In lesson today, we gained knowledge on the topic of semiotics.
What are semiotics?
Semiotics are the study of how signs communicate or in other words the social production meaning of signs. Semiotics debates that verbal language is just one of countless systems of meaning. There are other systems of meaning, such as architecture, image, non-verbal behaviour that can be studied like verbal languages. Semiotics highlights that language is both constructed and inherited. Things and events in themselves don't have inherent meaning, however our perception of reality is constructed and shaped by the words and signs we choose.
What semiotics does is that it emphasise's that our perception of reality is constructed and shaped by the words and signs that we use in various social contexts.
The methods of communication include:
- Words
- Images
- Sounds
- This picture = sign.
- Their facial expressions, shot size, colour including clothes and the camera angle = signifier
- What is being signified?
- Surprised
- Happy
- Awkward
- Subtly shocked
Signs have several characteristics:
- Signifier - A sign has a physical form called the signifier.
- Signified - A sign refers to something other than itself. This is called the signified.
SIGN - SIGNIFIER - SIGNIFIED.
- Roses
- Romance
- Love
- Blood
- Ruby
- Stop sign
- Satan
Ideology:
Cultural meanings within a sign system.it' s instrumental
to socially oriented semiotics because it isolates a unitary object that
incorporates difficult sets of meanings with the social agents and processes
that produced them.
Meanings are produced historically, culturaly and socially. so when i asked you the last question about the colour red, to most of us it's probably not really a meaningful or significant colour to most of us, however to others it has a meaning to it. For example the colour red is a very significant/sacred to Chinese people as is the colour of their flag, it signifies wealth and red kimono's.
One of the tasks we had in lesson today was to identify the signifiers and signs from the image above and to identify what it signified.
The signifiers I extracted from the image above are the following:
1)
Signifier - Arms are linked
Signified - close, they trust each-other, they're similar in personality, connected physically and emotionally.
2)
Signifier - Flower in hair
Signified - Natural, vibrant and happy.
3)
Signifier - Cheerleader outfit
Signified - Cheerleader, young, typical american chick flick movie, halloween movie.
4)
Signifier - Card
Signified - Party, somebody's birthday, loving, kind.
5)
Signifier - facial expressions/laughter
Signified - fun, likes attention, full of joy, shocked, mischievous, giddy, excited.
6)
Signifier - Wearing pink clothing
Signified - Feminine, bright, Effervescent, attracts attention.
Signifier ( Denotation)
2)
3) Another signifier was the Montague's and the Capulets clothing. the Capulets wear practically all black clothing which to me conveyed seriousness, evil, dark = bad guys. However the Capulets wore brighter colours such as white which signified and portrayed a better spirit of their personalities and intentions as its a pure colour.
4) Regarding the soundtrack in this scene, there's a part where music is played and it sounds like a man is screaming in the background. This signified murder, danger, cow boys western music. The music in this part of the scene builds up and gets louder when the fighting begins, this happens to convey the intensity of the fight and it builds the tension and makes the scene more dramatic for the audience. In a part of the video just before the fight begins I could hear in a soundtrack that was played, dog barking and a drum roll. This signified to me that the men are acting like animals, they're being violent and reckless, just like dogs can do at times. The drum roll also signified that something dramatic and important was going to occur, just like the old saying "Drum roll please".
4)
Another signifier I recognised in this scene was the wind, shadows and darkness. This signified to me that there was a storm brewing and something dark and dramatic is going to take place.
5) Another signifier is when one of the actors says a line in the movie and it echo's. This signifies the repetitiveness and the projection of the voice, its an important factor as it creates more drama.
6)
After Mercutio pushes Tybalt which results him to falling on top of the glass which then ends up breaking, the signifier of the broken glass signifies that it's deadly, broken, death and just like the glass everything is about to smash and fall apart into pieces. Plus it was obvious to me that Tybalt would use it as a form of weapon against Mercutio.
7)
A very important and beneficial signifier within the fight scene was the weather. When the fight scene started it looked very nice and relaxed, which signified happiness from the sun (orange, yellow colours), a place where you could happily retire, holiday, hot place. However it changed very quickly as it became dark, thunder, lighting and a storm occurred, grey clouds and wind noises. This unfortunately signified evilness, death, horror, curse, plague.
8)
Slow motion was also a very good signifier within this scene for when Mercutio got knocked down and the camera shot got an XCU (Extreme close up) of Romeo's face. Rome's face signified stress, intensity, seriousness and the realisation of his best friends injury which causes trouble. The XCU is also used to portray to the audience in quicker way a message of his emotions as that creates intensifies the drama and emotion of the actor which is portrayed to the audience.
9)
Mercutio wears a cross necklace in this scene and this signifier signified to me religion, faith, hope (orthodox) & christianity. Mercutio's necklace was an orthodox cross which is ironic because as an orthodox is a much stricter form of religion compared to Christianity it's ironic that he acts so necklace e.g. uses guns and gets himself into fights.
Cognition -
Thought
Denotation -
Literal meaning
Connotation -
Meanings associated
Denotation-
Any object or image denotes a basic meaning of what it is. For expel a red face on a character denotes just that: a 'red face', just like a shaking hand denotes... 'a shaking hand'.
Connotation.
Sometimes an object or an image within creates extra meaning beyond it's denotation.
A happy red face might be said to connote anger, illness, excitement frustration etc. Just as a shaking hand might connote illness, cold weather, fear or even old age.
Legally Blonde
One of the tasks we had in lesson today was to identify the signifiers and signs from the image above and to identify what it signified.
The signifiers I extracted from the image above are the following:
1)
Signifier - Arms are linked
Signified - close, they trust each-other, they're similar in personality, connected physically and emotionally.
