Week 22: Reflection on Practice - Questions

One step at a time, I seem to be getting my forms approved for my interview next week. First to be approved: My questions.

The questions are rather specific to my research and so a little explanation may be necessary during the interview but it was very important to me that my questions reflected on the information I have gathered. As I am focusing on perceptual realism and how visual effects can influence this, I decided that a psychological understanding of how visuals are interpreted from the eye to the brain would be fundamental. Due to this I sought to question a professional from a psychological background.

Interview Questions

Warm-up Questions
The Suspension of Disbelief

1. “The willing suspension of disbelief” is a concept in film-making/storytelling explaining that an audience can accept any fictional ideas within the story to allow them to empathise. What do you think about this statement?

2. Does the audience, in your opinion, disregard reality in order to engage in the story?

Believability Through Visuals

3. To what degree do you feel that the expectation of what is observed from reality  
    affects the audience’s ability to accept the fictional elements being portrayed?

4. Do you believe that there are any specific visual elements that we as human beings rely
    on to enhance the perceptive realism within film and visual story-telling?

5.       What exactly, do you think, allows fictional concepts to be contextually believable?

6.       How does this differ from what is visually believable?

The Uncanny and The Relation Between Sight and Mind

7. “The uncanny valley” theory highlights that humans can feel repulsed by CG characters of   
                     a substantial level of human likeness if they move in an unnatural manner.  What do
                     you believe is the cause of this phenomenon?

8.    It has been said that human beings are “hard-wired” to identify realism in particular   
       human physical characteristics, such as the eyes, face and skin etc. How do you feel  
       about this statement?

9.    Which psychological factors, if any, account for this behaviour?


10. It has also been claimed that the first thing the audience observe about a person or
      character is their eyes. What is your view on this?

Concluding Questions

11.   What makes certain characteristics or features more noticeable than others?

12. Which physical elements of a character do you think are most important in enhancing  
       their believability to the audience?

As I mentioned above, some of the questions are very content specific and may require further explanation. Nevertheless, I feel that this is necessary in furthering my research; I need to see if these points make sense from a psychological standpoint and if any psychological factors play a part in perceptual realism.