How are the following 'technical' devices used to encourage audiences to 'identify' with characters in a television program: point(s)-of-view and transparency?

The producers of 'The Simpsons' make good use of both techniques to hide the production of the image, and also to draw attention to it. I consider it an example of television very worthy of analysis because often the subject matter broached is that which is tackled in this essay; that of the nature of TV as a medium and how the practises of television's producers are employed to draw the viewer closer to (or repel them from) the main subjects of the text──the characters.

The beginning of the show launches straight into a parody of lifestyle-documentaries via 'PADZ'. Its introduction sequence gives us this title superimposed on blueprints of large buildings. The audio that accompanies this is punchy dramatic electronic music and the voice of an unseen woman presenter saying, “Welcome to another episode of PADZ! Where we go inside the mega-mansions of today's hot young celebrities” ('The Simpsons' 2003). The introduction sequence finishes and the shot cuts to the first celebrity, Krusty the Clown. This is a good example of point-of-view as established by speech. The key word used by the presenter is 'we'. The audience and the presenter are placed together and it is from this angle that the mansions and celebrities will be viewed, despite the fact that throughout the rest of the 'PADZ' parody the presenter is neither heard or seen again (Wilson, 1993).

The voice-over also alerts the viewer to what to pay attention to and what kind of attitude is most suitable; the large, expensive house (in a culture where more (or mega) is always better than less) and the celebrity who is attributed youth and popularity─ are all considered desirable. The ideal viewer takes on these values of the presenter (Wilson, 1993).

'PADZ' makes no attempt at presenting itself as veridical in nature or hiding the fact that a camera is involved, in fact it seems to exaggerate these things. It is not a drama, so has no concern for upsetting the viewers' equilibrium, but it does want to set itself apart within the documentary genre and perhaps due to its 'native to Hollywood' style may even celebrate the “image as construction” (Wilson, 1993 p-134). There is also the fact that it is parody and exaggeration is used to demonstrate this.

Indications of the presence of the camera are via the (as Branigan puts it) “subjective travelling shot”, (Wilson, 1993 p-134) which appears from the start where the main subject, Krusty, is set on a horizontal tilt (in that the camera appears to be at the height of eye level with the subject, but is tilted diagonally). This technique is used in more than half of the rest of the shots in the 50-second sequence. In addition, zoom-ins and zoom-outs are used and several times both the zoom-in and tilt techniques are used together to produce the effect in the audience that they are 'spiralling in' on the subject of focus (e.g. a chair, monkey or pool full of shrimp shells).

Another variation is a panning-shot which briefly scans across Krusty's wall of photos of him with famous people, reminding us of his fame and that the unseen (and now unheard) presenter is still part of the 'we' that makes up her and the audience. It is her whose interest in the photos motivates this shot, which can also be classified as a point-of-view shot as a gaze (Wilson, 1993).

Krusty then takes on a split role as subject and secondary presenter. He becomes a temporary centre of focus while telling stories about his recliner chair and pool (which are either present in the background of shot, or at the bottom of the screen) but the focus of who he is addressing is divided between the viewer (i.e. directly into camera) and presenter who it can be assumed is standing out of shot and to the left of the camera because this is where Krusty looks to.

It's worth noting that in the documentary genre it is a rare occurrence for the subject being investigated (Krusty) to be given the opportunity to directly address the viewer. Even though this is allowed, there is still a 'hierarchy of discourses' where the ability to directly address the audience can be taken away from Krusty (by the unseen presenter) as easily as it is given. The unseen woman presenter remains in control; when Krusty points out a chair behind him it is her opinion of whether the chair is interesting enough to cut the shot from focussing on Krusty to present the chair and the main subject of attention (Fiske, 1987).

Direct address can create the illusion that neither camera or TV screen exist and that the audience is engaging in an unmediated dialogue with the presenter, but this effect is significantly lessened by the current presenter's occasional switch of point of address to out of shot, where the presenter stands. Also the tilted shots remind the audience of the sequence's deliberate construction (Wilson, 1993).

While Krusty as an established and familiar character often comes across as having questionable ethics, he does have the reputation of being a celebrity within the Simpsons' universe. It has been built up through the series' and is again briefly established in this sequence via the panning shot. Through this, and through the direct address, he is placed as a giver of truth on the topics of life as a celebrity and the lives of other celebrities (Wilson, 1993).

