\\ Screen & Media Studies

GENERAL

Analysis: the process of splitting up an action, an event or an idea in order to understand how it works

Synthesis: the process of bringing the pieces of an analysis together to make a whole

Diegesis: the fictional world created by a film, television programme or other story, for example the Wild West, Middle Earth.

Synchronised: from Greek words meaning 'in time with'; refers to sounds synchronised with images. Sync sound is recorded at the same time as the image, and played back at the same time. Non-synch sound is either recorded separately, or played back separately (for example in a voice-over) or both.

SOUND

Soundscape: the whole sound environment

Silence: the absence of sound, and we bet you can't achieve it (short of a visit to outer space)

Volume: how loud or soft a sound is

Timbre: how harsh or soothing a sound is

Pitch: how high or low a sound is

Rhythm: the dynamic movements of sound in time

Melody: the musical organisation of sounds in time

Texture: the the intermixing of sounds, for example in musical harmony, where several voices blend together, or in a film soundtrack where cars, guns and street noise combine to provide a physical sense of the location

Noise: random sound

Music: organised sound

Dialogue: the sound of speaking voices

Sound effects: all other noises used in the audiovisual media, radio and recorded music.

on-screen: sound whose source is visible in the image, for example a radio or an actor

off-screen: sound whose source is not visible in the image, for example an approaching car, a telephone caller or a voice-over

diegetic: diegesis is the fictional world constructed by a film, the world in which the characters live, for example the Wild West, the Starship Enterprise, the Spanish Main, or even a 'real' place used as the setting for fiction. Diegetic sound is then sound explained by the fictional world of the film, for example street noise,music played on record players, dialogue between characters.

non-diegetic: sound which cannot be explained as deriving from the fictional world of the film or TV programme, such as incidental music or a voiceover by someone who is not a character in the story

synch: (short for 'synchronised'): synch sound is sound recorded at the same time as the image

non-synch: (or post synch): sound recorded separately from the image and dubbed onto the soundtrack during postproduction, for example almost all the sound in an animated film or TV programme, non-diegetic music, or special sound effects such as footsteps which are difficult to record (you would hear the sound recordist as well as the actor walking)

Here is a table with the various types of sound and sound-image relations marked on it. Can you fill; in all the boxes with examples from film and TV programmes? One of the boxes is very difficult to fill - perhaps impossible: why?

	on -screen	off -screen	diegetic	non -diegetic	synch	non -synch
Music
Dialogue
Sound Effects (sfx)

IMAGE

Framing: the boundaries of an image that limit how much we see of the scene it depicts, for example

a wide view

a squarer and closer view selecting only part of the scene

and a close view (here using an oval frame)

Note how framing alters the emotional impact of the scene: a big meeting, a confrontation, an isolated boy.

Composition: using the elements within the frame to create a design which might be

symmetrical (as in this shot from Blade Runner

or asymmetrical (as in this shot from Citizen Kane)

or be composed in one of many ways to emphasise one aspect of the image.

In this example, it is the vast, dark sky over their heads that is emphasised, to give the impression of the labourers being weighed down.

Depth: images are by and large flat, but they can give the impression of deep or shallow space. The main techniques used for this are making closer objects larger and more strongly coloured, and further objects smaller and paler. The foreground of the image is often called the figure and the backdrop is referred to as the ground. In the image of the labourers, the workers and the earth are the figure, and the sky is the ground.

Presence and absence: an image is present, but it may depict an absence. Images capture a moment at the moment of its disappearance. This contradiction is important for example in constructing glamour (we feel close to the star but at the same time distant), nostalgia (we remember but we also regret) and other complex emotions and concepts.

Shots: Shots are usually defined as ECS (extreme close shot), MCS (medium close shot), CS(close shot), MS (medium shot), LS (long shot), MLS (medium long shot) and ELS (extreme long shot). Here is a rough guide:

Light: without which no image exists. We looked at key light, back light and fill light.

High key lighting puts a lot of light into the image, as in Piero della Francesco's Baptism:

Low key lighting puts in very little, as in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

Back light illuminates the edges of things, for example hair, and helps define the relationship between figure and ground by emphasising the boundaries of the figure. Fill light is used to add light in the side of the object nearest the camera.

MOVEMENT

Camera movement: the world is full of movement. This is often called real movement. There are also various kinds of movements cameras can make. These include

1. Movements permitted on a standard tripod

Pan: where the camera rotates sideways (laterally) parallel to the ground

Tilt: where the camera rotates upwards or downwards at right angles to the ground

Roll: where the camera rotates about its own axis, making it appear that the ground is sloping

2. Physical movement of the camera

Track: rolling the camera on a specially designed trolley that runs on tracks

Dolly: rolling the camera on a specially designed trolley that runs on rubber wheels

Crane: camera mounted on a crane permitting multiple fluid movements in three dimensions

Steadicam: specially designed holder permitting handheld shots without shudder.

3. Virtual movement created using the lens

Zoom: shortening or lengthening the focal length of the lens to give a closer or wider view. This also affects the figure-ground relation, making the background appear closer or further away

Parallax: used by animators (but also apparent in any moving image) the parallax effect arises because. When we move by them, closer objects seem to move faster than more distant ones. If therefore an animator makes one plane of his drawing move more slowly, it appears more distant and adds depth to the image.

