CHANGE OF MEDIA PRESENTATION CHANGE IN MEANING

McLuhan suggests that the change in the medium is to change the meaning. For example, the medium the experience of a novel coming alive on screen is different from the deep interest one gains from reading it. In addition, the director’s interpretation of the novel as a whole can be far from the one the reader has. That is why people aggressively agree that a movie is better than the film in almost every case. Taking a book and putting it on the “big screen” changes the way the viewer gains the information that is being passed along. Whether it is Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness modernized to Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now or his interpretation of The Godfather. The messages are clearly changed. The audience is forced to become a spectator rather than one that interacts with the characters as they set upon their journeys. One can do nothing but watch. When one reads a book, one makes predictions and inferences and can slow the rate of action down or they can slow the plot pacing down to a craw to prepare themselves for what is inevitable. When we view a film, we become victim to the pacing of the director. We have no choice but to go along for the ride. This medium of film grants the power to the film makers rather than the audience.

When reading our imagination melds with the author’s descriptions and we design the landscapes and environments, and when we are subjected to the director’s vision, the mis-en-sign creates the world without any input from the audience. Everything visible on screen has been placed on purpose and is used to craft ideal interpretations controlled by the director. Nothing seems out of place or out of the ordinary. When the reader of novel is forced to construct the ambiance of a scene one begins to take ownership of those surroundings continuing the deep interest. That deep interest is lost when the incorporation of the visual is made. The meaning is constructed by the director in film by carefully planned out manipulation of camera angles, lighting, sound, character movements, etc. The audience becomes a witness to the unfolding of the film rather than an intricate part of it. When doing this the message is transformed by the presentation of the content.