The Power of the Edge: multimodal communication and framing in Koyanisquatsi
Allen, Patrick T.
Allen, Patrick T.
Publication Date
2007
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Abstract
This book chapter indicates a further application of theories of multimodal communication applied to naturally occurring text, in this instance to documentary film making. Instead of producing a model of genre the intention here was to perform a descriptive analysis of composition in the documentary form as a whole and applied to a specific film, Godfrey Reggio¿s Koyanisquatsi. The analysis here was intended to establish further low-level spatial attributes that could be applied to visual and multimodal texts. Framing is a particularly powerful yet often transparent feature of multimodal texts and this chapter was an attempt to develop a rigorous application of many aspects of composition to the critical analysis of film. This is another natural progression from the previous publication as the intention here was to embed the use of framing as a technique in the construction of multimodal texts, such as film, within the critical discourse of representation in film. In doing so the chapter draws from many different `flavours¿ of semiotic theory, from theories of visual design, linguistics, and theories of `spectacle¿. This book chapter is one of the first extended applications of framing from the perspective of multimodality to the documentary film genre. It also brings together important critical approaches to film into a unified theory of representation in the documentary form.
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Allen, P.T. and Goodall, M. (2007). The Power of the Edge: multimodal communication and framing in Koyanisquatsi. In: Goodall, M., Good, J. and Godfrey, W. (Eds.) Power of the Edge: Crash Cinema: Representation in Film. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.
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Book chapter