40 2. FIVE STORIES TO A MODEL OF VIDEO STRUCTURE
e approach taken here combines an algorithmic structural analysis of the Bodega Bay
sequence of Hitchcock’s e Birds with the expert analysis of Bellour. Our hope is that a heuristic
will emerge that will lead toward a solution to the problems identied both by lm theorists and
those who wish to analyze moving image documents for the purposes of indexing and retrieval.
2.4.5 BINARY SYSTEMS OF STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
We are using the technical denition posited by Claude Shannon and we state strongly our support
of Warren Weaver’s comment in his introduction to Shannon’s Mathematical eory of Communi-
cation (1949):
e word information, in this theory, is used in a special sense that must not be confused with
its ordinary usage. In particular information must not be confused with meaning. [p. 8] e
concept of information developed in this theory at rst seems disappointing and bizarre—dis-
appointing because it has nothing to do with meaning, and bizarre because it deals not with
a single message but rather with the statistical character of a whole ensemble of messages, bi-
zarre also because in these statistical terms the two words information and uncertainty nd
themselves to be partners.
However, it is the very distinction between information and meaning that provides a theory
base and descriptive toolkit for the description and analysis of lm. For Shannon, information
is the amount of freedom of choice in the construction of a message. is concept was ordinarily
expressed as a logarithmic function of the number of choices. What is important is Shannon’s as-
sertion that the semantic aspects of communication have no relevance to the engineering aspects;
however, the engineering aspects are not necessarily irrelevant to the semantic aspects.
Shannon’s notion of information is a binary system. Message and meaning are separate, but
complementary notions. is system bears a strong resemblance to the distinction between signi-
er and signied in semiotic theory, as well as the separation of topography and function in the
behavior analytic theory of verbal behavior as outlined by Skinner (1957) and Catania, (1998) and
Wittgenstein’s notion of a language game as in Wittgenstein (1953) and Day and Leigland (1992).
Our model for analysis assumes such a binary relationship. e structural analysis was con-
ducted by measuring the changes in color palette across frames in the Bodega Bay sequence of
Hitchcock’s e Birds. e functional analysis comes from Bellour’s analysis of the same sequence
of the lm.
2.4.6 FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS “SYSTEM OF A FRAGMENT” (BELLOUR)
Behavior analysis is an empirical and functional way to examine questions involving human behav-
ior. Skinner (1957) describes the logic of a functional analysis:
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