Week 8 Tutorial

This was my first full workshop collaborating with my group for project Brief 4 and we dedicated our time today to read the academic articles that focused on our particular aspect of media, which is mediums.

Something I found really interesting was Socrates critique of writing and how it impedes on man’s ability to think and communicate clearly if they rely purely on what was written. I saw a snippet on the 7pm project the other day discussing how interactive media and having everything written down led to short term memory loss. There was a case study of a lady who believed her work ended at 4 o’clock which she wrote down on her desk, it turns out it was actually 4:30 and she had been giving herself half an hour of every day for the last month or so. This demonstrates Socrates theory coming into actualisation due to today’s media environment.

The Reading ‘Cult Movie and Intertextual Collage’

‘A cult movie is proof that as literature comes from literature, cinema comes from cinema’. I this statement is very true, the most ‘notorious’ cult films are highly intertextual and either subvert or blatantly reference past cinema. A particular series of shots that emphasise the importance of intertextuality in cult films as well as the authors statement that ‘only a movie survives as a disconnected series of images, of peaks and of visionage icebergs’ that comes to mind is the final ‘part’ of Wayne’s World which is pretty much a shot by shot remake of Mark Nichols ‘The Graduate’. This part of Wayne’s World has become a stereotyped situation that ‘spawns from previous textual traditions’ which is prominent in today’s film and television. In continuing the discussion the author states that intertextual archetypes aren’t necceseraliy universal. In using the scene at the end of The Graduate and Wayne’s World as my example it is important to note that it may not be as prominent in other cultures, that have their own intertextual archetypes spawning from relevant past texts that are likely unknown to much of the western ‘The Graduate, Wayne’s World’ world.

Something this article by Umberto Eco addresses is the inconsistency that the production of Casablanca entailed and how each of these broken parts strung together to make a spontaneous, muddled yet an electric film. This correlates to Eco’s next statement where he says that ‘the best readings should be made on unhinged texts’. I agree with this statement. Texts that convey a splattering of meanings and muses offer more speculation for the average audience member to partake in, it also leads to a richer text, a text that provokes a series of interesting thoughts. In contrast to this, films that set themselves to suggest only singular meanings pigeon hole the audience, which leads to a less interesting entertainment experience and less impactful film.

A criticism I had with the Eco’s write-up was its lack of specificity, he introduced me as the reader to new terminologies, yet he didn’t use them as sub-categories in his intertextual analysis of the first 20 minutes of Casablanca. Instead he went on an ill-defined tangent that didn’t make best use of the clever terms and notions he articulated at the start of his report.

However in section 4, I thoroughly enjoyed his quote ‘because the characters live not the real life of human beings but as a life stereotypically portrayed in previous films’ because of this a sense of nostalgia is instantly conveyed in the film.

Media, Week 8

The Lectorial

In Week 8’s lectorial we began with a quote that underlines the importance of narrative and helps to explain its popularity in many aspects of media. ‘Story is a way of structuring existence, amplifying it, focusing on aspects of it.’ Through the use of narrative people can express things that can’t be conveyed in any other medium, it allows for people to express thoughts and feelings in an abstract, therapeutic and ultimately truthful way. On the train to University today (before the lectorial) I was reading a short story by John Cheever titled ‘The Country Husband’ which demonstrates a pragmatic use of narrative that allows Cheever to demonstrate the inner moral decay of man that is in contrast to the ‘clean’ society that characterises the suburbs. This narrative was written by Cheever as an allegory criticising the stifled 1950’s society he believed to be full of ‘weeds’ e.g the protagonists name is Francis Weed. Cheever’s use of narrative demonstrates a quote Dan put up in the lecture that states ‘narrative takes from the intangible and converts the experience to something tangible’. Due to narrative Cheever can take an abstract idea that can’t necessarily be convincingly conveyed, and change the form of that idea into something that bares weight and holds meaning to a society.

This relates to my current studying of ‘mediums’ for project brief 4. Narrative is potentially the best medium in regards to entertainment and arguably the most relevant in the realm of present day popular culture. Demonstrating this is the amount of instantly recognisable conventions that embed mainstream narrative genres, that are obvious to even the most passive audience member. For example The Western has been defined by stock tropes since the early 20^th century; some of these tropes include a righteous hero, a morally corrupt evil figure, horses, guns and the prairie landscape. These tropes in relation to the narrative define the genre and create certain expectations in the audience that can be played or subverted by the media maker in all areas of media, regardless of the medium.

