A Multimodal Contrastive Analysis Of The Interactive Meaning In Chinese And Foreign Animated Short Films

In recent years,with the large number of animations introduced from western countries,people are increasingly aware that animated film is not only an entertainment for children,but an art form for people at different ages to obtain enlightenment.Chinese companies spend a lot to invest the animation industry,hoping to promote it into the world.However,they fail to reach the expected aim.At the age of multimedia,non-verbal mode is usually used to convey meaning.Animated short films are displayed in a multimodal form,including visual mode and audio mode.All the modes are working together to promote the development of plot and express characters' emotions.Through analyzing and comparing the interactive meaning constructed between Chinese and foreign animated short films,audiences will get a better understanding of films,and Chinese animations will obtain a better advancement.The present study aims to analyze and compare the similarities and differences of interactive meaning constructed in animated short films,taking five Chinese excellent original animated short films and five foreign works which won or were nominated by Academy Awards as research data.Quantitative and qualitative research approaches will be adopted.The thesis will first segment all the shots in films and then employ statistical forms to investigate the meaning constructing.Finally,the interrelationship between visual and audio mode will be explored.The major findings include:(1)Chinese animated short films tend to use more demand,close-up and eye-to-eye shots than foreign works to arouse viewers' interest,while western works integrate more shots from high and low angle to make viewers have a better understanding of characters' emotion.Though foreign ASFs employ colder and more monochrome colors than the Chinese counterparts,and give low modality to viewers,they make the best of the symbolic meanings of colors,arouse viewers' interest to the virtual world and provoke their reflections.(2)While both Chinese and foreign animations convey the development of plot and characters' emotions through the change of melodies and the usage of musical instrument,the pitch of Chinese animations is relatively narrow compared to foreign works,and instruments are not abundant like western countries.So the emotions conveyed is weaker in Chinese animations.Furthermore,sounds in the films that won Academy Awards have higher modality,that is,more real than Chinese animated short films.In foreign ASFs,the combination of low modality in color and high modality in sound make them more vivid and attractive.(3)Visual and audio mode in filmic discourse belong only to complementary relationship.The relationship between speech and image,for the most part,is non-reinforced,that is,viewers cannot understand the plot thoroughly if sound or image is omitted;while sound effect,music and image are in reinforced relationship.