Claude Levi-Strauss’s Oppositions (Abigail Odum)
Claude Levi-Strauss introduced the notion of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the production of meaning within narratives. He argued that all construction of meaning was dependent, to some degree, on these oppositions. Examples of binary oppositions found in some moving image narratives might be:Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)
Week 5
This week we went back to the location to take more pictures for our storyboard and then Billy used Photoshop to make the images black and white then he put them on Microsoft word, he put the pictures in order and wrote about it after that he hopes to upload the storyboard onto Scribd then put it on our blog for next week. Rebecca has completed the shortlist for our 2 minute sequence and we plan on filming during the half-term next week. We have informed our characters and they will all be available to film next week.
Also we had researched into the narrative codes of thrillers and have created a face book group to enhance our audience globally. Also Billy has done some research into title sequences and developed an understanding how to use them to mass effect when editing our opening sequence.
Facebook Fan Page (Group)
Facebook has many features which makes it distinct from the competitors. One feature is the Facebook Fan Page. A fan page is a tool by which you can expand your social network, interact with your clients and customers and promote something. Rebecca created a fan page for our film as it would enable us to get feedback from various different people. Also it would help us in doing questionnaire research because we can collect responses from different people.
Barthes’ Codes (Abigail Odum)
Roland Barthes describes a text as:“a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language...” (S/Z – 1974 translation)
What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on. An infinite number of times. If you wanted to.
Barthes was a semiotics professor in the 1950s and 1960s who got paid to spend all day unravelling little bits of texts and then writing about the process of doing so. And there are 5 major codes within a story that are interwoven in order to create meaning. Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways:
• Action code & enigma code
• Symbols & Signs
• Points of Cultural Reference
• Simple description/reproduction
• Structures
These are all important however the enigma and action codes are the most helpful. The Enigma (hermeneutic) code refers to those plot elements that raise questions on the part of the reader of a text or the viewer of a film. For example, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Cause and Effect,” we see the Enterprise destroyed in the first five minutes, which leads us to ask the reason for such a traumatic event. Indeed, we are not.
The Action (proairetic) code, on the other hand, refers to mere actions – those plot events that simply lead to yet other actions. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be. We wait to see if he kills his opponent or is wounded himself. Suspense is thus created by action rather than by a reader’s or a viewer’s wish to have mysteries explained.
I learnt a lot from this information; it gave a detailed explanation on different codes which are used in filming thrillers. This helped as it gave me ideas on how to make our 2 minute sequence as effective as possible. Some of this above was taken from
Title sequences (Billy Camden)
“A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast member, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound. It usually follows but should not be confused with the opening credits, which are generally nothing more than a series of superimposed text”.
This was taken from a website called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_sequence. This gave me an idea of what title sequences are and when and how to use them during the editing process. I looked into a film called ‘District 9’ and how they used their title sequences in introducing the film. From carrying out research into how the stages of an opening title sequence are produced I have found that the order usually revolves around introducing the director, the creator’s logo, who the film was associated with and who the film is by, then the film begins. This was evident in the opening title sequence of the film ‘District 9’. This is how it began:
This is the logo of the company who produced the film, i have noticed that in a lot of movies opening title sequence, this is how they start it.
They then went onto show the directors name, this is to indicate who the film was directed by.
Following on from the directors name the titles introduce of the film was associated with, so basically the companies that aslo helped in producing the film.
