Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
scenario/
decoupage
objective reality/
light
camera/
filmstock
sound recording
montage
projector/
film/
light
screen/
projection/
reflection
spectator
Fig. 6.1
Cinema apparatus (Baudry
1986
)
The text in the diagram notes elements of the apparatus: the cinema screen, the
projector, the montage/cutting of the film, the principal production of sound and
film, the screenplay, the photo-emulsion-captured objects in past reality. We could
add many more: the dramatic acting, the framing, the soundtrack and sound looping,
the business machinations which create the theaters and distribute the film
:::
The
solid line draws the path of the cinema information, from staged scene, to framed
shot on film, to the editing room, projector, and cinema screen. The dotted line
draws the spectators' perception of The Film—that of which the spectator is aware;
many of the apparatus elements are repressed in favor of 'suspension of disbelief'
and 'persistence of vision' in the cinema experience. In Baudry's diagram there is
an emphasis on the analogic quality of cinema—the photographic actuality of it: the
viewer feels like they are seeing the actual light reflected by the captured-objects,
not seeing a picture of a car, of a beautiful face, of a camel crossing the dessert,
but seeing a present car, face, camel. This is not an absolute cinema—the viewer is
still conscious of the film-Making, but the dotted line represents the extent to which
these different elements are present in the mind of the spectator. It is a sketch of