The whole concept of 'PADZ' seems to be about producing the “anecdote effect” (Wilson, 1993, p-149). It serves the celebrity by raising their profile with the viewer; it creates a familiarity between the two. However this is only possible when the discourse offered by the celebrity is held in common with the viewer. Regarding his recliner chair, Krusty says that, “this is where Don Adams and Shelley Winters made beautiful music together...” ('The Simpsons, 2003), but (for example) as a viewer, I don't know who these people are, so the point is lost on me.

From this complex structure of subject, object and visual devices, the shot cuts to the more familiar setting of the Simpsons' living room. We, the viewers are positioned as invisible observers alongside their TV, with Bart and Lisa sitting on the couch watching it. The audience only see the corner of the TV in the extreme right of shot, but the audio of Krusty on 'PADZ' continues and it becomes apparent that this is what Bart and Lisa were watching. Here, they are 'authorising' the previous sequence, as well as what is to come (Wilson, 1993).

'The Simpsons' is distinct among TV shows in that it treats the television itself as a character. The actual physical box in their living room is often plays the role of 'the messenger', or bearer of disorder, as it does in this point-of-view sequence¹. Almost no time is left for a visual enigma to form within the audience; we are immediately shown what the children see—the TV. A commercial for 'Turbo Diary' appears. The additional visual cue that this is their TV that we are watching is given through the first shot of the commercial being framed by the (near oval-shaped) frame of their TV. The diary becomes the object of Lisa's desire and her father, Homer, fails to deliver (Wilson, 1993).

As opposed to the 'PADZ' sequence, which apart from the absent point-of-view of the presenter² has no other point of context, the viewer now watches the commercial not only through their own eyes, but also through Bart and Lisa's. To an extent, the viewer takes on what the children would think of the commercial, as well as what they themselves think (Wilson, 1993). The main message of the commercial is that a little girl should have her own private diary, private being the key word. The commercial ends and the shot cuts back to Bart and Lisa. Lisa says she wants the diary, Bart is in agreeance and with one more shot their parents also agree that it's a good idea.

At this point the viewer either agrees with the family, or they don't. Agreeing equates to identifying with the Simpsons, and their value that personal privacy is acceptable. The viewer (if they agree) is aligned with the characters through this (Wilson, 1993). This matter of a purchase is a fairly trivial one, but later in the episode when Homer decides to not pay a private eye for some work that he did for Homer, there is greater potential for the audience to take up a negotiated or oppositional reading of the main character's decision (Allen, 1992).

Point-of-view, empathy and identification can be explored a little later in the episode,³ where the viewer witnesses Lisa's surprise, disappointment, anger and sadness, most of which is centred on the insensitivity of her father. One brief shot in this sequence is a close-up of Lisa's anguished face which is specifically used to get the viewer to identify with her (Fiske, 1987).

If the audience empathises with Lisa in this situation, then this sense of identification can be drawn from relating it to personal experience, or more broadly, a cognitive understanding of social dynamics in that when people within close-knit groups (like families) fail to live up to the roles that society hands them, disappointment will often be the end result among the others of that group. When a viewer can empathise with a character, then they effectively take on that character's “horizon of understanding” (Wilson, 1993, p-130).

While the episode does include a (parodied) noir-style private investigator, the only mystery he's working on is 'what does Lisa like?'──the solution to which would only evoke a sense of pleasure in the viewer who had never seen 'The Simpsons' before⁴. Through a series of point-of-view sequences involving Lisa and Homer, some of the audience may begin to identify with Homer's attempt to regain the love of his daughter,⁵ and the audience may find some pleasure in seeing that (by the end of the episode) this has worked.

As a prime-time sitcom, 'The Simpsons' is distinctive due to it being animated. The performers who provide the characters their voices are virtually unknown when compared to actors who work in a more conventional medium than animation. However this particular episode provides an example of how a personality's on and off-screen images are fused in 'PADZ'. Indeed, 'PADZ' is the type of show that nurtures this fusion to create a 'larger than life' persona in the subject of its investigation (Fiske, 1987).

When the 'PADZ' TV crew show up on Krusty's doorstep, he appears hungover and grumpy. He complains loudly, saying that he didn't know they were coming today and that they were supposed to ring him. This is consistent with the image he often (but not always) portrays on the 'Krusty the Clown Show' – which is that of a bumbling, reluctant star who's only in it for the money.

Later in the sequence the audience is reminded that 'Krusty' is only his show business name, when his neighbour, Elliot Gould, approaches him with a complaint, calling him (Herschel) 'Krustofski'; his real surname.

'The Simpsons' presents as strongly escapist in nature. It caters to wish-fulfilment through factors such as the arc of the conventional sitcom where life starts off as normal, becomes chaotic but always seems to come good again by the end of the show⁶. Also, despite their dysfunctionality as a family, they love each other and in accordance with the conventions of most animation, the characters can endure extreme physical pain and injury with almost no consequences. Both of these things are contrary to what we know about how real life operates.

