Visual Modalization

a Proposal for Moving Image Analysis

Abstract

This work aims to present a possibility for the analysis of moving images observing the exchange of shots of the camera mode as a possible modal activity. As this proposal is an excerpt from our doctoral thesis, the theoretical foundation is composed of studies on the modalization indices of Galinari (2018) and Moura Neves (2011), as well as the theorizations of Hodge and Kress (1988) on modality and Social Semiotics, Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) on grammar of visual design (GDV), and finally Bordwell, Thompson and Smith (2017), and Iedema (2001) about film studies that deal with moving images. As a working method, we adopted the bibliographic research and the case study of an excerpt from the 90th anniversary campaign broadcast by UFMG on youtube in 2017, entitled "90 years of stories". There are nine videos in which we analyze the movement of the camera in order to reflect on the manifestation of the producer's involvement (UFMG) with the stories told by the characters. The results reveal that through the camera the producer projects his subjectivity, his discursive self, through what we call visual modalization. This is composed of modalizing movements of approximation and distancing that mark the producer's affinity and commitment to the characters' utterance by controlling the spectator's access to visual information.