Analysing the introductory scene from Pixar’s Up using C.Veli-Strauss’ and Barthes’ structuralist and semiotic ideas of binary opposition, connotation, denotation and myth.

Signs take the form of words, meanings, memories, sounds, flavours or objects, but without investing any meaning, such things can not become signs. With the evolution of CGI in movies, more and more emotions can be evoked by scenes. In contrast of pictures, where everything is still and more open to observation, films are motion graphics which show us numerous elements without letting the viewers’ brain rest. Therefore everything needs to be expressed in a quick, symbolic way. In order for a family movie (such as Pixar’s Up) to be successful, it needs to appeal to a wider sphere of viewers, or to be more specific - the young and the adult audience. What makes the movie understandable to both sides? One can look to the studies of structuralism and semiotics which describes how the human brain works and explains what triggers the audience’s emotions when shown a set of organized coloured pixels.

Denotation tends to be described as the ‘common sense’ meaning of a sign, when connotation is the deeper meaning behind it, controlled by cultural differences, feelings, mental states and even memories. The younger audience will be mostly unable to understand everything that the director had in mind, but will be able to understand the main concept of the story, and more importantly, the humoristic and dramatic emotions provoked by different situations. This process coincides with Panofsky’s claim that the denotation of an image or a piece of art will be seen as the same by people of different cultures and mind sets, excluding the really young and the mentally unstable, (Panofsky 1970: 51-53). A child’s mind will recognize the literal meaning of the CGI objects within a given frame. On the other hand, the more developed consciousness of adults will perceive deeper meaning and have a greater understanding of the story line and the themes developed throughout the motion picture. In semiotics, this is referred to as connotation. Fiske attempts to define it by arguing that 'denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed' (Fiske 1982:91). ‘Connotation’ refers to the personal associations from the receiver’s point of view and how one interprets the signifier. Factors such as culture, religion, ideologies, upbringing and experience all affect the understanding gained by the viewer. Having this in mind, this essay will consider these structuralist and semiotic ideas to analyse the scene form Pixar’s Up (the scene starts at 00:07:29  and finishes at 00:11:23).

FIGURE 01 (00:07:29, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

At the beginning of the scene (fig.01), Mister Fredricksen –the main character of Up- is starting a new life with his wife, Ellie. He is depicted carrying her up to their new house, portrayed in a clichéd style, a quaint wooden house in a country environment. By analysing the connotation in the image, we can come to a conclusion that the house represents the starting of a new life, as it is the first step of commitment. This imagery is powerful as it represents the stereotypes about married couples and the younger audience will acknowledge it by its denotation.

FIGURE 02 (00:07:32, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

Following this, the couple is seen restoring and repairing the old house in which they are about to live, so impatient to start their new lives that they are still in their wedding outfits (fig.02). The older audience will understand and relate to the imagery in this scene by empathising with its connotation as they know how exciting the first days of marriage are. Judging by the denotation, children will understand this scene because they notice the lack of furniture as a symbol of beginning. The wedding outfits represent the impatience in a way for the younger audience to comprehend.

FIGURE 03                                               FIGURE 04

(00:07:42, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)            (00:07:46, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

Mr. Fredricksen and Ellie are then seen signing the mailbox in paint. By accident he leaves a hand mark of paint on the mail box, Ellie finds this funny and does the same. Children will understand that the couple’s relationship involves love and unity, which is symbolized by the touching hands in paint, hand painting being an activity that they used to perform at an early age. Figures 1, 2 and 3 show how the progress of the scene works together to create this image, of unity and working together in marriage, by its direct meaning. The house’s colours are bright and mostly from the warm part of the colour wheel, emphasising the happy mood and positive vibe of the scene.

FIGURE 05 (00:08:29, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

The following example represents the couple’s next step- planning to start a family. Lying next to each other, they are seen looking into the sky, which represents their thought process. The fact that this process is shown through clouds is due to the fact that clouds are mostly used as iconic symbols, such as in comics and cartoons, as bubbles that represent thought rather than speech.

