Preface
In "Children of a Distant Planet", it brings us a double blow of sight and hearing, from one of their eyes and even a voice, let us feel the world of autistic children more intuitively. How is their world different from ours?
Multimodal Discourse and Documentary "Children of a Distant Planet"
Multimodal discourse is produced in the context of today's rapid development of globalization, pluralism and informatization. Whether different modalities can be skillfully coordinated in the discourse is directly related to whether the film can successfully interpret the characters and themes. In multimodal discourse, Zhang Delu proposes multimodal discourse forms and their relationship frameworks, arguing that multimodal discourse has its own grammatical rule system, and divides it into two types: complementary and non-complementary, and the collaboration between different modalities reflects the overall meaning of discourse.
The documentary is composed of various forms such as language, sight and hearing, and is a typical multimodal discourse, and "Children of a Distant Planet" is no exception. In this documentary, the image mode is presented in the form of a documentary, and the auditory channel mainly includes narration, simultaneous sound, background music, etc.
The documentary uses real characters to constantly attack the ethnic boundaries of our "drawing the ground as a prison", so that the "other" that was originally ignored is transformed into "friendly neighbors" again and again, so that the audience can empathize. The documentary "Children of a Distant Planet" is centered on the autism community, centered on the real and complex autism group, trying to break the barrier between the autism community and the public, so that they can change from "others" to "friendly neighbors".
From the perspective of the synergy of hearing and hearing, this paper analyzes the image of the "other" and the real and ordinary image of "friendly neighbor" of autistic children. The visual modal analysis was based on the visual grammar of Kress and Van Leeuwen, and the auditory modality was based on the auditory grammar of Van Leeuwen.
Diaphragm - the image of the "other" in which the autistic person's defects and talents coexist
In "Children of a Distant Planet", a close-up of the face of Cai Jie, an autistic patient. Firstly, starting from the representational meaning of visual grammar, the relationship between people, events and places in the image is discussed, and it is divided into narrative and concept. Reflecting the process of narration, Cai Jie's gaze constitutes a narrative vector, which crosses the picture and does not look directly at the viewer, but into the distance.
Secondly, from the perspective of interactive meaning, the interactive relationship between "interaction" and "imagery" is explored from the four realization mechanisms of "contact", "social distance", "power relationship" and "modality". The horizontal front angle of view allows the audience to enter Cai Jie's world, and when viewed vertically, Cai Jie and the audience are equal, and the close-up lens shortens the distance between Cai Jie and the audience, and his face occupies almost the entire picture, giving people a strong visual impact, so that the audience has a deeper impression of Cai Jie, especially Cai Jie's eyes, which attract everyone's attention.
In addition, Cai Jie tilted his gaze out of the picture, and did not ask the audience for it, but provided a similar picture. At the interactive level, on the one hand, it conveys the creator's desire for the audience to agree with Cai Jie's attitude, and on the other hand, it also highlights Cai Jie's sense of alienation from the surrounding environment as an autistic person, causing conflicts, and highlighting Cai Jie's inability to make eye contact with others.
Instead of choosing Cai Jie's entire head, Cai Jie's eyes are placed on top of the picture to form the most ideal part of the picture, and Cai Jie's indifferent eyes are the message of the whole picture. The visual pattern created a defect for Cai Jie, an autistic person, who "looks no different from a normal person on the outside, but has difficulty in making eye contact".
Under Cai Jie's visual presentation, the narrator Chen Kun explained slowly and clearly: "However, what they lack is the innate ability to communicate and socialize with people, which we never suspect." "In the foreground, it is a close sound, which is the focus of the audience's attention, showing an objective and formal distance, while the background music played is used as the background sound, which is gripping and renders the atmosphere.
In the process of Cai Jie's imagery, a non-enhanced synergistic relationship is formed between the visual and auditory channels. Non-augmented synergy refers to the common expression of the overall meaning of the communicative object by different modalities, without which is incomplete, especially in the combination of auditory and visual senses.
The visual mode gives Cai Jie a close-up of his eyes, which looks no different from a normal person, and the commentary on the auditory channel also gives the audience more information, so that the audience understands Cai Jiecun's social barriers, and the background music also grabs the heartstrings of the audience just right, in this process, both vision and hearing are essential, otherwise it is impossible to express Cai Jie's image of an autistic person with a normal appearance but social impairment to the fullest.
