Media Studies 101 Midterm 1

Screen direction

maintain left/right orientation, part of the continuity system

Barthes' meaning

meaning = "born with each reading" no essential meaning BUT: Barthes replaces the romanticized celebration of the author with the romanticized celebration of the reader

Impact of banal imaging

-aestheticizes the everyday -reinforces bonds through resonance -social media "objectifies" the photographer through commodifying consumable images

Marantz Cohen and the female gaze

-case study - the rom com -chick flicks were women gaze at women -use pluck and intelligence to find their soul mates -not about promoting consumer desires -learn how to use the material world creatively -quick wit, banter, spectacle

Postmodern aesthetics

-commodification - blurred distinctions between art and advertisement -excessive style - focus on style and appearance rather than depth and meaning -ambiguity - narrative/preferred decoding not clear so audiences must determine their own meaning (more about the toolkit that media-makers use) -practice of media creation and media criticism

Postmodernism and taste

-disrupts how we evaluate cultural products -don't distinguish between high/low, commercial/non-commercial, elite/popular -quality must be confronted on a text-by-text basis, no fixed value categories (end of standards) -pluralistic - more tolerant of individual tastes

Possibilities of Color

-environmental: both physical and metal -expressive: evocation (saturation) -character: association; signify character -audience attention: stand out (Rayon) -an aesthetic system: outside the narrative (Wes Anderson)

Recognizing home mode recordings (Chalfen)

-home movies (on film), photo snapshots, and other forms of domestic documentation -audience: by family/friends for family/friends -content: milestones and happy moments recorded as part of a record and memory aid -aesthetics: pans and zooms, no structure/storylines, subject acknowledges and performs for the camera, prompting/narration from filmmaker, no editing

Protagonist

-protagonist = most effective means to affect the audience is through developing bonds of identification between audience and character (emotionally invested, pursue an objective and makes the decisions that drive the story) Protags are active -a. somebody wants something b. very badly c. is having trouble getting it

Postmodernism themes

-self conscious irony - events seem deliberately opposite from our expectations -intertextuality - texts reference each other and presume viewer knowledge -reflexivity (hyperconsciousness) - texts draw attention to their constructed nature as media -eclecticism - utilizes hybrid styles and forms

Results of the male gaze

-women rarely essential to the plot, but essential to the spectacle -male characters get to be "bearers of the look" and are internal/deep -female characters must perform "to-be-looked-at-ness" and are external/superficial

Four ways the author function works (Foucault)

1. Attribution of an author changes the discourse of a text (forged paintings become valueless) 2. Author is a person and a body of work (Shakespeare signifies a person and a body of work signified with that name) 3. Doesn't apply to all texts in the same way (not all texts equally "authored") 4. linked to the legal system (punishment for heretical words; protections for copyright) allows works to be owned

Barthes' three ways to interpret photos

1. Myth creators = symbol of French imperialism (start with a concept and seek a form) 2. Myth consumers = depiction of reality -not a symbol, just "is" (nothing to discuss, soldier = colonialism) -"goes without saying" (myth doesn't lie, it distorts, states them as fact) 3. Analyst = uses "structural description" to denaturalize the connection between signified and myths (discover the meaning of a myth - always motivated and stands in for something) Analysts draws attention to how practices of image production are tied to the product of ideology

Three perspectives of representing meaning

1. Reflective approach - meaning is in the thing/concept (imitation) 2. Intentional approach = thing/concept means what the author intends (intentionally) 3. constructionist approach - meaning is in the system of representation that we use to represent things/concepts

How the male gaze occurs (Mulvey)

1. Spectator identifies with the male protagonist and his goals -through story: primary character, drives the plot forward -through camera/editing: POV shots, most reaction/emotion shots 2. Spectators identify with the male protagonist's desire for the female (presented primarily as an erotic object) -through story: arm candy/damsel in distress -through camera/editing: positioned as objects of desire for character/camera/spectator (voyeuristically = pleasure of controlling gaze) (scopaphilia = sexual objectification, framing on body or body parts, camera movement encourages us to gaze)

