Com 340:  Television Criticism 

Semiotics Lecture

Part II

Updated: 04/16/2002

 

Herbert Zettle, has written one of the key books in the area of media aesthetics (2000)  According to him, media aesthetics differs from traditional aesthetics in three major ways:

1.    Media aesthetics are concerned with more than just art philosophy and beauty.  Media aesthetics are concerned with a number of aesthetic components which make up the text, including light, space, time-motion, sound and how we react to all of those.

2.    Television and film are the essential elements of this type of media communication, although computer and video gaming certainly share some of the components.

3.    Media aesthetics are concerned with how all of these things fit together, not just how they stand alone.  It's important to look at what they mean as a result of how they all work together.

 

 

In the next part of this lecture we'll look at specific conventional representational codes and how they are used to create meaning:  

Mise-en-scene, refers to all of the objects that appear on the stage or set.  May include costume design, lighting, and even actor movement.  We'll look at each of these individually.

Set Design:  This involves all of the settings which appear in the text

The person responsible is the set or scenic designer.  The director and producer approve of all those decisions, and the designer works very closely with them, interpreting the script in the objects which will be placed on the set or in the locale.

Note that some sets are in studio, but others are on location.  Obviously the scenic designer can't re-do New York City for NYPD Blue , but he or she may select the location in which a particular scene will be shot.

Butler discusses the differences between narrative and non-narrative studio set design.  Be sure you read that chapter carefully, and note those differences.  Here, we will focus primarily on narrative set design...

Television and films sets should be iconographic.  (Remember what an icon is? -- A sign that looks like what it means....) Therefore, the sets in which characters reside or spend time should tell us something about them.  We've discussed the significance of personal and private space in character development and dossier creation, so you should have a pretty good idea of what we're discussing here.   Consider some specific examples:

Studio sets 

Know the following terms:

Costumes:

We have already spent considerable time discussing costumes, but these two employ all of the semiotic codes and are iconographic.   Consider the following examples:

From Cheers: contrast Carla, Rebecca and Lillith  

Lighting:

Be sure you understand the following terms from your text:

High Key lighting:  Set is evenly lit: indicates normalcy, stability

Low Key Lighting: darker, more contrast, fast fall-off: indicates criminality, doubt, indecisions, instability

Diffusion:

Actor Movement:

We have already discussed the direction of movement and how that can effect meaning and tone.  But Butler spends some space discussing specific blocking terms and methods.  Know the following:

Sound:  

Sound in a media text involves 

We have discussed the significance of dialogue, but you should also know some of the following terms from your text:

 

Purposes of sound in Television

1.  get audience's attention

2.  help viewers understand what they're seeing on the screen

3.  maintaining the continuity or "flow" of the program

4.  helping people understand what's going on in the scene and keeping it all together, unified

Remember that sound and image can function together in several ways to create meaning in a text:

Butler makes some very good observations about sound in his book:

Sound allows us to understand time and space.  Is the sound on-mike or off-mike? Behind and obstruction?  We determine where objects are based on how they sound. In an earlier edition of his book Writing for Radio and Television,  Robert Hillard wrote that "sound effects should be used only when necessary and only in relation to the psychological conditions which determine the orientation of the listener."   That means the sound person has to put him or herself into the place of the viewer and figure out what the viewer would expect to hear from that physical position in time and space.  This is an important concept, so be sure you understand it.

Sound can be

Sometimes sound can lead an edit --and provide continuity in the process....We hear the new scene before we see it.

Diegetic sound:  that which would occur naturally in the story

    Objective diegetic sound:  part of the natural, external world of the story

    Subjective diegetic sound: what would be heard in the character's head...as with a voice over that tells us what the character is thinking at a particular time, or the "captain's log, Star date....."

Non-diegetic sound:  Mood-originating sound that may not originate naturally in the situation.  Heard by viewers but not by the characters. (The stinger!  -- The sharp chords that viewers hear after the line,  "John, the baby isn't yours..."

Camera Work and Style:

Butler makes the point that the camera fundamentally changes what it records:

Be sure you know the following terms:

Be sure to refer to your text book for discussions of particular shots :  Know what FS, MS, TS, CU , EXCU, LS, XLS, etc. mean.

The moving camera has specific functions:

Know camera movement terms:  pan, zoom, tilt, truck, track, crane, pedestal

Hand-held camera : provides documentary feel, realism, provides subjective perspective

Steadi-cam: provides tighter shots, quicker movement as well as any or all of the same things provided by the hand-held camera.  Used where dolly tracks can't go. Used effectively in E.R. 

