Ithaca College

The Student Psychology Association Speaker Series presents Professor James Cutting on April 8th, from 5:30-6:30 in Textor 101!

We didn't evolve to watch film. Instead, film has evolved over the last century to fit our cognitive and perceptual systems. Much has been written about changes in cinema, from its beginnings in the 1890s to the present day, and Professor Cutting will interpret these in psychological terms. The rationale for theaters, projection systems, cuts as opposed to other shot transitions, film lengths, and aspect ratios will be discussed, but the presentation will focus on empirical results gathered from detailed analyses of 150 films from 1935 to 2005, each among the top grossing films of its respective year. One conclusion is that films are increasingly composed of shots of particular patterns of lengths to match our patterns of attention.