CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media Class 2: Media Analysis.
CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media
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Transcript of CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media
+CCT 300: Critical Analysis of MediaClass 4: Representation in Comics: McCloud’s Take
+Administration
Next week: Thanksgiving (no class – Monday December 3 is end of term as a result.)
Last class before comic analysis assignment due – ask questions now!
Final exam: Wed, Dec. 12th, 5-7pm, IB120 (room subject to change, check before.)
Cell phone policy – don’t become a statistic!
+A quick first note…
Avoid “McCloud says A. Here’s an example of A.” So what? A recipe for a low B at best (worse if you get it wrong.)
Consider your comic as a designed text – everything is there for a reason.
Your own perspective on why is acceptable – outside research not explicitly necessary – but does it ever really hurt?
Analysis done by application of all rules = rambling and superficial – pick the highlights of McCloud most relevant to your own work
Feel free to critique McCloud – this book is nearly 20 years old, things have changed.
+Comics as Sequential Art
Historical emergence as“bastard child” of word and picture duality
An analysis of the history of sequential art and it’s relation to other similar media
(This usually isn’t a great way to start your paper – why?)
+Picture/Reality/Meaning
Picture plane – representations of iconography, text and realism
A nice breakdown of potential options with a great (and quite historical) selection of cases
Again - simply noting that your comic exists in X space is OK, but why or to what good effect is more interesting
+Comics as Art Form (Six Steps)
An interesting concept with considerable depth
Most people’s initial impression is surface – and many artists start there and work backwards (e.g., tracing and imitation to a better appreciation of the craft)
Exceptional work engages new ideas, new forms, expands genres, plays with structures in an innovative way
Hard to use for this assignment – why?
+Representation in Comics
Moment
Frame
Image
Word
Flow (McCloud’s 2006 work, Making Comics, re-presenting Understanding Comics well…)
+Moment
Comics must represent transition among time visually
Comics must guide the reader’s sense of closure (i.e., leave the reader to fill in the gaps of the story…)
Saturation vs. interpretation similar to McLuhan’s notion of hot vs. cool media - comics generally as cool medium
+Types of Moment Change
Moment-to-Moment
Action-to-Action
Subject-to-Subject
Scene-to-Scene
Aspect-to-Aspect
Non-Sequitur
+Differences in Representing Moment
North American/European comics vs. Japanese - content analysis shows different ratios of moment transition
Experimental comics also break with “standard” North American ratios
Closure differs with each approach, as does the amount of moment transition
+Frame
Comics focus reader’s attention on particular elements, creating sense of place, position, focus
Similar to other visual media (e.g., film, photography) - panels as designed, not accidental.
Even more so in comics– the frame is malleable, can expand, be misshaped, disappear entirely
+Framing elements
“Camera” angleLighting (or lack thereof)Closeups vs. wide shotsDistance and perspectiveSymmetry and centeringThe “gutter” – presence/absence, shape,
colour affect both what is seen and transitions
+Image
Comics as iconic, symbolic medium
Often comics deliberately leave details vague to encourage reader participation in closure – e.g., our ability to see human faces everywhere
+Image elements
Level of detail - photorealism vs. iconography and effects of each
The role of icon in comics - simple comics often evoke interesting emotions (e.g., Peanuts)
Relation between background and foreground characters - (e.g., iconic characters and realistic background, e.g., Hergé’s Tintin)
Expression (especially facial expression) and body language
Sound as imageRole of colour – colour as symbol and accent
+Word
Comics mix visual and literal forms, arguably more so than other visual media
A picture might equal 1000 words, but words can quickly contextualize and represent pictures in various ways
Words as sound effects – representation of aural channel in literal form
+Word/image interplay
Word specific Image specificDuo specificAdditive/intersectingInterdependentParallelMontage
+Flow
Comics as sequential art - sequence of images becomes important in representation of time (e.g., photo of family gathering and reaction example)
Moment, frame, image, word choice work together to create (or sabotage) flow
How much of flow to show? Example of multi-panel comics on drunk driving - different stories are told, even with same beginning/ending points
+Flow concerns
Cultural norms (e.g., North American/European - left to right – manga flows differ, require instructions for non-regular readers)
Pace of transitions - Japanese comics and graphic novels spend more time for fuller exposition and slower moment changes
Breaking norms (experimental comics)Extent to which creator guides flow - hot vs.
cool again
+Comic Analysis: xkcd
http://www.xkcd.com Simple style, but subtlety complex – not “just” stick
figures Occasionally plays with webcomic convention Occasionally very serious:
Money (http://xkcd.com/980/) Fukushima (http://xkcd.com/radiation/)
What If? – new series
+In-class Assignment
Apply one of McCloud’s principles to an XKCD comic of your choice (point form notes fine.)