Additional Terms you need to know : 

 

Robert Hilliard, in an early edition of his book, Writing for Radio and Television, wrote that the camera controlled three areas of audience attention.  These are very important.  Be sure you think about them as you watch...

1.    The AMOUNT of the subject the audience can see

2.    The DISTANCE between the audience and the subject of the shot

3.    The ANGLE at which the audience sees the subject.

He also described the use of the camera as a "moving and adjustable proscenium through which the attention of the audience is directed just as the writer and director wish." 

Let's look at how the camera influences meaning:

1.  ANGLE AND FOCUS:  

    A.  Horizontal Plane:  This is the shot in which the camera is aimed at a level angle at the subject.  This is the type of shot used in everything from ECUs to Full Shots and Long Shots.

    B.  Vertical Plane:   Here the angle of the camera starts at a low point, shooting up at the subject

   

    C.  Focus:  How clear are the representations in the shot?    The degree of clarity or diffusion makes a big difference in what the shot means to the audience.  

PLANES,  ANGLES and FOCUS all give the viewer a degree of satisfaction because the viewer is led to believe he has a lot of insight or omniscience into what is going on.  In many cases, the viewer may know more than the characters appear to know in the story.  That gives the audience power, and that is generally satisfying, attractive, and pleasurable for the viewer.

 

II.   DISTANCE or camera/character placement:    The question here is whether the viewer is IN the action or separated from it.   Directors determine the point of view that will be presented.  There are three key points of view:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these perspectives?  What do they do to the viewer with regard to the content?

Directors make these decision based on the story and the dramatic need in the scene....

For example, if we want to enhance suspense, it's important that the viewer understand the jeopardy the characters are in, so a qui ck subjective perspective shot of what the character sees or doesn't see, puts us in the place of the character, involves us in the story, and helps to build suspense. Example:  In "Rogue Planet" an Enterprise  episode, viewers are put in subjective perspective often as they see what the characters see, even sometimes through the night-vision goggles....Because the scene is dark and we can't make out many details, the constant question is "what's out there? What's going on?"  Subjective perspective helps articulate that.

ECUs are frequently used to express villainy.  When villains are shot with Extra Close-ups more than other characters, the shot itself helps us know a character is "bad."  This technique has been used for years in 60 Minutes,  Extremely close shots reveal more than we usually see of other people -- whether they're sweating, shifting their eyes, nervously twitching, etc.  The use of ecus in magazine news programs illustrates that these techniques aren't limited to entertainment programs alone.

Why does the ECU have a negative connotation?

REACTION SHOTS /REVERSE ANGLES are important because they create a rhythm of attention in response to words or actions of each of the characters.  These shot sequences have to be very carefully planned.  

Reaction Shots: They may mean just as much to the story as dialogue, though there usually isn't any dialogue in a reaction shot.

Reverse Angles: viewers look not just AT a character but with with the characters....A reverse angle shot may be a type of reaction shot:

III.  Camera in MOTION:

Motion provides information about the physical form of things.

Hand-held camera in E.R.  or  other dramas indicate instability in the situation, live, action, environment.  

Direction of camera motion:

IV.  SHOT DURATION and TRANSITION:

cut:  instantaneous take from one picture to the next.  The simplest, quickest transition.  Indication change of attention.

    Connotes:

dissolve:  one picture gradually dissolves into the next;  indicates a change of place or time

    Connotes:

Duration:  

Younger people can handle rapid pace much more effectively than older people. Because of the television generation, young people are more able to process visual information rapidly.

WHAT THE CAMERA SEES is obviously very important:

SHAPES:

According to Zettle, color serves a number of primary functions:

1.  Informational functions:

2.  Compositional functions:

3.  Expressive Functions: Color is used to make us feel a certain way.....A bright yellow room has a different feeling than a room that is decorated in all grays and browns.

LIGHTING also has specific codes and symbolic uses in television, film and other visual media

 Lighting:  The deliberate control of the amount and direction of light

Shadows are an essential part of the lighting director's work.  Shadows create the definition and expression needed.  

There are two types of shadows:

1.  Attached shadows: 

2.   Cast shadows: 

Other lighting terms and concepts you need to know:

Falloff: This term refers to how much shadow is there.  To what degree is there contrast between the light and dark parts of the picture, and how rapidly does the light go to dark?  Is there are gradual change or is there stark contrast between the light and the dark.  Falloff refers tot he rate of change from light to shadow

Outer orientation functions of shadows: Those thing which tell us about the physical nature of the subject

Inner Orientation Functions of shadows:  These tell us what's going on inside the character or situation -- what can't be seen through normal means.

