Poststructuralism vs Uncertainty???

The performative function of every element of a scene could be broken down into locution, illocution, and perlocution and analyzed through the performative formula (i.e. every line of text, piece of wardrobe, set element, camera angle, character’s form, the lighting, and so on). At this point I think it would be most productive to look at each scene, and analyze the components as necessary. 

Poststructural slippage between signifier and signified pokes holes in the concept of 

Once again I am butting heads with Poststructuralism...
I think there might be an analytical in Heisenberg...

When physicists ran into a dual meaning problem, they didn't abandon structure, attempts at reductivity, and attempts at objectivity; they mapped the likelihood of the variable.
In the end everything is uncertain; Decartes, the quantum level, and semantics. Science is driven by imperfect people, and it's successes are judged by imperfect people, but that is not a reason to abandon efforts toward progress.

New Terminology
Metafunctions are systemic clusters; that is, they are groups of semantic systems that make meanings of a related kind. The three metafunctions are mapped onto the structure of the clause. For this reason, systemic linguists analyse a clause from three perspectives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafunction


P.S. The shot at the end of the Ted Talk is an interesting example of one of the Transforming Dramatic Performative Formulas I am working on. In this case, there is no narrative, so it it doesn't serve to align the audience with a protagonist. I am not sure what to make of it...

mise-en-scène vs games, books, and movies with no creative communication

Not sure how this works into everything, but not all games, books, or movies are narrative. Some are instructive or serve absolutely no communicative function (tic-tac-toe, this might be a communication between 2 players, i. e."i am smarter than you", but there is no creative communication).

The above interactive animation goes against the mise-en-scène philosophy of cinematography; every shot should give the audience new information, the media should support the narration (Barsam 124). Theories on the meaning of an element are present in philosophies of game creation (Salen and Zimmerman 41), and interactive media often includes constructive elements that serve no narrative function. The blinking "?" prize boxes in Super Mario Brothers do not tell you anything about the narrative, but assist in the progression through the game and the rules, which function operationally, constituatively, and implicitly to guide the progression (Salen and Zimmerman 130), do not always communicate a story.

Umberto Eco

This guy is a big deal in semiotics and literature...
Analyzed interpretative semiotics and wrote The Name of the Rose

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco#Semiotics

Motion Builder and Non-Anthropomorphic Characters

I have been trying to use Motion Builder to animate the goose, but things have not gone well. The motion capture does not match, or look as goose-like when applied to the character, so I thought I would just use the story and foot stabilization features to mix the walk cycles I already have. Unfortunately, it will not "Characterize" a skeleton if it does not have shoulders and arms, and the character must be in the T-pose when it is "Characterized", so I can't really use the walk cycle I have.

I tried adding the shoulders and arms and returning the character to a t-pose as a "duck-tape" (pun intended) solution, but when I imported the walk cycle as another asset the character broke (the neck went in a crazy z shape that I could not fix).

At this point, I think it would be easier to use Maya for the next shot.

Tracing My Steps

I am going through Austin's book trying to retrace exactly where and how I started to abstract his formula intended to clarify distinguish act that performative a change from acts that describe the environment...


A performative act changes the environment, but it is grammatically identical to a constative, which describes the environment.
Austin's Example:

“‘It is yours' may be taken as equivalent to either 'I give it you' or 'it (already) belongs to you'.” (Austin 62)

In the interest of clarity, Austin offers the performative formula:

“Thus what we should feel tempted to say is that any utterance which is in fact a performative should be reducible, or expandable, or analyzable into a form with a verb in the first person singular present indicative active (grammatical). This is the sort of test we were in fact using above (performative formula).” (Austin 61-62) Thus: “Guilty' is equivalent to 'I find, pronounce, deem you to be guilty.” (Austin 62)

He goes on to describe "felicities" and "infelicities" (scenarios when the act fails due to poor reception, misrepresentation, and so on). Ronald Grimes used this as the foundation for his work on ritual critique.

I started looking at narrative work as a performative statement, enacting a psychological change in the audience. I thought the transformative properties of the performative formula might be used as a bridge between the two mediums. Through my analysis of the locution, illocution, and perlocution of my work, I realized one of my scenes was already doing this.

Literary Examples of the Dramatic Performative Function

Poetry as a Performative Formula through Metric Substitution
 

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

-Shakespeare's Sonnet 29

“Like to the lark at break of day arising”

/- -/ -/ -/ -/-

Logical Form - I believe all poetry is a performative formula (i.e. a descriptive statement changed to an active literary device by the primitives rhyme, meter, and intonation).

Locution - The poet analogizes his feelings with a bird flying at dawn in a meter that breaks from the rhythm

Illocution - The poet feels like a bird at dawn when he thinks of the subject of the poem.