Another particular exercise I found interesting was the one demonstrating the idea that non-narrative can’t exist in film regardless of the disparity between shots. In the abstract ‘we decided not to die’ short film the images conveyed were barely correlated yet a student in the lectorial stated afterwards that it was ‘brooding with meaning’. The fact that someone can be shown something this abstract yet still make meaning out of it demonstrates the idea that ‘Everything possesses some kind of story, regardless of how specific or clear cut the narrative is’. Some things I found from the narrative were

– They seem thematically connected forming an overarching narrative in regards to the theme of life/death. Patterns of representation.

– The film maker signposted the different events, the different parts of the story suggesting that each scene is connected, we are supposed to know that one scene follows another, for a reason.

– The headings gave it a sequential structure and feel

– They break out of the confined nature of their environment.

– Each scene had a climax, they both had resolutions.

– All characters were breaking free, breaking out, each scene sped up.

Week 7 Tutorial

In today’s lectorial we had a viewing of the workshops Project Brief 3, which made for interesting and enjoyable viewing. When making project brief 3 I was looking to expand on my last project in terms of creativity. Though I wasn’t displeased with my first project, it was very straight laced, with this one I wanted to create a sense of ambiguity and mystery designed to hold the audience’s attention. My choice of having a dark, black and white colour scheme worked well with my found footage and gave my product a consistent tone.

Red Hat: Absurd feeling/cramped (maybe because I didn’t have to many long shots)/humorous/enjoyed my colour scheme.

Black Hat: My sound mixing, sometimes Joel narration over the top of my project was a bit too tinnie.

Yellow Hat: Funny, Entertaining, and Enjoyable. My use of found footage was interesting.

Green Hat: A few more silences to contrast the sound and the noise.

For the record, I was super impressed by how much everyone improved on the second time round! It was really great viewing

WEEK 7 READINGS

Key Questions:

What kind of terms and ways of thinking about media have been core to this field of knowledge and inquiry?

How do we/audiences ‘make sense’ of texts?

The Readings

In reading ‘Approaching Media Texts’ by Roy Branston (5^th edition, 2010) I learnt some definitions and history that examines and demonstrates how people ‘make sense’ when readings texts. Texts can be anything ‘in which can be investigated’ dancing, TV and many other forms of art and expression are categorized as texts.

A major example of a qualitative approach when studying texts in relation to their social surroundings/contexts is known as semiotics.

Semiotics is defined as the study of signs, or ‘the social production of meanings and pleasures by sign systems’. In easier to understand terms it is the study of how things have come to hold significance in the particular society and culture in which they bare significance. For example a still image of a lead character in ‘Game of Thrones’ would have no significance and hold no meaning prior 2010, however now it contains meanings that hold significance  e.g. people may associate this image with greed and gluttony.

In the late 1950’s individuals judged T.V shows on their ‘convincing characters’ ‘truthfulness’…….however after a while people began to question the critical terms used and asked why was something ‘original’ ‘beautiful’? according to what criteria? For whom? Experienced by whom? This is the backbone of semiotics which emphasises emphasises that reality in itself is constructed and shaped by the words and signs we use, in various social contexts.

A well-known linguist Saussure suggested that a sign consists of a physical signifier and an immaterial signified (the idea that spawns from the physical signifier). For example: There is a difference between our hearing of the rose and concept of the rose. When someone mentions a rose a generic picture of a red rose on a stem may enter our thoughts, however the individual may be speaking of a different type of rose, that holds a different meaning to them. This demonstrates the difference between the hearing and the conceiving. The word rose is a physical signifier and our concept of a rose is what follows the signifier.

Semiotics when consuming media: The news structures the realities they describe and ‘stand in for’. Semiotics does not assume the news is simply the ‘window to the world’. This disturbs powerful notions of ‘the truth’ in the world. This is why semiotics has kept media accountable, people question what they are being shown and question it, in order to find the truth. For example, when I watch A Current Affair I question the T.V producers motives and the integrity in what they are showing, and my beliefs and attitude shape what I think of the show and how I interpret the presented information.

Other terms/definitions/thoughts

In contrast to semiotics, content Analysis is qualitative data of sets and trends. It’s a prime quantative method.

