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Casting and Characteras Embodiment of Ideological Values
Daniel Day LewisThere Will Be Blood
Meryl StreepSophie’s Choice
Marlon BrandoStreetcar Named Desire
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The Pressure Cooker of Cultural Codes
Within this semiotic “pressure cooker” that links producers, texts, and audiences:•Signifier, Signified, Sign•Denotation and connotation within “Reality”•Metaphor and “Representation”•Codes, demographic, “Ideology”
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“Semiotics”• The study of signs, representation
(simulation/metaphor), codes, and emergent ideologies. This provides a model of understanding of the meaning of a cultural artefact or event.
Casting and Character
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“Signs”• Signifier: any real thing that signifies something,
e.g., jewellery, furnishings, location interiors.• Signified: the concept that a signifier refers to.Together, the signifier and signified make up the• Sign: the smallest unit of meaning. Anything that
can be used to communicate (or to tell a lie).
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• Signifier: any real thing that signifies something, e.g., jewellery, furnishings, clothing.
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“Denotation and Connotation”• Denotation: the most basic or literal meaning of a
sign, e.g., the word ”Trad" signifies a particular kind of beer. (The signifier)
• Connotation: the secondary, cultural meanings of signs; or "signifying signs," signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning, e.g., ”beer" signifies drunkenness/debauchery. (The signified)
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“Metaphor/Representation/Simulation”• A connotation where one sign is substituted for a
concept with which it is closely associated and used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity.
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Electronic encoding: •“Mass Media redesign information by replacing the vantage point of the viewer within the frame provided by a cameraperson/editor/photographer.” - Lynn Hershman•Therefore, electronic encoding is a connotation device within the Pressure Cooker supersystem.
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“Ideology”• Ideological codes work to organize the
other codes into a congruent, coherent set of meanings.
• Serve the dominant interests of society, eg patriarchy, capitalism, race, class, materialism.
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“Codes”• A “supersystem” (pressure cooker), that functions
as a map of meaning and belief systems• Imply views and attitudes about how the world is
and/or ought to be. • Codes are where semiotics and social structure and
values connect.
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Casting: •Actors cast to play heroes/villains are people whose images are encoded by our social codes. •Heroes are socially central types who embody the dominant ideology.•Classic Hollywood stars are bigger than their roles – films promoted by their real name not their character name (or writer or even director)
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John Fiske
“It is in the aggregate of apparently insignificant encodings that ideology works most efficiently.”
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Daniel Day Lewis, (b. 1957)
• Plays Daniel Plainview
• There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2007) Story focuses on a prospector in the early days of the oil boom.
• Day-Lewis won best-actor Academy award in 2008 in this role.
• Clip, 13:15 – 19:00
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Meryl Streep, (b. 1949)
• Plays Sophie Zawistowska
• Sophie’s Choice (Anderson, 1982) Story is about a Nazi concentration camp survivor and her ghosts and obsessions.
• Streep won best-actress Academy award in 1983 in this role.
• Clip 2:08 – 2:19
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Marlon Brando, (b. 1924 – 2004)
• Plays Stanley Kowalski
• Streetcar Named Desire (Kazan, 1951) A distressed woman moves in with her sister and brother.
• Brando was nominated for best actor Academy award in 1952 in this role.
• Clip 36:00 – 42:00