FIGURE 06 (00:08:35, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

As seen in (fig.06), the theme of pregnancy is approached with innocent imagery. The connotation of the image reveals that the bright colours represent happiness. The ladder and the finishing in progress represent that the room is brand new and it is being prepared for a new arrival, referring to the baby. The third signified from the image is the stork on the wall. Kids know the stereotype, in fairy tales, of babies being brought by storks instead of the actual biological process. This third signified is referred to as the third order of signification (Fiske & Hartley 1978, 43; O'Sullivan et al. 1994, 287) also known as myth.

 

FIGURE 07                                              FIGURE 08

(00:09:34, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)        (00:09:45, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

The sequential scenes shown here in (fig.07) and (fig.08) are made to follow one and the other to illustrate and emphasise the contrast between the young Carl and elderly Mr Frederiksen. This is achieved by the changing in age of the protagonist by the style of the outfit that changes over time. In the first scene (fig.07), the connotation meaning of the tie is that it has bright colours and represents youth and desire to achieve and maintain a good look. In the latter (fig.08) it represents less caring about self-image and a neutral response to the judgement of others. This is shown by the grey top and the simple bow tie replacing the stylish tie.

FIGURE 09 (00:11:12, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

As they grew older, Ellie unfortunately dies due to natural causes. Because of the change in the mood, the colour theme changes to cold colour associated with a depressing soundtrack. The connotation associated with the dark red colour is love and grief, the church setting helping the imagery of the funeral ceremony and the passing away of Mr. Fredricksen’s love. The long shadows and the lower light value of the image represent staying until late afternoon, this is also increased by the character being alone.

Glaze (1994) explains binary oppositions as the following: These occur in nature and naturally in the human mind. They are such things as night and day, left and right or nature and culture. Nature and culture often functions as a binary opposition in tales. However, depending on the tale or myth the binary opposition changes. For example, the binary opposition life and death is a useful one to explicate the scene. Ferdinand De Saussure - “the means by which units of language have value or meaning; each unit is defined against what it is not.” (Fogarty, 2005).

                          FIGURE 10                                                                        FIGURE 11
   (00:07:46, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)         (00:11:23, Up, Pixar Animation Studios) Having the above mentioned in mind, it can be seen clearly that fig.10 is a total opposite of fig.11. In the first picture we can see bright and warm colours with highly saturated theme and environment lighting. Having these details, fig.10 can be categorised as ‘Happiness’. The picture on the right (fig.11) reveals the same colours of the house, but with darker environment, low saturated colours. Therefore it can be categorised as ‘Sadness’. Using the structuralist ideas for binary opposites, the formula for expressing feelings through pictures can be made. The happier the first scene is, the sadder the following change of mood will be.

                          FIGURE 12                                                                     FIGURE 13
 (00:10:35, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)         (00:07:51, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)

Another example of binary opposition can be seen in the attached figures.

In conclusion, analysing this scene has distinguished the methods throughout which the developers of Up used the structuralist and semiotic ides of binary opposition, combined with connotation, denotation and myth in order to tell a story in a way that will be acknowledged easily by the modern audience. By understanding the way that the human brain processes the information, it is possible to use simple things like pictures on walls, correct colour themes and the fading in and out of various sound effects, to transform a series of digital images into a perfect play with a perfect script.

 Ivaylo Danev,

University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

25 November 2010

Bibliography

World Wide Web References:

Blackwell Reference Online. Binary Opposition and Myth. Available at: http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631207535_chunk_g97806312075355_ss1-14 [Accessed 23 November 2010]

Chandler, D (1995) Semiotics for Beginners. Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem06.html [Accessed 23 November 2010]

Fogarty, Sorcha (2005) Binary Oppositions, The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=122 [Accessed 24 November 2010]

Glazer, Mark. (1994) Structuralism. Available at: http://www.panam.edu/faculty/mglazer/Theory/structuralism.htm [Accessed 21 November 2010]

Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2010) Denotation (Semiotics). Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denotation_(semiotics) [Accessed 23 November 2010]

Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2010) Connotation (Semiotics). Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connotation_(semiotics) [Accessed 23 November 2010]

Books:

Badcock, C.R. (1975) “Levi-Strauss Structuralism and Sociological Theory”, London, Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) Ltd, The Anchor Press Ltd.

