Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Synthesis makes the connection between the narrative, the argument and the image structure within a particular text. In this text (Food Network Star), the synthesis involved the story that is being narrated by the competitors. It’s narrative may not be as clear upon first glance, however if you consider the story that each person gives, you will see that it’s telling the story of 19 hopefuls on the ultimate journey to be the next Food Network Star. The same can be said for television shows very similar, such as American Idol or even Dancing with the Stars. Even though they may not all be apart of the same genres, but their narratives are quite similar in some sense.
As it relates to argument, the “reality” aspect of the show is questioned. The influence of the cameras, the reaction from the judges and the competitors are all taken into account. Are the competitors acting or are they genuinely expressing who they truly are on camera? If so, we then being to question the “realism” of the show; what is real and what might not be real. The authenticity of the text being presented plays a critical role in who the audience will formulate their interpretations. We read the text as a whole for the most part, generally overlooking each specific part and it’s function in semiotics.
Visual images act as windows in which we can see beyond what the text is presenting. We take into account the structure of the images communicating a specific thing. Whether they are verbal or non-verbal, we can almost always identify the signifiers and their signifieds. The creators of Food Network Star are no longer the determinants of the meaning of this text and the other interpretations of it as well. We, being the community of viewers, make our perspectives apparent.
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Media represents narrative, argumentation and image structured cinematography within a single text. The synthesis is the connection and function of all these three components of a text combined. The synthesis allows us to look at all the components as a whole. We can look at the film in terms of what the story is, what rhetorical nature of the film based on conventions and the intratextuality and intertexuality of the film. The narrative of the film is a story of a man seeking repentance for accidentally taking the lives of seven people. He does so by donating his organs to seven strangers.
The argumentative aspect of this film is whether or not this extraordinary story can be seen in “reality”. Of course there are quite a number of organ donors who “give life” to people who they may not even know. However, is this particular story as real as it is on a movie theatre screen as it is in reality. The story, the characters, setting, diegetic conventions and film editing and experimentation influenced how the audience “reads” the film as a single text. A casual viewer may never really pay much attention to these critical aspects to formulate interpretations of what system of signifiers and signifieds at work. The film 7 Pounds and the visual metaphors, signifiers and rhetorical conventions allow the audience to look beyond just what appears on the screen. We are given free rein to analyze all aspects of the movie. Its more than just the story of a man seeking forgiveness for what he did, more over, it is a film about the same man realizing how each moment of his life is worth more than just living. But, could we also argue that this theme is very typical for the majority of Will Smith movies? I must agree that there is the recurring theme that most Will Smith films have, but are all of them conventional or even be considered “realism”. Image-constructed cinematography plays a critical role in how images evoke emotion and influence our own perspectives.
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Post #15- 7 pounds (Figure)
Posted on: June 10, 2011
In the film 7 Pounds, Ben Thomas, played by actor Will Smith is a IRS tax collector. He visits Emily Posa played by Rosario Dawson, unexpectedly. In this particular scene shows Emily stopping her dog from eating meat. But, don’t all dogs eat meat? A dog’s that’s a vegetarian…? You must be joking. The denotation of a dog that is vegetarian has a number of connotations, mostly negative. We would believe that all dogs are meat eaters, however a vegan dog strays away from convention. We question whether or not this could actually be true, which goes back to what we believe is credible.
How could this even be possible? Well, in the movie, Emily’s dog has the same heart condition as she does. She is a vegetarian therefore her dog is a vegetarian. The denotation of dogs (pets) being “like” their owners has been supported by society and the scientific community. In psychology, dogs have been said to look like their owners. In this case however, Emily and her dog are like because of their heart condition. Most people may say that this could be true because most animal have very similar health issues. The connotations that could be associated with this scene are that, “it’s just a dog, why can’t he eat commercialized dog food?”, “If I eat healthy, my dog should be able to sustain a health diet as well”. What I am a getting at is that we, the audience formulate our own connotations both the negatives and the positives. It is very easy for us to slip into our own interpretations of what this scene is trying to represent. Another denotation that I observed in this scene was the idea that Ben just shows up to Emily’s house uninvited, similarly to how IRS collectors call the homes of debtors persistently.
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Post #13- 7 pounds (Narrative)
Posted on: June 10, 2011
The Film 7 Pounds by Gabriele Muccino starts off with the story of Ben Thomas played by Will Smith, who causes a car accident while texting and driving. The accident kills six individuals and his fiance. He tries to redeem himself for what he did by saving the lives of seven people. He will determine who gets his organs based on whether or not they were worthy of receiving them. He donates his organs to six strangers and his brother. However in the end he commits suicide by placing his pet box jellyfish in a bath tub filled with water. His friend Dan ensures that hios vital organs are delivered to their rightful new “owners”. This film follows the conventional cinematic film style, it has characters, a plot, specific setting and narrative. The genre, however of this particular film is not very “cut and dry”. The film is just seen as a drama of some sorts. Its story line and plot appears to be that of a drama.
