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The reality of illusion : an ecological approach to cognitive film theory

Author: Joseph Anderson
Publisher: Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, ©1996.
Edition/Format:   Book : State or province government publication : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Anderson's primary argument is that motion picture viewers mentally process the projected images and sounds of a movie according to the same perceptual rules used in response to visual and aural stimuli in the world outside the theater. To process everyday events in the world, the human mind is equipped with capacities developed through millions of years of evolution. In this context, Anderson builds a metatheory
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Anderson, Joseph, 1940-
Reality of illusion.
Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, c1996
(OCoLC)605089188
Material Type: Government publication, State or province government publication
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Joseph Anderson
ISBN: 0809320002 9780809320004
OCLC Number: 31783269
Description: xiv, 200 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Contents: Introduction --
Toward an ecology of cinema. An evolutionary perspective ; The visual system ; The auditory system ; Illusion and computation --
Capacities and strategies. Capacities ; Resolution of ambiguity ; Categorization ; Summary --
Some problems reconsidered. Flicker and motion perception ; Motion and form ; Depth ; Color --
Sound and image. Synchrony ; Sound effects ; Music ; Summary --
Continuity. Shot-to-shot transitions ; Orientational relationships ; Hierarchical spatial comprehension --
Diegesis. Visual orientation ; The capacity to play ; Play as cognitive practice ; The desire to play ; The capacity fo frame ; Summary --
Character. Recognition ; Attribution ; Identification --
Narrative. Origins of narrative ; Personalizing information ; The organization of a story ; The teller of a the story ; What one takes away ; Summary --
Conclusion.
Responsibility: Joseph D. Anderson.
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Abstract:

Anderson's primary argument is that motion picture viewers mentally process the projected images and sounds of a movie according to the same perceptual rules used in response to visual and aural stimuli in the world outside the theater. To process everyday events in the world, the human mind is equipped with capacities developed through millions of years of evolution. In this context, Anderson builds a metatheory influenced by the writings of J. J. and Eleanor Gibson and employs it to explore motion picture comprehension as a subset of general human comprehension and perception, focusing his ecological approach to film on the analysis of cinema's true substance: illusion.

Anderson investigates how viewers, with their mental capacities designed for survival, respond to particular aspects of filmic structure - continuity, diegesis, character development, and narrative - and examines the ways in which rules of visual and aural processing are recognized and exploited by filmmakers. He uses Orson Welles's Citizen Kane to disassemble and redefine the contemporary concept of character identification; he addresses continuity in a shot-by-shot analysis of images from Casablanca; and he uses a wide range of research studies, such as Harry F. Harlow's work with infant rhesus monkeys, to describe how motion pictures become a substitute or surrogate reality for an audience. By examining the human capacity for play and the inherent potential for illusion, Anderson considers the reasons viewers find movies so enthralling, so emotionally powerful, and so remarkably real.

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