Two levels of signification

1. primary signification = the signifiers allow us to recognize the signified image. signifiers = colors, objects, shapes, composition. signified = the denotative image 2. secondary signification = the whole image becomes a signifier representing a new signified. signifier = the denotative image. signified = a connotative symbol

Culture Jamming

A form of media activism based on reworking the intended meaning of existing media producers and texts Goal is to denaturalize media images and criticize dominant ideology

Codes

A system of shared "linguistic" signs learned culturally Made up of signs i.e. spoken language, red for danger

Screenplay structure

ACT I: -establish a routine (introduce setting and relationships) -inciting incident (breaks routine, initiates main drama) -"locking the conflict" (goal/plan solidifies) ACT II: -series of struggles (delay, suspense, plot twists) -"darkest moment" (where things cannot get any worse; looks like the protag won't succeed) ACT III: -"third act twist" (scene where we get the opposite of the expected outcome; maybe protag can succeed) -climax (where the protag will either succeed or fail) -denouement (short scene where the loose ends are tied up)

Productive Power of Realism

All mediamakers are active producers of meaning. Realism and visual texts aren't mirrors, they are lenses (there is no such thing as a perfect lens, every lens distorts the world - realistic interpretations) Example: maps are engineered to visually communicate, but aren't meant to be transparent and direct views of the world. They are highly edited representations that stress different dynamics

Modernism

An extension of the enlightenment Appeal to reason an orderliness that developed with the rise of industrialization Optimistic belief in power to tech, progress, science Belief that objective knowledge is discoverable But: some challenge its neatness

Symbolic

Arbitrary, must be learned culturally Example: Company logos

Photographic "truth"

Barthes: photos are effective tools in expressing ideas and values "seeing is believing" - we consider the photo a record of vision reality effect - perception of instantaneous capture documenting "life in real time"

Indexical

Based on causal relationship Example: sundial - time is implied by movement of sun's shadow, or human footprints in the sand

Rule of thirds

Composition is especially interesting when placed at the intersection of vertical and horizontal lines

Home mode: film vs. video

Content production: film = more money, so special events and short takes video = cheaper, re-recordable, longer recording time RESULT: more recording events and greater length Distribution: film= hard to make copies so movies stay with filmmaker video= can dub copies RESULT: recordings can be more easily shared beyond the home Exhibition: film= delay for processing and projector and screen and darkness video = no delay and TV and VCR RESULT: Recordings more easily revisited Video facilitates the greater range and diversity of depictions of "everyday life" opens up the events and relationships we see captured

Continuity System

Continuity: temporal and spatial unity -way to unite individual shots in a way that give the illusion of a unified, coherent time and space Goal: maintain perceptual invisibility (multiple takes shot at different angles) coverage: principle of shooting a scene with multiple scales and angles to provide many editing options for conveying action and hiding continuity errors cutaway: shot away from the main action to condense action or hide an error reaction shot: a type of cutaway that gives a sense of other characters' emotional response establishing shot: LS or ELS that defines the area for the rest of the scene eyeline match: sequence that starts with a person looking and then cuts to what the person is looking at shot/reverse shot: once established, we assume two opposite-facing characters are looking at each other

Realism

Defined as based on everyday and concrete, not myth/fantasy, an artistic convention, and standards for "realism" shift with time, experience, culture. Steven Colbert - "truthiness" reality and truth is relative, what we feel is real

Discontinuous

Don't have to consume in any specific order to understand the meaning Example: Photo slideshow

Shot scale

ELS (extreme long shot): people tiny LS (long shot): human figure fills frame MS (medium shot): cuts off at waist CU (close-up): face fills frame ECU (extreme close-up): portion of the body or an object (plot or symbolic significance)

Ideology

Ideas and representations in which people collectively make sense of the world. Can be diverse, conflicting, competing Spread through media (and other institutions) Example: gender roles

Presentational

Images (all visual information is presented all at once) Example: Where's Waldo picture

Polysemy

Images open to multiple interpretations

Discourse

Knowledge is shaped through discourse discourse = a mutually understood set of understandings about a thing or idea discourse analysis = explore how the thing or idea is understood and constructed across a variety of texts and disciplines

Two systems of representation

Mental representation (shared culturally) Visual representations (sounds, text, gestures, etc.) Significant because representations create meaning about the world around us, helps us interpret the world.

