HOW DOES NARRATIVE MANIPULATE THE

WAY AUDIENCE READ PICTURES?

GRAPHICS ESSAY

ELNORD BUKUSO

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What makes us take pictures is the ability to capture the moment of emotion, feeling and remember a spe-cial occasion or just take random pictures for fun or even capture the best of nature. Photography is a form of illustrating the impression of natural effect and the art of science. Photography is the term of recording technical vision and light together to enhance the image of one eye which has a focus point for realistic imagery. Photography is the precision of scientific elusion and used for many reasons and by many users. However, photography can also be an alternative use to demonstrate a narrative. Narrative is a productive form that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events. Alternatively, narrative is a substitu-tion of a ‘story’. Therefore, narrative is the story of the scene illustrating the event without telling us but shows us through different formats such as, speech, television, theatre, photography, song, writing or video games.

   

Paul M. Smith is a photographer who works with narrative. He forms a story using photography as a ele-ment to showing a event visually by using a specific background a set of shots of the ‘same person’ which in some cases could possibly be himself or someone else. He currently directs the BA Hons Photography course at the Coventry University, Department of Media and Communication.

However, He originally studied Fine Art in the early 1990’s at Coventry University. He particularly had a range of research into contemporary art, Aboriginal reserve. Following on from his Degree, Smith ac-complished Masters in photography at the Royal College of Art which he has examined the meaning and construction of masculinity concentrating on male features. He subjected to identities of personal body features and heroic behaviour to create incredible atmosphere through his photography skills.He recently worked with Robbie Williams for his CD front cover and below are examples of Robbie Wil-liams playing the character of a ‘professional footballer’. What I like about Smith’s photography is that he narrates the story so effectively to create the whole atmosphere to another dimension. From having a blurred football fan, audience and using the football pitch/stadium as the give away clue to where the setting of the event is. However, he remarkably focuses on the impact of the costume worn on the char-acter ‘Robbie William’ to express the passion for football ideally to illustrate a ‘realistic’ football match being falsfully (played) by him. I think Smith successfully meet his objectives for Robbie to be a fantasy football team member with the help of oppositions, managers, touts and policemen. In my own experi-ence doing a narrative piece was quiet tricky but as I familiarised myself with the composition of creating a story in one piece the task and simplicity of combining different shots of pictures together similarly to Paul M.Smith’s style was an interesting technique I had discovered whilst photography images and move-ment and defining the setting for my story.

Robbie Williams Narrative project by Paul Smith

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Paul Smith is on artist who uses narrative as a form and stradegyy to manipulate the way audiences read pictures. Pictures can be read in many ways, you can read it and understand it straigh forwardly or be confused by what you see. A picture is made up of many segments each second within a picture something happens or moves generating another picture. Picctures are a technique and way of keeping memories; good or bad. But how you read a picture defines the directing from the photographers objective. Like in Paul Smith’s samples Robbie William is the main character, the choice of costume, setting, and props identify what the event is and where the picture had been taken. Paul Smith uses Photoshop as an element to enhance more than one imagery into a scene. Smith relies on technology to create this narrative. In contrast, if Smith wasn’t to use technology as a primary resource then he would possibly create dioramas.

Samples of existing dioramas an alternative way to ma-nipulate narraitive.

Dioramas can either refer to a nineteeth-century mobile theatre device or, in a mordern usage, a three-dimensional full size miniature model which can be enclosed in a glass showcase box and be used in exhibitions and museums. Dioramas are often build by hobbyists as part of a related hobbie. Dioramas can be an alternative effect of demonstrating a photography image. This method is not technology related so Dioramas are historically a extended frame of a pop-up book.

Pop up books are often applied to a movable lit-erature and involves terms like transformations, tunnel books, volvelles, flaps, pull-tabs, pop-outs, pull-downs and more. Both Pop-up books and Dio-ramas are in the field of arts and crafts and gives a three dimensional touch which can target to differ-ent audiences depending in the use of colour and imagination. Most pop-up books are steriotypically targeted at childrens and diroramas are seen as a professional element to displaying a stage scene. Narrative can be portrayed in a three dimensional

method. Both techniques illustrate narratice in a alternative way to how Paul Smith uses technology. Narrative can be manipulating in a craft structure giving a more expressionistic evaluation of pictures.

Samples of using a projector and the green screen for animation.

