Редакция журнала «Позитивные изменения»
Позитивные изменения. Том 3, № 2 (2023). Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 2 (2023)
Movies That Change Lives. Evaluating the Social Impact of Motion Pictures and the Practice of Evidence in Filmmaking
Ivan Smekalin
DOI 10.55140/2782–5817–2023–3–2–28–38
Cinema is one of the most popular art forms among people of all ages. Just like music, theater, architecture, literature or painting, cinema certainly has an impact on people. At the same time, it has the capability to not just draw attention to social problems, but also to change people’s attitudes and behaviors – thus changing the world as a whole. This article provides an overview of various approaches to researching social impact of motion pictures and raises a number of important issues related to the current state of the impact assessment industry in motion pictures.
Ivan Smekalin
Analyst, Positive Changes Factory, master’s student at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris)
GETTING THE TERMS RIGHT: WHAT IS IMPACT ENTERTAINMENT
The English-language literature uses the term “Social Impact Entertainment” to describe the use of cinema as a means of influencing public opinion and public awareness. Typically, such content covers a wide range of societal issues, such as the environment, cultural differences, racial and gender issues, and others. There is no similar term in Russian, but “impact entertainment” or “social impact cinema” can be used instead.
The term also received a definition at the Vedomosti media business conference in 2012, albeit a narrowed-down one, which only referred to “drawing attention” – specifically, it was “an entertainment content production and distribution system that draws the audience attention to issues of social importance.”[29] That is, the kind of content that does not only entertain the viewers, but also enables a discussion of important topics that would likely be left in obscurity if not shown on screen.
It is important to note that social impact is a running theme in the entertainment industry, playing an important role. Figure 1[30] shows the relationship between impact entertainment and mainstream content production. The chart shows that social impact is an integral part of the entertainment industry without being a separate development sector or part of a development sector. Igor Mishin, CEO MTS Media, has the same view of the phenomenon, which he shared at the aforementioned conference: “Social impact content doesn’t have to be something special. Viewers should love it and accept it normally, just like any other type of content. No need to take this topic into a reservation.”
How do we go from declaring the importance of impact to measuring it and even guaranteeing that our goal is achieved? The global practice for assessing the impact of a motion picture is to use interdisciplinary tools aimed at measuring the social impact of content. In particular, the interest in assessing the social impact of a motion picture is related to the fact that such content can become a tool for addressing vital social and environmental issues by appealing to the public opinion. In this regard, social impact assessment tools are integrated into all stages in the development and production of film projects, as well as after their completion – just like with any project involving social change to be achieved.
Figure 1. The Impact-Enjoyment continuum in evaluating the social impact of media content
SOCIAL SCIENCES: FILM AS A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SUBJECT
Researchers assessing the social impact of motion pictures use various impact assessment tools (Kaufman & Simonton, 2013). The methods focus on different aspects of the social impact of the motion picture and study different subjects: the content of the film or the perception of the audience.
One method is surveys, which involve collecting data from large groups of people about their attitudes, opinions, and behaviors related to film products. For example, a survey could be about how the film influenced viewers’ opinions on a particular topic. Longitudinal studies track the same people or group over an extended period, to see how their experience with film changes and develops over time. Content analysis examines the content of films, identifies their topics and messages, and assesses their potential of influencing the audiences. Ethnographic research helps us understand how a community perceives film and how cultural context affects that perception.
The social effects of cinema at the social attitudes level are not linear; they involve many other related variables, and vary depending on the assessment method and indicators selected. However, some tools based on the methods used in social sciences have long been used in filmmaking. University of Birmingham professor Finola Kerrigan, in her book on film marketing (Kerrigan, 2017), lists the following tools in this category: concept testing, positioning studies, test screenings, focus group testing, advertising testing, and exit polls:
• Concept testing – this step assesses the potential for commercialization and success in the market, so as to determine the film budget. This can be viewed as part of the production process, because it can influence decisions such as script development and actor selection.