Goal of myth and depoliticized speech

Naturalize the myth through "depoliticized speech" Ignores the politics of the image (doesn't explain or deny) just presents the image as fact through naturalization Turns people into symbols (Marilyn Monroe becomes a symbol of beauty and tragedy) Treats history/culture as nature Treats the status quo as natural/inevitable (bourgeois circulates narratives that reinforce their interests)

Camera angles

POV shot: represents what a character is looking at over-the-shoulder shot: behind the head/shoulder from one person facing another person high angle: shot facing down from above the human eyeline (connotes power, smallness) low angle: shot facing up from below the human eyeline canted shot (Dutch angle): shot angled sideways so the horizontal skews veritcal

Home mode memes and participatory culture

Participatory culture: people feel they can contribute to media/culture and enables collectivity through practices like generating new creative works Remix= people make their own adaptations Networked connection = people share videos online Collaboration = people participate in contributing to and spreading the meme

Remix

People make their own adaptations - facilitated through and made more visible by online exhibition and circulation

Realism and the Photographic image

Photography captures an image automatically but photos are the result of the active process of selection and manipulation. Photomanipulation: manipulate the truth, digitization, make white faces look better, pink dress with darker skinned women anchorage: captions used to better fix a meaning to a photo framing/cropping the shot: choosing what is depicted

Ocularcentrism

Privileging vision over other senses (We see only the part of the world the eye can process) Significant because visual texts and images become our predominant mode of communication, and ocularcentrism really affects how we perceive the world. Example: Preference of written word over spoken word "Seeing is believing"

Denotative

Purely descriptive, value-free Example: beach denotes water and sand

Postmodernism

Rejection of fixed and universal truths focus on multiplicity, fragmentation, individuality, choice (discourse is a train of struggle, meaning is always being fought over) Advertising and consumer culture Hybridization and "speeding up" of culture (trends, aesthetics, themes falling into or out of fashion)

Naturalization

Result = non-coded iconic message naturalizes the coded iconic message The non-coded iconic message and coded iconic message are perceived simultaneously, thus, the non-coded and coded iconic message appear "real" and "like it was really there" Confusing non-coded and coded, the viewer confuses ideology for reality

Semiotics

Study of signs A method of studying texts that involves separating images or words from the mental concepts to which they correspond (the more you know, the more you see tool of analysis - linguistics)

Connotative

Suggests specific values or associations, can be individual or cultural Exmple: beach connotes relaxation and vacation

Baudrillard's "simulation," reasons, and impact

Techs shape our ability to understand the world and blur the boundaries between real and visual. We see, and come to know the world, history, and culture through media representations Simulation: We measure reality not by real life, but by how it's constructed in the media Reasons: rise of consumer culture and media that provide sophisticated visual imagery Impact: needs replaced with desire (find someone sexually attractive and compare them to images found in the media), "the real" is lost (undermined), representations have little anchor in reality Simulacrum - a copy without an original (media produce their own reality rather than represent "the real")

Signified

The thing/concept the signifier is supposed to mean

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Thierry Guetta Shepard Fairy (Andre the Giant, Obama change) Banksy - exhibit Disneyland Mr. Brainwash - "missed out on the creative process," premature fame, considered a joke, did not play by the "rules" (but there are no rules)

Image icons

Well composed, captured at the "right moment, right time," "simplicity," captures a historical/cultural/political moment while representing a "universal" issue

"Structural description" and its "three messages"

a "structural description" of "the three messages" can deconstruct an image using semiotics 1. the linguistic message (what codes are required to decipher the writing?) 2. non-coded iconic message (what is the image literally of? What does it denote?) 3. Coded iconic message (what is the image telling me?)