Motion capture: tracking points on a moving face or body in order to get a simplified image of motion. The technique was invented by Etienne-Jules Marey and is used extensively in computer animations, for example the animation of Woody in Toy Story

Bullet time: technique developed by effects wizard John Gaeta for Blade and The Matrix, using a series of still cameras to capture a three-dimensional image of an action. The technique derives from the experiments of Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s.

EDITING

Montage: 'the collision of shots'; bringing two images together to create a meaning that is not immediately apparent in either one of them alone

Transitions between shots: There are many transitions available. These include

IDEOLOGY

The word ideology is one of several words used to describe the system of values and beliefs that characterise a specific society. It derives from early 19th century sociology, and is most associated with the German social philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx (1818-1883). Marx's thinking is very complex, but a simplified version of his theory of ideology became very influential in the early 20th century, giving our first definition of ideology:

1. Base and superstructure

The economy forms the base of society. The basic rule of capitalism is that workers are exploited. In Marx, this means, crudely put, that if your work for a day is worth ten dollars, you will only be paid nine. The other dollar goes to the capitalist who employs you as profit. That is the basic social relation.

But in order to get us to work for someone else's profit, capitalism (like every other social formation) uses ideology: beliefs and values. We believe that we must work, we believe that work is good for us, we value hard work, we work because we believe in supporting our families, our society, a war effort, the idea of education and so forth. This ideological domain is a superstructure built on top of the basis economic relations. It is often referred to as 'false consciousness'.

The base-superstructure theory can be considered as a theory of commercialism: the form of commerce (today, capitalism) governs the kind of culture we inhabit. For example, we believe in a rather vague idea of 'family values'. Media corporations produce 'family entertainment' to reinforce that idea, and avoid, for example, pornography because it does not fit with the commercial imperative to make family product.

The weakness of this theory is that it is a very blunt instrument. If the 'truth' behind every ideology is capitalism, then why do we need more than one television programme to tell us so? Likewise, if every film is about capitalism, how come they look so different to one another? And how come we can have such different interpretations of individual programmes or films or websites?

2 Hegemony

We owe a more complex theory of ideology to the Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). Gramsci took another of Marx's key concepts as his guide. Marx argued that capitalism (and every other social formation) is based on oppression, but that people struggle for control within the system they live in. This is Marx's theory of class struggle. The different classes include the ruling class and the working class, but Gramsci argued that there are many other classes and 'class fractions': peasants, rural landowners, priests and clergy, intellectuals, civil servants, aristocrats and so on. In addition, capitalism is only the dominant form of society, for example in Italy where he lived and worked. Old forms like feudalism still persisted in some areas, and new forms were emerging.

Gramsci's theory of hegemony is a theory of ideology as the fruit of a struggle for control over ideas. Ideas, beliefs and values are not simply imposed by rulers: they are fought over, argued, debated and negotiated.

The hegemony theory of ideology can be thought of as a theory of the state. Different factions vie for control of the state. For example, different blocs or classes vie for control over censorship according to their own concepts of right and wrong. At any one time, there is always one faction (or an alliance) in power: they dominate (but do not determine) the ideology of the nation. They are said to be the hegemonic group.

This version of the theory is very important in the UK, where it is used to explain the triumph of the Labour movement after World War two, when industries were nationalised, universal education came in, and the Welfare State was founded.

It also helps us to understand both the struggles or negotiations over the meaning of media texts. In addition, the hegemony theory of ideology gives us an insight into why we need to tell stories: stories (and news and documentaries and other forms) negotiate over the values, beliefs and ideas that form an ideology, raising problems and contradictions, and voicing the opinions of subordinate as well as dominant groups in society.

3. Structuralism

In France and other European nations. There was a different problem. Many, perhaps even the majority, of working people either accepted or even actively supported fascism. Trying to explain this, structuralism comes up with a third theory of ideology.

Structuralism emphasises the idea that society is a structure. Everything from the rules of grammar to table manners, codes of dress to toilet training, continuity editing to the Road Code is a structure which everyone has to learn. If we refuse to abide by the rules, we are ostracised or punished.

Structuralists argue that there is no such thing as free will. We have no option but to accept the rules of the language into which we are born. We cannot invent our own language, our own words, our own grammar. We do not even think of breaching the rules about toilet training: firstly, because we would be ashamed of ourselves (ie we don't need an outside force) and secondly, because the rules are embedded so deeply in our consciousness we have forgotten that we ever learnt them. Ideology, according to structuralism, extends right into our innermost being, and becomes the unconscious structure of everyday life.

Structuralism is widely used in media analysis. Semiotics, which often takes a very structuralist approach, is one example. Semiotic structuralism suggests that ideology is usually structured as a set of binary oppositions, such as male/female. Many media texts, especially stories, can be understood as attempts to resolve such binary oppositions. For example, The Long Kiss Goodnight concerns a woman who must decide whether she should be a soft, dowdy, nurturing mother and housewife or a violent, glamorous, hard-edged trained killer and superspy. A structural analysis would say that she must decide between being too feminine (weak) and not feminine enough (murderous).

Structural theories of ideology are very powerful at explaining how ideology works at a given moment in time. They also explain the power of ideologies to remain in circulation for long periods of history. What they have trouble doing is explaining change. This is because they do not have a theory of how the structures of ideology sometimes fail.

Contents

General

Sound

Image

Movement

Editing

Ideology

Base +
Superstructure

Hegemony

Structuralism

Semiotics