Zettle categorizes light in two groups:

Flat Lighting: highly diffused with low fall off which usually represents

High Contrast or Chiaroscuro  (KI-RA-SKUU-RAH)

COMPOSITIONAL FACTORS:

Years ago, Maitland Graves wrote about the theory of art and composition.  I was taught these principles in my directing classes at Ball State University.  We have already discussed the six compositional characteristics that are necessary for every composition, but here they are again:

Other elements are also significant, and I want to discuss them as well:

First, is the concept of harmony and discord.  These are tools or factors that we react to automatically because they are so much a part of our culture, but we frequently don't think about how they work together to create those effects in us.  As producers and creators of television, film or audio productions, we need to consider those things:

Harmony:  A combination of units which are similar in one or more aspects, they are alike in some way

Discord:  Defined as extreme contrast, here you have the maximum amount of difference in size, shape color; the combinations are totally unrelated. For example,  if I provide a series of font sizes....

A   A   A  A  A  A

There are the only ranges allowed in Front Page, and you can see there's not much difference between the 8pt and 10pt A....but there would be a lot of discord if I typed the 8 pt and then the 24 point A in the middle of a line.....It doesn't fit, you wonder why I did that, it throws the spacing off, etc....Discord.

Discord can also occur as the combination of totally unrelated events.... A kitten in a battle field, A baby with a bottle of beer, etfc.

Harmony and Discord can be of three different conceptual types:

 

Gradation:  occurs when contrasting extremes are bridge by a series of harmonious steps  (In nature from plains to hills to mountains)

Gradation implies:

 

Contrast:  creates meaning by focusing on opposites and even exaggerating or emphasizing them.  Some examples would be

Unity:  Is the preference for either harmony or discord, but usually we think of it as the presence of harmony.  We have already spent a lot of time talking about this in class, but here I want you to think about it in terms of visual aspects of the television....  Consider the appearance of those Klingons and Romulans again.....lots of points, hard surfaces in their costuming, shadows and angles in their vessels and furnishings....

Unity requires one element to be dominant (though more can be...).  That element may be emphasized through:

All of these elements can be applied to use of color, line, direction or camera work.....

 

When considering the composition of the images or frame in a television or film project,  Zettle addresses the importance of field forces.

There are SIX MAJOR FIELD FORCES. Be sure you understand them as they are described in your text.

1.  MAIN DIRECTIONS:  We've spoken about these already in terms of symbolism, but this time the symbolism refers to the main lines or directions within the visible frame, not necessarily the camera angle.   So do we have an horizon that is stable? Are the characters facing climbing a 90 degree ledge?  Main directions also involve the lines in the setting or local as well as the blocking or position of the characters in the frame -- standing, sitting, lying prone on a bed or the ground? 

2.  MAGNETISM OF THE FRAME:  You can't do better than really studying the examples in Zettle's book.  Remember that the following parts of a screen extert "pull"

3.  ASYMETRY OF THE SCREEN:  Some parts of the screen are more powerful than others

4.  FIGURE AND GROUND:  We organize any picture into a foreground and background.  That means we see in it a stable background on which a character or object can naturally move.  Sometimes we reverse that for effect, but not often.

5.  PSYCHOLOGICAL CLOSURE:  Our brains fill in the missing information in a picture....Television pictures are by nature kind of fuzzy and the details are not very clear in many cases.  But we naturally fill in the missing information our selves so it can make sense to us.

6.  VECTORS:  Vectors are directional codes that are very important to actors, directors and editors.  A vector is a force with direction and magnitude. There are three key vectors in television and film:

Vectors can be

7.   BALANCE:  refers to structuring and creating stability in the two dimensional field of the screen.  It is achieved when the magnetism of the screen and forces of mass are appropriately balanced.  Remember that each object on the screen has graphic weight or mass and those things are determined by the size, position and orientation of the object.   [See the diagrams in your text.]  Some key concepts to rmember:

Be sure to remember the three structural stages of balance:

8,   DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS:  

Television is two dimensional.  In other words, it's flat.  But flat is boring and it's not like the real world that we're trying to portray when we create content for film or television.  The question then becomes how do we create the IMPRESSION of a three dimensional world on a two-dimensional screen?

You may not have even considered that before, because you're so used to seeing three dimensions "articulated" on your flat TV screen.  It seems normal and natural.  Only when you go to Universal Studios or Walt Disney World and see one of those 3-D shows do you really realize how FLAT television and film really are.  It seems real to us because the people who produce shows, films and commercials do quite a bit to help us along....

Zettle approaches this issue through the use of the concept of axes.  You're used to that from geometry.