Scott Sona created an animation interpretation demonstration narrative. The latest project his worked on is the ‘Falling Girl’. The Falling Girl is an immerse installation that allows the viewer to get involved in the story of a young girl falling off a skyscraper. As she descends she reacts to the people and the events tak-ing part in each window. The effect of lighting fading and passing when she’s falling she lands safely on the sidewalk. I like the way Scott captures every moment like a stop motion, however, he uses silhouette figures of the participants of the animation to juxtapose against the central image. The project is collaboration be-tween the interactive artist Scott and choreographer/filmmaker Annie Loui.Scott’s technique to creating a fascinating animation is by using a projector and acetate to sketch the back-ground of the scene and films the ‘Falling Girl’ doing some gymnastics back flips and the green screen to create the silhouette effect. In my narrative task, I will apply the same technique but in a more artistic man-ner rather to the filming method Scott applied in his animation. I will do a simple experimentation similarly to his ‘Falling Girl’ project.

Scott Sona is another person who also changes the way audience project narrative via technology and pro-jections, turning narrative into an animation.

The idea of manipulating narrative through the mediatic elementts of using props and equipment such as the projector enhances the fashion of pre-television. The co-operational between the use of lighting, sound and the green screen. Narrative in a brighter layer of visuallising an expressionistic mise-en-scene.

Narrative is a way of comprehending space, time, and causality. Since in film there are at least two impor-tant frames of reference for understanding space, time, and causality, narrative in film is the principle by which data is converted from the frame of the screen into a diegesis - a world - that frames a particular story, or sequence of action, in that world; equally, it is the principle by which data is converted from story onto screen Narration is the overall regulation and distribution of knowledge, which determines how and when the spectator acquires knowledge - that is how the spectator is able to know what he or she comes to know in a narrative. Branigan makes a distinction between narrative and narration. Narrative becomes an object while ‘nar-ration’ is a process of information disclosure. Narrative as an object is the principle that converts the light patterns on the screen into the diegetic world of the characters. Similarly, it is the narrative principle that filmmakers use to make films and construct the images of the screen from the digenesis. The narration con-trols disclosure of information and depends on disparities of knowledge between different characters and the audience to inform and attempt to shape an audience response.

As with all forms of communication, a system of signs is required to communicate information between characters within the digenesis and between the text and the reader. To an extent, its producers, to commu-nicate units of information to the audience, deliberately place these signs within a film.

However, it is important to note that, as is common with sign systems, the interpretation of a particular sign can be disputed because of the polysemy of signs and not all meanings are intentional. Further, a preceding or successive sign changes the meaning of a sign. The order of signs is important to the particular cumula-tive meaning of the signs. The implication of this for narrative disclosure is that audience members of differ-ent communicative competencies and cultural groups will recognize different signs as more important and read them differently.

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Samples of using a projector and the green screen for animation.

information is not only controlled through the inconclusion of signs, but also by their organisation. ‘Narra-tive devices’ can be utilised to control how information is revealed, to whom and when. One form of narra-tive device is shifting in time, which includes flashbacks, flashforwards, notions of the present, repetition of a sequence, dream sequences, hallucinations, premonitions and supernatural projection. A flashback is a lit-erature and dramatic media, of interjected scenes that takes the narrative back in time from the current point.

The importance of time, room space, lighting and sound.An alternative way that narrative can be read is through a flashback and a dream are terms that audience can read pictures. Both imply the importance use of timing and lighting and sound. Most narrative uses light just in a similar way to how Sona uses projection. Projection relies of lighting a lot. Narrative can manipulate the way audience read images through the movement and waves of sound in volume, tempo, pase and pitch. Sound in-dicates the emotions and feeling portrayed and shows whether the vibe is positive or negative. Similarly, light-ing also works in the same manner different coloured colours could portray a meaning and the audience could read narrative through the symbolism of colour and tone of lighting. Sona uses lighting as a form to project her animation via high key lighting. Nevertheless, the amount of space given to perform will also potray how audi-ences can read narrative. All elements; lighting, sound, time and space all co-operates to how narrative can be read and clearly demonstrate the mood and time of day it is.The second type of narrative device is shifting of the narrative point of view. Most commonly, the sharing of knowledge between the principal character and the audience reveals the story information. However, there are other methods of information disclosure that rely on gaps of knowledge between different groups or individuals: use of a division between audience knowledge and character knowledge - if the audience knows where the bomb is and the character does not then suspense is generated, while surprise is the function if the character knows more than the audience; e.g. In Marnie, as the Marnie is attempting to steal money from her workplace the audience is shown Marnie’s shoe falling from her pocket. If the shoe falls then a cleaning lady will hear and Marnie will be caught. But Marnie does not know about her shoe. Tension is created as the audience watches the shoe fall and hit the ground. Marnie turns and is shocked, but the cleaning lady has not moved. Unknown to both Marnie and audience, the cleaning lady is deaf.Use of a division between audience knowledge, one character’s knowledge and another character’s knowl-edge; e.g. In the film Perfect Blue, the lead character begins to question her memory as she finds clues that incriminate her in a series of murders. The audience experiences the delusions that the character has and so they are bonded in ignorance of the identity of the true killer. Only when the protagonist discovers the truth, that her agent is the killer, does the audience finally understand all the events.

