A schema theory

Schema is a mental structure to help us understand how things work.  The term schema was first introduced in 1923 by developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development that utilised schema as one of its key components.

 

Piaget defined schemas as basic units of knowledge that related to all aspects of the world. He said that different schemas are mentally applied in appropriate situations to help people both comprehend and interpret information.

 

To Piaget, cognitive development hinges on (to depend on something completely) an individual acquiring more schemas and increasing the nuance and complexity of existing schemas.

The concept of schema was later described by psychologist Frederic Bartlett in 1932.  Bartlett conducted experiments that tested how schemas factored into people’s memory of events.

He suggested that schemas help people process and remember information. So when an individual is confronted with information that fits their existing schema, they will interpret it based on that cognitive framework. However, information that doesn’t fit into an existing schema will be forgotten.

 A schema is always connected to other schemas in a web of associations Although schemas can vary in their accessibility, they are long-term, relatively permanent structures that are capable of being searched, retrieved, and stored again.

Types of Schemas

There are many kinds of schemas that assist us in understanding the world around us, the people we interact with, and even ourselves.

 Types of schemas include:

• Object schemas, which help us understand and interpret inanimate objects, including what different objects are and how they work. For example, we have a schema for what a phone is and how to use it. Our computer schema may also include subcategories like editing, gaming, and working with computer.
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• Person schemas, which are created to help us understand specific people. It help us such a way that how the way an individual looks, the way they act, what they like and don’t like, and their personality traits.
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• Social schemas, which help us understand how to behave in different social situations. For example, Social schemas relate to social situations and relationships, and they shape our understanding of how individuals interact with one another. For example,the schema for "friendship" could include expectations for how friends treat one another, such as being supportive and trustworthy. 
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• Event schemas,  which include the sequence of actions and behaviors one expects during a given event. For example, when an individual enter into class room,  they can wear an identity card, on time attend the lecture selecting a seat, silencing their mobile phone, observing  the class carefully, and taking notes.
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• Self-schemas, which help us understand ourselves. You can focus on what you know , who are you and what is your history and future,
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• Role schemas, which incorporate our expectations of how a person in a specific social role will behave. For example, we expect a professor to be intellectual, commanding and clam. While not all professors will act that way, our schema sets our expectations of each professor we interact with.

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Functions Of Schemas

Schemas can help us efficiently learn and understand new information, 

With regard to media effects, schemas have three main functions 

First, they facilitate the processing of information because they enable individuals to organize and retrieve information in a structured manner.   Schemas lend a sense of order to our understanding of the world. 

  Second, schemas determine which bits of information are perceived and processed by individuals. Schemas structure the way in which we perceive the world: when a message is matched against a schema, elements of the message are ordered in a manner that reflects the structure of the schema. Ex. Women issues

 Third and last, schemas help individuals to fill in the gaps when information is incomplete. Individuals are likely to go beyond the information that is presented in the media because they draw inferences that are congruent ( having the same size and shape ) with their pre-existing schemas.

 According to schema theory, people are cognitive misers because they strive to process the incoming information economically. 

Therefore, people do not attend to all the information they are exposed to. When confronted with new, incoming information, people draw on their existing schemas to understand and to assimilate the message. 

eg Murder of women

When individuals cannot identify a schema to understand the message, either they can attempt to establish a new schema, or the information cannot be integrated. 

In fact, schema theory posits that schema-irrelevant information tends to be ignored, and will therefore not be memorized.

  A Schema Theory Perspective On Media Effects

The most extensive application of schema theory in communication research concerns news reception and news effects. 

 As Graber (1984) observed, people would not be able to tame the information tide without their schemas. 

Schema theory helps to explain how people represent the public agenda, learn from the news, resist media information, and change their existing attitudes.

Schemas And Agenda Setting

From a schema theory perspective, issues can be understood as individual schemas. These schemas are stored in long-term memory; they can be retrieved and made salient by media coverage.

