"Our culture conceives of each medium or constellation of media as it responds to, redeploys, competes with, and reforms other media... No medium, it seems, can now function independently and establish its own separate and purified space of cultural meaning.”- Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin
For my posting last week, I set out to examine a practice of
my own (sharing a photo of my cat) in the terms of Bolter and Grusin’s concept
of remediation. I thought this might help me better understand the ideas of
immediacy and hypermediacy, as well as giving the theory a practical,
“hands-on” aspect. However, as I should have figured, part of our in-class
discussion this week was seeking to examine three popular types of contemporary
media – a video game, a social networking site and a movie – using the same
terms, which worked to broaden my appreciation of how these concepts can be
applied to all media.
Mostafa and I choose to discuss Star Wars: The Old Republic, Tumblr/Pinterest and Silent House.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
(SWTOR)
Released in the winter of 2011, SWTOR is a massively multi-player online role-playing game
(MMORPG), which means it operates by providing an extensive online world in
which real players level, quest and interact with one another through the means
of avatars. Set thousands of years before the “Original Trilogy” of movies, it
nevertheless takes influence from and expands on the immense and singular
universe that is Star Wars.
Because SWTOR has
many of the same basic functions and characteristics that many other
macrocosmic MMORPGs have – such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) and,
to some extent, Guild Wars – the
remediation of any MMORPG can be argued to have come about by adapting traditional,
single-player computer games, sci-fi and fantasy novels, board games (as many
MMORPGs use gameplay mechanisms from Dungeons
and Dragons), and film.
Bolton and Grusin note that
“graphic, role-playing computer games” often “seek the real, sometimes through
transparency and sometimes through hypermediacy” (94). For the most part, it
seems that the experience of playing is extremely hypermediated. The game’s
standard interface (that is, without any add-ons) contain buttons on toolbars
for a wide range of utilities, including attacking abilities, passive
abilities, a chat log, health and magic/ammo bars, mounts for travel, a map,
coordinates for a precise location, a clock, party members’ portraits and
health bars, etc., etc. Additionally, the social aspects of the game are
potentially disruptive, as the mere presence of the chat log (showing area-wide
alerts and private messages between particular players or groups) often is
enough to remind the player that they are interacting with real people, rather
than with Jedis or aliens, as the fictional counterparts probably would not
cyber-bully, troll, quote song lyrics, or making Chuck Norris jokes.
Furthermore, it can become problematic to the gameplay experience if the player
is not using a computer that is built to handle the games’ depth and details,
and so it is often the case that lower quality computers cause low resolutions,
poor graphic qualities, and bothersome instances of lag and low frame-rates,
which can be enough to make a player become so frustrated that they log off. I
would argue that these elements are especially important in considering the
possibility of immediacy in the game, for if something is enough to make the
user turn off the game, it probably does not lend itself well to creating an
interactive or concentrated experience.
While the hypermediacy is easy enough to spot in such games
as SWTOR, there are some aspects of
immediacy that take some time to uncover and examine. One surface element that
is easy to spot is the incredible use of detailed cut-scenes that look
shot-for-shot out of an action movie. These filmic moments of the game probably
are not enough to make the experience completely
immediate, but there is the sense that the player is following along with a
narrative, much like they would do if they were reading a book or watching a
film. But MMORPGs like SWTOR build
upon the narratives by adding the dimension of a fully-realized, profound level
of interactivity that pushes the player into shaping the world itself. The
various classes that players can choose in SWTOR
all have individual storylines unique to their class packed of impactful
decisions – decisions that can go as far as to alter the course of gameplay.
Because the game resides in the Star Wars
universe, there is, of course, a light side and a dark side. Each player is
confronted with decisions that affect their light side/dark side standing,
which means that each player chooses for themselves if they are going to be
“good” or “bad”, or perhaps something in the middle. This technically means a
player could play a “bad” Jedi or “good” Sith – character types that might be
out of place with what players would normally assume them to be. For a
generation raised on the mythic aspects of the movies and the great battle
between good and bad, light and dark, this level of freedom within the game
allows each individual to decide their character’s personality, habits, fighting
style – and morality. This aspect of SWTOR is a great example of what Bolton and Grusin sees as games that attempt “to move
from hypermediacy to immediacy” (99). By forcing players to get involved and
giving them choices that affect their characters’ “lives”, it makes the reader
central to the narrative. Furthermore, the simple nature of the ever-expanding
game means that it is technically “unbeatable” and thus takes on an element of
constant growth and expansion that means the game will never truly “end”. Many
MMOs operate in this way, releasing updates, new characters or classes, and
extended gameplay in order to keep players invested and involved in the brand,
and it seems likely that SWTOR will
follow in this direction.
Tumblr/Pinterest
While it seems that most of our classmates choose to analyze
prominent social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, we wanted to look
at something that had more of a personal relevance to us, as well as examine a
site that people may not readily describe as “social networking”. In this frame
of mind, in class we discussed Tumblr, a blogging platform that “lets [users]
effortlessly share anything… text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos”
(Tumblr 1). While I am familiar enough with how Tumblr operates, I do not
use the platform myself. Instead, I have an account with Pinterest, which is
described as a “virtual pinboard… [allowing users to] organize and share all
the beautiful things you find on the web” (Pinterest 1). However, the
descriptions from each platform’s main website seem to suggest the same thing –
they provide a space for users to collect instances of various media (sites,
film, photographs, etc.), share those interests and network with others. It
seems that the main difference between the two is how the collected media is
presented – Tumblr has a top-to-bottom approach, showcasing one medium after
another in a subsequent order in blog-like entries, while Pinterest organizes
the various pieces in Boards, which adds an aspect of organization and
categorization.