The trailer begins in first person narration, with Ben (Will Smith) being the voice over. This allows the audience to relate to the narrative at a personal level. We, as viewers, are able to placed ourselves in “his shoes”. However, as the plot is being told in the trailer, the narration shifts from first person to third person. Other characters in the film tell the story through their own narration. This aspect of the narrative is very much conventional.
If we look at the film itself and the narrative that the film has, we notice that there are multiple interpretations and signifiers (along with their signified) the audience have formulated. With relation to the interpretations, one may think that this film is just another “saving the world” drama at the expense of the main character. Others may argue that this film as a mystery film; the audience may not know what the main character is up to, what will he do next, what his motives could be. One thing that I took note of was that the film had a similar idea of Shakepeare’s Merchant of Venice (man who pays his debt by giving a pound of his flesh).
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This line from the text, “The photographic and filmic codes
are relatively arbitrary and employ a level or realism that simulate perceptual
cues in the physical world (Nichols 1981, 35;cf. Messaris 1982 and 1994)”
on page 165, explains quite a number of things relating to how we
“read” visuals and what interpretations we make. Films consist of
both visual and aural, perceived by ear, codes. The camera, music and motion
assist the audience in reading films. The camera seemingly becomes our eyes, a
way of seeing the film as if we were there. As it relates to the advancement of
technology, 3D films have given audiences the ability to be “a part”
of the scenery and the story. By doing so we can formulate interpretations of
what is occurring through the eyes of the camera. Film images seems to not
require much decoding, we interpret what we see based upon what the character
or scene is depicting. Since we have internalized these codes at a very young
age, we become conscious of their existence as we watch a film or analyze a
photograph. A shot from a film can mean so much more than it just being a shot.
Consider this clip from the Pixar animated film, Wall-E. The clip is about MO, the Microbe
Obliterator; as his name suggests, his job is to clean foreign contaminated
substances that objects may carry on the ships observation deck.
This version of the clip, at first glance, has minimal verbal
language that is very unfamiliar to the audience. It is, for the most part, a
silent but subtle film about MO being involved in Wall-E’s adventure. While
watching, we formulate some interpretation of what is taking place, similarly
to what this person did with this clip.
Now, this version was revised based upon a person’s
“reading” of the particular scene. They offered an interpretation of
what MO does for a “living” and what is happening in that particular
space in time. Initially, the first clip opens up a way for us to analyze and
formulate our own interpretation. The second clip is merely a representation of
what someone else thought the message was from that clip.
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Cultural myths were developed based upon the events that are occurring in a society’s culture. Roland Barthes, according to the text, talks about how they came to be via the bourgeois society and how they utilized myths as a means of asserting their values. One might ask then, why did these myths become so common place? Who allowed these myths to be upheld to this day? Well, society has a lot to do with how popular, “truthful” and the duration of these myths. We, as members of the society, are capable of controlling what becomes a myth and what is “truth”. One cultural myth that is quite common in the American Suburbia is “American are addicted to driving”. I can agree that this myth may only seem plausible in Suburbia because not all Americans like to drive, whether it is in their daily commute or just travelling to various places. Members of Suburbia are seen by the rest of society as being “car happy” because of the hustle and bustle of their daily schedules. In all actuality, Americans aren’t addicted to their cars; it’s merely a tool for getting tasks completed at a faster rate. If you look at any city, you can see that cars are the dominant mode of transportation. Living in Suburbia doesn’t necessarily mean that you like driving your automobile more that the next person. It’s just out of convenience.
The function of this myth is to placed or rather, categorize citizens living in Suburbia as “car happy”, associating that signifier with its signified as the population of people who own multiple cars as being addicted to them. The same concept can be traced back to how the bourgeois utilized myth. The signifier being car relates to a specific signified: Suburbia is “car happy”. However the bourgeois would make the connection to a new signified of being wealthy or in a negative sense, cars being an addiction. This idea then, becomes naturalized and is viewed as being the truth. This is how myths have been upheld for such a long time.
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This political cartoon can be seen as a visual metaphor. The symbol of the “American patriot” is being compared to both the civil war times, with John Locke and now to the average person. Patriotism, in a sense, has slowly lost its power or its meaning to the American culture. The reading of metaphors in visual text is useful because we see what is beyond the surface. We look at things in a different perspective if we were to take into consideration the vast majority of signs in a system are at work. In the back of our minds, we still keep in mind the original thoughts and ideas we perceive, however we are much more open to formulate other perpectives based upon what we take into consideration.
It is fulfilling its purpose in semiotics because we are able to view signifiers and their signifieds as a part of a system. It is appealing to any audience that is open to exploring the differences and non-conventional aspects of visual metaphors. By obtaining an understanding of making the unfamilar, familiar makes analyzing text more effective. It communicates what is not easily seen on the surface.
