Shot Scale, Psychical Distance and Perception of Trauma: A Visual Narrative Study on Einstein and Einstein

Abstract

The existing literature on the film Einstein and Einstein has focused mostly on image signification, construction of subjectivity, and social criticism but has not often considered the inner workings of the regulation of the psychical distance between audience and the protagonist through the use of shot-scale scheduling. This paper will use Edward Bulloughs theory of psychical distance together with theories of audiovisual communication as its analytical frame of reference to examine how shot scale participates in trauma narrative through visual logic. The combination of intensive reading of the text and quantitative assessment of the shot scales helps to classify and arrange the examples of the lenses used in the main plots of the film and analyze the narrative roles played by each shot scale and the dynamic regulatory patterns of combined shot scales. It reveals that various shot scales have different effects on emotional and cognitive distances respectively: medium shots create the image of family discipline as part of daily life; extreme close-ups symbolize trauma in objects; handheld long takes are tools of immersive emotive experience. Shot scale arrangements are progressive, variational or macro-level, dynamically changing the level of psychical engagement of the audience in tandem with the trajectory of the protagonist between resistance and compromise; the arrangement of shots itself is a visual manifestation of the discipline of adolescent subjectivity. This paper extends the direction of micro-visual analysis of Einstein and Einstein, and provides an analytical method that can be mutually substantiated in terms of form and theme to research on the language of the lens in youth-growth films.