Vol 3, No 2 (2011)

The multimedia and multi-platform character of the modern media market as an attribute of contemporary reality has been expanding considerably the informative potential of the society in using various hardware based on audiovisual technologies. This, however, does not eliminate a number of contradictions in the sphere of humanitarian practices formed by mass media. The article explores the relationship between technological innovations and value systems in the context of the screen content which is growing at an exponential rate, and traces the dependence of humanitarian categories on social needs.

Objects vary in their ability to generate meanings. In this respect, mirrors are a unique phenomenon. The article covers some approaches to the problem of the mirror and reflectivity existing in modern science.

The article analyses the image system of Giotto di Bondone, its role in the forming of the Renaissance representative tradition. By building up "architectural cubes", creating a spatial pause, intra-figure relationships, human events in the intra-image interplay (image-event), intimacy, an unbalanced and broken perspective, as well as reproducing the same facial type Giotto unconsciously formulates the idea of individuality in the plastic form and new pictorial strategy.

The article investigates Georges Polti's dramatic situations which serve as the basis for making conclusions about the American pre-war cinema. By means of frequency analysis of 50 American top-grossing films of the 1930s the author explores the mythology and conventions of pre-war America. Dramatic Situation 12 "Obtaining" is reflected in the "American Cinderella" myth which is, however, a false mirror of the popular story.

Cinema is a synthetic art form which has accumulated the experience of theatre, literature, music and fine arts. The article investigates the influence of painting on cinema in terms of filling the screen space and artistic assimilation of the linear, spatial and tonal perspective, light and color treatment.

The article is devoted to the parable as a movie genre, its origins and reasons why many 20th century film directors from different national schools have turned to it. The author also gives the philosophic and aesthetical basis of this genre and its role in the evolution of cinematic thought.

The article examines some issues connected with the impact of the interior institutional, cultural and communicative matrices on the functioning of Russian media and television in particular, as the most popular and influential resource of public communication. The author reveals the link between institutional matrices, defining the life of the society in general, communicative matrices, regulating social communication, and media matrices setting the limits of professional activity in the sphere of television.

In the 1990-2000s there was an attempt to support making films for television. At that time television gave the filmmakers a chance to display their skills more often than feature film production. In fact, TV serials made it possible to preserve the traditions of the national approach to presenting historic material on the screen.