Application of Neoformalism for Analysis of two Iranian Distinguished films

Neoformalism is one of the recent film criticism approaches which appeared in the 1980s and 1990s. This approach uses a new strategy in addition to achievements gained using prior methods. In this article, the specifications of this approach are studied on the basis of works of founders of neoformalism including David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson and issues such as definition of form and narration, differentiation of plot and story, principles of form, definition of device, function and motivation are expressed. According to the definition given by neoformalist, form is the overall system of relations between the elements in the whole film and narration is the plot's way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects. The set of all the events in a narrative, both those presented explicitly and those inferred by the viewer, constitutes the story and the term plot is used to describe everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us. A large number of Iranian filmmakers and critics believe that too much attention to content and lack of attention to form is one of the most important problems of Iranian cinema that has emerged in recent years. Also, neoformalism emphasizes the importance of analysis of form and aesthetical principles of cinema. Therefore, this approach is appropriate for studying contemporary Iranian films. Then. this approach has been used for analyzing of two important films of Majid Majidi including Children of Heaven and Baran as two distinguished Iranian contemporary films. These two films awarded the best film prize from Fajr festival in 1997 and 2001. Majidi has yet to achieve this prize again. Results of this neo-formalistic analysis show that in these two films, the form is developed to present main themes including family affection, dedication and love. Majidi in Children of Heaven has presented an attractive narration with sufficient rise and fall. He has used some devices such as overhead shot, slow motion and sound design and has applied form principles in order to represent the theme of dedication. In Baran he has taken a step further and has created a form that is consonant to theme of film, by using appropriate devices and form principles. Due to this film he rose up from ordinary form of Iranian cinema. In Baran, theme of love has been expressed with a mystic and spiritual aspect and Majidi has used Iranian mysticism and Sufism and especially has used Rumi’s works for expression of romantic story of film. Therefore, through directing of these two films Majidi gained more knowledge about cinematic form and expression and obtained more strength and ability for creating consonant form to themes of his films

Application of Neoformalism for Analysis of two Iranian Distinguished films

Neoformalism is one of the recent film criticism approaches which appeared in the 1980s and 1990s. This approach uses a new strategy in addition to achievements gained using prior methods. In this article, the specifications of this approach are studied on the basis of works of founders of neoformalism including David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson and issues such as definition of form and narration, differentiation of plot and story, principles of form, definition of device, function and motivation are expressed. According to the definition given by neoformalist, form is the overall system of relations between the elements in the whole film and narration is the plot's way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects. The set of all the events in a narrative, both those presented explicitly and those inferred by the viewer, constitutes the story and the term plot is used to describe everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us. A large number of Iranian filmmakers and critics believe that too much attention to content and lack of attention to form is one of the most important problems of Iranian cinema that has emerged in recent years. Also, neoformalism emphasizes the importance of analysis of form and aesthetical principles of cinema. Therefore, this approach is appropriate for studying contemporary Iranian films. Then. this approach has been used for analyzing of two important films of Majid Majidi including Children of Heaven and Baran as two distinguished Iranian contemporary films. These two films awarded the best film prize from Fajr festival in 1997 and 2001. Majidi has yet to achieve this prize again. Results of this neo-formalistic analysis show that in these two films, the form is developed to present main themes including family affection, dedication and love. Majidi in Children of Heaven has presented an attractive narration with sufficient rise and fall. He has used some devices such as overhead shot, slow motion and sound design and has applied form principles in order to represent the theme of dedication. In Baran he has taken a step further and has created a form that is consonant to theme of film, by using appropriate devices and form principles. Due to this film he rose up from ordinary form of Iranian cinema. In Baran, theme of love has been expressed with a mystic and spiritual aspect and Majidi has used Iranian mysticism and Sufism and especially has used Rumi’s works for expression of romantic story of film. Therefore, through directing of these two films Majidi gained more knowledge about cinematic form and expression and obtained more strength and ability for creating consonant form to themes of his films

Role of divalent ions, temperature, and crude oil during water injection into dolomitic carbonate oil reservoirs

