Emb140 Introduction To Media Aesthetics -- Midterm Flashcards (New)

Front 1

_____ is not an abstract concept but a process in which we examine a number of media elements, such as lighting and picture composition, how they interact, and our perceptual reactions to them

Back 1

applied media aesthetics

Front 2

_____ is the idea that we perceive our world not in terms of absolutes but rather as changing contextual relationships; when we look at an event, we are constantly engaged in judging one aspect of it against another aspect or another event.

Back 2

contextual perception

Front 3

using this principle we order our surroundings into foreground figures that lie in front of, or move against, a more stable background.

Back 3

figure/ground principle

Front 4

the idea that we tend to notice especially those events that we want to see or are used to seeing; we generally select information that agrees with how we want to see the world, and we screen out almost everything that might interfere with our constructs.

Back 4

selective seeing

Front 5

_____ is much more automatic; in most cases, we have no control over it. This shields you from seeing too many varieties of shades and colors so that you can keep your environment relatively stable.

Back 5

selective perception

Front 6

in an _____, you consciously establish and apply a code that dictates, to at least some extent, how you should feel about and interpret what you see. It is definitely culture-bound. Think about seeing homemade signs for eggs and flight lessons.

Back 6

associative context

Front 7

with _____, our perceptual processes are so immediate and forceful that we respond to certain stimuli in predictable ways even when we know that we are being perceptually manipulated. It is independent of a cultural frame of reference.

Back 7

aesthetic context

Front 8

_____ is a form of radiant energy consisting of energy particles that behave as electromagnetic waves; in short, it is a *thing*

Back 8

light

Front 9

the deliberate manipulation of light and shadow for a specific communication purpose (mood, to highlight certain things, etc.)

Back 9

lighting

Front 10

When/where do we see light? (2 places)

Back 10

(1.) at its source and (2.) when it reflects off of an object

Front 11

When we split up white light (using a prism, for example), what is the result?

Back 11

We see hues

Front 12

Lighting reveals three things. What are they?

Back 12

appearance, location, and texture

Front 13

_____ define shape and location and are often taken for granted

Back 13

shadows

Front 14

_____ are fixed to an object and reveal the basic form of an object; we expect them to appear below protrusions and above indentations

Back 14

attached shadows

Front 15

_____ always fall on something and often show a distorted shape of an object. These help us locate an object relative to its surroundings and may be connected or disconnected from the object that cast it.

Back 15

cast shadows

Front 16

Falloff can occur in which two ways?

Back 16

contrast and rate of change

Front 17

the brightness contrast between the light and shadow sides of an object.

Back 17

falloff (contrast)

Front 18

rate of change from light to shadow (i.e. “how quickly do we change from light to dark?”)

Back 18

falloff (rate of change)

Front 19

means “fast falloff” and is the result of an abrupt change from light to dark. We interpret fast falloff on a surface as an edge.

Back 19

high contrast

Front 20

means “slow falloff” and is the result of a gradual change

Back 20

low contrast

Front 21

How do we control falloff?

Back 21

You can control falloff by using highly directional or diffused light (fast falloff) for the basic illumination and by manipulating the amount of fill light (slow falloff).

Front 22

means that the scene has an abundance of bright, usually slow-falloff illumination and a light background. The general feeling of this is upbeat. Think “up.”

Back 22

high-key lighting

Front 23

is highly selective, leaving the background as well as part of the scene predominantly dark. This type of lighting involves fast falloff and has less overall light than high-key lighting. Think “down.”

Back 23

low-key lighting

Front 24

How can light be used as a dramatic agent in a production?

Back 24

can use the light source itself as an effective dramatic agent -- an element that operates as an aesthetic intensifier in a scene. By showing the actual light source -- the sun, a spotlight, or a flashlight -- you can intensity the scene. Think of the red and blue of a police light or the searchlight of a police tower.

Front 25

What are the three lights involved in three-point lighting?

Back 25

key light: provides basic illumination, backlight: separates figure from the background and provides "sparkle," fill light: controls falloff by killing shadows on the side of the face

Front 26

What does chiaroscuro lighting emphasize?

Back 26

light and dark/contrasting light and shadow areas

Front 27

The basic aim of this type of lighting is to articulate space, to clarify and intensify the three-dimensional property of things and the space that surrounds them, and to give the scene an expressive quality.

Back 27

chiaroscuro lighting

Front 28

What are the five characteristics/properties of chiaroscuro lighting?

Back 28

organic (lighting should look as close as possible to the actual lighting source); directional (direct viewer's attention to certain areas); spatial/compositional (light and dark should be arranged so that they balance one another); thematic (light should emphasize the theme of the scene); and emotional (affect our feeling regardless of subject matter)

Front 29

highly diffused light that seems to come from all directions; it has very slow falloff and such highly transparent attached and cast shadows that we usually do not notice them.

Back 29

flat lighting

Front 30

also called film lighting, this is set up for discontinuous, short-duration action. Each scene is lighted separately and control is extremely high. Lights can be moved around. Shadow control is improved by barn doors (metal flaps attached to the front of the lighting instrument) and flags/diffuser sheets (small transparent or solid piece of metal or plastic that are placed in front of the instrument to partially block the beam and prevent it from hitting certain areas).

Back 30

single-camera lighting

Front 31

less precise because it must satisfy the different points of view of the camera as well as the continuous, long-duration action of performers in the studio. For this reason, lights must be suspended from the ceiling and some lights shift functions.

Back 31

multi-camera lighting

Front 32

_____ is a property of light that has been divided into one or more visible light waves by an object.

Back 32

color

Front 33

What are the three color attributes?

Back 33

hue (what is the color?), saturation (how strong is the color?), and brightness (how light or dark the color appears in a black and white photo)

Front 34

the practice of shining/adding colored lights on top of each other

Back 34

additive color mixing

Front 35

What are the additive colors?

Back 35

red, green, and blue

Front 36

is the practice of filtering out all colors from white light except for the one you want to display. Essentially, it means mixing paints or combining color filters to absorb or subtract certain color frequencies so that only a specific color is reflected back.

Back 36

subtractive color mixing

Front 37

What are the subtractive color primaries?

Back 37

cyan, magenta, and yellow

Front 38

What are the three functions of color?

Back 38

informational (tells us more about the event), compositional (draw attention to a certain area), expressive (make us feel a certain way)

Front 39

one way to “blunt” the impact of high energy colors and portray the internal condition (inscapes) of an event is to lessen _____, give colors a monochrome tint, or omit color altogether.

Back 39

saturation // desaturation theory

Front 40

the relationship of screen width to screen height

Back 40

aspect ratio

Front 41

What are two common aspect ratios we see in use?

Back 41

Full screen (4x3 // 1.33:1) and wide screen (16x9 // 1.78:1)

Front 42

What is an advantage of full screen?

Back 42

you don't have as much left over space and it is good for close-ups

Front 43

What is an advantage of widescreen?

Back 43

better for landscape shots and wide vistas, conversations have more breathing room, allows more lateral (left to right and vice versa) movement on the screen, and setting establishment is increased due to more context of environment

Front 44

What are ways we can convert full screen content to fit onto a widescreen and vice versa?

Back 44

letterboxing (displaying widescreen on a full screen), pillarboxing (displaying fullscreen on a widescreen), pan-and-scan (adjusting widescreen images so they can be shown in fullscreen), cropping

Front 45

What is the difference between organic masks and artificial masks?

Back 45

organic masks use objects within the frame whereas artificial masks add artificial objects/”blackness” as a method of framing

Front 46

When choosing how to orient a picture, we generally orient things _____

Back 46

horizontally