Monday, June 4, 2012
Welcome to the Blog!
Hi guys! This is the COCU 175 blog made by Kyle Block and Elliot Lee. Our topic for the blog is how the sense of smell is portrayed in both film and media. Since scent cannot be portrayed conventionally in the mediums of TV and cinema, we look at the other modes that directors get around this problem in order to successfully convey the idea of smell to the audience. Hope you enjoy!
Representations of Scent In Animation
By Kyle Block
In this first clip, I analyze different animation techniques from the movie Ratatouille that are used to represent the smells of an Italian kitchen, while presenting scent as a characteristic of high class, authenticity and precision. The movie focuses on the life of a human chef -named Linguini- that is only able to perform expert cooking ability under the direct physical control of a mouse with an incredibly sensitive nose. The sequence begins soft classical music playing in a fancy Italian restaurant. The dialogue revolves around a desire for a new special recipe made personally from the chef, Linguini. Ambient sound effects of silverwear and dinner plates are present. These sounds of a resturant are familiar to the audience as being related to the act of fine dining. Immediately, the audience can smell that this ‘special’ meal is one of expertise and authenticity. Specific dialogue is used to make this dish reek with a unique odor when the head chef reminds the waiter “don’t forget to stress its Linguininess”. A long list of ingredients is read to give the audience a strong mental image of all of the smells and tastes that are part of the dish. The female chef makes sour facial expressions as she reads certain ingredients. Her tone of voice and facial reactions made me feel that the dish had a pungent smell that would make my eyes water. As the mouse conducts Linguini’s movements, from behind the veil of the white chef’s hat, an emphasis on sound helps the smell become more apparent. The sniffing noises are exaggerated and different spices and liquids are sloshed together to establish the aroma of an Italian kitchen. The mouse decides to improvise his own recipe and manipulate Linguini like a puppet. The customers eat the dish with smiles on their faces and a wave of special requests rush back to the kitchen. The music continues and the words ‘special order’ are repeated as dish after dish is served to happy and hungry customers. The mouse’s recipe is bold and intuitive, reinforcing the notion of expertise and authenticity of the food and its omniscient aroma. In this scene, scent most strongly relied on the sound effects (primary- sniffing, dialogue, sizzling and Ambient- Italian music, and silver wear scraping on porcelain dishes) to engage its audience to smell the dish as if it were real.
Representation of Stinkiness in Ren and Stimpy-
In animated film and television, there is a special emphasis on audio and visual elements that serve to evoke an illusion of smell within the minds of viewers. Animated scenes, like the ones found below, use specific camera angles and manipulate the visual perspective of characters to affect the perception of viewers. Also, because animation is an interpretation of real life and not a reflection, editors can exaggerate sounds by fabricating them and giving them a heightened level of tangibility. A heavy exaggeration of facial expressions and personal reactions (verbal and non-verbal) to smells help viewers to imagine the smells as if they were seeping out of their television monitors. The choice of music and the setting of a story may also invite viewers to associate personal experiences and connections with the aromas being represented on screen. Using a variety of techniques, animators can manipulate a viewer’s perception of smell, while representing it with different meanings.
Representation of aroma in Ratatouille-
In this first clip, I analyze different animation techniques from the movie Ratatouille that are used to represent the smells of an Italian kitchen, while presenting scent as a characteristic of high class, authenticity and precision. The movie focuses on the life of a human chef -named Linguini- that is only able to perform expert cooking ability under the direct physical control of a mouse with an incredibly sensitive nose. The sequence begins soft classical music playing in a fancy Italian restaurant. The dialogue revolves around a desire for a new special recipe made personally from the chef, Linguini. Ambient sound effects of silverwear and dinner plates are present. These sounds of a resturant are familiar to the audience as being related to the act of fine dining. Immediately, the audience can smell that this ‘special’ meal is one of expertise and authenticity. Specific dialogue is used to make this dish reek with a unique odor when the head chef reminds the waiter “don’t forget to stress its Linguininess”. A long list of ingredients is read to give the audience a strong mental image of all of the smells and tastes that are part of the dish. The female chef makes sour facial expressions as she reads certain ingredients. Her tone of voice and facial reactions made me feel that the dish had a pungent smell that would make my eyes water. As the mouse conducts Linguini’s movements, from behind the veil of the white chef’s hat, an emphasis on sound helps the smell become more apparent. The sniffing noises are exaggerated and different spices and liquids are sloshed together to establish the aroma of an Italian kitchen. The mouse decides to improvise his own recipe and manipulate Linguini like a puppet. The customers eat the dish with smiles on their faces and a wave of special requests rush back to the kitchen. The music continues and the words ‘special order’ are repeated as dish after dish is served to happy and hungry customers. The mouse’s recipe is bold and intuitive, reinforcing the notion of expertise and authenticity of the food and its omniscient aroma. In this scene, scent most strongly relied on the sound effects (primary- sniffing, dialogue, sizzling and Ambient- Italian music, and silver wear scraping on porcelain dishes) to engage its audience to smell the dish as if it were real.
