Meaning

In our first practical lesson, we were beginning to look at some of the technical language involved in media studies, and our main focus being understanding how to communicate meaning through media. For our starter activity, we were given a Buzz Lightyear figurine, a Woody figurine and a lamp, with which we needed to produce a single image on a camera phone to communicate the meaning of isolation. As a class, we chose to have Woody sat in the background of the image, with Buzz facing him in the foreground. When reflecting on the final image, I noted that Woody's body language should have been changed, as in the images body language was too open to communicate the meaning of isolation. Other members of the class said we could have turned off the lights to make more effective use of the lamp, and they said Buzz should be facing away from Woody, to further reinforce the idea of isolation.

For our next task, we were put into pairs, and in each pair, we had to write our own definition for one of the following words: focus, depth, framing, and composition. In my pair, we had to write a definition for framing, and after a discussion, we decided framing was: the positioning of a camera in order to produce the correct angle/shot to communicate the desired meaning. When we came back to discuss as a class, we realised that framing and composition linked, and so did depth and focus. This activity made us realise that when we are taking photos and filming, and we are putting these ideas into action, without even realise we are doing it.

Our final task involved us taking an image using a camera phone. In the same pairs we had been in for the previous task, we were given a moment from out famous film, and we had to recreate it, thinking about depth, focus, framing, composition and meaning. In my pair, we were given an image from the Quentin Tarentino film Pulp Fiction. In our image, you can see Vincent Vega (John Travolta), and Jules Winnfiled (Samuel L Jackson), and our recreated image can be seen below.                             

It was a really enjoyable activity, and every time I look at that image, I can't stop laughing! Although, I think I look more like Cruella De Vil than Vincent Vega.