Agenda-setting- Schema

Agenda setting and framing studies show that news media influence how people develop schema and place priorities on issues.  An agenda-setting effect can be described as an interaction between individual schemas and the amount of media coverage.

According to schema theory, this effect depends on two crucial features.

1. First, the more frequently a schema is activated, the higher is its accessibility and the more likely are agenda-setting effects.

2Second, however, the amount of schema activation depends on the fit between the issue schema and the individual schema. 

Schema learning: 

Rumelhart (1980) suggests three broad processes of schema learning:  accretion, tuning, and restructuring.

Accretion refers to the accumulation of new information into an existing schema, following the schematic structure that is already present. This kind of learning allows the acquisition of large amounts of specific knowledge about a given topic. With regard to media effects, the process of accretion explains why prior knowledge is associated with greater learning.

Tuning of an existing schema 

 Tuning involves the gradual modification of a schema. This can occur by continuously upgrading it in the direction of the current experience, for instance by adding a new slot to the schema or by generalizing a schema to other situations 

Cognitive restructuring is a technique that has been successfully used to help people change the way they think. When used for stress management, the goal is to replace stress-producing thoughts 

 

SchemaResistance To Change

Information from the media becomes subject to a schematic filtering. Rarely do individuals process the new information in a neutral and unbiased manner.  Individuals mainly extract personally relevant information that suits their personal schemas. News of Tax, Tax for media equipment. 

Resistance to schema - three other major factors

1.     the level of initial schema development, 

  This idea corresponds to persuasion theory, which suggests that more knowledgeable people are more difficult to persuade .For example, it is more difficult to change an expert’s schema than a novice’s.

2.     the ambiguity or consonance of the incoming information, The ambiguity of the incoming information also impacts the resistance to schema change. 

3.     the frequency of the inconsistent information. The simple frequency of inconsistent information is a crucial predictor of schema change.

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Gestalt theory

Gestalt theory is based on Gestalt’s guiding principles, a set of laws arising from the work of early 20th-century German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler.

 

Gestalt theory is based on the idea that the human brain will attempt to simplify and organize complex images or designs that consist of many elements by subconsciously arranging the parts into an organized system that creates a whole, rather than just a series of disparate elements.

 

The law of proximity suggests that the brain groups elements that are close together, and separates them from those that are farther apart. 

 The law of similarity speculates that the brain looks for differences and similarities in an image, and links the similar elements.

The law of continuity posits that the human eye will follow the smoothest path when viewing lines, regardless of how the lines were actually drawn.

 

The principle of closure posits that the brain, preferring complete shapes, fills in the missing parts of a design or image to create a whole,

 

As in the closure principle, the figure/ground principle takes advantage of the way the brain processes negative space.

The law of common fate observes that when objects point in the same direction, we see them as a related group.

 

The law of symmetry, or prägnanz, the German word for “good figure” posits that the brain perceives ambiguous shapes in the simplest way possible.

For example, a monochrome version of the Olympic logo is seen as a series of overlapping circles rather than a collection of curved lines.

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Cinematography

Cinematography is the act of capturing photographic images in space through the use of a number of controllable elements.  

These include 

1.    the quality of the film stock, 

2.    the manipulation of the camera lens, 

3.    framing, scale  

4.    Camera  movement

5.    duration, or the length of the shot, 

 Cinematography is a function of the relationship between the camera lens and a light source, the focal length of the lens, the camera’s position and its capacity for motion.

 

Depth of field is the measure that can be applied to the area in focus within the frame. Depth of field (DOF) is the term used to describe the size of the area in our image where objects appear acceptably sharp. The area in question is known as the field, and the size (in z-space) of that area is the depth of that field.

The center most point of the field is known as the point of focus. The imaginary two-dimensional plane that extends from that point is known as the plane of focus. And any part of your image that falls directly on this plane is officially in focus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-N_7QXA6xE&t=12s

 

Types of Cameras Shot Focus

 

1.    Deep Focus  

2.     Shallow Focus

3.     Rack Focus / Focus Pull

4.     Tilt-Shift

5.     Soft Focus

6.     Split Diopter

Deep focus, which requires a small aperture and lots of light, means that the foreground, middle ground and background of the frame remain in focus.  In a deep focus shot, everything in yur frame is in focus. 