Although wettability alteration has been shown to be the main control mechanism of Low Salinity and Smart Water (LS-SmW) injection, our understanding of the phenomena resulting in wettability changes still remains incomplete. In this study, more attention is given to direct measurement of wettability through contact angle measurement at ambient and elevated temperatures (28 °C and 90 °C) during LS-SmW injection to identify trends in wettability alteration. Zeta potential measurement is utilized as an indirect technique for wettability assessment in rock/brine and oil/brine interfaces in order to validate the contact angle measurements. The results presented here bring a new understanding to the effect of temperature and different ions on the wettability state of dolomite particles during an enhanced oil recovery process. Our observations show that increasing temperature from 28 °C to 90 °C reduces the contact angle of oil droplets from 140 to 41 degrees when Seawater (SW) is injected. Besides, changing crude oil from crude-A (low asphaltene content) to crude-B (high asphaltene content) contributes to more negative surface charges at the oil/brine interface. The results suggest that the sulphate ion ( SO42- S O 4 2 - $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{O}}_4^{2-}$ ) is the most effective ion for altering dolomite surface properties, leading to less oil wetness. Our study also shows that wettability alteration at ambient and elevated temperatures during LS-SmW injection can be explained by Electrical Double Layer (EDL) theory

Bacteria Cell Hydrophobicity and Interfacial Properties Relationships: A New MEOR Approach

For microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR), different mechanisms have been introduced. In some of these papers, the phenomena and mechanisms related to biosurfactants produced by certain microorganisms were discussed, while others studied the direct impacts of the properties of microorganisms on the related mechanisms. However, there are only very few papers dealing with the direct impacts of microorganisms on interfacial properties. In the present work, the interfacial properties of three bacteria MJ02 (Bacillus Subtilis type), MJ03 (Pseudomonas Aeruginosa type), and RAG1 (Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus type) with the hydrophobicity factors 2, 34, and 79% were studied, along with their direct impact on the water/heptane interfacial tension (IFT), dilational interfacial visco-elasticity, and emulsion stability. A relationship between the adsorption dynamics and IFT reduction with the hydrophobicity of the bacteria cells is found. The cells with highest hydrophobicity (79%) exhibit a very fast dynamic of adsorption and lead to relatively large interfacial elasticity values at short adsorption time. The maximum elasticity values (at the studied frequencies) are observed for bacteria cells with the intermediate hydrophobicity factor (34%); however, at longer adsorption times. The emulsification studies show that among the three bacteria, just RAG1 provides a good capability to stabilize crude oil in brine emulsions, which correlates with the observed fast dynamics of adsorption and high elasticity values at short times. The salinity of the aqueous phase is also discussed as an important factor for the emulsion formation and stabilization

Mechanistic study to investigate the effects of different gas injection scenarios on the rate of asphaltene deposition: An experimental approach

Asphaltene deposition during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes is one of the most problematic challenges in the petroleum industry, potentially resulting in flow blockage. Our understanding of the deposition mechanism with emphasis on the rate of the asphaltene deposition is still in its infancy and must be developed through a range of experiments and modelling studies. This study aims to investigate the rate of asphaltene deposition through a visual study under different gas injection scenarios. To visualise the asphaltene deposition, a high-pressure setup was designed and constructed, which enables us to record high-quality images of the deposition process over time. Present research compares the effects of nitrogen (N2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) on the rate of asphaltene deposition at different pressures. The experimental results in the absence of gas injection revealed that the rate of asphaltene deposition increases at higher pressures. The results showed that the rate of asphaltene deposition in the case of CO2 injection is 1.2 times faster than CH4 injection at 100 bar pressure. However, N2 injection has less effect on the deposition rate. Finally, it has been concluded that the injection of CO2 leads to more asphaltene deposition in comparison with CH4 and N2. Moreover, the experimental results confirmed that gas injection affects the mechanism of asphaltene flocculation and leads to the formation of bigger flocculated asphaltene particles. The findings of this study can help for a better understanding of the mechanism of the asphaltene deposition during different gas-EOR processes

Dissociation of polar oil components in low salinity water and its impact on crude oil–brine interfacial interactions and physical properties

Abstract Despite many efforts into the study of fluids interaction in low salinity water flooding, they are not probing the basics of transport phenomena between the involved phases. This work is aimed to bring new understanding of fluid–fluid interaction during low salinity water flooding through a series of organized experiments in which a crude oil sample with known properties was kept in contact with different brine solutions of various ionic strengths. Measuring brine pH, conductivity and crude oil viscosity and density for a period of 45 days illustrates the strong effect of the contact time and ionic strength on the dissociation of polar components and physical properties of the crude oil and brine. Besides, the interfacial tension (IFT) measurements show that the interfacial interactions are affected by several competitive interfacial processes. By decreasing the ionic strength of the brine, the solubility of naphthenic acids in the aqueous solution increases, and hence, the conductivity and the pH of the aqueous phase decrease. To verify this important finding, UV–Vis spectroscopy and 1H NMR analysis were also performed on aged brine samples. Notably, there is an ionic strength of brine in which the lowest IFT is observed, while the other physical properties are remained relatively unchanged