• Positioning studies – this type of research analyzes elements that can act as marketing assets of a film. Marketers test the potential profitability of a film based on audience response to the genre, cast, and specific characters.
• Test screenings. There are two types of test screenings in the film industry: B2B – for business partners, and B2C – for ordinary viewers. In the first case, film screenings are held for film distributors, as part of private screenings or film festivals. Such tests are use to learn the partners’ opinions, as well as to attract them to the project. In the case of test screenings for viewers, the target audience members involved are invited to watch the film before the final version. It is here that changes can be made to the film, such as replacing the ending in Rambo or changing the drawing of characters in the Pikachu film. The respondents are selected by social and demographic qualities and are interviewed before and after watching the film. During the screening, researchers observe their reactions and some of the invited viewers participate in a focus group after the screening.
• Testing of marketing materials – posters, trailers, postcards and advertisements can be tested in focus groups to make sure they match the cultural codes of the target audience and are understood by them.
As Ruth Vasey, author of a film research guide (Vasey, 2008), writes, Hollywood’s peculiarity lies in the dichotomous nature of its “show business,” which combines the financial imperatives of “business” with the ephemeral appeal of “show.” There is an entire genre of articles in The Hollywood Reporter discussing how the results of test screenings influenced marketing decisions for a particular film. From the same magazine you can learn[31] that test screenings were kept as part of the mandatory film preparation program even during the COVID-19 pandemic, because their results could lead to both additional filming and higher chance for success.
Overall, we can conclude that cinema is an attractive and promising area for research. At the same time, representatives of different scientific disciplines use their own conceptual apparatus and formulate their own research questions related to this area. In particular, for a sociologist, cinema can be of interest in terms of representing social situations and phenomena, as described in Vadim Radayev’s sociological essays (Radayev, 2023). There is even a special academic discipline, Cinema Studies (Bateman & Schmidt, 2013), which treats film as a separate semiotic space. The junction between the viewer’s perception and the film plot can also be studied from the perspective of psychology (Petrenko & Dedyukina, 2019). From a linguistic point of view, there have been interesting studies on fictional languages from films, such as the Návi language from the Avatar universe (Frommer, 2009).
MARKETING: ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY AND CULTURAL STRATEGY
It is worth noting that neither social science nor psychology offers any ready-made recipes on how to incorporate their methods into the filmmaking process, nor do they aim to do so. The methodologies that include conducting research and considering its results as part of project activities are primarily developed by the actual stakeholders – the filmmaking community itself. In the United States an association for impact entertainment has been established, the Social Impact Entertainment Society. This association has a specially developed guide to impact assessment – the Four Impact Dynamics[32]. Notably, these four elements mirror the social impact ladder and appeal to the logic of the theory of change. The theory of change (Gladkikh & Talitskaya, 2022) is the basic element of the social project evaluation model, connecting the links in the chain of a project’s social outcomes. The social impact ladder describes a chain of social outcomes in terms of successive changes in the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of target audiences, as well as changes in communities and society at large.
According to the guide, the four levels of impact in entertainment products include:
1. Changes in opinions – what attitudes and beliefs are you trying to create or transform?
2. Changes in behavior – what specific actions could you promote?
3. Community building – what communities could you help?
4. Changes in structures – what laws or policies are affecting the problem you are trying to solve?
To plan for impact, you must have a strategy lined up for the film, its mission, its image of social change, its target audiences, and the appropriate messaging.
• Artistic vision – the inner vision of the film and of what it will be like. It is determined by the director and creative crew selected by the director.
• The vision of the impact is the external vision of what the film will do. It is determined by the entire project team, including those in charge of public relations.
History, narrative, and culture come together through theory of change (Borum Chattoo, 2021) into a cultural strategy, in which practitioners collaborate with the entertainment industry executives, writers and producers to shape positive images of socially excluded communities and raise awareness of social issues, produce and distribute their content. The basic principle behind the cultural strategy is that entertaining stories can influence public opinion and perception by fostering cultural dialog and public participation, which is used in social policies aimed at stimulating social justice.
