Friday, 27 February 2015

Semiotics- Theory lesson REVISION

Semiotics: The study of signs- basically the meaning of images. They give an audience of clues of what something is about.
Theory:
Paradigm can be seen as the ‘ideal’ example of something. Things that go together for example a paradigm of Western films would be horses, saloons and a desert setting. A set of signs that all have something in common. The alphabet is a paradigm because all the letters have something in common they make up the alphabet. Symbols (+, -), types of hats, so by changing the hat it changes what Mathematical is happening to the person and who they are.

Digression: the three signs that make up a paradigm are
Symbols
Index (direct connection with something)
Icons (looks like something/resembles something)

Syntagm
Think of this as a combination of signs. For example: words or sentences, an equation (1+2=3), style of dress and a tune or melody. Once ONE of the letters is changed, you get a completely different meaning. It is the same case in film.
MISE EN SCENE: Style of dress. For example, women dressed in Victorian dresses create the sense of a period drama in film.

In our own film, we have used paradigms in the form of the cinematography. Out of all the list of type of shots we could have used, we chose to film one of our scenes using a canted angle. Combined with the semiotics in our film, this creates a sinister tone.

Substitution (The communication test)

If you are not sure what a sign means, try taking one element out and changing it to a different sign from the same paradigm. An example of this could be a persons facial expression which the audience does not recognise the significance of: try imagining the person crying or shouting or whatever suits the particular paradigm and see if that will help you make sense of it. If you still can not reach the significance of it, you probably never will! 

Preferred or Dominant reading
Is what the majority of people think. What most people think or believe. 


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