Framing and how to use it.
Dec 12, 2023 23:31:24 GMT -6
Post by saintofm on Dec 12, 2023 23:31:24 GMT -6
I am loosely basing this off a final essay for a World Mythology Class, partially because I got an A on it, and I did it on Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2018). So while I wonder if I should put two different threads on Sex and Violence in this area or the Controversy section. Also, adding a few other things here and there to keep this a complete coppy of that essay as excamples.
In mythology, ancient and modern, they may not tell you how the literal world works in a literal scientific way but they will do so in a metaphorical one. In many ways they will also try to tell you how you to live your life as a good person in that culture. They often do this by framing where you try to keep the themese and/or morals you are trying to get across and exclude what will be a disstracting. We still do this by nessessity and often without thinking about it in modern media, say for instance a movie about a giant radioactive lizard fighting a three headed dragon and WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH CRITICS FOR NOT GIVEING THIS A BETTER SCORE [insert techical dificulties image here]
In this example its climate change, but to help with the framing they use lots of religious symbolism in there to further a point. but before I go with examples, this part of my essay I did so to quote myself
The reason for this is quite simple: It is more digestible for the target audience. If you go on TV tropes long enough you may find two tropes or cliches that involve a anvil falling on your head. One is Anvilicious, where the story teller be it tv show, film, play, video game, book, and so on hit you with the point with the subtlety of a avil or baby grand piano falling on you. The other is Some Anvils Must Drop where the point needs to be made as bluntly as possible. Maybe for the target audience age range, the writers are afraid people may not get it, or its so important and so often ignored they feel the need to hit you in the back of the head with the point.
The problem with this is that depending on the subject matter this is less inclined to get people on your side and more inclined to feel you bashed their head in with a baseball bat.
Another issue is to keep the language so it doesn't distract the audience. Lakoff uses Nixon's speech after the Watergate scandal went public. Because he said he wasn't a crook, people just focused on the word "Crook." They thought of all the words associated with crook. They ended up thinking he was a crook.
So within this little frame or sandbox you want to make your point without distracting the audience with the polar opposites of what you intended, avoid making them feel overwhelmed, and most importantly brow beating them with the point!
So here are a few examples, starting with Godzilla: King of the Monsters. A big portion of the film uses big kaiju monsters as metaphors for the wrath of nature and climate change. Ghidora is climate change, changing the world to suit its needs. As he changes the world, his storm only gets stronger and stronger, much in the same way hurricanes and other like storms have only gotten worse in the last couple of decades. Rodan coming out of the volcano almost felt like looking at a pyroclastic flow (a landslide of debris and super hot ash that burred Pompei and Herculaneum). Bonus points for the Three Headed Monster being an introduced species, and there have bee plenty that have caused havoc on the environment and even entire industries (from Tibs the Terminator, a cat that killed off 2 entire species of birds, to the Silver Carp in North American rivers, Mitten Crabs in the California Bay Area, Killer Bees in general, or Escobar's Hippos).
To further this, the filmmakers chose to make this also a struggle of good vs evil with the use of religious imagery. Devilish imagery is used with Ghidorah, with one of the reference images they had on "Monster Zero" being the illustration of the Great Red Dragon used in the Divine Comedy and the and the Anthony Hopkin's version of Red Dragon. The camera seemingly hides behind a cross as the three heads roar triumphantly on volcano. His theme has Buddhist chants that ward off evil in it And the first to submit and fight on his side is Rodan, AKA the Fire Demon. Conversely, Godzilla is the Capital G God here, with Mothera being his angelic guardian and warrior in all her imagery.
Land Before Time: A big theme around this is Prejudice is stupid, the only way we are surviving this if we all work togethering despite the dinosaurs stuck ith their own kind for tradition's sake. You can see this Littlefoot being the most likely to make friends and trying to to the Great Valley (place with lots of food and no predators) while Sarrah is the most confrontational about it and the most suborn (and thus nearly gets them all killed when they go her way). They finally beat sharptooth (the big T rex in the film) when they all try to push a boulder/distract it long enough to force it in the deep end, with Sarah coming in in the last minute to help.
Turning Red: Its a metaphor for puberty, namely that time of the month. Its a love letter to all things girly, especially the kind in the early 2000s such as boy bands, and a look at family drama that spans generations. However, between the grunts, the use of "No accidents," And the fact both parents thought they had more time before they had to explain the werepanda stuff (and what its a metaphor for) and now they have to do it at the worst possible moment.
1984: Based on his expanses fighting alongside fellow communists in the Spanish Civil War, and the horrors his comrades were willing to perform, he did two books: 1984 and Animal Farm. While set in the future dystopia, it was the same things he saw; the spying, the recanting of information and people's names, and the use of the Hour of Hate to keep people hyped up to be angry with the enemy.
