Is what is visually believable necessarily true? The case of JACHALAY an “informative” film

Abstract

“Who are JACHALAY? Who could refer to and discuss about the Jachalay with certainty? Probably no one. They have been there, just over the centuries. We could only estimate and guess, since there is no communication at all”. “Jachalay” film (2012), is the thesis film of students Manos Gerogiannis and Giannis Zoumakis for the Graphic Design department of TEI of Athens.

The film’s main idea is: Can somebody narrate the most blatant lies in a be- lievable way?

Francis Vanoye’s believed that in the development of narrative in literature and cinema, the signifier is developed in the form of expressive material and expressive form, while the signified in the conceptual material and conceptual the form. So the following question appears: Which expressive form will be used in the signifier, to make the signified as much as possible believable? At the same time the informative animation is the main instrument to visualize

complex information, fast and clear, because the dramatic elements used in in- form animation, aim to explain and inform. Inform animation uses info

graphics in motion that means moving optical information representations of elements and knowledge; aiming at the fast, clear and direct communication.

This communication uses visualized symbols and the viewer decodes them au- tomatic.

In this context, we analyze the particular film by using it as a case study of how

one could narrate the most absurd lies in the most believable way using in- fographics and animation language

Mainly, through this case study, we deal with the following questions: • When we use fake information or plausibility half-truths, it is possible this audiovisual material to contain propaganda? • How easy is through the artificial image, which is so easily created today, to become the recipients of misinformation?