|
|
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 95
journeyman
|
|
journeyman
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 95 |
Maureen Dowd's column in today's NY Times contains this extract:
Mr. Kerry, a Boston Democrat, had thought about announcing in front of a warship, wrote The Boston Globe's Glen Johnson, but felt the need for something bigger, to stage a more chesty confrontation with Mr. Bush. ... So the issue is illusion: can Senator Kerry match President Bush's ability to appropriate an aircraft carrier as a political prop?
Is there a word or phrase to describe the manipulation of background in a camera pose to make a subliminal statement?
Public figures will go to extraordinary lengths to select, and even edit, the scenery in a photo opp. For instance, it has also been reported that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had the naked breast of a female bronze draped for a photo opp recently because he didn't want to be photographed in front of another "boob". I didn't make this up, honest.
Some might argue that Arnold Schwarzenegger's candidacy for Governor of California is the ultimate expression of this cinematic art. "Electaprop"?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Is their a word or phrase to describe the manipulation of background
Setting the stage is all I can think of. Also, I don't recall seeing/hearing the phrase "chesty confrontation" before, either, and I don't think I like it.
Oh--why cynamatic, please?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Blend of cinematic and cynical maybe?
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
cinematic and cynical
Once I figured that out I decided I liked the term but I had to go through cyan to get there.
Of course the ulitmate in cynamatic would be to pose with your cute little puppy dog.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
cyan - a printer's color - a sort of greenish blue!
President Bush's ability to appropriate an aircraft carrier as a political prop?
Arrrgggghhh!© This really got my Irish up! To take the courage, commitment and valor of those sailors and airmen/women and subliminally suggest you have the same. And for the Commander in Chief to ignore the cost in the time of the military and taxpayer's money to tie up an aircraft carrier for heaven's sake for political "spin!"!
And the ship was just off shore (I believe San Diego) and cameras were positioned so that the land didn't show so it looked like the ship was at sea! The President's ride in the helicopter was p'rolly ten minutes!
I repeat Arrrgggghhh!©
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
cinematic and cynicalI'd like to suggest the addition of emetic to the mix: ADJECTIVE: Causing vomiting. NOUN: An agent that causes vomiting. ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin emeticos, from Greek emetikos, from emetos, vomiting, from emein, to vomit. See wem - in Appendix I. http://www.bartleby.com/61/10/E0111000.htmlThus the compounded neologism becomes: cynemeticThe cynical use of film trickery for nauseating political gain.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
cynemetic
The cynical use of film trickery for nauseating political gain.
Well done mav. Too bad this particular disease is so widespread!
I don't like "chesty confrontation" either, especially after the comment about not getting his picture taken in front of another "boob", although it begs the question - who does he usually get his picture taken in front of.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
who does he usually get his picture taken in front of.
W
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
"Chesty confrontation" - one of the martial arts characterised by aggressive coughing. Also known as Thoraxing, the sport's popular but hard to make out logo shows the Norse god of war wielding a battle axe in dense smoke.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Bush looked as if the carrier was about to run him down. Was there a subliminal message inside the sublime message?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 95
journeyman
|
|
journeyman
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 95 |
the sublime message?
It wasn't a "sub".
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
the sublime message?
It wasn't a "sub". Oh, it was a lime message, then? 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
a lime message
Sailors always eat limes. For the scurvy, ya know.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Sub...sailors...! [smacking forehead e] :-)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
> cynemetic
The cynical use of film trickery for nauseating political gain.
I was thinking some more about this recently - it's prolly too artificial to gain wider currency...
A simpler way of expressing this aspect of the 'black arts of spin' is therfore suggested:
Blackground
A cynical manipulation of background imagery
This can function as a verb ("the carrier was blackgrounded behind Bush...") or as a noun ("Blair is a typical sleaze-ball blackgrounder...").
Any takers?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 104
member
|
|
member
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 104 |
Blackground
Not bad, But most manipulation of this sort is more grey than black (your examples excepted).
The old standby "photo opp" probably works as well as anything.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Naah--t quite; I think it carries too much connotation of negativity--that is, that the purpose would be to deliberately make the setting negative in some way, or perhaps to cover up something negative. For me, this word just doesn't cover an effort, albeit false and patently so, to improve an image.
|
|
|
|
|
