IMAGES, SOUNDS, PERSPECTIVE AND DISTANCE.
Week 4’s reading discussed the importance of perspective, sound, images and distance. Within pieces of well made media text, there are certain components that lay the foundations, which make it come together with purpose. Image and sound have a large part to play in this.
Images use the size of the frame and perspective in order to represent a certain message to the audience. The size of the frame can be close shot, medium shot and long shot. According to Hall, we carry with us invisible boundaries which we allow only certain people to come, and which I realised translates into the way an audience views a piece of media. In a close shot there may be the person in focus’ head and shoulders, which is in the zone of personal distance. This can make the audience uncomfortable or comfortable depending on the story and what the maker is attempting to portray in this shot. Next is the medium shot, which may focus on three quarters of a person’s body and is used for social distance. This could be a setting shot, a meet cute or a business based scene. Lastly, there is the long shot, which would consist of the entire character’s body and possibly their surroundings depending how long the shot is. This fits into the context of public distance, which is reserved for strangers or large groups of people. So media makers have the ability to use the audience’s everyday limits of space, in order for them to better understand the affect they are trying to have, without the audience even having to think about it. As said in the reading, these shots help the audience with imaginary intimacy with what is represented.
Adding onto this theory perspective, which creates horizontal and vertical angels, can help define the situation within the text. It can relate to dominance, power or the complete opposite. If the angle of camera in a film, showed a character over the shoulder looking down at another person, you would assume the person in the foreground would be the more powerful one, where as if they were eye to eye you would see them as equals. This does not always have to mean dominance, it can be endearing; imagine a father hugging his son, looking down at him. These concepts help ask the audience what attitude is the maker trying to achieve here.
Sound and image, whilst on completely different ends of the spectrum in terms of similarity, work together within the same boundaries. Sound is a “wrap around” medium so you cannot say there is a long or close shot with it, yet it can still be within the realm of Hall’s theory. Sound can be in the foreground or background, depending on the affect that is being achieved. Sound can also be shown through distance. If a shot is close, there is a likelihood that the characters could be talking at a whisper, the audience being right up there with them. A medium shot would have characters that are relaxed, casual, informal and a long shot could include formal dialogue or shouting. An example of the importance of sound can be seen through a film I saw recently, which is Batman Vs Superman. Without the extremely engaging but slightly over-dramatic orchestral soundtrack the epic vibe that Snyder (director) wanted to achieve would have been impossible to reach. In-fact the characters would have looked silly jumping and fighting without a soundtrack to define the moment. The sound was filled with loud, dramatic organs and strings to make the audience know that this battle between these superheroes is something to be in awe of at all time. By the same token, the close ups of the superheroes eyeing each other down also added to the intensity of the moment. In film, the two cannot work without the other.
Sound and image have a relationship that creates something inside an audience that is intangible, when done right.