Zhuang Tianyue is an autistic patient, and he is pictured playing the piano. In the sense of representation, Zhuang Tianyue's two hands constitute a kind of narrative vector, which points to the target piano of the behavior, and constitutes a narrative process of the behavior; from the perspective of interaction, the close-up of the hands with vertical and level eyes highlights Zhuang Tianyue's musical talent; in the sense of composition, the central component is the center of the image information, and other component elements play an auxiliary role. Zhuang Tianyue's hands standing in the center of the painting are the core of the painting, and they are also the brightest places in the whole painting. On the one hand, the visual mode provides background information for the listener, and on the other hand, it also highlights Zhuang Tianyue's musical talent.
From an auditory grammar point of view, different tunes can induce different emotions. Tonal movement can be horizontal, ascending, or descending, a wide range of tones generally shows strong feelings, a narrow range shows suppressed emotions, strong pitches give a sense of power, and weak pitches give a sense of intimacy.
Rongtong - the real and ordinary "friendly neighbor" image of autistic people
When Junyu and his father hug each other, it can be seen that Junyu's upper and lower bodies form a narrative vector pointing to his father, while the father's bent arm points to Junyu, which is a two-way behavioral process, emphasizing the intimate interaction between father and son; The close-up view shortens the social distance between the characters and the audience, and the modality is the most important part of the interactive meaning, which is directly related to the authenticity of the image.
Eight visual markers, including color saturation, color discrimination, color coordination, contextualization, expressiveness, depth, illumination, and brightness, were used to investigate the actual significance of modality in images. Junyu is wearing a black coat, his father is wearing a pink striped T-shirt, white walls, beige curtains, brown mirror frames and door frames, the background and expressiveness are very high, the whole foreground and background are clear, Junyu and his father's interaction is placed in the front, in the center of the picture, occupies a large part, and it is very prominent.
Secondly, the warm family atmosphere forms the background context, which visually shows the touching interaction between father and son, breaking people's negative impression of autism as indifferent and unable to communicate, thus creating a positive image of Junyu who is positive and eager to communicate with others.
When Junyu's childish voice called "Kiss Daddy" in his father's ear, it attracted the audience's attention, which was an intimate social distancing. Although Junyu is in his thirties, he doesn't speak very well, behind the "kiss father", not only his eagerness to communicate with others, but also his gratitude, guilt and deep love for his father. Junyu's love for his father is clearly expressed through hearing, and a non-reinforced harmonious relationship is formed with the visual channel, expressing the image of autistic children who "crave love like ordinary people".
Xiao Yu is different from ordinary autistic patients, he works in the hospital, and he has to sort out the old medical records every day and type a few words. Every day he has enough patience to do those tedious and repetitive tasks. When Xiao Yu is working in the hospital, his upper body and computer occupy a large proportion of the whole picture, and in the front, his hand forms a narrative vector pointing to the workbook, forming an action narrative process with a high degree of prominence. At the same time, desks, documents, and colleagues occupy a small part of the screen, visually conveying the image that Xiao Yu, an autistic person, can also work.
Zhou Xun explained in the auditory mode that "it is more acceptable to monotonous and repetitive work".
The sound of Xiao Yu tapping on the keyboard and the discussion of colleagues reached everyone's ears, which also allowed Xiao Yu to better accept this monotonous work. At the same time, the sound of keyboard tapping and the voices of colleagues are emphasizing the atmosphere of work. On the whole, the visual and auditory channels complement each other to form a non-enhanced coordination relationship, and the two modes together highlight Xiao Yu's image of "working like a normal person".
epilogue
The documentary captures the concrete, real and perceptible plots and details in the visual mode, which makes up for the lack of language expression, and the auditory mode conveys subtle, subtle and indescribable emotions, which is of great significance to the sublimation of emotions and the creation of reality. On the one hand, the autistic group has transformed from the image of the "other" with both disability and talent to the real and ordinary image of "friendly neighbors", breaking the barrier between the marginalized group and the public, and striving for the ultimate integration; on the other hand, this project will supplement the image of autism from the perspective of unimodality, and provide a new perspective for the role shaping in film and television creation and mass communication.
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