Moving Images, Understanding Media

4 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media

mobile device, or other screen featuring moving images. Th e typical American

is surrounded by a variety of images on these screens: What do we make of

this fl ux of shapes, colors, words, and sounds? How do we navigate their

meanings and fully utilize their communicative potential?

Moving image media are key modes of communication for storytelling,

advertising, commerce, journalism, and research for societies across the

world. Consequently, the comprehension, analysis, evaluation, and creation

of motion pictures are vital skills for students of the twenty-fi rst century. As

movies light up diff erent screens to inform, entertain, challenge, and inspire

us, it is important for us to understand and use their images eff ectively.

For many people, making motion pictures involves picking up a camera,

hitting the record button, and pointing the lens at a subject. Th is attitude is

refl ected in the passive viewer, slouched into a couch and letting the images

stuff themselves into the mind.

Let’s think about active choices in fi lmmaking and active viewing. Th ese

are our goals in this educational, collaborative, and creative experience. We

want to develop abilities so that we can consciously use the moviemaking

tools at our disposal and develop an awareness of the screen language that

permeates our society.

Communication on the Screen

Th ere is a good chance that you have already thought about these issues as a

fi lmmaker. If you have a video camera, you might go out with your friends

and shoot some footage of a variety of activities. Perhaps you are making a

• What are the meanings of the word “screen?”


• How do we use screens? What types do you look
  at and in what situations?
  
  
  • In what ways can screens limit a view? Blind the
    viewer? Distort a view? Give as many examples of
    screens as you can—not just movie screens!
  
  
  
  

Framing the Discussion

Figure 1-2 As part of a motion picture, these three shots form a sequence. (Courtesy of Kendelyn Ouellette).

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