Fiske, John (1982) “Introduction to communication studies”, London, The Guernsey Press Co Ltd.

Levi-Strauss, Claude (1963) “Structural anthropology 1”, USA, The Penguin Group, Clays Ltd.

Levi-Strauss, Claude (1966) “The Savage Mind”, Great Britain, Made and printed by The Garden City Press Ltd

O'Sullivan, T., Hartley, J., Saunders, D., Montgomery, M., Fiske, J. (1994) Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, London, Routledge

Panofsky, Erwin (1970) Meaning in the Visual Arts, Harmondsworth, Penguin

DVDs:

Up (2009) Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (DVD)

Realism photo

A picture I draw for realism, I thought this was an iMap... it is my first time doing something like that.

BINARY OPOSITIONS

Structuralism aims to…

• ‘uncover the conceptual structures by which various cultures organize their perception and understanding of the world’ 

•  ‘Structuralism’s enterprise is to discover how people make sense of the world, not what the world is…’

Binary opposition In structuralism, a binary opposition is seen as a fundamental organizer of human philosophy, culture, and language. In the community of philosophers and scholars, most believe that "unless a distinction can be made rigorous and precise it isn't really a distinction. Binary opposition divides the understanding of the world in two :

The most common biblical example of the binary division: 

And this division makes the two groups reassuring, helpful, convenient…

 The other obvious binary opposition is in every heroic comic book:

It is helpful for a good super hero to refer to a bad super hero, because it implies that he is good.

Another good example for that is also recognized in some video games:

‘Ideologies like to draw rigid boundaries between what is acceptable and what is not, between self and non-self, truth and falsity, sense and nonsense, reason and madness, central and marginal, surface and depth.’

Terry Eagleton

The game creates your character as a normal person in real life, just in fast forward mode. Based on your every decision you become good or evil.

My personal opinion is that most of the time in media, binary opposition is used to show the audience which is bad or wrong to do and which is right. I understand it as some kind of a lesson.

Structuralism is an intellectual movement that developed in France in the 1950s and 1960s, in which human culture is analyzed semiotically (i.e., as a system of signs). Today structuralism is less popular than approaches such as post-structuralism and deconstruction. There are many reasons for this. Structuralism has often been criticized for being historical and for favoring deterministic structural forces over the ability of people to act.

Post-structuralism : The author's intended meaning, such as it is (for the author's identity as a stable "self" with a single, discernible "intent" is also a fictional construct), is secondary to the meaning that the reader perceives. Post-structuralism rejects the idea of a literary text having a single purpose, a single meaning, or one singular existence. Instead, every individual reader creates a new and individual purpose, meaning, and existence for a given text. Nowadays with the development of film visual effects, the image of what we are supposed to bake in our brains is already created for us, ready in front of us. This limits the different understandings to minimum. The disadvantage is that our imagination is not being developed, but on the other hand we receive tons of information in an hour and a half. 

INTERTEXTUALITY

Definition. As the word ‘text’ suggests, originally related to literary culture (novels, poetry, etc.), but has since developed application to cultural artefacts in general - to films, fashion, product design, games, etc.

Two kinds of intertextuality:

 

•  unconscious - true intertextuality: beyond author’s control

 

•  (self-)conscious - what Kristeva calls ‘the banal sense of “the study of sources”’ (Kristeva Reader, p.111)

Quentin Tarantino movies usually have a lot of intertextuality. He is clearly influenced by old spaghetti westerns and kung fu movies. He doesn't spoof them put rather reimagines them for the modern era.

 Also...I would say spoofs like Airplane, Scary Movie, etc. are intertextual in that they would not exist without other movies created before them.

Also...Down With Love is a modern take on a classic Doris Day/Rock Hudson romance, but told tongue in cheek for the 21st century. In that same vein is Brick, a modern movie about high school that is told in a film noir style with lots of old-timey sounding dialogue.