Representation of Stinkiness in Ren and Stimpy-
The next sequence is a compilation of clips from different
episodes of the show, Ren and Stimpy.
In this sequence, there is a heavy emphasis on the visual and verbal modalities
of animation to help provide viewers with a sense of smell. A close up
depiction of Ren’s mouth reveals his teeth to be rotting with discoloration,
desinigration, and fumes emitting from his mouth. Animation enables smells to
be represented as a physical property that can be seen visually. The swirly,
dark and transparent fumes flow out of Ren’s mouth and the audience can see the
smell as if it were as tangible as smoke from a fire. Green and hairy tounges,
big and fat shirtless prison inmates, projectile vomiting of mysterious brown
goup and rotten discolored body parts all represent a sickening odor of poor
hygiene and bodily fluids. The narrator tells its audience that what they are
smelling is ‘not their imagination’, but in fact it is Ren and Stimpy’s stinky stories.” The word ‘stinky’ is repeated
multiple times as visual depictions of grotesque images are compiled. Sound
also plays a significant role as fart noises, the buzzing of a fly, and a
prolonged slurpring sound as Stimpy licks a thick patch of hair of a burley
man’s arm, all evoke certain emotional responses from viewers as they experience
this multimodality. Many of these sounds are familiar to all viewers (sniffing,
farting, purging, slurping etc.) and thus, a notion of ‘stink’ is bound to
sounds and colors that result from bodily functions.
Below I have posted a slightly sped up version of a
Spongebob Squarepants episode titled, “Something Smells”. Try to apply your
knowledge to analyze the ways that these animators convey a sense of smell
through multimodal representation. Further, consider the social and cultural
associations that the smells in this episode are connected with. Along with the
social descrimination of certain odors, what are the cultural implications of
this representation of odor in society? Do the representations of smells in
this cartoon tend to be more based on specificity and precision (the exactness
or what is being presented) or ambiguity and fluidity (the smell is mysterious
and its interpretation is arbitrary, depending on the viewer).
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Scent in live action
By Elliot Lee
In conventional film and television, since scent cannot be actually delivered to the audience via a tangible odor, directors and editors use multiple modalities in order to convey a scent to the audience. Some of these modalities include but are not limited to dialogue, audio, lighting, duration(timing), camera angles, blocking(movement), action, and plot. But in combining these multiple mediums in film and television, filmmakers create a variety of discourses on the idea of scent.
Scrubs(TV)
To start, I look at live action clips that focus on smell in order to examine the mediums used to create the illusion of scent and the discourse that is created as a result. As a first example, I viewed an episode of the TV series, Scrubs.
In the clip, a surgeon farts and causes his supervising attending surgeon to mistakenly identify the source of the odor as from the patient. In order to signify to the audience that an odor has come into existence in the world of the show, the attending surgeon says,"what's that smell?". This leads to the surgeon having to suddenly stop the music and the operation in order to immediately focus on where the source of the smell came from. The verbal dialogue and the rapid changing of the action and mood in the scene gives the audience the means to believe that an odor is present and conveys the surprising and unpleasant nature of the odor in contrast to the usual sterile, clean and calm state of an operating room. The discourse created in the scene is one that we touched shortly on in class: the source of the odor. The source of the odor is made the priority in the scene, with the characters unable to continue their previous activity until the smell's source has been located due to the delicate nature of surgery. But interestingly enough, the scent itself is not identified by the sense of smell. In fact, the other surgeons' first reaction to the attending's identification of a smell is looking around. This is followed by the attending surgeon saying "I don't know where that smell came from", which is accompanied by his looking around the patient's innards. These visual cues and change in pace create the discourse that scent is a transitional tool, introducing a situation into the world of the scene, and an unfocused presence. For even though there is a source of the odor, the characters easily mistaken the source due to the portrayed pervasive nature of the smell. And the fact that a large majority of the characters relied primarily on their eyes and vision to find a scent source reinforces how the show views scent as a catalyst or herald to a situation, but not as important as the sense of sight.
Apocalypse Now(Film)
The next example I chose is from the film Apocalypse Now. This film portrays scent and creates an odor discourse in a different manner than Scrubs did.