YouTube memes

a video performance a. inspired from a previous performance b. adapted through re-performance c. uploaded publicly on YouTube

Mise-en-scene

art of how elements within a shot are composed and placed -audience reads these as signs that denotate and conotate Gols: -give us a sense of place -creates a mood -tells us about the characters

Barthes' author

author = a scripter/assembler who generates a work but not is the explainer or the source of explanation

Iconic

based on resemblance Example: the outline of a squirrel resembles a real life squirrel

Baudrillard's hyperreality

blurred distinction between simulation and reality real and unreal/history and nostalgia consumed without distinction difference between the two is less important, doesn't matter

Preparation (protagonist)

observe characters' emotions before a big scene

Aftermath (protagonist)

observe consequences/characters' reactions after a big scene (Singing in the Rain)

De Certeau's textual poaching

consumption is a site of conflict between producers and its cultural use producers/critics want to confine the limits of interpretation through authoritarial meaning BUT: consumers appropriate cultural products through interpretation and use outside of creator intention (Finn/Poe romance) -bricolage = taking commodities and putting them in unexpected use thus dissociating them from normal or dominant context -re-appropriation = reused by marketers and dominant elites

Home mode as special reality

depicts a "special reality" through a process of selection that aspires for maximum idealization (common: special events, vacations, children, pets, new stuff)

home mode YouTube memes

for family/friends: fulfills home mode function of displaying and reinforcing social bonds for anonymous viewers: playful participation in a larger setting (made meaningful through the explanation of rules) Home mode YouTube memes are an illustration of increasing range of media makers and events recorded showing life at home, but also an expression of participatory culture

Denaturalization

goal of semiotic analysis = denaturalize seemingly naturalized images by driving a wedge between non-coded and coded iconic messages To isolate the codes and signs to see how they build larger narratives/meanings To reveal the constructed-ness of media texts

Banal imaging and how it operates and is judged

photographing "non-events" of everyday lives and routines OPERATE: -personally as a memory aid -performatively to communicate one's self-narrative JUDGED: -aesthetically -relatability of the moment/experience

180 degree rule

preserve screen direction by staying on one side of an invisible line through 2 characters can cross the 180-degree line by: -show a character crossing during the shot -cut to a shot on the line -can show a camera crossing the line -cutaway

Revelation vs recognition

revelation = when a story point is revealed to the audience recognition = when a story point is revealed to the character -revelation + recognition together = surprise -recognition before revelation = audience curiosity -revelation before recognition = suspense

Key aspects of Mise-en-scene

set design lighting costumes and props blocking (movement)

Sign

signifier and signified

Barthes' text

text = a collage of ideas and motifs derived from the "intertextual space" of other works (not the point of origin, just assembler)

Foucault's author function

the author is a cultural and institutional practice that attributes her/him as a source of meaning that has developed over time "author function" = discourse about who an author is, what is authored, and what an author does (positions the author as the center of meaning in a text, encourages us to look for meaning in the text by learning about the author) We must decentralize the authority of the author and recognize how authorship is constructed

Mulvey's male gaze

the default classical Hollywood cinema character POV, camera, spectator

Signifier

the material form (the letters, sounds, symbols)

Barthes' myth

the overall ideological message produced by the image at the secondary level of signification. Communicated through cultural knowledge Usually references multiple ideological attitudes/beliefs/values Example: Louis Vuitton - the best way to live is through classic luxury

Conventions

ways of organizing signs that become widely shared over time, i.e. shaking hands to greet someone, laws

Moving shots

zoom in/out: zoom lens gives the impression of moving closer/further pan: camera stationary; swivels across horizontal axis swish pan: blurs everything between start and finish tilt: camera stationary; swivels across vertical axis tracking shot: moves across horizontal axis crane shot: moves across vertical axis