WHO IS THE STOTELLER? AUTEUR THEORY`S VISUAL NARRATIVE AMONG DIGITAL AUDIENCE IN NEW NORMAL

Abstract

The true validation of each issue carried by media texts lead to confusion in the process of
interpreting the message. There lies confusion between the director as the storyteller and the
audience as the evaluator of a story. This article discusses the audience’s interpretation of an
experimental short film ‘When We See It’ which implemented the Auteur Theory approach by
Wesley Chan as the auteur. The relevancy between the indicators of Auteur Theory and the
audience interpretation are analysed specifically based on the diction indicator. A focus group
discussion was conducted via three groups (twenty-seven Net Generation informants) at the
Institute of Higher Learning on the experimental short film ‘WHEN WE SEE IT (2017)’. The
discussion focuses on how the Auteur Theory is applied throughout the experimental short film in
identifying the characteristics (style and theme) of the director based on four aspects; emotion,
psychology, sequences and moments. Findings revealed that the implementation of Auteur Theory
throughout the experimental short film is highly relevant in providing comprehensive
understanding of the plot. This justifies how the transformation of social technologies and the
impact of extensive and open information have influenced the interpretation of the net generation
to view Auteur theory as a relevance tool between audience as the evaluator of the story and the
director as the storyteller in new normal.