In mythology, ancient and modern, they may not tell you how the literal world works in a literal scientific way but they will do so in a metaphorical one. In many ways they will also try to tell you how you to live your life as a good person in that culture. They often do this by framing where you try to keep the themese and/or morals you are trying to get across and exclude what will be a disstracting. We still do this by nessessity and often without thinking about it in modern media, say for instance a movie about a giant radioactive lizard fighting a three headed dragon and WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH CRITICS FOR NOT GIVEING THIS A BETTER SCORE [insert techical dificulties image here]
In this example its climate change, but to help with the framing they use lots of religious symbolism in there to further a point. but before I go with examples, this part of my essay I did so to quote myself
The concept of framing is easy to explain but difficult to execute. You have to put it together in a way without the message getting lost, misinterpreted, or worse: focusing on the wrong aspects of it. George Lakoff, in his essay Framing 101, states that Framing is “about getting language that fits your worldview. It is not just language. The ideas are primary and the language carries those ideas, evokes those ideas.”
The reason for this is quite simple: It is more digestible for the target audience. If you go on TV tropes long enough you may find two tropes or cliches that involve a anvil falling on your head. One is Anvilicious, where the story teller be it tv show, film, play, video game, book, and so on hit you with the point with the subtlety of a avil or baby grand piano falling on you. The other is Some Anvils Must Drop where the point needs to be made as bluntly as possible. Maybe for the target audience age range, the writers are afraid people may not get it, or its so important and so often ignored they feel the need to hit you in the back of the head with the point.
The problem with this is that depending on the subject matter this is less inclined to get people on your side and more inclined to feel you bashed their head in with a baseball bat.
Another issue is to keep the language so it doesn't distract the audience. Lakoff uses Nixon's speech after the Watergate scandal went public. Because he said he wasn't a crook, people just focused on the word "Crook." They thought of all the words associated with crook. They ended up thinking he was a crook.
So within this little frame or sandbox you want to make your point without distracting the audience with the polar opposites of what you intended, avoid making them feel overwhelmed, and most importantly brow beating them with the point!
So here are a few examples, starting with Godzilla: King of the Monsters. A big portion of the film uses big kaiju monsters as metaphors for the wrath of nature and climate change. Ghidora is climate change, changing the world to suit its needs. As he changes the world, his storm only gets stronger and stronger, much in the same way hurricanes and other like storms have only gotten worse in the last couple of decades. Rodan coming out of the volcano almost felt like looking at a pyroclastic flow (a landslide of debris and super hot ash that burred Pompei and Herculaneum). Bonus points for the Three Headed Monster being an introduced species, and there have bee plenty that have caused havoc on the environment and even entire industries (from Tibs the Terminator, a cat that killed off 2 entire species of birds, to the Silver Carp in North American rivers, Mitten Crabs in the California Bay Area, Killer Bees in general, or Escobar's Hippos).
To further this, the filmmakers chose to make this also a struggle of good vs evil with the use of religious imagery. Devilish imagery is used with Ghidorah, with one of the reference images they had on "Monster Zero" being the illustration of the Great Red Dragon used in the Divine Comedy and the and the Anthony Hopkin's version of Red Dragon. The camera seemingly hides behind a cross as the three heads roar triumphantly on volcano. His theme has Buddhist chants that ward off evil in it And the first to submit and fight on his side is Rodan, AKA the Fire Demon. Conversely, Godzilla is the Capital G God here, with Mothera being his angelic guardian and warrior in all her imagery.
Land Before Time: A big theme around this is Prejudice is stupid, the only way we are surviving this if we all work togethering despite the dinosaurs stuck ith their own kind for tradition's sake. You can see this Littlefoot being the most likely to make friends and trying to to the Great Valley (place with lots of food and no predators) while Sarrah is the most confrontational about it and the most suborn (and thus nearly gets them all killed when they go her way). They finally beat sharptooth (the big T rex in the film) when they all try to push a boulder/distract it long enough to force it in the deep end, with Sarah coming in in the last minute to help.
Turning Red: Its a metaphor for puberty, namely that time of the month. Its a love letter to all things girly, especially the kind in the early 2000s such as boy bands, and a look at family drama that spans generations. However, between the grunts, the use of "No accidents," And the fact both parents thought they had more time before they had to explain the werepanda stuff (and what its a metaphor for) and now they have to do it at the worst possible moment.
1984: Based on his expanses fighting alongside fellow communists in the Spanish Civil War, and the horrors his comrades were willing to perform, he did two books: 1984 and Animal Farm. While set in the future dystopia, it was the same things he saw; the spying, the recanting of information and people's names, and the use of the Hour of Hate to keep people hyped up to be angry with the enemy.
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