G325 Sec A q.(b) REPRESENTATION

Analyse your production in relation to REPRESENTATION

THEORISTS IN BLUE

UNPACK THE TERM: Re-presentation, not 'the real'. Film and photography re-present the world that they depict.

REPRESENTING THE 'REAL WORLD': Look at the following summary of Sohn-Rethel's work on realism and look for examples of the three realism codes:

• Martin Sohn-Rethel (2016, Reel To Reel) asserts that films cannot be 'windows on the world' and can only be constructs. He explains how 7 codes make them appear real. Realism is not a given reflection of the world but rather a construction that must, often laboriously, be worked at.
  Film and television are not windows on the world, transparent, reflective and neutral. Sohn-Rethel coined his approach “anti-window-on-the-world-ism”.
  For Sohn-Rethel, there is not one single ‘real world’ realism in film, but many constructed ones.
  Realism is a constructed effect.
  So why do texts look ‘real' ? Sohn-Rethel proposes a set of 7 codes of realism in analysing texts, such as the requirement of surface realism, that the representation looks and sounds like the real world it claims to show; the code of ideological truth, that is, does the fictional representation construct a compelling, persuasive truth; the code of psychology and character motivation, that is, the fictional representation invests greater realism in the psychology of its characters than in other codes. 

SOCIAL GROUPS AND STEREOTYPES

VISUAL CODES Semiotics and Roland Barthes