"You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen."

The scene that I chose to write about was Scene 4, "This is why we're here...". Dr. Grace Augustine and Parker Selfridge are having a conversation in what I would call the military command center about Jake Sully using the avatar that was originally intended for his brother to use before he died.

Signifiers (things):
This scene is full of many signifiers because as you can imagine, a military command center normally has a lot going on in it. I am only going to point out a few that stood out to me.

VISUAL
1. The first obvious signifier is the extremely advanced technology in the military command center. The computer screens are holographic images that you can touch. The military workers each have a large screen in front of them and each one is working diligently on things that we wouldn't understand.
2. The second signifier I noticed, that I doubt many people noticed, was the cigarette burning in Dr. Augustine's hand. She wasn't smoking it, she was just holding it.
3. The third signifier is Parker playing golf. He is clearly someone very important who is in charge of other people, yet he is playing golf into a cup on the floor in the middle of this complex office space.

AURAL
1. Parker golfing... "You see that?" "Yes, sir." "No, you didn't you were looking at the monitor."
2. Dr. Augustine talking... "You know, Grace...I enjoy our little talks."

Signifieds (mean):

VISUAL
1. We assume, even though we can't understand what the computer screens have on them, the military workers are working with military related projects. They are most likely getting paid a lot of money for what they are doing. The technology in this scene is extremely advanced which means the military is probably wealthy and intelligent.
2. This might mean that she is stressed out and the cigarette is her admitting she is stressed out, as if we can't already tell. It shows that the world has changed quite a bit, since Dr. Augustine is letting her cigarette burn in this military office. It's ironic that she's working in a science career and she's holding the cigarette as if she smokes often, but she would understand more than most people the negative effects this has on her health.
3. Parker has such an important job, yet he is not doing anything important when we first see him. Shouldn't he be doing something important, so we take the company's missions in this native world seriously in this film? He's in charge of the operation of this. (My friend thought that Parker was so good at his job, that he didn't need to be working on anything important!)

AURAL
1. Parker has caught his worker in a lie, but it is a good thing. He is making sure the worker is doing his job. The boss cares about him, but the boss isn't doing much himself.
2. Dr. Augustine whines to Parker often. Parker is not necessarily sick of it, he is just used to it. Dr. Augustine must be stressed out very often.

Effect (do)/Message:

• What did it (try to) make you feel? How did it (try to) do that?

VISUAL
1. This signifier made me feel inadequate, because I am not able to understand how the advanced technology works. And I will probably never have this equipment.
2. This signifier made me feel clever, because I was able to find that and question it. I am still wondering why she never put it to her mouth. What was the point of that?
3. This made me mad about people with higher levels of power. He is not working hard at all, and probably gets paid way more than I ever will get paid. Why does he get to slack off?

AURAL
1. This signifier made me feel a little better about Parker golfing. He still cares about his workers, but less in a "big man in charge" way and more in a "buddy buddy" way.
2. This signifier made me wonder if Parker ever listens to what she has to say. She has to kick the cup out of the way of his golf game to get his attention.