• Structuralism: How is meaning constructed in regards to the culture in which it was formed. In structuralism people no longer questioned the value of the art, they instead looked at how meaning was constructed.
• Iconic signs are those that resemble what they stand for, so when there is a kangaroo on the sign that says ‘kangaroos 5km’ we see the denotation of the kangaroo so we respond. In airports they have these signs to transcend language barriers
• Indexical sign is when there is a causal link between the sign and that for which it stands for. For example a runny nose stands for a cold or illness (though in itself it is not an illness)
• I found the blurring example interesting. Digital media complicates what we see as realist codes. People can manipulate images based off how they believe the audience will perceive them.
• Marx and Freud were both structuralist thinkers
• Structuralist’s argued that only meaning could be understood within systematic structures and the differences or distinctions which they generate. Semiotics is within cultures. Structuralism works with opposites, think of titanic upper deck/lower deck is a blindingly obvious symbol.
• Denotation and Connotation. Denotation is the literal meaning. Connotations are the associations that come from the sign. For example an image of a red car may seem more ‘sporty’ than an image of the same car painted in the colour grey.

Texts

In today’s lectorial we explored texts, more specifically how individuals and cultures deduce and invent meanings from them. A key term that was present throughout the lectorial was Semiotics which as a noun is the study of the signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

When examining media it is important to look beyond the face value of the artefact and explore its meaning in a deeper sense. In order to examine texts, we must be able to identify them, texts are the ‘material traces that are left of the practice sense making-the only empirical evidence we have of how other people make sense of the world’. This idea of people using art through the medium of various Medias to make sense of the world was also explored in narrative, this is perhaps the best practical and pragmatic use of art in the world-to help explore and make sense of things that can’t be expressed in a way of pure logic.

Anyway, in a media, communication and cultural studies texts are specifically cultural products, images, policy, documents, social practices and institutions. The study of these texts spawns from a quantative tradition, takes film, papers, stories and calculates how often it appears. It’s a calculative term. This mode (quantative study) is a real mode, that can be used to gain information. It also concerns itself with the effects of media, think of the ‘bobo doll’ experiment, about how violent films effect children. This shows the effect of Media on individuals.

Another piece of historical information that stood out to me was the Mid-20^th century turn against a particular idea of culture (and the distinctions between high and low art). What roles do certain texts play in the lives of individuals? This though gave pop-culture texts the same critical attention as high culture texts, such as Dalloway and James Joyce. Pop culture became worth the same intellectual attention as high culture is. This moment is a really interesting/influential one.

Finally when interpreting texts, We don’t make claims about whether texts are ‘accurate’ ‘truthful’ or show reality, we instead explore how texts relate to cultural meaning on top of having ‘educated guesses’ at some of the most likely interpretations that might be made of a text’. This is because communication is a gamble, if you have an idea, something you want to communicate or represent, you can try and encode that in your work, but there is no absolute guarantee the audience will read it, in the way you encoded it. You can direct them towards a preferred meaning, but it’s a gamble that doesn’t always go right. For example Bruce Springsteen ‘Born in the USA’, it is ironic, famously Reagan recontextualised it which changed its meaning to the public forever. There is a slipperiness of meaning and the way it is produced.

Notes, I also made some un-edited notes in this lectorial that don’t make for the most coherent reading

The Semiotic Tradition of Analysis

Sign, Signifier, signified: ‘DOG’ is a common use of letters to signify a dog. The signified is the mental processing you do when you see the world, sound or picture. Signified is the mental concept.

Denotation, connotation: A denotation is the literal meaning, the connotation is the cultural or second order meaning.

Codes: For example close family shot, everyone is close in the fame to quite literally symbolise closeness, a true family tradition that supports our ideas on family. The Mother and Father are bigger in the frame to show hierarchy…………Look at the contrasting picture that is ‘Winter Haven’. How do producers of texts lead us to new meanings.

Advertising: associating dreams with the product, they want to take you into a fantasy world and back out, so you have a thought, a memory, with the product.

Myth/ideology

Limitations of Semiotic Analyses

Attention is deflected from peoples everyday lives

The Affordances of sound and the moving image

• Different modes allow you to do different kinds of this, and not only allow you to do different kinds of things, but insist that different things are done.
• Sound: Pervasive, multi-directional, complexly layered, prioritized by the ear.
• Sound is intimate
• Aural semiotic codes of sound place the listener in a mediated/imagined relationship with the subject of representation.
• Two crucial codes: Perspective and social distance
• Figure: The focus of interest. Ground: The setting or context. Field: The Background/ambient space.
• Soundscape: It is a representation of a place or an environment that can be heard rather than what can be seen. The audio equivalent of a landscape.
• Ground=setting.
• What could be the figure, ground or field? (for the famous Vietnam war photo): Figure: Screaming, Ground: The hitting of feet on the ground, the soldiers moving. Background: Bombs going off, explosions.