Week 6: Semiotics

Given the discussion we had in class about Christian Metz’s different examples of syntagmas, can you come up with some good examples of:

Bracket syntagma

-a series of very brief scene representing occurrences that the film gives as typical examples of the same reality/world, without locating them in relation to each other

Parallel syntagma

-2 motifs interwoven

-2 separate scenes with narrative relation to each other

This post is due by 12pm on Wednesday, February 15th.

WEEK 15 DISCUSSION POST: WALL-E

I made you all stay through the closing credits of Wall*E because I wanted you to pay attention to the different kinds of images presented. What do these images remind you of? How do they change as the credits go on? Why?

WEEK 15 DISCUSSION PROMPT: WALL-E

There is an emphasis in WALL*E between the “real” and the “artificial.” What characters, objects and settings would you place into these categories and why?

 

WEEK 15 DISCUSSION PROMPT

In his essay “ Digital Cinema and the History of the Moving Image,” Lev Manovich discusses the impact of digital cinema and computer animation on traditional “as  lens-based recordings of reality” (i.e., movies made by photographing real objects and people). He writes that “Cinema of the art of the index; it is an attempt to make art out of a footprint” (796). How do you interpret this quote? What does it mean?

 

WEEK 14 DISCUSSION POST: THE 7 YEAR ITCH

How does Marilyn Monroe’s character in The Seven Year Itch reflect, reinforce, and play upon her established star image? For example, what filmic techniques—camera movements, editing, lighting, framing, etc.—are used to highlight Monroe’s sexuality? Do you agree that Monroe embodies the innocence and naturalness of sex, as promoted by Playboy? If so, where?

 

WEEK 13 DISCUSSION PROMPT: IMITATION OF LIFE

What is Imitation of Life‘s attitude toward Sarah Jane’s attempt to pass as white? In other words, what is the film’s stance on the practice of passing? Approving? Disapproving? Can you cite a specific scene?

 

WEEK 13 DISCUSSION PROMPT

“Racial imagery is central to the organization of the modern world. At what cost regions and countries export their goods, whose voices are listened to at international gatherings, who bombs and who is bombed, who gets what jobs, housing, access to health care and education, what cultural activities are subsidized and sold, in what terms they are validated—these are all largely inextricable from racial imagery. The myriad minute decisions that constitute the practices of the world are at every point informed by judgments about people’s capacities and worth judgments based on what they look like, where they come from, how they speak, even what they eat, that is, racial judgments. Race is not the only factor governing these things and people of goodwill everywhere struggle to overcome the prejudices and barriers of race, but it is never not a factor, never not in play. And since race in itself—insofar as it is anything in itself—refers to some intrinsically insignificant geographical/physical differences between people, it is the imagery of race that is in play.”

-Richard Dyer

What do you make of this quote? Do you agree? Disagree? Why or why not?