Viewing+Analysis

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The English 3A/3B course values critical viewing as a skill for all students to demonstrate. The Viewing section can be quite approachable provided students are systematic while, at the same time, flexible in their thinking.

The power of the visual image is undeniable; the aim of the photographer or director is to produce a visual text in which the complexities of meaning are conveyed through gesture, composition and action rather than through straightforward exposition.

=SKILLS=

Viewing filmic texts and static texts entail many of the same processes and strategies. Generally speaking, visual texts are constructed through three processes:
 * Choosing what the camera sees (subject, composition, lighting, props, costume etc.).
 * Choosing how the camera sees it (angles, lenses, distance, movement).
 * Choosing what needs to be added after shooting (editing, cropping, adding text, special effects, music etc.).

As critical viewers, we need to be sensitive to these choices as they are the means by which the photographer or director guides our response to the representations being made. An interesting way to conceive of responses is in terms of **impact**:
 * What emotions does this text encourage me to feel?
 * Which of my values are being engaged by this text?
 * What action does this text encourage me to take?
 * How does this text make me feel about myself and the world in which I live?
 * Who does this text inspire me to become?

Viewing is hard work. The main reason why students get anxious when they are confronted with unfamiliar texts is that they have very little with which to compare. Success in viewing comes from:
 * viewing widely;
 * being sensitive to the techniques of film and photography;
 * appreciating films and images for their subtleties;
 * being sensitive to how different people view the world; and,
 * being aware of the world through the news and through history.

All of these skills require maturity and a broad-minded view of the world. The best place to start is with thought processes. Students should avoid "either/or" thinking and embrace "both/and" thinking. Conceiving of problems relating to social and cultural issues as having no fixed solution will lead students towards "both/and" models of thinking, which will in turn benefit them in their studies of English.

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=CASE STUDIES=

**Training**

 * (Balacz Gardi 2007)**

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Jan Rose Kasmir
 An American young girl, Jan Rose Kasmir, confronts the American National Guard outside the Pentagon during the 1967 anti-Vietnam march. This march helped to turn public opinion against the war in Vietnam.
 * (Marc Riboud 1967)**

 This image works on a number of levels. Kasmir is confronting the line of National Guardsmen with their rifles at the ready and bayonets fixed. The photographer, Marc Riboud, has set his camera so that there is a narrow depth of field, meaning that the background is a blur, leaving just Kasmir and the end of the first bayonet in focus. This positions the viewer to focus on the sharp contrast between the peaceful symbolism of the flower in Kasmir's hand, held almost as some kind of peace offering, and the rigid violence symbolised by the rifle.

An understanding of the context of this image yields another layer of meaning. In 1967, American was torn over the conflict in Vietname. Young people were protesting in a way that many of their elders perceived as anarchic and even treasonous. It is easy to see in this image the symbolism of the individual against the Establishment, but I cannot help but sympathise with the National Guardsmen. They are under order to preserve the peace, but they have not been trained in the same way as police. The men in uniform didn't necessarily want to this situation to turn to violence. This leads me to consider this an image of America's social and political implosion in the 1960s. It is an image of lost control where each must conform to their role in a way reminiscent of Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant".

The construction of the image makes the weapons seem almost ludicrous. Kasmir is confronting the military might of the United States government with nothing more than a flower. The notion of "flower power" which held significance among the counter-cultural movements of the period becomes central here. The image positions us to see the flower as being more powerful than the gun.

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Mexican Child Refugees

 * (Alon Reininger 1985)**

January: Young illegal Mexican immigrants at the Brownfield U.S. border patrol Station, California, USA

This image is an interesting representation of power. The angle of the camera clearly positions us to sympathise with the young children as it emphasises the intimidating posture of the policeman. However, close examination of the image encourages a variety of responses. The image is not simply one that makes the policeman seem intimidating or malevolent. Certainly, his posture and his sunglasses take away any sense of compassion that the policeman might actually feel, but by looking at the children, we see a range of responses to their situation.

The contrast between the boy on the far left and the boy on the right reveals two responses to the situation: fear and resistance. The boy on the left is pressed hard against the wall and his body language exudes fear, while the boy on the right is standing with a posture mirroring that of the policeman in open defiance. The impact of this image on audiences really depends on their udnerstandings of and their attitudes towards the issue of immigration. In the United States, illegal immigration from Mexico involves enormous numbers of people and is politically divisive. What would unify most perspectives is the sense of pity evoked by images of children as refugees.

This perspective highlights the importance of knowing the context of the image. If we remove any knowledge of its context, our response shifts. The image, rather than being one of pity, becomes something else. The intimidation of the police becomes mitigated as we question what brought children to a police station. At this point, we begin to see the children as criminals. Pity may still be evoked but only in the sense of the vicious circle that we know juvenile crime creates. The defiance of the boy on the right, rather than being somewhat heroic for a refugee child, marks him as the ringleader leading the others to a life of crime.

Underpinning all of these interpretations is the value we place on childhood. Children do not belong in the environment depicted in the image, nor should they be part of a world that makes them refugees. Ultimately, this image becomes an indictment on lawmakers and policymakers both in America and in Mexico who would place children in this predicament.

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Gangs of New York

 * (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 2002)

In this clip, Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), gives a representation of the origins of American identity. **

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All That Heaven Allows

 * (Dir. Douglas Sirk, 1955)**

Douglas Sirk is often forgotten at one of the great filmmakers of all time. In this film, a lonely widow is chastised by her family and her community for engaging in a romance with a gardener, who is well below her in terms of social class. In this scene, her children offer her the consolation of a new television.

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