Visual meaning - Week 4


During week 4, we picked up from where we had left off during the previous session. Having as an example a sheriff's badge, we talked about what is a sign and what it signifies. What we came across is the fact that we have two different kinds of signs: the psychological signs and physical signs. In that case:

Physical signs:

  • the badge
Psychological signs:
  • authority 
  • justice 
  • crimes
The link between these two signs is called Metonymic meaning. In a film, the images give us meaning and they tell a story by themselves and also every character we see is built from signs.



At this point, I want to note down that what I have realized from all of our lessons is the fact that most of the things that we talk about are things that we already have subliminally in our minds but we can't trace back to. We make the connections subconsciously and I believe the digital practice is helping us put a name to all the things that we know are happening but we don't actually know how to address them.  


After realizing how many layers there are on a small badge, the term Synechdoche was mentioned, which is one that I had never heard of before - which is not surprising at this point.

“This relationship of part to whole is also very important for the film. The technical term for this is synecdoche. Our sheriff is his badge, our gunslinger is his gun. Our heroine is a rose – beautiful but easily crushed. Julia Roberts’ character is ‘that smile’. Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti Western anti-hero is that cigar – smouldering, hard-bitten and enduring.” (Edgar Hunt, pg. 25)

I can't say that I actually understood what exactly it meant until I realized that it derives from the Greek word συνεκδοχή (siˈnekdəkē) syn- "with" + ek "out" + dekhesthai "to receive" and it made a lot more sense (to me at least). However, I still need to research its purpose more because it is still unclear to me. 

Moving on, we talked about how encoding and decoding work, which is something that we have mentioned a bit before. From the way I see it, I  understand that audiences are presented with encoded messages that are decoded from each individual in different ways based on their experiences and background. This is Stuart Hall's theory that asserts that media texts are used in that way in order to be able to pass a message to the audience.

From this moment on, I believe the most interesting and educational part of the lesson begun. We watched a short clip that analyzed the opening scene in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) dir. Georgia Miller.  (https://www.screentakes.com/lesson-one-visuals-and-action/ )




The explaining of the opening scene was extremely instructional and it gave us an idea of what we could do as an extra assignment for digital practice. Following that, In our teams, we had to do the same thing in one of the scenes that we would be given. My team and I had the opening scene for Blue Velvet (1986) dir. David Lynch. 





We found different elements in this short clip and some of them were similar to the ones the film critical mentions for The Road Warrior.

  • The opening scene shows us that we are in an American suburban neighbourhood
  • The flowers show luxury (roses and tulips) and the colours are really deep and strong.
  • False Hope -> everything seems nice but something tragic is going to follow 
  • Firetruck -> the typical firefighter dog, the firefighter is waving and he seems really friendly and also we see the firetruck walking away from “the danger” that is going to follow 
  • It starts like a normal day that nothing is wrong, the children go to school. However, the children seem to be walking in a really slow pace. It seems like it is building the suspense.
  • First, we see the man casually watering the plans and then his wife (she is wearing a ring) is watching on TV something that includes a gun and it prepares the audience that death is going to follow.
  • The pipe that is going to explode is preparing us for the action that is going to follow 
  • The hose is wrapped around the branch that indicates struggle and suffering that is going to happen next
  • The shot of the grass prepares us that something again is there and is going to happen - also the music starts to change.
  • On the outside, everything seems beautiful and perfect but on the inside, the bugs are eating each other and there is a lot of darkness. 
  • While the man is struggling, the baby comes closer and the dog is having a really good time. While one man is dying, others continue to live their lives and have fun. 
  • Both characters are wearing watches, so it might show that there is something going to happen in a small period of time
  • Lastly, after the man being on the ground dying and the gruesome shot of the bugs on the grass, we see the sign of the town, which takes us back to the fact that life moves on and also that the city is just a beautiful fake image.

Source here.

The style and the music used are around the era of the actual film so there is nothing particular to talk about. 

I really enjoyed this exercise because film analysis is something I wanted to learn more about for a while. Managing to detect all the signs in a movie is a really one of the most important skills in film making and I'm really glad that we had the chance to do a task like this in class.

In the last part of the session, we were asked, in our teams again, to choose a fairytale and rewrite it against type. As a group, we chose Shrek. At first, made some bullet points tracked how the fairytale is going to unfold.
 

As far as it concerns how the characters are going to be, we decided not to change much about the way Shrek is going to look or dress and similarly, Prince Charming and Lord Farquaad won't change in their appearance. Thus, Greta Thunberg, she is going to dress according to the style of 2020. However, when the story is coming close to the end and the debate is becoming more and more serious, all four characters from the original story will start wearing suits. I find this story to have many elements that are present in the today world. How global warming is affecting the whole planet and all the species, the fight of a 17-year-old girl in order to save the planet, the acceptance of homosexuality and generally of the LGBTQ+ community but also the way media influence the opinion of the public. 

Here is our story, using the Ken Adams' structure or the Pixar prompt:


(narrated by Greta Thunberg)

Once Upon a Time, there was a raging ogre called Shrek. The reason behind his rage was the danger of extinction of his species and the threat against his home, the swamp in the Arctic.
And every day is the same day. The continuation of his rage and the threat against his life made him “monster”. He never thought about the impact of his own actions against others and how they perceived him.
Until one day, on one of his raging sprees, he runs into a young girl that isn’t scared of him and her name is Greta Thunberg. Out of his surprise, he askes her: why aren’t you scared of me? She replies that you are not the monster that the media perceives. After a lengthy conversation, Greta convinces Shrek to change his ways and his mindset. She explains that his actions have more than one consequence and he needs to understand that the planet is dying as well as his species.
And because of that, he decides to create his own political party to save his species and the planet. During the process of his campaign, he meets Donkey, who later finds out he is his political rival. Donkey is running for his own species.
And because of that, they have many heated debates about one another. This makes both parties more known within the community and this makes them create a truce.
And because of that, this creates the idea of merging both campaigns together because they are both fighting for the same cause and their own species as well.
And because of that, they run together, fight together and are together
And because of that, at the same time, Lord Fc and Prince Charming are rival campaigners whose main objective is to execute all donkeys and ogres for their own benefit. They show video evidence of ogres in their natural habitat and that footage shows ogres being “monsters”
Until finally, the community side with Shrek and Donkey because throughout the campaign they see a human side to Shrek and Donkey. And, they understand that everyone has a past which they might not be proud of. But everyone can change for the better.
Ever since then, both species are on the rise. The ice caps aren’t melting away as fast and everyone is doing their own part to the fight for everyone to be happy. Because at the end of the day we’re all fighting to stay alive. 



Reflection:

Overall, Week 4 was fascinating! We discussed one theory, in comparison with last week that we discussed three. It was much easier to comprehend what we were taught and we explored one of the key skills that any media creator should have: paying attention to detail. The tasks were definitely engaging and working in groups is always interesting to do.  At first, when we started the workshop, I presumed that we are going to have as much as theory as week 3, but luckily we had our hands full with these nice activities. I'm hoping to have similar exercises in the upcoming weeks!

Thank you for reading my post! :)



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