Experimental investigation on asphaltene biodegradability using microorganism: cell surface properties’ approach

Abstract Asphaltene precipitation is known to be responsible for serious challenges in oil industry such as wellbore damage, oil flow reduction, and plugging of transportation lines. The traditional methods to remove asphaltene deposition are mostly based on chemical solvent. One of the recent proposed green and cost–effect remedial methods is the application of microorganisms capable of consuming the heavy hydrocarbon chains. The cell surface hydrophobicity among others effectively manipulates the efficiency of the microorganism for asphaltene degradation. Besides, surface active agents would affect the microorganism adhesion and cell surface properties, and alters its hydrophobicity. Investigating the effect of these parameters on biodegradability of asphaltene leads to a better understanding of the microorganism effects on asphaltenic oil. In the current investigation, different asphaltenic solutions with the concentration of 2, 4, and 10 g/l are prepared using different southern Iranian crude oil sources, namely Ahwaz-Bangestan and Kuh-e-Mond oil fields. To estimate asphaltene biodegradability, the solutions were used as a carbon source for three different microorganisms namely Enterobacter cloacae, Enterobacter cloacae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa for a period of 10 days, while the temperature and rotational speed were kept constant under 40 °C and 150 rpm, respectively. The tests were also repeated using sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate as surface active agent to evaluate the effect of surfactant on microorganism adhesion and cell surface hydrophobicity. The results pointed to the direct effects of the initial concentration of asphaltene in the solution as well as the presence of surfactant which alters the cells hydrophobicity and leads to more asphaltene biodegradability up to 49%

Viscous fingering and its effect on areal sweep efficiency during waterflooding: an experimental study

Abstract Viscous fingering is one of the main challenges that could reduce areal sweep efficiency during waterflooding in oil reservoirs. A series of waterflooding experiments were carried out in a Hele-Shaw cell at ambient temperature during which areal sweep efficiency was estimated and techniques to ease the fingering problem were examined. The onset and propagation of viscous fingers were monitored as a function of both injection rate and injection/production positions. Image processing techniques were utilized to quantitatively investigate the propagation of fingers. The experimental results show that, under specific conditions, increasing the number of finger branches could improve the areal sweep efficiency, whereas growth of a single narrow finger has a negative impact on oil displacement efficiency. According to the obtained results, increasing the injection rate improves the areal sweep efficiency up to a critical rate at which viscous fingers start to grow. The impact of heterogeneity of the medium on distributing the viscous fingers was also investigated by introducing two different arrangements of fractures in the model. The results show that fractures perpendicular to the direction of flow would distribute the displacing water more uniformly, while fractures in the direction of flow would amplify the unfavorable sweep efficiency

Comparing the effects of CH4, CO2, and N2 injection on asphaltene precipitation and deposition at reservoir condition: A visual and modeling study

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) through various methodologies has been an active research for many years seeking efficient methods to increase the crude oil recovery efficiency from oil reservoirs. Among different gas injection scenarios, carbon dioxide (CO), natural gas (mainly methane (CH)) and nitrogen (N) injection are considered as promising EOR agents. Asphaltene precipitation and deposition during EOR methods cause severe problems, which affect the recovery efficiency and increase the cost of the incremental oil production. This study is aimed to investigate the effects of CH and N injection compared with CO injection on asphaltene precipitation and deposition. The different mole percent of the mentioned gases were introduced into the high-pressure cell, then the amount of precipitated asphaltene was measured at the reservoir condition. The evolution of asphaltene deposition was monitored through a high-resolution microscope. Moreover, Image processing software was utilized to check the amount of deposited asphaltene and its size distribution under different conditions. The most apparent finding to emerge from this study is that both CO and natural gas increase the amount of precipitated asphaltene whereas the nitrogen as an inert gas has no considerable effect on the amount of precipitated asphaltene. According to the results, the increment of precipitated asphaltene by CO is much higher than natural gas. Further, the thermodynamic solid model used in this study reasonably predicted the trend of asphaltene precipitation process for the mentioned EOR scenarios