 |
| My homepage on Pinterest. |
 |
| Rosie's A Nice Little Tumblr Tumblr. |
In general, both of these sites work by collecting other
forms of media and collapsing their dimensionality into the form of an
easy-to-navigate online space. For example, a user can post or pin a photograph
of a sculpture at a museum, a link to the museum’s website and a film clip
interviewing the artist all within seconds of one another and all with a flat dimensionality
on a web page. This experience is almost entirely hypermediated since it is
nearly impossible to ignore the features of the website in general, such as the
side-bar to scroll down, the mouse cursor, the layout of the sites themselves,
etc. Additionally, because the media (the photograph, the movie clip, etc.)
often take the form of visual hyperlinks in that they provide the user with
direct access to the source material (another website, a news article, even
another Tumblr/Pinterest user’s account), the whole experience moves beyond the
simple act of scrolling through various snapshots of media to a more
interactive, hyperlinked action. A small hint of immediacy could be argued that
much like the Facebook Wall feed or a Twitter feed, posts or pins are updated
in real-time, providing a good indication of where users’ interest lie and what
sort of media is actively trending.
Silent House
I will first admit that I myself have never seen the film in
question, although I knew enough about its basic plotline and structure to
discuss it here (Mostafa has seen it). Silent
House is a 2011 horror-thriller film staring Elizabeth Olsen. I clearly
remember the marketing for the film when it came out, showcasing not only the
shrieking actress and heart-pounding moments of suspense, but also the fact
that the movie is eighty-eight minutes long and shot to look like it is one
continuous shot. This style is not completely unique or new to this specific
film as there are some films that have done this film style already – Hitchcock’s
Rope comes most immediately to mind –
but we wanted to look at an example that more of our classmates might be
readily familiar with.
Silent House seems
to step out of the standard “Hollywood” style of
film and into something that more closely resembles a documentary or home-shot
movie. This remediation brings a great sense of immediacy to the film. The
seamlessness of having one continuous shot from the point of view of the main
character creates a semblance of real life, as if what was happening on the
screen was happening in real time. There are no cut-away shots, no transitions.
Therefore, as the camera moves through the action following the character’s
movement, it can seem to the viewer that they are there with her, following
right behind or alongside her, seeing what she sees. In effect, this is a
stylistic or filmic representation of what we might consider a first-person
narration style, which limits what a viewer can see or know. In turn, this film
style works to invoke a sense of fear in the viewer, as they are forced to move
along with the action as it happens on the screen without much “down-time” or
pauses.
This is the trailer for the original film, released in 2010;
they also made a point of hyping the “real time, real life” aspect of the
continuous shot:
Furthermore, in both films’ trailers, it is clear that the
camera style and ambiance also contribute to the heighten sense of fear and
immediacy. The “shaky” style of the camera work suggest that there is somebody
there, holding a small camera, running along side the characters instead of
being operated on a crane. The lighting is “realistic” in that instead of being
shot with a traditional three-point lighting system, the only light seems to
come from “real-world objects” such as a flashlight, lantern, outside
moonlight, etc. (expertvillage 1). Additionally, the view might note that in both trailers, the
sound effects of a Polaroid camera taking a photo and printing it out provide
another hint of immediacy by suggesting that the film is capturing what is
happening “now”. In fact, other than the obvious nature of it being a horror
film with its reliance on certain tropes, we found that there was more about
the film that made it immediate, rather than hypermediated.
In conclusion, by examining the three different types of
media by breaking down our analysis into the component parts of how they
operated under the concepts of remediation, it seems that each of our examples
were constituted of aspects that made them both immediate and hypermediated. I
would argue that this is because each of the three categories (video game,
social networking, movie) were arguably very “new” media; that is, on the
whole, they are more recent
developments in media as opposed to paintings or photographs. In this vein, I
found it telling that the vast majority of my classmates’ examples were all
very recent developments, say, within the past few decades. It appears that the
bulk of mainstream, “new media” are much more complex and multi-dimensional
that simple, linear-perspective paintings or photographs have, which results in
there being more facets to discuss and analyze.
-------
Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000. Print.
Ellekaay. Pinterest. Web. 9 September 2012. <http://pinterest.com/ellekaay/>
expertvillage. “Video Production Basics: How to Use
Three-Point Lighting.” YouTube.com. 29 October 2009. expertvillage. Web. 9
September 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkfv78919ek>
“Pinsanity!” YouTube.com. 9
May 2012. Comediva. Web. 9 September 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7m9BdeP0cc>
Pinterest. Web.
9 September 2012.
Rosie. A Nice Little Tumblr. Web. 9 September 2012. <http://anicelittle.tumblr.com/>
Silent House.
Dir. Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. Perf. Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric
Sheffer Stevens. LD Entertainment, 2011. Film.
“Silent House – Official Trailer
HD (20120).” YouTube.com. 6 March 2012. megatrailer. Web. 9 September 2012.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2v6MJgM7cA&feature=related>
“The Silent House (Teaser
trailer HD English).” YouTube.com. 25 January 2010. Tokiofilms. Web. 9
September 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM2uf2AF_6Y>
“Star Wars: The Old Republic
– ‘Hope’ Cinematic Trailer.” YouTube.com. 15 June 2010. EA. Web. 9 September
2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ToztqqDcaY>
Star Wars: The Old Republic. Redwood
City: Electronic Arts, 2011.
“SWTOR Gameplay Tips: Light Side vs Dark Side – Alignment Choices
and Consequences.” YouTube.com. 5 January 2012. Draeden5. Web. 9 September
2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cslgcMP59pY>
Tumblr. Tumblr,
Inc., 2007. Web. 9 September 2012.
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