"In the beginning, the message was the word..."
Pictured above you have my rendition of film as a McLuhan medium. I merged the look of a traditional Roman amphitheater with that of a modern cinema. The image on the screen is of Egypt's huge political demonstrations.
McLuhan denies electricity as a medium with a message. I believe in my example, electricity does indeed qualify as a medium. In a traditional Roman amphitheater the message was the word, the spoken word of actors and orators. In the modern cinema electricity is the essential medium and its message is to submerge the human mind into the film's topic.
The reason I used an image of Egypt was because if we viewed the riots in a film, we know what the content is. But it is the message that everyone views differently, whatever it may be.
Content vs. Message
The content of film is an extension of man. Man creates and watches film to convey a message. The different between the content and the message is based upon individual response. If a group of people watch James Cameron's Avatar, one person may be captivated by the story and another may be distracted by the advanced CGI graphics and completely ignore the storyline. The content is always meant to convey a message but the message is never concrete because every person percieves this message differently. We're all snowflakes.
McLuhan denies electricity as a medium with a message. I believe in my example, electricity does indeed qualify as a medium. In a traditional Roman amphitheater the message was the word, the spoken word of actors and orators. In the modern cinema electricity is the essential medium and its message is to submerge the human mind into the film's topic.
The reason I used an image of Egypt was because if we viewed the riots in a film, we know what the content is. But it is the message that everyone views differently, whatever it may be.
Content vs. Message
The content of film is an extension of man. Man creates and watches film to convey a message. The different between the content and the message is based upon individual response. If a group of people watch James Cameron's Avatar, one person may be captivated by the story and another may be distracted by the advanced CGI graphics and completely ignore the storyline. The content is always meant to convey a message but the message is never concrete because every person percieves this message differently. We're all snowflakes.
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