Today we began by learning the difference between connotations and denotations. The later is what we actually see and the former is what we think what we see means. We looked at two pictures of Schwarzenegger, one where he was supped up to be the cover of a Muscle Fitness Magazine and another for the cover of Esquire magazine. There seem to be a lot of denotations and connotations in both. Using a cover picture makes sense because that's a photo that is always going to be well thought out and targeted to the type of person buying the article. Schwarzenegger was a good choice as a subject since he has this dual life of a politician and bodybuilder/actor. Amazingly he seemed to be able to keep both images going for a while. I looked at other cover magazines and it turns out he was on the cover for Esquire more than once. Among his other covers was one from July/August of 1993 where a separate story on the cover reads "Women Who Cheat". I wonder if they'd put that story next to his picture today?
We learned how angle can change the meaning of a photograph. Looking down on something makes it look less powerful and looking up at it makes it look more powerful. Sort lighting is gentle and harsh light is good for sports. A photograph close up is more personal.
This image really caught my attention. It is of "Erma Coover dressed in the OWAC uniform". Initially it caught my attention because it was old and it was a pretty woman in a WWII uniform. Then I noticed that the angle was little different. Even though she has a very unassuming expression on her face, the photo is taken from an upward angle and a little from the side.
We also looked at a funny State Farm commercial where a jealous wife finds her husband talking to someone from State Farm at 3:00 A.M. in the morning. It's amazing how much is going on in this short ad. You know that nothing is there by accident. By the time we are done analyzing it I realized I had taken in a lot from the ad even before I had consciously taken it all in. So you didn't need to hear every word or see everything, they managed to work in humor and repetition. I think they did a better job with that than they did with the product placement ads I've seen. I'm guessing at this point they are much more skilled at working ideas naturally into an ad rather than in a movie or TV show.
I think some things work easily in to TV and movies like cars and phones. I'm wondering how they are going to work in tampons and hemorrhoid creams. There are also lots of ads for medications that would seem hard to work into shows. I'm guessing there are a lot of companies busy figuring out how to advertise these kinds of products.
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