Social Interactions in WandaVision

WandaVision is a brand new show that has released 5 episodes onto Disney Plus as of February 7, 2021. The show is about the Marvel characters the Scarlet Witch and Vision. These two characters are both very poor at social interaction with people because of their pasts. The Scarlet Witch, or Wanda, lived in isolation from people because of her powers. Vision was technically not a human being but a software that had been put into a human-like body. The first couple of episodes portray them in a 50s-style sitcom where they are trying to fit into society without standing out. They have jobs, and they do things that any normal human would do like having Vision’s boss over for dinner from work and having Wanda clean house and cook for them. Both of them do not understand a lot of things that we consider normal, but if we were raised the same way that they were we would have the same issues.

A large part of human interaction is assigning meaning to certain things. “Meaning is negotiated through the use of language – hence the term symbolic interactionism” (54). For instance, whenever we talk about a kitten, we think of a small and cuddly little animal. Just the word kitten invokes a small creature that humans find adorable. “There’s nothing inherently small, soft, or lovable in the word kitten. It’s only by talking with others – symbolic interaction – that we come to ascribe that meaning and develop a universe of discourse” (54). Humans are also able to think before they react to certain interactions. Animals, however, are unable to think about how they respond. This term is called minding and this communication process is unique to humans. “[Minding] is the two-second delay while we mentally rehearse our next move, test alternatives, anticipate others’ reactions” (56). We have mental capabilities that are natural to humans, but we also have social interactions that we learn as we interact with other humans throughout our lives.

The communication in WandaVision is interesting to view because of the lack of social skills the two main characters possess. They are oblivious to the symbolic interactionism that is shared between the other characters. Wanda, for instance, does not realize the implications of what dinner means whenever Vision plans to have his boss over to their house. She is surprised to find out that she actually has to cook dinner and have the table set and ready for her, her husband, and then her husband’s boss and his wife. The implications of certain social situations that Wanda and Vision are unable to read. They have a neighbor that will always come over and be nosy, which is a typical social interaction found in most American suburbs. However, Wanda and Vision are not able to read into it as much and they think she is just a very odd person. Despite their inabilities to pick up behaviors or notice social cues, they are still human (Vision is as close to human as you can get) and they have the ability to think about what they want to say. Wanda, for instance, has the power to do dishes and cook and clean with her mind, but whenever her nosy neighbor would walk by or come into the house she would immediately stop what she was doing or distract her so she wouldn’t see the mind-controlled dishes and pans flying around. She knew that at the end of the day her and Vision wanted to fit in. WandaVision demonstrates the two super heroes attempting to live in a small suburb in the United States, and despite their natural abilities to communicate with others in conversation, their understanding of meaning is very poor in comparison to the typical American person.

Resonance and Messages in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The Star Wars franchise has one of the largest fan bases out of any other movie franchise. Star Wars fans are very loyal, but they also have very high expectations when it comes to new content being released. That being said, the most recent trilogy that has been released with Disney at the helm has received mixed reviews. The most recent movie to come out was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This was a very ambitious movie because not only did it wrap up the sequel trilogy, but it also ended the story of the Skywalker family, which the movies had been centered around since the very first one was released in 1977.  All of this being said, the filmmakers were tasked with coming up with a satisfying ending to the saga, and in order to do this they would have to communicate their message well utilizing nostalgia to tap into the audience’s emotions.

This brings us to the communication itself. Communication can be broadly defined as, “the relational process process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response” (6).  Communication has many features that can be used to aid in understanding how it happens. The main feature of communication is the understanding that messages are sent and received. These messages can take many forms, such as, “talking and listening, reading and writing, performing and witnessing, or, more generally, doing anything that involves ‘messages’ in any medium or situation” (6). Within communication, there are many different principles that can be studied as well. The resonance principle of communication, which applies to this particular movie, says that, “successful persuasive messages evoke past experiences that create resonance between the message content and a person’s thoughts or feelings” (14).