Deep focus cinematography is a kind of camera angle that allows the Cinematographer to keep everything in perspective without favoring foreground, mid-ground, or background.  Everything is lit and visible.

 

·       A film utilizes deep space, when significant elements of an image are positioned both near to and distant from the camera.

·       A deep space film shot utilizes deep space when the subjects of an image are positioned both close to and far away from the camera.

·       Deep space shots do not have to be in focus, but they do have to show the breadth of scale.

·       So wide shots are often used to promote deep space shots.

Shallow focus is a function of a narrow depth of field and it implies that only one place of the frame will remain sharp and clear . It is typically a feature of the close-up. In shallow focus shots, our subject is in crisp focus while the foreground and background scenery are out of focus. This limits your depth of field to create emphasis on your subject.

In contemporary cinema, shallow focus is often combined with deep space for artistic purposes or to demonstrate subjectivity.  

Soft focus is perfect when filming a dream or memory — the glow around everything is both wistful and slightly unreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqOKm3Z9zX0

 rack focus

A rack focus is the filmmaking technique of changing the focus of the lens during a continuous shot. When a shot “racks,” it moves the focal plane from one object in the frame to another. Also known as a "focus pull" or "pulling focus," the technique can include small or large changes of focus.

The shallower the depth of the field, the more noticeable the transition between focal planes. 

Filmmakers can change the focus of the lens to a subject in the background from the foreground or vice vera. This can be used to shift the audience’s attention or to point out a significant relationship between the two subjects.

 

Frame RATE

A frame rate refers to the number of individual frames or images that are displayed per second of film. The standard rate for a film is 24 frames per second. If more frames are added to this second the film will seem to slow down. The film will speed up if there are less than 24 frames per second.

 The higher the frame rate, the more film or digital storage space for video you’ll use up.

Here’s a breakdown of how different frame rates can be used:

·         1 frame per minute: time-lapse photography and stop-motion animation.

·         18 frames per second: Early motion picture films.

·         24 frames per second: Worldwide standard for movie theater film projectors.

·         300+ frames per second: high-speed cameras for very slow-motion photography (used for miniatures to make models seem larger on screen).

·         2500+ frames per second: very high-speed camera for special effects such a pyrotechnics and explosions.

 

 

ANGLE OF FRAMING

When filming from below or above the subject of the frame, it is known as a low or high angle. Filming from different angles is a way to show the relationship between the camera’s point of view and the subject of the frame.

LEVEL OF FRAMING

This refers to the height at which the camera is positioned in a given shot. Different camera heights are often used to display or exaggerate differences in points of view.  The low level position of the camera creates suspense by suggesting the perspective of an unsuspecting character on the ground.

 

THE VIEWER'S POINT OF ATTENTION

POINT OF VIEW SHOT

A point of view shot places the camera where the viewer would imagine a character’s gaze to be. This is a technique of continuity editing, because it allows us to see what the character sees without being obtrusive(mistake).

 

Point of view is the perspective from which that story is told. Point of view and perspective are not just important considerations in telling stories, point of view are necessary.

Camera  MOVEMENT

A camera movement refers to the way a camera shifts to visually narrate and shape a viewer’s perspective of a scene. In the world of film and video, there are several basic and advanced camera movements that can help enhance our story.  To make for a professional-quality final product need an effective and well-placed camera movements 

 

Length of SCENE 

 Some directors want length movement and some directors don't want any movement! The writer must find the exact length that allows him to share his passionate message, while entertaining the audience. That perfect balance, which is only achieved by less than 10% of the screenplays I read annually, makes the difference between a great film worth watching numerous times and a common film.

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/types-of-camera-shots-angles-in-film/

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