Perlocution - The image of a bird taking flight at dawn is evoked through direct reference, rhythm, and intonation, contrasted with the dark imagery and repetitive iambic tetrameter, aligning the reader's experience with that of the poet thinking of the subject.

Primitive – Variation in metric verse "can serve as an extra expressive resource, shaping a lines rhythm so that it will support the conceptual content of that line" (Corn 39). The substitution of a trochee (one long or stressed syllable followed by a short or unstressed) for an iamb (short or stressed followed by a long or unstressed) causes a speeding up (Corn 41).

Corn, Alfred. The Poem's Heartbeat: A Manual of Prosody. Port Townsend, Wash: Copper Canyon Press, 2008. Print.

Cinematic Shots that have the Same Perlocution as the Blended Media Transitions I am Describing with Austin's Performative Formula

Through Optical Effect

"Bullet Time" from The Matrix by the Wachowskis and John Gaeta

The protagonist (Neo) dodges bullets in his first display of super human reflexes relayed through an apparently impossible camera move.
Logical Form - This is a performative function.
Illocution - Neo is more powerful than the other characters realized.
Perlocution - This scene generates a sense of awe and alignment of the audience with protagonist's supporting character; both are seeing something they would have said was impossible (in this case the audience is in wonder of how the director made that shot, and Trinity is amazed at how Neo managed to dodge the bullets).
Primitive - disorientation

Dolly-Zoom from Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock and Irmin Roberts

Logical Form - This is a performative function.

Illocution - The protagonist is afraid of heights, and a long way from the ground.

Perlocution - The audience experiences a disorientation parallel with the protagonist's vertigo, aligning them with the protagonist.

Primitive - disorientation

• more on the dolly-zoom by a fairly well known editor (also mentions when one should use it)

Through Break with Cinematic Convention

Crossing the Line of Action from Paprika by Satoshi Kon

Satoshi Kon crosses the line of action (orients the camera on the opposite side of the axis connecting the characters (Levin 43)) at a moment in a dream sequence when the deuteragonist realizes something is wrong.

Logical Form - This is a performative function.

Illocution - There is something disturbing and wrong with the world the protagonist is in.

Perlocution - The audience is confused and frequently unsure if the events onscreen are a dream or reality in parallel with the deuteragonist.

Primitive - disorientation

• Kon, Satoshi. Interview by Jason Gray. Satoshi Kon. Midnight Eye. Midnight Eye, November 2006. Web. 09 November 2014. <http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/satoshi-kon-2/>
• Levin, Melinda and Watkins, Fred P. Post: The Theory and Technique of Digital Nonlinear Motion Picture Editing. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003. Print.

Through Spatial Orientation

"Paradoxical Floor Plan" from The Shining by Stanley Kubrick

Logical Form - This is a performative function.
Constative - The paradox is only discernible through a combination of shots of the Overlook Hotel. Individually most of them do not conflict and serve superficially inert utilitarian functions. The tricycle shot above shows room 237 switching sides and against a wall that could not have a room, but if you did not notice (and I did not the first time I saw it) the shot is telling the audience that the protagonist is scared of room 237.
Illocution - There is something disturbing and wrong with the world the protagonist is in.
Perlocution - A building psychological tension parallel with the protagonist
Primitive - disorientation

• (The idea of Kubrick's psychological use of a paradoxical floor plan came from Rob Ager's website, and it is refuted by John Aungst here. Though I thought Ager's evidence for Kubrick's deliberate spatial incongruence was compelling, and some of the goemetry is objectively impossible, Aungst's qualifications are much better (Ager has none beyond his site and YouTube fame, and Aungst is a well known screenwriter).

Kinetic Text Dolly Zoom Rough

Working Around Some Glitches

I am having some problems with my renders. The light linking and texture references are changing spontaneously. So I have to look very carefully at each render to make sure everything is right.

I messed up on the model, and I had to paste a generic 3D model's body on to the head, and the result had overlapping UVs, so the hair dynamics I wanted to use does not work. The specular is also off because of the last minute fix.

I decided these were too cluttered, and I spent a lot of time on the door in the background, so I moved things around.

After the move things were easier to discern, but I need color for this effect (the 3D environment needs to compete with the black and white text on page), so I am adding some lights.

I spent a lot of time on the extra bits that are getting covered up. The door has screws, there is chain, and the knife holder has 4 different kinds of knives, but it just woks better with the knives in the holder and the freezer behind the meat. I am going to need to make some better 1/2 cows.

The door even has a light switch, thermometer, and the screws on the hinges and plates are all turned a little different... Oh well.

He looks up, and the dolly zoom starts. It's a pretty short shot (less than 300 frames).