The
minute explained:
When I watched it the first time, I was
automatically drawn into this video. I don’t know why, but I was actually quite
sad, even disappointed, when the minute was over. Because I wanted to know what
comes next. What happens in this mysterious film factory.
My
experience:
So I watched this minute again, and again,
and again. I followed the spinning of the film wheels and thought about what
they could mean. After watching the minute a couple of times, I first payed
attention to the introductory text which interrupts the footage. It says: “Hypnotic
Pictures presents – A Bill Morrison Film”.
What caught my eye was the word hypnotic. And
then I realized that Bill Morrison did not leave the introductory minute up to
chance. It made sense. The spinning of the wheels is indeed hypnotic.
My
questions:
So I thought I wanted to explore this word
and the phenomenon in more detail. I asked myself: Can film actually be
hypnotic? Can footage like this create a form of hypnosis? Or could even films
in general be hypnotic in a certain way?
What
is Hypnosis:
When we think about hypnosis, we probably
think about being hypnotized. Imagine your eyes are following the swinging of a
pendulum and at the same time, your mind enters a different state. Isn’t that
similar to watching these film wheels spin? There is a thing you focus your
visual attention on and this thing is moving in a circular and predictable way.
But hypnosis does not have to be done with
a pendulum. The idea of hypnosis is to achieve an altered state of mind. This
state of mind can be induced by a hypnotist, by dancing or in other ways.
In the media, hypnosis is often portrayed
as a tool to gain control over people, make them do something funny, bark like
a dog instead of talking, or make them forget how to tell time. That is
entertaining, but not the true purpose of hypnosis.
What hypnosis is actually good for is to overcome
fears or addictions. Professionals can help people quit smoking, overcome the
fear of spiders and their test anxiety, for example.
This works because hypnosis opens the door
to the subconscious.
Through hypnosis, we can enter a trance. The
hypnotic trance is a state of mind in which a person is truly relaxed, not quite
asleep, but still awake, not fully awake, though. This trace is similar to
meditation. The special thing about this trance is that the attention is
extremely limited and focused on very few things at a time. So whatever is
processed under hypnosis can have a great impact.
Hypnosis
and movies:
So, what does hypnosis have to do with
films that we watch in our everyday life? I think there are many parallels.
When we come home from a long day at the
university or work, we want to sit down and watch something, maybe a series,
maybe a movie or just a short video. But why is that?
I think one reason is that watching a film
gives us a chance to escape the real world for a bit. Film is perfect for that.
It is like a switch: World off – Netflix on. Or something like that. This
sudden switch is indeed very similar to entering the state of hypnosis. A
professional hypnotist is able to induce hypnosis with the snapping of his
finger. And the person is in a different state of mind right away.
So, lets talk about how it feels like to
watch a movie or film. It releases tension – much like the physical tension
that is released under hypnosis. I’m sure you have all seen pictures of people
who were hypnotized. They don’t sit upright; they look almost like they are
asleep. When we sit on our couch, watching something, we might look a bit like
that. Truly relaxed.
But not only our body is relaxed, but also
our mind. We no longer think about the day we had, or all of or other problems,
at least for a while. As said before, a relaxed focus is the secret to
hypnosis. I think we can very well argue, that while watching a film, we do
enter a state of relaxed focus, if not even a trance. Our attention is
extremely focused on what we see and hear in the movie, and not much around us
matters.
Hypnosis
and Children:
While we might get distracted sometimes
while we watch a film, there is a group of people where this phenomenon can be
observed most obviously. Children! Have you ever watched a child watching TV.
It is actually very funny. What they all have in common is that they definitely
look like they were hypnotized by whatever they were watching.
They really do tune out everything else in
their environment and are 100% focused on the screen. Talking to them does not
make sense because they will not even hear you. And their eyes are following
the movement on the screen.
Tu sum it up, I think that moving pictures
do have a hypnotic element to them, not only footage as this one in minute two,
which can be hypnotic in a very literal sense, but also films in general which
we watch every day. They help us to transcend into a different sate of mind and
escape reality for a short time. With that said, I’m looking forward to being
hypnotized by the other minutes of this film, today and in the coming weeks.
Rebecca Leicht
