The ability to observe and understand is a significant function that is necessary for people.  When trying to display a point or some meaning, one of the best ways to project that point is through a visual medium.  Looking at a visual artifact can introduce a completely different type of interpretation rather than just reading a piece of text.  Also most people prefer to watch a movie, or look at a picture, rather than just reading about it anyways.  A visual artifact does not need words at all to describe what the meaning behind it is.  The meaning of the visual piece can be deciphered simply through visual elements and effects.  A movie that has an important story with many significant scenes is Forrest Gump.  These scenes use a variety of visual elements to help enhance the meaning of the story.  Through observations of the visual effects, camera angles, and the interactions between the focal point and surroundings of these scenes, the audience can see that each scene plays an important role in the overall message of the story.  

Forrest Gump is a movie where the main character of the movie is somehow involved in many major moments in American history.  This movie is excellent because everyone is familiar with these historical events and it keeps the audience intrigued to see how Forrest influences them.  The first scene that stands out is a scene of Forrest standing on a dock looking at a sunset that is portrayed over the ocean.  This scene contains multiple visual elements that have an influence on the observers understanding.  The first visual element that is identified is the contrast between the bright, vivid colors of the sunset and the darkness of where the character is standing.  This contrast in color along with the camera angle of the scene suggests that the character is the main focal point.  Also the different values of the colors have different emotional influences on the audience.  These dark, black colors of the scene have an emotional influence of sadness and the bright colors of the sunset gives the audience a sense of optimism.  By looking at these visual effects alone the audience can infer a way that this scene connects to the context of the story.  A person looking over at a sunset all alone is an action that all people have very similar interpretations of.  For this scene, the most common interpretation is that the main character just experienced something very bad or that something good is going to come.    

In this movie Forrest Gump is praised by the people and has a major influence over how they act.  The second scene that stands out in the story is when Forrest is standing on a stage at the Washington monument in front of a large band of protestors.  This moment in American history is very significant and it is showing the controversy over people wanting peace during wartime.  The visual element that is identified first is the camera angle.  The camera angle for this scene displays Forrest as the focal point by following the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is when the camera angle is divided up into thirds and the focal point is set in one of the outside thirds. Since the focal point is not in the center, the focal point stands out more to the audience.  Also, the camera angle is set to where the tower and pond of the Washington monument is in the center of the scene.  This emphasizes the symmetry and balance of the scene which helps make it stand out to the audience.  The setting is important in this scene too, since it is an American historical monument it helps promote the context of the story and it gives the audience a feeling of patriotism. 

Forrest Gump goes all over the United States in this movie.  He ends up running all around for a long amount of time and this made people in the film want to follow him.  The reasoning behind him doing this may be silly but this scene does still have major significance.  The last major scene that stood out was of Forrest Gump when he finished his long adventure.  The most significant visual element of this scene is probably the camera angle.  The camera angle is of a close shot on Forrest’s face and a crowd of people behind him followed by a long road that turns into a blur.  This effect obviously emphasizes that Forrest is the main focal point of the scene.  The next visual element is the use of space.  There is a large gap of space between the main character and the band of people behind him.  This large gap was made when Forrest suddenly halted.  This signified a sense of confusion and curiosity for the crowd of people behind him and the audience of what is next.  Another element that contributed to the meaning of the scene is the setting.  The setting is very asymmetrical and shows the middle of nowhere, so this emphasized a feeling that the story was out of order.  This part of the scene and the crowd of people that followed Forrest tie directly to the context of the story.  By connecting this scene with the context of the story people can infer that since he ran all the way out to the middle of nowhere that he is lost physically and mentally. It can also be inferred that since he has stopped running away that this is a turning point in the story and that there is something that comes next.

This movie contains many scenes which have significant meaning within the film.  To portray the meaning of these scenes, many visual elements and effects are used.  We can interpret the meaning of the story through visual effects, camera angles, and the connections between the context of the story and these visual effects.  The visual effects can have an emotional influence on the audience.  Many different interpretations can come from analyzing visual artifacts like these.  The scenes in this movie use visual effects to show Forrest’s adventure and to display many interpretations to the audience.  There is no right or wrong interpretation when it comes to understanding visual artifacts like these, the visual effects just enhance the different interpretations to individuals of the audience.   

  