Semiotics

Semiotics

The Study of "the science of signs and symbols"

How do images produce or create meaning?

To analyze a film these days, your analysis must be extremely deep. Now, signification is a process such as language. To get ideas across between two or more parties, we must speak a similar language. This takes time, unlike computers which have things like USB, Firewire and Bluetooth to communicate rather than just saying 0100010111010100101. The human race must communicate with vocal chords and now, writing, images and sounds. If anything were to have an individual language it would be pointless unless of course it could (whatever it is) live forever and come up with all the answers by itself and become completely original, then it would be okay.

Charles S Peirce differentiated signs into natural and conventional signs.

Natural signs would be

• Dark Clouds for rain
• Smoke for fire
• Medical symptoms (like my leg injury)

Conventional signs

• Language
• Ducks in a row
• Symbols etc

Here's a question, why do words mean what they mean?

Why is the word cat representative of a cat and not a dashboard or an electricity pylon? Do you know?

Words that are onomatopoeic such as splash, bang, splosh, boom, Golum are invented because that's how they sound. De Saussure says there is one language that humans speak, words. It's a bit more complicated than that, we have many many languages. Babies have a universal language, they scream when their upset or hungry, gurgle when they're content and they put their arms out when they want a hug or they want something. But someone had to have invented the word dog somewhere, probably some Roman. Anyway, back to the point about Saussure. He stated that there were two sub categories of language, the signifier and the signified. An example of the signified is putting two fingers up backwards, it signifies "Up yours French" / "Up yours (in general.) So it's good that when we have the word cat as we wouldn't have to explain it constantly to everybody, "That furry, purry animal who looks cross the whole time." The word cat is thus a signifier.

How many different type of signs are there? What would you think an image was trying to describe to you if it was of a rooster crowing with a sphere or yellow and red behind it?... Would it be an icon of a rooster? Or a sunrise?

What is this, a piece of paper with a £ sign on it, a number 5, a picture on one side of a white bearded man and on the other side, a woman looking at you wearing a crown?

How many ways can you greet someone? You can shake their hand, give them a high 5, freeze frame high 5 etc, wave, say hi, bow, kiss them (whether it be their face or feet it's up to you.)

How many more can you think of?

Yes, gestures are passed on down the line as well (even though they are almost all very natural, that is we developed them before the human race truly existed.) Another word for this is kinesis/proxemics. Arbitrary relationships. Language is a cultural convention as is getting married and everything else. You think in language, you think within walls of cultural conventions, how can you ever be free? You will never be free.

Barthes

Barthes was a triamaniac (he liked the number thr33) who stated that there were three different types of analysis

1. Denotation - describing the signifier
2. Connotation - giving meanings and emotions such as, "discipline" has depressing connotations
3. Mythical or ideological connotation - Gender, age, employment status etc. Gender wise, whether you think someone is ugly or beautiful etc?

There are three types of signs

1. Icon/ic - simply nouns or images that represent the object or person they are trying to describe such as, a model, a painting or a photograph.
2. Index/ical - Something that has a direct relationship to something else, e.g. Bullet to Gun (the flash, the sound of the bullet come out of the gun.) You could say the same about a fire extinguisher and the carbon dioxide that comes out of i suppose.
3. Symbol/ic - An icon that stand up for more than just its image such as, the cross, flags, the Nike tick etc.

These bare direct relation to the signifier and the signified.

There are also five ways film is signified in according to Metz.

1. Visual
2. Music
3. Verbidge
4. Sound Effects
5. Graphics

Visual

Inside the screen we can see people/bodies in costume. Where would we be if we saw revlovers, hats, spurs and shirts? What about quills or huge fat computers with pixcelated screens?

Graphics

Inter titles were used consistently in silent cinema and they are now making a big come back, just not in the same way.

Sound

Foley artists, musicians etc the list goes on.

Starship Troopers

The first section of this film is chock a block with symbols, icons and indexes. The flags, the military, the multi racial implication about the military, the meteor, spacecraft map, bugs etc.

Group Work

1st Group : Using gestures connoting  that it is an interrogation. The black hat suggests that the person wearing it is a criminal.

Team Verite : Three different scenes, each time the student has a different attitude to his results. 1st, tears (an indexical sign as they come from the eyes, the symbolism is sadness) and bowed head. 2nd, Loud music over the teacher (rap music) connoting disrespect.

Amir's group : "Hello" in as many different languages as possible. Waving (it could mean goodbye as well,) saying hello, writing hello and texting hello. Hi can mean that that person could have come from America as 'hi' is a more American term. Any other language would have done as well.

Imaginary Friends : Costume change reflect the gestures. The different clothing gives different characteristics. Tone, pitch and accent were changed as well as the costume.

Other Group : Space, close means they are friends, far away means the couple are more distant.

Happy Tree Fiends : Reading the medical symptoms differently each time. Three different scenes each with the same camera angles. 1st, a considerate doctor who inspects the patient. The whole sequence relies on shot reverse shot over the shoulder. This is a good convention as it hides the editing, especially those match on action shots. 2nd scene, instead of seeing a shoulder for the doctor, we see Dev's shoes on the table, it look as if Sam is talking to the shoes as we expect his head to be there. The same words are uttered "This is bad" only in a completely different way that they seem sarcastic. 3rd scene, the Guru (Dev) faces the other way so Sam is talking to his back, he has his arms up in a hypothetical Guru way and a hood over his eyes.

Film is a mixed hybrid 'impure' medium