SEMIOTICS

 A breif summary of Roland Barthes Semiotics Analysis video on how to read sign in films:

Sign in film is anything that creates meaning, it could be a symbol, colours, camera angles and logos. When something creates meaning it is described as the ‘signifier’. Semiotics is the study of these signs and how the audience perceive them. There are two types of meaning that can come from a sign: denotion and connotations. Denotation is the literal meaning and so someone may see the Apple Company logo as the Apple Computer logo. The conotations that are linked with the signifier is the associated meaning people have for the signifier. For example, the logo is a picture of an apple, but is connotated and associated with high technology as well as sweat shops and unfair labour. However, there are many different connotations of any signifier as different people with interpret them in different ways, depending on someones background, ideology, and culture and what someone is exposed to. The factors vary among people because signs are polysemic and so we can read all signs around us in many ways.

Within media, the importance of semiotics is all about understanding the signs used, what they mean and why a producer has decided to use them. There are 4 categories of sign we look for in film:

1. Mise-en-Scene

2. Sound

3. Camerawork

4. Editing

 

In film, we rely on language to represent meanings and the video used the example of Terror for Tokyo, which is a foreign film, leaving audiences without Japanese lexis to rely on the other signs in the film to understand what is happening.

                                       

In the film the Mise-en-scene creates an eerie atmosphere, leaving the audience unsettled due to how young and innocent the child is, the claustrophobic feel of the room and the cold colour and bare walls, all leading the audience to feel as exposed as the child. The sound keeps up the tension when a voice is heard from the other side of the door. Even though the content of what is being said is unknown, the audience can recognise the tone is aggressive and therefore whoever is speaking should be feared. Then there is this eerie chiming noise, followed by dead silence, contrasting these sounds is effective in creating tension. The camera work consists of many wide shots/fish-eye shots which are used to heighten the enclosed space the child is in; the camera tricks cause the audience to feel just as trapped as the girl looks. The editing increases and hold the tension by showing the extended shot with no cuts, creating a held-breath sensation making the audience feel out of control and vulnerable. There is a shot that cuts straight from the girl’s scared face to the door where the voice came from. Here, the audience are able to establish that whoever is behind the door is the reason the girl is so scared. Terror for Tokyo is a perfect example on how signs can have a huge and distinctive impact over the audience and control the emotions and tension of the piece.