A Comparative Study of Non-Diegetic Elements in Mohsen Rastani and Mary Ellen Mark’s Film Still Photos through the Approach of Rhetorical Codes Analysis

Film still photos play a crucial role in the continuity of the concept of cinematic effect. Film still photos should have the capability to highlight individual parts of the story of movies in a way that attracts the audience. Publicity still photos provide the same functionality as non-cinematic promotional photos taken for a specific purpose, if these photos are outside their original context; they find other meanings and can recreate a new narrative. With this in mind, in film still photography, every shot is synecdoche, where by seeing the photo after the release of the film (post-production stage), we are guided towards the story and the whole of the film. Indeed, this referential feature must be included in every film still photo; otherwise, it will not work. In the 1960s and 1970s, the decline of the economic power of film studios also caused an unprecedented reduction in the budget of the Unit still photographers department. The most famous example of photographers’ work was the presence of nine Magnum photographers on the set of the movie misfits. At that time, their photographs were effective advertisements for the film. Their photographs were the start of an unorthodox path for film photography. Such photographs are independently different from functional photographs prepared from the main narrative and film scenes, which do not possess a unique style or a special interpretive mode. In these examples, the photographers were chosen due to the closeness of their style and works to the style of the filmmakers, and all of them prepared their works in a desired way, not similar to the form and narration of the movies. Another important example in the career of Mary Ellen Mark, a social documentary photographer, is the set of film still photos she took on the set of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film was made in the men’s psychiatric ward of the Oregon State Hospital. During the filmmaking, Mary Ellen Mark also met the female patients of the special ward of the hospital. After the process of film still photos, he returned to document the daily life of female patients and published his collection of photos in ward 81 book. Such a style is not often found in Iranian cinema. The film “Here, a Shining Light” was photographed by Mohsen Rastani, a documentarian and photojournalist who is interested in the style of Richard Avedon. The result of his work has been published in a book of the same name with the title of film, which is a sequel to the collection of photos of “Iranian Family”. In this special model, where the photographer seeks to continue his personal style and process in the form of film still photography, we are typically faced with two collections. In the first step, production and publicity film photos that have the main function of Film still photography, which is to refer to the narrative elements of the film or the content of the film. In the next step, the extension of the photographer’s style by using the space provided by the story of film, which is different and sometimes in conflict with the narrative process of the film. All the Possibilities and Actions that happen on the Screen when the Movie is shown in the Cinema, such as, the Verisimilitude of the Story, the Speech, the Activity of the Characters and all the Actions that are performed simultaneously with the Movie show, are called Diegetic elements. Film Still Photos are in the Category of Diegetic Elements that has references to the Narrative of the Film. A small number of Film Still Photographers with a Different approach take Photos in their own style outside of the Order of Narrative. In this research, the Non-diegetic elements in Mohsen Rastani's Film Still photos from the movie "Here a Shining the Light" and Mary Ellen Mark's Film Still photos from the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" have been analyzed based on Umberto Eco's theory of Rhetorical codes. The main question of the research is, how can the similarities and differences between Mohsen Rastani and Mary Ellen Mark's Film Still photos be explained by Non-Diegetic elements? Recognizing the Non-Diegetic elements and the style of the photographer in Mohsen Rastani's film still photos in comparison with the photos of Mary Ellen Mark is based on the theory of Rhetorical codes. The method of this research is Descriptive-Analytical with a Comparative approach. Sources are collected in a library method. Some Photos are also downloaded from Internet sources and other photos taken from personal archives. From the comparison of Mohsen Rastani and Mary Ellen Mark's photos with the Rhetorical codes theory approach, we can conclude that both of them have photos related to the narrative of the film, and photos with a personal style (documentary-portrait) and related to Non-Diegetic elements that have become books and exhibitions.