Intertextuality in Film.

According to Bazin, a French film theorist, there is no doubt at all that films were, in principle, works of authors who at certain time and with certain technical and aesthetic means had managed to create certain distinctive cinematic artwork(Paech 2000:1). Most of Shakespeare′s books such as Romeo and Juliete, Hamlet, Othello, Merchant of Venice among others have been reproduced as films, as well as. . Gulliver′s Travel by Jonathan Swift, and Chinau Achebe′s Things fall apart. Christian Metz, a German semiologist, purported that films are not only an artwork, but, rather, a textual system that constitutes its own original, singular totality, in which the author, if involved at all, is only a constituent of this system. Today, it seems to be more appropriate to speak of film as one medium among others which interacts as multimedia, or is connected to one another intermedially. The same film can be seen on cinema, on TV, on video, and DVD. According to Metz, Film, picture, color, sound, motion, adaptation from literature-whether technological or mechanical medium makes film a sort of technical Gesamtkunstwerk(Paech 2000:5).




Intertextuality in newspapers.

Most news papers or magazines contain pictures, or cartoons. The degree of
the intertextuality is different. Some are more verbal than visual and vice versa,
e,g in most editions of the Rheinischer Merkur news paper(see Rheinischer Merkur
newspaper).

Intertextuality on Computer screens

Texts on the computer monitors are said to be completely hyper textual links, i.e. connections of combination that arrange texts as part of a simultaneous virtual network to constantly changing current textual formation which allow the processing of pictures, graphics, even moving pictures and film on the same textual level(Paech 2000:5). www.facebook.com could be a good example of this explanation because the system affords us opportunity to read texts, watch videos, listen to all kinds of music, and even chat online.

 

Semiotics

signification = the process of signs-being-made-noticed-and-understood

 

The signifier are the 3 signs saying : No ice cream allowed, no skates allowed and no dogs allowed.                                                                                                 The signified is that he is not allowed because all of the 3 things, so basically his day is ruined. 

sign = signifier (physical form) + signified (mental concept)

iconic: how close a sign is to ‘the real thing’, how constrained it is by the thing it represents, e.g. a photographic portrait is typically iconic, a doodled caricature less so

This painting is trying to represent the cat in real life, like the one in the photo.

arbitrary (aka symbolic): how far away a sign is from ‘the real thing’, how unconstrained it is by the thing it represents, e.g. a person’s name bears little physical resemblance to them, but is less arbitrary than an employee number.

This cat doodling is also trying to represent the cat as the furry animal from real life, but in a more basic and cartoon way. 

denotation: what the sign is, at the most basic level of understanding – what it denotes literally

connotation: what it suggests, a more subtle culturally determined reading – what it connotes

myth: the ‘world-view’ it contains or implies – the ideological or political meaning of the thing – not ‘myth’ as in not true, fictitious, misleading (although it may be all three of these things)

REALISM

 

  ‘Photography does not create eternity, as art does, it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption.’

                                  by  André Bazin 

Ok so first, lets start with the explanation of what realism and reality is. 

 Reality = Photograph or real video footage , this is everything we see and we can touch and feel. It is all our surroundings.

Realism = Recreation of reality as close as possible. Most commonly used in the media like in movies, to represent the script in a believable way.

 We enjoy seeing horror movies that are really well done, judged by the criteria of believable effects. But the audience only wants to see things that look real but they could never exist or happen. These days it's really easy to achieve the effect. With the development of technology and Computer Science, 3D programms have evolved into a substitute of visual effects from reality ( the real world ).Why does the human eye want to see realism so bad? Why are we attracted to recreation of our own lives in different situations? Is it because we are bored of our own lives and want to see something that we could have done, but we don't want to make the effort. And more attention from the younger audience is thrown at the console and PC games. The interactivity of something close to the reality makes it amazingly addictive. Why control our own bodies when we can control virtual ones and we can do what ever we want. This thought  goes through  every kids mind now-a-days. I wonder what will be the next step in virtual reality :)