Video has quickly become one of the favorite mediums to complete the communication process with audiences whether they be large in size, distance, or any combination therein. In this article, Brian Ott analyzes the affects that cinema has on the viewer as a form of communication. Ott looks to the 2006 film, V for Vendetta has his example of film having the ability to “…enlist and mobilize viewers at a visceral level…”
Ott states that when analyzing the rhetoric of any message being presented, it is the type of medium chosen to send the message that either makes or breaks the communication process. Film has the unique ability to not only appeal to our visual and auditory senses, it appeals to our humanity and deep into our emotions. Ott describes this phenomena as “Because of its hybridized mode of expression involving music, sound, speech, and moving images, cinema is among the most figural and thus sensual of the arts.” By using sound effects, soundtracks, and brilliantly planned camera angles, film makers can manipulate the feelings and perceptions of their audience and make them feel like they are walking around the scene and viewing it firsthand. This type of integration with audience is not possible with any other means of communication. If you saw a guy walking up on stage and delivering a speech with sound effects, visual effects, and a soundtrack, you would have a hard time believing anything that he had to say because it was so out of the ordinary. In the cinema world however, this over-stimulation of the senses allows the audience to feel like they are interacting with the story.
Ott, B. L. (2010). The visceral politics of V for Vendetta: On political affect in cinema. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 27(1), pp. 39-54.
Ott states that when analyzing the rhetoric of any message being presented, it is the type of medium chosen to send the message that either makes or breaks the communication process. Film has the unique ability to not only appeal to our visual and auditory senses, it appeals to our humanity and deep into our emotions. Ott describes this phenomena as “Because of its hybridized mode of expression involving music, sound, speech, and moving images, cinema is among the most figural and thus sensual of the arts.” By using sound effects, soundtracks, and brilliantly planned camera angles, film makers can manipulate the feelings and perceptions of their audience and make them feel like they are walking around the scene and viewing it firsthand. This type of integration with audience is not possible with any other means of communication. If you saw a guy walking up on stage and delivering a speech with sound effects, visual effects, and a soundtrack, you would have a hard time believing anything that he had to say because it was so out of the ordinary. In the cinema world however, this over-stimulation of the senses allows the audience to feel like they are interacting with the story.
Ott, B. L. (2010). The visceral politics of V for Vendetta: On political affect in cinema. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 27(1), pp. 39-54.