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Use of a division between one character’s knowledge, another character’s knowledge and the audience’s knowledge; e.g. In Magnolia, a little boy recites a rap to a police officer. At the end of the rap the police of-ficer looks confused because he hasn’t understood a single word. As the film progresses, the audience, if they understood the rap will realize that the boy has prophesied the events of the film.voice-over narration - gaps can occur between what is seen and what is said, since the narrator controls the terms of disclosure. For example, in Take the Money and Run, the narrator as a hardened criminal and, in re-ality builds up the lead character in stature; the character is the most inept thief. In one instance, the narrator refers to serious street crime as we see the character reaching into a gumball dispenser and getting his hand caught.Shifts in narrative point-of-view and time have several effects:

Delaying of information disclosure builds tension in an effort to manipulate the audience directly; Empathy for characters shifts throughout the film with the shifts in point of view; Power relations between characters change with the shifting of point of view, since story knowledge and in-terpretive power are so intimately related.The techniques that are used within films by filmmakers can be seen as having a desired effect. This effect, though having intention can of course be interpreted in different ways from that intention. The table below draws out some techniques and their desired effects on the audience.

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Francis Bacon was born on 28 October 1909. The Irish and British recognized him for his figurative paint-ings both described. He is known for his bold graphical emotionalizing raw imagery. His paintings are very abstractionist figures of which illustrate isolation in glass or steel cages. Bacon began painting in his early 20’s and worked sporadically until his mid 30s. Before this time he moved on to earning his living and perusing a career into interior designing and specializing in the fields of furniture designs and decoration. Later, he admitted that his career was delayed due to failing to discover a career path that would sustain his interest. Bacon was born in Dublin to parents of British descent. His father was a veteran and his mother was an heir-ess. His great-great-grandmother was intimately acquainted and was a great poetic person. Bacon’s family history helped him become a big person. He travelled around London, Berlin and Paris. During his visit he experienced some good and bad.Bacon’s painting demonstrates narrative through the techniques and methods and style of strokes he aligns into his work. Bacon’s paintings can manipulate narrative through the use of minimal bright colours and the dramatic tension with omitting the maing image of a hidden image. Hindering the portrait and giving the im-pression of it being spooky and scary. The audience can read this painitng as an demonstrating of symbolising suspence and tension and fear and pain. The reason why the audience could possible assume search thoughts on behalf of the painting is due to the elimination of detail.

 

 Painting by Francis Bacon

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Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-up_bookhttp://ebooksgraphics.tumblr.com/narrativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashbackhttp://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=projected+animation&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=629&bih=903&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=2jXDT8uHEYem0AXQte2vCg#q=projected+animation&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&tbm=isch&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=5815d7ac1d764bf3&biw=1056&bih=914http://www.google.co.uk/search?

To conclude, I think the identitiy of images can also be called sameness, is whatever makes an entity defina-ble and recognizable. Audience can identify the way narrative is administrated together to show performance and revolute the purpose and analyse the features behind what being photographed, filmed or drawn. The identity participates in the conclusion to how narrative can be read as it defines the order of time and man-agement and the behaviour and attitude considered during the focus of perspectiving narative.

Identifying the narration of a picture as a source of reseaech and investigation the theory.

HOW DOES NARRATIVE MA-

NIPULATE THE WAY AUDIENCE READ PIC-

TURES?

GRAPHICS ESSAY

ELNORD BUKUSO