In the scene, the Colonel(man in the cavalry hat) gives a short monologue on his love for and experiences with the explosive napalm. The existence of the smell of napalm is created through more traditional visuals and dialogue. At the start of the scene, the explosions of napalm designate that there is the possibility of an odor, and this assumption is justified when the Colonel asks "do you smell that? That's napalm!". The acrid nature of the smell is created by the Colonel stating that it has a "gasoline smell" and this is supported by the coloring in the scene. The yellow smoke grenades on the beach emit billowing clouds of mustard colored smoke in the high speed winds kicked by the helicopters, as a result portraying the unsavory and and overwhelming nature of napalm's odor. This also builds a base for the discourse created by the scene. The timing between the Colonel saying"its smells like..." and the final word"victory" create a very defining moment where smell is not associated with a reaction or an affiliated real-world object, but an idea. The odor of napalm becomes a indexical sign of victory in the character's eyes. In the scene, scent is an enveloping presence that signifies a condition of being with the use of dialogue, timing, color, and action.
Interactive Example
Now, as an exercise, using as many modalities as possible, you guys try and analyze how this next scene conveys odor and what type of discourse is constructed and leave it in the comments section:
You'll be correct 60% of the time...every time.
In conventional film and television, since scent cannot be actually delivered to the audience via a tangible odor, directors and editors use multiple modalities in order to convey a scent to the audience. Some of these modalities include but are not limited to dialogue, audio, lighting, duration(timing), camera angles, blocking(movement), action, and plot. But in combining these multiple mediums in film and television, filmmakers create a variety of discourses on the idea of scent.
Scrubs(TV)
To start, I look at live action clips that focus on smell in order to examine the mediums used to create the illusion of scent and the discourse that is created as a result. As a first example, I viewed an episode of the TV series, Scrubs.
In the clip, a surgeon farts and causes his supervising attending surgeon to mistakenly identify the source of the odor as from the patient. In order to signify to the audience that an odor has come into existence in the world of the show, the attending surgeon says,"what's that smell?". This leads to the surgeon having to suddenly stop the music and the operation in order to immediately focus on where the source of the smell came from. The verbal dialogue and the rapid changing of the action and mood in the scene gives the audience the means to believe that an odor is present and conveys the surprising and unpleasant nature of the odor in contrast to the usual sterile, clean and calm state of an operating room. The discourse created in the scene is one that we touched shortly on in class: the source of the odor. The source of the odor is made the priority in the scene, with the characters unable to continue their previous activity until the smell's source has been located due to the delicate nature of surgery. But interestingly enough, the scent itself is not identified by the sense of smell. In fact, the other surgeons' first reaction to the attending's identification of a smell is looking around. This is followed by the attending surgeon saying "I don't know where that smell came from", which is accompanied by his looking around the patient's innards. These visual cues and change in pace create the discourse that scent is a transitional tool, introducing a situation into the world of the scene, and an unfocused presence. For even though there is a source of the odor, the characters easily mistaken the source due to the portrayed pervasive nature of the smell. And the fact that a large majority of the characters relied primarily on their eyes and vision to find a scent source reinforces how the show views scent as a catalyst or herald to a situation, but not as important as the sense of sight.
Apocalypse Now(Film)
The next example I chose is from the film Apocalypse Now. This film portrays scent and creates an odor discourse in a different manner than Scrubs did.
In the scene, the Colonel(man in the cavalry hat) gives a short monologue on his love for and experiences with the explosive napalm. The existence of the smell of napalm is created through more traditional visuals and dialogue. At the start of the scene, the explosions of napalm designate that there is the possibility of an odor, and this assumption is justified when the Colonel asks "do you smell that? That's napalm!". The acrid nature of the smell is created by the Colonel stating that it has a "gasoline smell" and this is supported by the coloring in the scene. The yellow smoke grenades on the beach emit billowing clouds of mustard colored smoke in the high speed winds kicked by the helicopters, as a result portraying the unsavory and and overwhelming nature of napalm's odor. This also builds a base for the discourse created by the scene. The timing between the Colonel saying"its smells like..." and the final word"victory" create a very defining moment where smell is not associated with a reaction or an affiliated real-world object, but an idea. The odor of napalm becomes a indexical sign of victory in the character's eyes. In the scene, scent is an enveloping presence that signifies a condition of being with the use of dialogue, timing, color, and action.
Interactive Example
Now, as an exercise, using as many modalities as possible, you guys try and analyze how this next scene conveys odor and what type of discourse is constructed and leave it in the comments section:
You'll be correct 60% of the time...every time.
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