Cultural strategy refers to social results in media projects and is built on the principles of education-entertainment, an area at the junction of impact entertainment and educational projects. It is an established industry with clear methodologies and principles. A textbook on this direction of filmmaking (Singhal et al., 2003) cites a motion picture series made in South Africa as an example. An 18-month study was conducted to produce the series, which included in-depth interviews with social activists and government officials, case studies of women surviving violence, and audience research. To implement the study’s findings, it was decided to focus the campaign on overcoming the structural barriers that prevented women from seeking help. The script was based on the materials from the interviews and group discussions. For example, character positioning was lined up based on focus group surveys and audience feedback during test readings of the script, and social issues were “sewn into” the fabric of the drama.
As an example of the use of Four Impact Dynamics, we can refer to the crew experience of the US motion picture The Hunting Ground. This example stands out due to its comprehensive use of the assessment tools for the study of the social results achieved, as well as its integration of the media project and research. The team used theory of change to mobilize student interest and engage university leadership in new practices (Dick & Ziering, 2016). The crew held 70 screenings at 33 universities. They also worked with student leaders at conferences and national meetings where the film was used to influence campus life. The project team used the Four Impact Dynamics methodology to assess the social impact of the film. They worked with human rights activists and university associations to conduct a survey about sexual violence on campuses among the students on all campuses across the country. The following indicators were developed: student reactions to the screenings and follow-up activities, university staff and students’ requests for screenings, adoption of violence prevention training programs by universities, and implementation of new policies recommended based on the results of the survey. The results of the team’s work showed increased interest among students and university administrators in the issues raised in the film, and led to the introduction of new policies to combat sexual violence among the students.
To plan for impact, you must have a strategy lined up for the film, its mission, its image of social change, its target audiences, and the appropriate messaging.
The applicability of the Four Impact Dynamics methodology to assess social impact of a motion picture is recognized by the media impact assessment community and used to assess the effects of impact entertainment. Its advantage is consistency with the steps of the impact ladder and the project logic of the Theory of Change. Therefore, it can be used as the basis for designing and building an impact assessment system for motion pictures. However, it is also worth noting the limitations of Four Impact Dynamics: estimating impact as the final stage results needs an overly complicated model. The scope of subjects and film formats to which this methodology (and the general implementation of the principles of impact entertainment) is applicable, is also limited.
RUSSIA’S EXPERIENCE IN EVALUATING THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CINEMA
When discussing the social impact of cinema, it is important to clarify that not all studies cover this social aspect of film production. Social impact is a subject of research that falls into the evaluation of social programs and policies, while it is possible to consider the plot, language, and audience perceptions of a film outside the context of social impact. One Russian study that addresses social impact but does not conduct or implement evaluation of a film, instead focusing on creating the conditions for mapping, is a study by the Center for Social Projects “Platforma”, supported by the National Media Group. The aim of the study was to develop a social impact index and a map of films having social impact, taking into account both domestic and foreign experience. The study generated a list of 28 films released in 2021–2022 and identified by experts as having social impact, as well as a coverage rating and an impact map of the films, based on 11 parameters reflecting the film’s impact on the audience. In order to create a map of social impact films, we used the results of a mass quantitative survey of Russian cities with more than 100,000 population, in which respondents chose up to five films they had seen, and rated each film by 11 parameters reflecting its impact on the audience.
The study concluded that social impact films should consider the balance between popularity and social message, and not alienate the viewer by evoking negative emotions. One of the challenges of social impact films is to engage and retain the viewer. Cinema should be entertaining and emotional, as well as provide answers to the viewers’ questions and support them in a challenging situation. It is hard to argue that these findings were unknown prior to the study.
