film and cognition

7/29/2019 Film and Cognition

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Film and CognitionAvra Sen

M.Phil 1st year

School of Cognitive Science

Jadavpur University


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Atext is any object that can be "read," whether this object is a work

of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city

block, or styles of clothing. It is a coherent set of signs that transmits

some kind of informative message.This set of symbols is considered

in terms of the informative message's content, rather than in terms

of its physical form or the medium in which it is represented.

What is TEXT?


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Types of Text

Visual

Oral Aural

Audio

Natural Artificial

Audio-Visual

Static Dynamic


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Similarities: Linguistic and Film Texts

Linguistic Text Film Text

TextL = Set of paragraphs

Paragraphs = Set of Sentences

Sentences = Set of phrases

Phrase = Set of words

TextF = Set of sequences

Sequences = Set of shots

Shot = Set of frames

Frame = Set of entities


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Metaphorical nature of Language and Film

Definition MetaphorA metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting

that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise

unrelated object. Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related to

other rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via association,

comparison or resemblance including allegory, hyperbole, and simile.

Non-compatibility with principle of compositionality

Example ofVisual metaphor
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Potemkin,%20scene%20with%20lions%20_%20%CF%83%CE%BA%CE%B7%CE%BD%CE%AE%20%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AC%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1%20-%20chaniart.gr.flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Potemkin,%20scene%20with%20lions%20_%20%CF%83%CE%BA%CE%B7%CE%BD%CE%AE%20%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AC%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1%20-%20chaniart.gr.flv


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Film as Metaphor

Conceptual metaphor

In films too a common definition of a metaphor can be described as a

comparison that shows how two things that are not alike in most

ways are similar in another important way. They explain how ametaphor is simply understanding and experiencing one kind of

thing in terms of another.

Nonlinguistic metaphor

Metaphors can also map experience between two nonlinguistic realms.

Nonlinguistic metaphors may be the foundation of our experience of

films. Background music in films is such an example.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flv


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Film as a System of Signs

Film is a symbolic assembly of signs;

Film being an audio-visual text, cognition of film

involves the activation of various modalities;

Film as a text is a combination of different types of signs;


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Different types of SignsAs per Charles S. Pierce

Increasing amount of arbitrariness


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SignAs per Ferdinand de Saussure
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Luis%20Bu%C3%B1uel_%20Un%20Chien%20andalou%20(1928).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Luis%20Bu%C3%B1uel_%20Un%20Chien%20andalou%20(1928).flv


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Sign as a Process

As a process, sign embodies certain psycholinguistic

phenomenon

Focusing

Perspective


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Focusing

There are three processes of focusing:

Foreground vs. Background (Ref. Kolkata 71)

Composition (Ref. Three Colors: White)

Scope
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Last%20scene%20from%20Trois%20Couleurs_%20Blanc,%20by%20Krzysztof%20Kie%C5%9Blowski_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flvhttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_5/Calcuta%201971%20(Mrinal%20Sen,%201972)_%20mosaico_(360p).flv


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Perspective If conceptualization (metaphorically) is the viewing of a

scene, perspective is the viewing arrangement, the

most obvious aspect of which is the vantagepoint assumed.


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Conclusion

Film techniques as the part of closed class system are important in

construing the content of the film, just like the way grammar of a

language is useful in structuring human thoughts;

Representation in audio-visual text and representation in oral-aural

text share similar structures representing the cognitive complexity;

Comprehension and production of a film are governed by those

cognitive processes which remain central in language

comprehension and production;


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Questions?

Thank You

film and cognition

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