industry has long been a factor in the transformation of society and the socialization of its members. Modern society, as aptly noted in one study of the social role of cinema in this very society, is a “global cinema” (Kurtov, 2011).

Many recognize the cinema’s social role, but the success of films is still measured in the traditional way, by the budget vs. box office receipts. Few think of how the situation can be monitored further. What lessons does the average viewer take home? Did they have to think hard over what they had seen? Did it affect their life – at least in the short run? What about the lives and behaviors of those who were watching the film next to them?

The questions are many, the answers are few.

It is becoming less and less appropriate to limit the evaluation of the effectiveness of contemporary domestic cinematography to economic and investment terms alone, or to argue that supporting filmmaking is a basic and traditional responsibility of the state. The expert community is increasingly talking about the overdue need to introduce a system of substantive, qualitative assessments of films shot in the country, to study the social effects, the strength of the potential and actual social impact – which is often more revealing than the amount of box office receipts or the number of viewers who saw the picture. Moreover, the talk today is not so much about the immediate social effects (for example, significant changes in the life of a particular target audience), but about the impact in general – that is, the global social impact on the society in terms of changes in the public perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.

With the growing awareness of the importance of impact assessment in the film industry, the examples of positioning with a focus on social impact are becoming increasingly common – the Lampa Impact Film Festival, special nominations at professional festivals, competitions and awards, such as Media Brand and Advertising of the Future, and numerous studies and articles devoted to this issue. For example, the 2022 Social Effects of Cinema study[17] conducted by The Center for Social Projects “Platforma” together with the National Media Group (NMG). So far, unfortunately, the study only captures a snapshot of the situation, but does not tell what exactly needs to be done to implement the assessment; however, the authors have already announced its planned expansion, continuing to research the social impact of cinematography and updating the assessment methodology of social effects. According to the information available to us, the updated study will be presented to the expert community at the next St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June and at Russian Creative Week in Moscow in July.