Reality and its relationship to media - PowerPoint Presentation

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Reality and its relationship to media

Presence, identification, realismSlide2

What is reality?

Though the nature of reality seems obvious, it is actually a matter of great debate

Is it physical, solid, external, unaffected by human consciousness?

Or is it dependent upon human consciousness, malleable, partial, changeable?Slide3
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Two major meanings of realism

An accurate

depiction of the

natural/historical

world

A form of representation that depicts what is seen as an unmediated view of the natural worldSlide6

Are ‘natural’ and ‘real’ the same?

The ‘real’ in realistic presentation has as much to do with

culturally learned expectations

as with capture of ‘true’ or ‘natural’ action, objects, etc.

Color, sound effects, etc. may need to be enhanced in order to generate a ‘realistic’ representation

Time is often distorted (compressed) to make it more compatible with audience expectations as well as to work with the story

‘Natural

’ presentation (start the camera and walk away)

may be experienced

as ‘less real’ than doctored

It is often hard to hear dialogue, etc. because of ambient soundSlide7

Practically speaking

From a cognitive information processing standpoint, we have two things interacting that produce reality:

Sensory input, which is actually digital information flowing from our receptors to our brains, and

Theories about what the data represent, stored in memory, based on prior experiences and thoughtsSlide8

Dependence upon our senses

Because our senses are our connection to some supposed physical world, and their reaction to stimuli from that world define our understanding of ‘reality’ manipulation of stimuli can influence our experience

of realitySlide9

Realism in artSlide10

Roderick MundaySlide11
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Why worry about it?

A realistic portrayal is thought to:

Increase audience enjoyment of the narrative

Enhance audience involvement

Emotional connection with characters

Increase learningSlide13

Three facets of realism

Perceptual realism

Historical realism

Presentational realismSlide14

Physical features that enhance realism

Visual fidelity

Quality of image (density, color)

Depth

Motion

Fidelity of sound

Noise

Depth of sound

3D effects

Limitation of distraction

Dominance of field of vision

Limitation of non-narrative perceptual input

Additional perceptual input

Haptics

Smells

TasteSlide15

Increasing visual realism

Visual fidelity

Increasing quality of film stock

Speed, granularity, contrast

Color

Gradual improvement in quality of color

Widescreen

Wider screens—more like visual field

CGISlide16
Slide17

IMAXSlide18

3D

Color-based

polarization-based

3D without glasses

Increasingly realistic animationSlide19

Sound

Increasing

quality, decreasing ‘noise’

Mono to stereo to surround sound (5.1 to 7.1

)

THXSlide20

Surround soundSlide21

Sensory richness

Haptics

Touch, vibration, etc.Slide22

Physical features

Interactivity

Does the medium/content adjust to the audience member’s physical action

?

Transportation

The feeling of entering into the narrative world/world presented in the text

Thought to be tied to emotional attachment with characters and interactivitySlide23

Virtual realitySlide24

Virtual realitySlide25

The Ascension

spacepad

shown in action. My VR system will make this primitive in comparison.

VirtualReality.net.auSlide26
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The Future of ThingsSlide28

Simulations

Source: Io9 We come from the futureSlide29

CAVESlide30

Second LifeSlide31

World of Warcraft

Io9 We come from the futureSlide32

Historical realism

Authors/creators vary in their attempts to produce historically accurate renditions—even with fictional material

Concerns over audience reactions to apparently inaccurate portrayals are tied to goals of the authors/directors/artists, etc.Slide33

The reelization of reality

“The drive behind the need to create a strong perceptual reality, particularly in referentially unreal productions, is difficult to pin down. Charles and

Mirella

Affron

discuss what they term the ‘Reality Effect’—a notion of perceptual reality which asserts that sets must look real enough that people who have been to the actual location they replicate might think the films were shot on location.”

Frank,

2004Slide34
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Plausibility/depiction of audience fantasies regarding historical worlds, etc. may substitute for historical

accuracy

Lord of the RingsSlide36

Jurassic ParkSlide37

New

or unusual presentational styles will gradually come to seem normal to the mind

Especially in a pitch black theater

e.g. Sin CitySlide38

Presentational realism

Representation is supposed to ‘stand in’ for the actual events and objects

The work of representation is

hidden from view.

That is, you should not be aware of all the technology, decision-making, etc. that went into telling the story—it should seem as though you are a fly on the wall actually watching real events unfold

.

“Classic Hollywood style”Slide39

“Film language”

Film scholars have argued that experience with film teaches us a new set of rules for interpreting stimuli that makes film depictions appear ‘real’

Genre rules

Each

text

dips

into the rules for ‘natural reality’ as well as ‘electronic text language

’Slide40

Features of realist presentation

Third-person omniscient narration/focalization

Sometimes First-person focalization can be realistic

Camera

work edited to be

unobtrusive

Limited use of supers, etc

.

Actors, etc. never directly address audience

“Fourth wall”

Treatment of actions as displaying certainty—no discussion of likelihood, probability, etc

.Slide41
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Hyperreality

Hyperreality refers to a situation where a depiction is perceived as more real than ‘reality’ itselfSlide43

This has been found where, for example, the dialogue between two characters is artificially enhanced so the audience can hear it—and come away perceiving the scene as more realistic than those exposed to the original recordingSlide44

Perceived realism is often enhanced by narrative quality

Audience members will forgive shortcomings of narrative, see it as more realistic when the story is compelling and well-toldSlide45

Narrative fidelity

Are actions, events, and characters presented in ways that the audience member accepts as logical or at least plausible?

This will vary with a range of expectations brought to the experience by the audience member.

This can be a feature of even fantastic narratives

For example, the behavior of characters in apocalyptic sci-fi stories may be judged as ‘realistic’ if it conforms to the physical rules and behavioral expectations of that world.Slide46

Plausibility v. probability

As kids grow up, the tendency to judge the realism of programs shifts from their plausibility—whether or not they could happen—to their probability—how likely that the things portrayed would happen or would be encountered in real life by the audience member. Probability and social realism (whether the depiction is like real life) are the most common sources of reality judgments among college students.Slide47

Identification or involvement

If audience members are emotionally taken with a presentation they experience it as more real.

This can happen even though they realize that the context/narrative is fantastic

Involvement with at least one character has the impact of increasing the feeling of realismSlide48

Hall

Busselle

Plausibility

Plausibility

Typicality

Probability

Factuality

Magic Window

Social Realism

Involvement

Identity

Narrative consistency

Perceptual

persuasiveness

UtilitySlide49

Realism is

not

always

prized

On occasion, the attempt is made to present a story as fantasy

You may want a sort of magical feeling

Harry Potter

You may want the audience to experience the narrative as pure escape

You might want the natural and mundane world to be seen as fantasticSlide50

Frank, Scott (2004). Perceptual reality and the disappearing Hollywood studio libraries,

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

, 24(2): 269 - 283 Slide51

3D