 

    The three dimensional frame can be emphasized or "articulated" through a number of techniques:

1.    Using Positive or Negative Volumes: 

Positive Volumes:  Actual things in the frame; they must have mass or substance.    Example would be he Enterprise in space or the ship and the planet it orbits. 

Negative Volumes: Empty space which is defined by some kind of positive volume.  Example would be the open space seen when the hatch is open in the Dyson's Sphere in "Relics" or the stars and planets visible in the view screen on the bridge or from the windows in 10-Forward or from Captain Janeway's ready-room.

How the positive and negative volumes work together to create the frame is volume duality. 

2.  Graphic Depth Factors:

All of these can be used to articulate depth in frame. 

3. Depth Characteristics of lenses:  

There are three classifications of lenses:

4.  Structures creating planes on the z-axis 

By placing structures or people along the z- axis, the depth of the space is "articulated" -- emphasized by the placement.  In class we discussed how the bridge of the Enterprise was designed to that very thing.  You can count at least seven planes along the z-axis running from the view screen to the turbo lift.

 

5.  Blocking along the z-axis 

Look very carefully at how people are positioned in the frame.  Note that they stand closer together than people do in real life.  We are so used to seeing such positioning on television, that we don't think about it very much.  

Editing:

Be sure you know the difference between single camera and multiple camera shooting style and what that means for the editor. When trying to decide which to use, ask three questions:

Be certain that you understand the stages of production and what happens in each one.

Types of Editing:

1.  Continuity Editing:

Cuts here are not noticeable because they focus on the story, they are designed to focus on the story.

Hollywood Classicism as developed continuity conventions.  Shots are arranged so that the audience always knows

This spatial and temporal coherence.

This level of coherence dictates the structure of the work/script -- what a scene is.

Spacial Continuity:

In this editing style, where people are is most important, so certain rules apply:

Match Cutting:  making sure that characters match in size and orientation from shot to shot

Match-on-action:  Cut when action happens, especially on similar action.  Common technique is to follow a moving character from one part of a location to another (E.R. uses this a lot) or to have one person put down a fork, dissolve to a fork on another table as a different character picks it up in another scene. 

Eyeline Match:  character looks in one direction,, cut to what the character would see

To really get an appreciation of editing and how it works, watch a segment of a TV show or film and ask the following questions (Some adapted from Butler's text)

1.  How is the setting or space of action established 

2.  What is the narrative purpose for each scene -- what does it add to the story, how did it move the story forward

3.  Why is the camera shooting from the angle it is?  Up, Down, Eyelevel?

4.  What kind of movement happens on the screen?  What is character movement? What is camera movement?

5.   How are shots/counter shots used?

6.  What kind of perspective is used?

7.  How is the cutting done?

    -- match on action?

    -- match on continuity?

    --eyelevel match?

8.  How does the editing organize the space?   How is spatial continuity achieved?

9.  How is continuity achieved?

10. How is temporal continuity achieved?

11. How does the pace of the editing affect the content of the story?

12.  How does the editing contribute to closure at the end of the scene?

Consider the scene between Tasha Yar and Captain Picard when she asks for a transfer to the Enterprise C in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Be sure you understand the following terms:

What are the characteristics of multiple camera shooting?  What is "visual looseness?"   

    Used often in soaps.  May  not always have shots perfectly. Signifies "live" shot and conveys excitement or spontaneity .

Avoid jump-cuts  (Cutting from one shot to another similar shot in such a way that it makes the characters appear to jump.)

Resources:

Butler, Jeremy. Television: Critical Methods and Applications, 2nd ed.  (2002) London: LEA.

Berger, Arthur Asa.  "Signs in Contemporary Culture: An Introduction to Semiotics, 2nd ed. " 

Graves, Maitland. The Art of Color and Design. (1951) McGraw Hill. 

Douglas, John S. and Glenn P. Harnden.  The Art of Technique: An Aesthetic Approach to Film and Video Production.  (1996) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Hilliard, Robert.  Writing for Television and Radio, 3rd ed.(1976) Hastings House. 

Leed-Hurwitz, Wendy. Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures. (1992) Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.

Lester, Paul Martin.  Visual Communication: Images with Messages.  (2000) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Sillars, Malcom O. and Bruce E/ Gronbeck.  (2001) Communication Criticism: Rhetoric, Social Codes, Cultural Studies.  Prospect Heights, Ill: Waveland Press.

Zettle, Herbert.  Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics, 3rd ed. (1999) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Copyright, 2002

Dr. Janet McMullen

email Dr. Mc at JLMcMullen@una.edu