Q. In our book, Nichols writes, " An Attentive viewer must also be familiar with the repertoire of choices a director faces to recognize her decisions as choices rather than as simply the product of the camera's mechanical ability". What do you thing Nichols is tying to say in the statement and what are your thoughts?
A. I think what Nichols is trying to say is that the director has the power to make the audience feel the emotional weight of all the choices presented to the characters of a film. Wether it is presenting the choice in question with growing suspense such as at the end of The Dark Knight (2008); where two separate ships are pitted against each other - one filled with civilians and the other with prisoners. Both ships are packed to the brim with explosives, and both contain a button that will detonate the other; the heaviness of the choice these people are faced with looms over everyone's heads. With a limited amount of time no one (not even the viewer) knows who will push the button that will ultimately end hundreds of people's lives. A director can also present a choice that will tare at a person's heart strings such as in Nichols's own example Sophie's Choice (1982); where a young women is forced, by a Nazi officer, to choose which two of her four children to save from certain doom at a concentration camp.
The director has the power to create an atmosphere where the character is visually struggling with what they think is right and wrong; this helps to create a amazingly strong connection with the viewer. A director has the power to shape a film to bring a person to their knees in sorrow, or to the edge of their seats in suspense. Directors have an enormous amount of choices to make as to how they want to present their content, and an attentive viewer should be aware of that.