From an ideologist stance identification with the show would produce an audience who are satisfied with living the status quo and for whom underachieving is completely acceptable (Fiske, 1987). As Brecht points out, identifying with the characters in a realist style show like this, is always a reinforcement of the status quo (Fiske, 1987).

I would say that due to 'The Simpsons' being a cartoon and its characters having a much more 'one-dimensional' feel, (on account of it being part of the sitcom genre) the viewer is less likely to actively think about the choices that each character makes. Yet perhaps this activity is taken up on the level in regards to the three writer/producers of the show. 'The Simpsons' is laden with social commentary only part of which is disseminated through the 'living' characters of the family, much of it comes through other plot devices like the TV, as with 'PADZ' and the 'Turbo Diary' commercial. Occasionally the commentary is quite pointed, as with an episode that portrayed George Bush Snr as “the baddie” and a wowser, while portraying Gerald Ford as a 'down to earth guy'. To me it seems fairly unlikely that viewers would (deliberately or not) blur the lines between real life and the character's life by making remarks like, “If Homer lived next door to me, I'd be on his side. I don't like Bush either”. Instead, the audience in gossip about the show would be more likely to agree or disagree with the stance the writers took when creating the episode.

The level of transparency of 'The Simpsons' is noticeable in the transition between the 'PADZ' sequence and the following shots relating to Lisa and the diary. In the latter, the focus is always on the character who is talking. Due to this more conventional practice the viewer is more easily able to identify with the family compared to Krusty, or the 'PADZ' presenter.

Camera movement such as panning shots that don't appear to have any obvious focus (as with the shot scanning Krusty's photos) are much less transparent when compared to a situation where the camera tracks or pans to follow a character who is walking and talking. Here, the camera is moving but is hardly noticed by the audience because this is what it expects. It is part of the viewers “horizon of expectations” (Wilson, 1993, p-106). The viewer becomes almost like a 'ghost in the scene', where they hover in a neutral position somewhere nearby the talking subjects, but not taking over the position of a character (Fiske, 1987).

It is said that good editing of a TV program is that which isn't noticed at all; it conforms to the audience's horizon of expectation by focussing on the dialogue or actions of the characters. As soon as one character has finished their line, the shot cuts to the character responding and this is done without unnecessary camera movement. The follow up shot of the response will often include evidence that the response is directed at the initial speaker which is achieved through a 'two-shot' (where both characters seem to take up equal space on the screen) or with a small portion of the back of the first speaker's head (i.e. facing the character replying) at the edge of the shot (Fiske, 1987).

Even though there is no 'camera' as such in animation, the principle is the same; the focus of each artist-drawn animation cell meets the viewer's expectations. As a sitcom, 'The Simpsons' plots are joke-driven. When the jokes are in dialogue form the focus is on the set-up and the punchline, when they are visual (such as a sign that reads “Your Mug On A Mug” ('The Simpsons', 2003) these will be given the focus even if only for half a second. Again a comparison can be made with 'PADZ', where most of the humour of the sequence is in the over-the-top visual technique parody.

The veridical image is established through repetition, but as Wilson points out, regarding what is a veridical image, the “rules which underwrite the production of transparency will change through time” (Wilson, 1993, p-118). This can be noted when watching movies made fifty or more years ago, which to a younger, present-day generation, appear “slow” when compared to current television. This is the case even when taking into account the fact that film tends to take more liberties with angled, tilted, zoom and panning shots (thus producing a somewhat less veridical image). From this, it could be concluded that TV now uses similar conventions to film then (Wilson, 1993).

It could also be hypothesised that in time the 'PADZ' sequence could look more veridical than it does now, and perhaps, instead of seeing it as 'celebrating image as construction', it could be thought of as pushing the envelope of what is considered veridical.

A great deal of the pleasure derived from watching 'realist' style television comes from its ability to let the viewer lose themselves in a program and identify with its subjects. This would not be achieved without the work done to create a transparent flow of images via the appropriate use of the various camera techniques, positioning and timing.

References

Allen, R. C., (ed) (1992) Channels of Discourse, London, Methuen

Fiske, J., (1987) Television Culture, London and New York, Methuen

“The Dad Who Knew Too Little”, The Simpsons (Channel 10, 7:30pm, 26/3/03)

Wilson, T., (1993), Watching Television: Hermeneutics, Reception and Popular Culture, Cambridge UK, Polity Press