Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

“The mood is in the shot”: the challenge of moving-image texts to multimodality

2014; De Gruyter; Volume: 34; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1515/text-2014-0003

1860-7349

Jennifer Rowsell,

Discourse Analysis in Language Studies

This article reports a longitudinal study of new media and digital technologies producers (Rowsell 2013) looking at their multimodal logic and practices to challenge notions of text and multimodality. Focusing on filmmakers, I build on previous research (Sheridan and Rowsell 2010) to extend traditional notions of print-based texts to more contemporary ways of making meaning with moving-image texts. Working within a multimodal framework (Kress 1997, 2010), I present the logic and practices of two producers. One filmmaker produces documentaries about wide-ranging topics from cricket to Jim Carrey to sex scandals and religion. The other producer creates 3-D animated “texts” for film and television. Both are assiduous about their process and product, both highly competent at editing filmic texts, both intimately acquainted with the art and logic of multimodality. Their production stories and expertise inform the article to challenge perceptions of what modes can do and what they can evoke. Whether it is done through expressions, movements, images, sounds, filmmakers exploit the affordances of modes to emotionalize moving-image texts.