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of messages that covered many different aspects of communication. One message that was not able to be received by the heroes happens early on in the movie. The protagonists find this dagger that has writing on the side that tells them where they need to go to continue their quest. However, their translating droid, C-3PO, is unable to receive the message because it is written in a language that his coding forbids from translating. So, in order to get the message from the dagger, they wipe his memory so that he can translate it. He then successfully delivers the message to the heroes and they continue on with their quest. Another group of messages that occurs during the climax of the movie changes the entire mood of the movie. The main character, Rey, is knocked down by the main villain and all seems lost. However, while she lays in defeat, voices start speaking to her. If a person went into the theater and had never seen a Star Wars movie before this one in particular, they would have been very confused during this scene. The filmmakers were tapping into the nostalgia that fans feel whenever watching Star Wars, and it was a pivotal moment in the movie. The voices were characters from not only previous movies but even TV shows. Fans that had seen all of these other movies and TV shows were on the edges of their seat, and they felt excitement because all of their favorite characters were telling Rey to get up and to fight. This directly correlates with the resonance principle of communication, because as soon as these voices started speaking, every seasoned Star Wars fan instantly recognized them. This aided in filmmakers persuading the audience that it was, in fact, the climax of the movie, and an emotional one at that. Another instance where the resonance principle of communication was utilized was when Chewbacca, a beloved character from the original trilogy, was perceived to be dead. He is kidnapped by the antagonist in the movie, Kylo Ren, and his soldiers, The First Order. Whenever they fly away, the audience believes that Chewbacca is in the ship, and Kylo Ren and Rey have a tug-of-war with the force. This is a suspenseful moment in the movie, but Rey accidentally uses too much of her powers and blows up the ship. This, again, creates resonance within the audiences between the message content and their emotions. The emotions are short lived because two minutes later in the movie Chewbacca is revealed to be alive because he was on an entirely different ship. This movie used communication in various different ways, and many different messages are demonstrated throughout the film. The resonance that was employed heavily throughout the film was not a message that was received well with all audiences, but it did make for a nostalgic movie that wrapped up the Skywalker saga all while attempting to please the Star Wars fanbase.

Why Film and Television?

I decided to pick film and television shows as my topic. Even though I am a corporate communications major, I find myself very interested in the mass media and film portion of communications. My other option I was considering was writing about sports media and the communication that is provided by big media outlets such as ESPN and Bleacher Report. However, I found that to be a more narrow topic and I was worried I would run out of content before finishing the portfolio. I decided to go with movies/TV shows because I enjoy them and I keep up with a lot of the newest TV shows and movies as they release. I am looking to expand my knowledge by reading in-depth articles and watching more videos about the reasons behind why movies/TV shows utilize certain camera angles, certain dialogues, and certain symbols in order to communicate messages effectively.

I hope to discover more about why film makers, directors, and screen writers do what they do in order to deliver a message to audiences. I want to be able to identify communication theories within movies/TV shows because I enjoy watching them, but I do not always understand the overarching message. I find it difficult to notice the subtle camera angles and facial expressions that are in these films and TV shows that really illustrate the emotion and the tone of a scene. What I want to get out of this portfolio is that I want my study to provide me with a greater understanding of communication and, of course, I want the  portfolio so that I will be able to have it as a resource when applying for jobs. In order to achieve this goal, I want to study communication theories so that I will be able to apply them to the various movies/TV shows that I will be studying. Studying the tactics of communicating subtle messages to audiences through camera angles, expressions, and screen writing will be beneficial to my understanding of communication theories in turn. I think that I could be made a better person as a result because I could learn more about being a more expressive person. I could also learn more about how I communicate with others both in a personal and a professional setting.

As a freshman I took Intro to Mass Communications even though I was a business major at the time, and taking that class made me decide I was more interested in communications than I was in any major within the business school. I gravitated towards the digital media portion of the class, especially the film and television section of the course. The main experience I have within the subject of communications in movies/TV shows is the fact that I have watched a lot of both of them. However, I have not experienced organizational communication theories within the subject. The main factor that was in play for me was the fact that I truly enjoyed learning about it during Intro to Mass Communications, and because I watch a lot of movies/TV shows I decided that I would be engaged with my topic and I would learn a lot throughout the semester.