Notably, the authors use an integrated approach that includes both a common marketing framework for social impact assessment and a set of some social research methods. Speaking about the differences between this study and the testing practices in film production mentioned above, we can highlight the following points:
• the Platforma study is done post-factum, after the films have been released, and is not a part of the filmmaking process that could have an effect on the final appearance of the film;
• the study is conducted without focusing on specific films; that is, it does not focus on the media effects, narrative features, and special effects of a specific film whose crew is involved in the study design;
• the study methods focus on the interpretation by an undetermined sample of viewers, so that there remains room for improvement of the approach by refining the sample of surveys;
• the study does not include test screenings, an important element of applied research tools;
• the only data source used is a survey, without the qualitative perspective of researching the plot of the film.
Impact is a subject of research that falls into the evaluation of programs and policies, while it is possible to consider the plot, language, and audience perceptions of a film outside this context.
However, the most important point worth noting in the Platforma study is that social impact is the final element in a complex chain of social effects, which cannot be proven by referring to post-factum social surveys of an undetermined number of individuals, without identifying the target groups, the social issues raised by the films, the effects of specific films on communities. The study still fails to map films by their social effect. As you read the report, the question arises: What is the social significance of the selected films? We can conclude that there is room for expanding the available set of tools for more effective research into the social significance of Russian cinema and incorporating them into the film production process.
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS OF THE ASSESSMENT OF THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CINEMA
Impact entertainment is the use of cinema to influence public opinion and awareness. In addition to entertaining viewers, social impact content also promotes a discussion of important topics, which can lead to increased awareness on various global issues and a change in social attitudes through the broadcasting of behavioral patterns. Impact entertainment is an integral part of the entertainment industry, existing within the framework of mainstream content production.
The social impact of cinema is explored through numerous methods borrowed from the social sciences. Both qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to cover different aspects of the film’s social impact. For example, surveys and longitudinal studies deal with viewers’ attitudes and behaviors, content analysis deals with film content, and ethnographic studies address the cultural context of film perception. The perspectives of content analysis and perception can be combined using, for example, experimental psychosemantic methods. Different social research methods are used in film industry to focus on different aspects of the films’ social impact. Applied research tools such as concept testing, positioning studies, focus group testing, test screenings, advertising testing, and exit polls are used during the film production. They help assess a film’s potential in the marketplace and make decisions about script development and actor selection. Marketing tools such as project planning can be used to integrate social impact studies into the filmmaking process.
The Russian experience of assessing social impact of a film is based on applying a combined framework of marketing and social science methods. The distinguishing feature of this study is that it is done after the films have been released, and is not a part of the production process that could have had an effect on the final appearance of the film. No test screenings were conducted as part of the study, and only an unspecified sample survey is used.
The use of applied tools to determine the social impact of Russian films involves the integration of a research component into the film production process. Moreover, developing a cultural strategy that involves social impact assessment and design can contribute to greater social impact. This is how the image of evidencebased approach in the film industry emerges.
The experience we have reviewed allows us to conclude that the field of social impact assessment in the film industry has a large number of growth points. One possibility is to develop an assessment model based on the project’s theory of change. It involves describing the assessment tasks, indicators and methods at each stage of the development, creation and final evaluation of a film product. Accordingly, there are three types of evaluation: predictive evaluation during the preparation phase, monitoring after the launch of the film project, and impact assessment in the period of the anticipated achievement of social effects.
As part of the evidence-based filmmaking strategy developed, research tools are adapted to different types of materials – script, intermediate materials (storyboards), finished content, informational materials, etc.
It should be noted that Russia currently lags behind in the field of evidence and has only a superficial level of discussion regarding the assessment of film products. The term “impact media” is far more popular than what is being done at the real scale to rigorously and reasonably assess film products. Self-assessment, expert review by the project team, and other approaches that are subjective and prone to wishful thinking are more common than conducting objective research and studying audience opinions and feedback.
In this context, the phenomenon of impact washing is created, as players begin to add the word “impact” to the names of their companies or positions. For example, we now have “impact directors” instead of ordinary directors, which, however, does not lead to any significant changes in their work. We assume that once the market is saturated with experts capable of conducting research of sufficient complexity, it will become indecent to talk about creative products being immeasurable, or about the possibility of using the concept of “impact” in relation to simple social effects, or about drawing conclusions based on a sample of a few people.
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