Film Language

Image of culture Clint Eastward brings more meaning to a simple photograph of a revolver Semiotics The study of communication, be it verbal or nonverbal, visual or aural The study of the code or conventions of cinema and offering explanations for why and how they work Signs As humans, we have to put meanings to signs Everything is a sign, they are everywhere Three Main Components to a sign/code Sign – the smallest meaningful unit of communication, the sign itself Signifier the thing seen or heard, the word “stop” on a stop sign Signified – the meaning of a given image, the message

Most signs have all three components Levels of Signs Iconic – a diagram, photograph, or representation. (I. E. A map of Nova Scotia) Symbolic – signifies, does not literally represent. (I. E. Nova Scotia flag) Indelicacy – connected in some way, but not conventional. Can have multiple meanings. (I. E. The tartan of Nova Scotia) Silent Cinema: everyone could understand it, making it universal. Kinkiness An early motion-picture device in which images were viewed through a peephole. Invented in the sass’s. All you needed was some cultural understanding/experiences. Can be iconic, indelicacy, and symbolic all at once.

The Codes 1 . Dominant films, I. E. Those films thoroughly imbued with dominant ideology. 2. Resistant films, which attack the dominant ideology on the level both the signified and of the signifier. 3. Formally resistant films, those films which, while not explicitly political, practice formal subversion. 4. Content-oriented political films, explicitly political and critical films… Whose critique of the ideology system is undermined by the adoption of the dominant language and imagery. 5. Fissure films, I. E. Films which superficially belong to dominant cinema but where n internal criticism opens up a ‘rupture’ 6.

Live cinema l, I. E. Films depicting social events critically but which fail to challenge the cinema’s traditional ideologically conditioned method of depiction 7.