2)
Signifier - Flower in hair
Signified - Natural, vibrant and happy.
3)
Signifier - Cheerleader outfit
Signified - Cheerleader, young, typical american chick flick movie, halloween movie.
4)
Signifier - Card
Signified - Party, somebody's birthday, loving, kind.
5)
Signifier - facial expressions/laughter
Signified - fun, likes attention, full of joy, shocked, mischievous, giddy, excited.
6)
Signifier - Wearing pink clothing
Signified - Feminine, bright, Effervescent, attracts attention.
Signifier ( Denotation)
Signified (Connotation).
Cognition -
Thought.
Denotation -
Literal meaning. E.g. Red
Connotation -
Meanings associated - E.g love/lust, blood etc.
Denotation-
Any object or image denotes a basic meaning of what it is. For expel a red face on a character denotes just that: a 'red face', just like a shaking hand denotes... 'a shaking hand'.
Connotation.
Sometimes an object or an image within creates extra meaning beyond it's denotation.
A happy red face might be said to connote anger, illness, excitement frustration etc. Just as a shaking hand might connote illness, cold weather, fear or even old age.
Cognition -
Thought.
Denotation -
Literal meaning. E.g. Red
Connotation -
Meanings associated - E.g love/lust, blood etc.
Denotation-
Any object or image denotes a basic meaning of what it is. For expel a red face on a character denotes just that: a 'red face', just like a shaking hand denotes... 'a shaking hand'.
Connotation.
Sometimes an object or an image within creates extra meaning beyond it's denotation.
A happy red face might be said to connote anger, illness, excitement frustration etc. Just as a shaking hand might connote illness, cold weather, fear or even old age.
We then proceeded to watch a scene from Romeo & Juliet we had to analyse the semiotics.
1)
The first signifier I recognised when watching the fight scene between Mercutio and Tybalt was the guns. When this scene started Mercurio was firing shots at fish in the sea which conveyed boredom and aggression. This signified to me, danger and that something bad was going to happen because when Tybalt shortly arrived afterwards with his friends and they also had their guns, this clearly signified to me that danger was going to occur from their weapons, aggression and hatred fro each-other.
The first signifier I recognised when watching the fight scene between Mercutio and Tybalt was the guns. When this scene started Mercurio was firing shots at fish in the sea which conveyed boredom and aggression. This signified to me, danger and that something bad was going to happen because when Tybalt shortly arrived afterwards with his friends and they also had their guns, this clearly signified to me that danger was going to occur from their weapons, aggression and hatred fro each-other.
Another signifier I noticed was the stage. This signified that the following actions that would be portrayed on screen were going to be very dramatic and a performance was going to be put on for the audience, because in theatre everything performance based starts and ends with a stage.
3) Another signifier was the Montague's and the Capulets clothing. the Capulets wear practically all black clothing which to me conveyed seriousness, evil, dark = bad guys. However the Capulets wore brighter colours such as white which signified and portrayed a better spirit of their personalities and intentions as its a pure colour.
4) Regarding the soundtrack in this scene, there's a part where music is played and it sounds like a man is screaming in the background. This signified murder, danger, cow boys western music. The music in this part of the scene builds up and gets louder when the fighting begins, this happens to convey the intensity of the fight and it builds the tension and makes the scene more dramatic for the audience. In a part of the video just before the fight begins I could hear in a soundtrack that was played, dog barking and a drum roll. This signified to me that the men are acting like animals, they're being violent and reckless, just like dogs can do at times. The drum roll also signified that something dramatic and important was going to occur, just like the old saying "Drum roll please".
4)
Another signifier I recognised in this scene was the wind, shadows and darkness. This signified to me that there was a storm brewing and something dark and dramatic is going to take place.
5) Another signifier is when one of the actors says a line in the movie and it echo's. This signifies the repetitiveness and the projection of the voice, its an important factor as it creates more drama.
6)
After Mercutio pushes Tybalt which results him to falling on top of the glass which then ends up breaking, the signifier of the broken glass signifies that it's deadly, broken, death and just like the glass everything is about to smash and fall apart into pieces. Plus it was obvious to me that Tybalt would use it as a form of weapon against Mercutio.
7)
A very important and beneficial signifier within the fight scene was the weather. When the fight scene started it looked very nice and relaxed, which signified happiness from the sun (orange, yellow colours), a place where you could happily retire, holiday, hot place. However it changed very quickly as it became dark, thunder, lighting and a storm occurred, grey clouds and wind noises. This unfortunately signified evilness, death, horror, curse, plague.
8)
Slow motion was also a very good signifier within this scene for when Mercutio got knocked down and the camera shot got an XCU (Extreme close up) of Romeo's face. Rome's face signified stress, intensity, seriousness and the realisation of his best friends injury which causes trouble. The XCU is also used to portray to the audience in quicker way a message of his emotions as that creates intensifies the drama and emotion of the actor which is portrayed to the audience.
9)
Mercutio wears a cross necklace in this scene and this signifier signified to me religion, faith, hope (orthodox) & christianity. Mercutio's necklace was an orthodox cross which is ironic because as an orthodox is a much stricter form of religion compared to Christianity it's ironic that he acts so necklace e.g. uses guns and gets himself into fights.
Cognition -
Thought
Denotation -
Literal meaning
Connotation -
Meanings associated
Denotation-
Any object or image denotes a basic meaning of what it is. For expel a red face on a character denotes just that: a 'red face', just like a shaking hand denotes... 'a shaking hand'.
Connotation.
Sometimes an object or an image within creates extra meaning beyond it's denotation.
A happy red face might be said to connote anger, illness, excitement frustration etc. Just as a shaking hand might connote illness, cold weather, fear or even old age.
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