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IB Film 1: Week 22.2The Truth and the ImageHow does?footage manipulation?alter the story?A simple sequence can manipulated to create a specific narrative.Watch This: and TruthWhat is an image?Is a picture worth 1000 words? If so, what kind of words are they?What knowledge is presented when we watch a film?After we see a film, what do we know?Obviously, a film is a 'way of knowing',?but how does it relate to the other ways of knowing you have studied in your Theory of Knowledge classes?The Film Guide asks some interesting questions:Theory of Knowledge QuestionsWhy are the Arts important?What do the subjects that make up the arts have in common?What are the roles of emotion and reason in the arts?To what extent do the other hexagon subjects have artistic qualities?What are the standards by which we judge art??How can we justify them?What moral responsibilities does the artist have??Are they any different to any other 'knower'?What is the function of film?to capture a perception of realityto teach or uplift the mindto express emotionto create beautyto bind a communityor to praise a spiritual power?How are ethics involved in the study of film?Does the film artist carry any moral or ethical responsibility?When and how do ethical standards change?How do we gain knowledge through the study of film?Is this knowledge of a universal nature or is it too heavily embedded in cultural factors?To what extent does film instruct, educate, or entertain?To what extent does the study of film teach us more about ourselves, our place in our own society and culture, and / or our relationship with other societies and cultures?Clearly all the arts investigate the human condition.As well, the arts are associated with Aesthetics, the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.But how do the images we see relate to the 'truth'?It might help to think about what the nature of an image is - whether it is a photograph or a moving image.Example - Truth in the Evening NewsLet's consider a form of media that is usually associated with the idea of 'truth' - the evening news.The Evening NewsImages on the news need to be recorded firstIn other words, the camera operator has to decide when to turn on the camera, what shot type to use, and how they will deal with the available lighting.In other words, many aspects of the film we see on the news have been selected by the camera operator - and probably the most significant of these is whether or not to turn on the camera.Depending on the kind of camera, the image will contain differences between the image and the actual event. The most obvious of these is if the image was recorded in black and white, when a series of grays represent a difference in color tone.However, color-capturing devices also change the color in appreciable ways you would probably notice if you viewed the captured image alongside the real thing. Certain brands of film, for instance, have brighter greens than other brands, and lighting that does not particularly affect our eyes will make very big differences to the captured image. Back lighting, or very bright light that washes out colors, will make a huge difference in our reaction to a picture.Of course, various technical editing fixes can also be applied to the image, for example, boosting color or sharpening definition. While these might make the image more 'realistic',?chances are they will be employed to make the image more 'dramatic'.Once the image reaches the studio, there will be a number of other institutional factors that will affect the image you will ultimately see on the television screen.First of all the images are turned into a story, which requires a structure to make sense of the images. This structure will be given a thematic treatment and significance by editing and organising the order of images within the story.After the raw footage is edited, the story will be given a place in the hierarchy of stories that will be presented in the time allotted for the news.Some kind of judgment will be made as to the importance of the story, which in turn will effect how long the story will be given and at what point in the news program it will air. There may be other decisions involving the other news stories for the night and whether or not this story is too similar or too thematically different from the other stories covered.On a commercial channel, where advertising running on air creates revenue for the station, the stories' placement on the half-hour or at the top of the hour may also be significant, as important stories that will keep the viewers' attention will be placed in slots at times when there is some worry viewers may change the channel.As you can see, the manipulation of the image has carried the image a long way from 'the truth',?and this is in the case of a simple news story, not a documentary or a fiction film.Ultimately, it might be more accurate to accept that all images and stories are 'communications'.That is, they are not objective 'truths' - no matter how objective their creators have tried to be.Whether they were created by one photographer or filmmaker or a group of photographers or filmmakers, they represent an idea that is being presented to an audience, a subjective viewpoint that began with the decision to press the shutter button.In this sense at least, no image is 'true'.Like writing, images are a message, conveyed from the maker to the audience. ................
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