Another example of this is in this picture of the SUV being metaphorically compared to a rhinoceros. The car is being compared to the qualities of a rhinoceros’ tough, protective skin associating this with the safety of the car. This is similar to the example the textbook gave about the aeroplane being reffered to as a bird. This visual metaphor involves the function of transference to the particular qualities from one sign to another. The comparsion can also be viewed as a form of an ontological metaphor. Not in terms of the car being personified but more so, the associated qualities and ideas with entities that are most obvious.
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This is a commercial by IHOP that shows a young man proposing to
his significant other. There is not a clear cut audience that this commercial
is attempting to target. They were probably trying to target young people and
suggesting that proposing to someone at IHOP is not the best place to do it
because their meals give a negative connotation to engagements. It’s quite
funny because the waitress comes out with their order at the wrong time. Well,
would it have changed how funny the commercial was if they had the waitresses
bring out their meals after the proposal? Probably because then we would only
think about the proposal and not the function of the food being served and its
significance at that particular moment in time.
If we also look at the relationship between the ring and the plate
of double cheese scrambles. Is the commercial implying that the ring he
proposed to her with is “cheesy” or more directly cheap, corny or a
joke? Can cheap rings be associated with a plate of food? Well, in this instance,
yes. But is it’s signified always parallel in all commercials with rings, for
example the Jared commercials? This may not be the case for all instances. All
these signifiers interact to construct the rhetorical stance that IHOP’s meal
menu has an effect on everyday life. There weren’t any stereotypes that I could
associate this commercial with.
The role that technology plays in electracy in this sense that,
couple of years ago this would not be viewed as an “ideal” way of proposing
to someone you love nor would it be the right setting. The reaction of his fiancé
would not have been the reaction that most people would expect. At the end of
the clip, you see the guy playing little to no attention to his fiancé’s
enthusiasm about the ring and their proposal afterwards.
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The movie Safe falls under or can be catergorized as a clear cut paradigm as it relates to a particular genre. The movie can be categorized as a comedy, high suspense, thriller, science fiction or just plain old drama. It has the Hollywood conventional aspect to how the film is structured, in terms of the theme, settings, presentation, story formulas, types of characters and the stars (actors) involved.It follows the convention but there is something that is non-coventional about it. All of these elements of a film have been evident in other films quite similar to this one, well what makes this film adhere to a certain genre? Is it not clear cut what the director was trying to get at? The real idea is that with paradigms they are so interchangable that it is not so easy for someone to place a film or style of a film in a set category. The same can be said about the movie I Am Legend. Consider the clip below from the movie where the “zombies” or infected mutant people decide to attack Dr. Robert (Will Smith).
The film appears to be a science fictional, action film. Some may argue that it is purely post apocalyptic because the movie gives a illusion of what could happen if we dont find a cure for cancer or what could happpen if the cure can become the cause. The same idea of Safe as being a sciene fiction film because it was telling the story of the AIDS pandemic that occurred around that time. The setting of the movie can influence the genre that this particular narrative may be categorized in. For example, the dark, eerie streets and sounds of the zombies waiting to make their move, makes us feels as though this film is a high suspense, science fiction movie. the shots of Will Smith battling the zombie gives the film a feel of it being an action film. It all depends on if the lighting, the setting and the shot that changes the whole perspective of how this film is categorized.
Post #5-(Argumentative)
Posted on: May 26, 2011
Rhetorical argument within narratives is usually seen as being very
believable. The storyline often captures the attention of the audience. The
more persuasive the argument, the people tend to believe it based upon what and
how it is being presented. Paradigms are relevant to how they, narratives, are
being revised in terms of what genre we can classify or categorize a particular
style or technique. In the case of the clip below from the ABC Family’s hit
series Pretty Little Liars, the scene in the hospital gives the
illusion that Hanna is seeing the deceased Aly in her room. Aly reappears to
check on her because she wanted to make sure she was alive but she begins to
play on her emotions about what really happened the night of her death. Then,
she disappears to some unknown destination.
As we can see, the idea or type of style behind this scene can be view by
the audience as being somewhat of a mystery; others may view it as a bit
science-fictional, a drama or a mixture of both. The paradigms of this TV show
are so interchangeable that we, as viewers cannot only see this show in just
one particular light. That is the most interesting thing about paradigms; the
signifiers are a part of some defining category. The composition of the rhetoric
would make a difference because if the narrative would be affected by the style
in which the authors wrote it. It can be understood that if Aly were to just
come back and all was well again, that would leave viewers confused, or if Aly
would have killed Hanna when she went to visit her. However could this mean
that, this is what makes a mystery, a mystery? Well, certainly it is dependent
upon what each person considers a mystery to be, personally I would be lost if
Aly had decided to reveal her secret that she was alive. Notice that when the
scene first started, it appears that Hanna is hallucinating, and then it
reverts to her appearing to be very real.
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shawn20009 