Describe how film and theater differ with respect to each medium’s relationship with the audience

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. In the live theater, the viewer remains in a stationary position. The distance between the audience and the stage is constant. Of course, an actor can move closer to an audience, but compared to the fluid space in the cinema, distance variation in the live theater is negligible.
2. The stage player interacts with viewers, establishing a delicate rapport with each different audience. The screen player, on the other hand, is inexorably fixed on celluloid: He or she can’t readjust to each audience, for the worlds of the screen and the viewer aren’t connected and continuous as they are in the live theater. Movies often seem dated because acting styles can’t be adjusted to newer audiences. Stage actors, on the other hand, can make even a 2,000-year-old play seem fresh and relevant, for while the words remain the same, their interpretation and delivery can always be changed to conform with contemporary acting styles.
3. Because of the spatial differences, the viewer’s participation is different in each medium. In the live theater, the audience generally must be more active. All the visual elements are provided within a given space, so the viewer must sort out what’s essential from what’s incidental.
4. Disregarding for the moment the importance of language in the theater, drama is a medium of low visual saturation. That is, the audience must fill in certain meanings in the absence of visual detail. A movie audience, on the other hand, is generally more passive. All the necessary details are provided by close-ups and by edited juxtapositions. Film, then, is a medium of high visual saturation—that is, the pictures are densely detailed with information, requiring little or no filling in.
5. The film viewer, on the other hand, identifies with the camera’s lens, which is not immobilized in a chair. This identification permits the viewer to “move” in any direction and from any distance. An extreme close-up allows us to count the lashes of an eyelid; the extreme long shot permits us to see miles in each direction. In short, the cinema allows the spectator to feel mobile.