Reading the Image

Culture? 

Mr I. Attard

Culture.  What is it? This is how I understand it.  Culture is the process of human development. Let me put it in the form of an example.   Since this module in is based on Maltese literature, might as well use "Malta" as a subject.  The Maltese culture is practically based on traditions, celebrations, different understandings, whether it's knowledge or religious beliefs. Need I also mention that we, as a nation got mixed into many different societies throughout our history.  We as a nation were governed by many different rulers which started off with the Phoenicians, to the Knights of St . John and ended with the Turks all with the help of La Vallette.  By time these people have influenced our unique language and understanding.

During this lecture we had to define the picture below, how culture defines these uniforms.

These are the points which I mentioned:

• Sense of formality;
• Respect;
• worn by force;
• Equality;
• the clothing protects you from any bit of weather.

We were told to observe  these 2 films which are the following:

CASABLANCA...... AND.......

MULHOLLAND DRIVE

During our lecture we learnt how we should write an up-to-standard essay and the meaning Mise-en-scène. Mise-en-scène is when you're explaining what is going on in a scene of a moving image.  Mr Attard showed us a couple of images (one of them was a portrait of Caravaggio) to give us a better idea on how to analyse our work using  Mise-en-scène.  We also discussed the 6 stages of filmmaking which are the following: Cinematography (Shot size, Angle, Composition),  Setting (scene), Colour (key role in this scene), Lighting (enhances the mood of the setting), Costume and Props. 

I'll be using these points in the example below:

Film: "FOOTLOOSE" (2011)

Cinematography and Setting: In this scene we are seeing a bunch of people line dancing in a club. The camera is set at eye level (make you feel like you are part of the scene). Bright coloured lights shining from the top (if your in a club your going to find lights everywhere) making everyone in the shot the center of attention. Regarding the costumes a props, everyone is wearing modern casual clothing and shoes which are suitable for teens hence bring the scene to life.

Ms S. Scicluna

Rhetoric: The Three means of Persuasion 

Rhetoric is the art and study of using imagery or language in a way to persuade someone. This term is split into three parts: Ethos, Pathos and Logos.  We also had a brief background on the father of Rhetoric: Aristotle, a Greek Philosopher. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf81d0YS58E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csIW4W_DYX4

The Rhetoric of the Image - Roland Barthes (1964)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ5IfDcL9pU

Throughout this lesson we:

Examined and understood he messages that the images contained,

How these messages are communicated and understood by the audience (us) and

How these messages persuaded the audience and the extent to which they took part in creating an ideological worldview.

The 3 Messages

Here are some examples:

1. Linguistic message:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NbURaKnP3U

2. Literal message (denoted image) and 3. Symbolic message (connoted image):

In this example we had to denote what we could observe from the black and white photograph itself. Just by looking at the image we can say that this man is in a strange environment . This can be connoted as a prison cell, signified by the handcuffs on his hands.

Here are a couple of examples on the subject:

Ethos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdk_7i8KIo0

Pathos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLz6B-gkm_4

Logos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKDOWAf5M8

Semiotics Terminology

During this lecture, Ms Scicluna discussed the term Semiotics, the study of signs.  We had a brief background on the founding fathers of this study: Ferdinaund de Saussure,a Swiss linguist and Charles Sanders Peirce an American philosopher.  

My favourite part of this lesson was when we had to create our own emoji story either on Facebook or Whatsapp.  

This is my story:  🔊🏼

Considering the fact that I'm a visual learner I decided to find a couple of videos to help me understand the subject a bit better. These two videos were very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO9xl5n9aYI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6zTvrGirfg

Analysing a soundtrack in a film ...

In this short film we can observe and analyse how a simple soundtrack in a film can make the audience feel.

Whodunnit?

When watching this short clip I as a Media student had to observe all the changes that were made throughout. After the first time I saw the clip, I only noticed 2 changes out of the 21.  During our second try, things started to make more sense.  Here is a list of what was changed during the clip: the clock, carpet, the murdered man, the butler's rolling pin, the table cloth, a chair, vase, the antelope's head etc...

Analysing the Blue velvate film opening was very interesting.  

This particular film leaves a mark on the audience.  The film makes you feel like you are in a child's fairy tale story.  It's a perfect beautiful world were no evil can hurt you.  We start off our scene with a brief focus on a picket white fence where a few red roses are blossoming .  The white picket fence represents the American dream. While listening to the beautiful music in the background we move on to the next shot, clear blue skies, a happy fireman passing by in his firetruck waving to passers-by and a traffic lady helping very well behaved kids cross the road.  In reality this type of behavior never really occurs. I cannot remember the last time when a fireman waved and smiled at me. In "our world" if you see a firefighter passing by you, it's going to be at top speed - to help a person in need. In Malta you don't see people helping you to cross the road. It's every man for him/herself. 

Towards the end of the scene we see an elderly couple, a woman watching TV inside a charming house while her husband is watering the flowers in his perfectly trimmed and organised garden with his hose.  In a split second the music changes, from a relaxing tune to a scary one. In this transformation the scene changes too. When the hose gets clogged up and tangled in a plant, the man starts to show the audience that he is feeling a certain tightness in his throat. After just a few seconds the man collapses in excruciating pain with the camera capturing his every move (including the fall to his death). Here the music sounds even more terrifying.  The man dies and dog is seen barking and attacking the hose.  The last part of the scene is very interesting. The camera becomes the attacker. Here the viewers are seeing everything through the attackers' point of view, through a pair of snake eyes. Even though we don't see the snake the sound effects and the certain movements and angles the cameraman is using makes us think so.

Throughout the rest of the lesson we observed and analysed a couple of photographs using these key terms: donnotation and connotation.

Here is Task 1 of this unit:

Semiotics and Photographs

Photographes are both:

• Iconic and 
• Indexical

"The truth claim of photography is the term used by Tom Gunning to describe the prevalent belief that traditional photographs accurately depict reality. He states that the truth claim relies upon both the indexicality and visual accuracy of photographs"

Truth Claim =  indexicality + iconicity 

"a photography is a certificate of presence" - Roland Barthes

Pictorial choices in photography 

Post Production in Photography

Before and after

Presentation

Pictorialism

• An international style 
• Aesthetic movement 
• Emphasizes: beauty of subject matter, tonality and composition 
• Dominated Photography in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Pictorialists

Edward Steichen

Frank Eguene

Iconic Fake Photographs

The Most Iconic Photos In History, but maybe they are Fake?

Things are queer

Memories

In this photo I lead my Handball team to victor. It was the first time my team and I made it to the final tournament. My twin cousins had been wanting to see me in action for quite some time. I was proud that they got to see me win. They were both proud of me.

In this photo I do believe I went to the cinema with my parents to watch a film. It was my 17th birthday. Les Miserable has always been my favourite musical. I was overjoyed when I found out that my childhood actress was playing one of the main roles.... Anne Hathaway. 

Task 2

The following below is the story of "Hbub tad-deheb" by Trevor Zahra

This is my story Board of the story 

My Ideas

The following are some images which helped me come up with ideas:

My Characters:

My cousin Andre played the Author of the story and Theresa played the character "Kitty".

My grandmother played the part as "Dolor".

My grandfather played the part as the Author as an old man (future).

Nikolai (boy on the left) played the part as "Marju"

My brother played the part as the Author as a young man

Here are my edited photographs showing the BEFORE and AFTER:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

During Ms Scicluna's lecture we had a little exhibition, displaying our work of Task 2 (the photos above). After getting hanging our stuff on the wall our lecturer gave as a form. We basically had to fill it out then let the others add their own feedback.



This is my feedback:

The image below shows my Voice Over script: