Semiotics

In the past, people believed that certain messages were encoded and placed in certain places in the text by the author. According to them it was their job of the receiver of the reader to decode it and understand the actual meaning of it.

In the same way, when you’re watching a movie, there are only a few ways of understanding the setting, and quotes. One of them being semiotics.

What is Semiotics?

Semiotics is a study of signs, signs can have many diffident approaches and different meanings. As there are so many cultures and beliefs, and everything becomes a sign connotes has something to the audience. This is known as polysemy.

Semiotics is all about the production meaning as an interactive process. If you look at it from this perspective, you see how creative texts interact with readers to produce a variety of possible readings.

Additionally, there are two types of texts. First, open texts. These texts are open and will invite multiple different readings and meanings, on the other hand, closed texts are closed and only let the reader think of it in one way.

Many signs can change their meanings, for example the Swastika was a scared symbol of peace and love in Hinduism and Buddhism. However, it was played around with and used as the symbol for the Nazi party.

One of the early Semioticians was a French philosopher called Roland Barthes. He promotes the idea of ‘The Death of the Author’ – causing us to study the ‘texts’, not the authors. As a result, everyone now interprets texts differently. In addition, he also came up with 3 great terms called the Order of Signification.

What is polysemy ?

“The coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase”

Ferdinand De Saussure – The Sign

A sign is something that represents something to someone. Furthermore, there are two parts to each sign:

Signifier – the label we put on a sign – the name or the sound

Signified – the mental association we get when we hear or see the sign

Denotation, Connotation and Anchorage

Denotation – the basic and literal meaning of what I being said or is in the picture

Connotation – the meaning within the text or subject which we interpret in our own way

Anchorage – a way of communicating through a picture or media

Semiotics is a sign study. Importantly, because we all have distinct cultural experiences and we all view the world differently, any sign or communication text (like a movie) can have many distinct meanings depending on who is looking at it–this is polysemy. Some texts are available and invite numerous readings.

Overall, I believe that semiotics are really important and, I would my documentary be easy to understand as it allows me to have a larger audience. However, I would also like the audience to be able to have open thoughts about my topic.

Representation

What is representation?

There are two meanings for representation. First, when people become representations of their demographic. In other words, their gender, race, sexuality, nationality, religion, ability and disability. Second, how people are represented, the ideology of it.

Representation refers to the ways in which character, situation, sounds and images show the different aspects of the worlds. This can also be seen as, how someone or something is portrayed or represented. Representation is never neutral, but it is always biased. Lastly, there is always a particular reason as to why someone is getting represented.

What is Ideology?

Ideologies are rules that help given behaviour, norms and values. This system is embedded into different cultures through schools, politics, mass and social media. These ideologies are created over a long period of time and are set by those in power. Overall, ideology means a commonly held set of beliefs and ideals.

There are two different types of ideologies, they both exist at the same time. Except one is dominant.

The Dominant Ideology is a set of beliefs that are held by the majority of the population. Whereas, the alternative ideology has many different ideas from different viewpoints.

These ideologies are usually seen as immediate ‘Wrongs’, but over the time they can become the new dominant ideology.

Sex and Gender

Gender is a cultural construct; however, gender and sex are used interchangeably but there is an important difference.

Sex refers to the biological difference between males and females. On the other hand, gender refers to the social and cultural differences between women and men. This comes under the roles and responsibilities concerning the ways in which men and women should act.

Your sex is given to you from your DNA which consists of your XX or XY chromosomes. But the gender depends on the way we act and is learned through different cultures. This concludes that sex is fixed (not always the case as sex changing procedures can be done) while gender is fluid.

Since we are little we are drilled with certain ideas, almost telling us that girls and boys have to be a certain way. For example, as little kids your parents must have bought you kitchen sets if you were a girl. Guns (toys), football which are more physical games for boys. Concluding that women should be doing home stuff like cleaning, looking after children and cooking. Whereas men should be stronger headed and dominant.

What is Objectification?

Objectification is the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object. Before women were always objectified in all movie covers, for example ‘King Kong’, ‘Invasion of the Saucer – Men’, ‘Dracula’, ‘Jaws’ and many more

Even in old posters, we can see how they are trying to force us into thinking how men and women’s roles should be. For example, this first poster shows a very exposed women looking at a shoe, however if you connote this poster you see that its simply saying that women should be at men’s shoes. This denotes that they should always listen to what men say, and oblige their every need.

But have things changed?

Given Donald Trump, the president of united states. He is very racist and sexist as he says ‘it really doesn’t matter what they write, as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass’, ‘You never get to the face because the body’s so good’ this is literally women being objectified, ‘ A person who is very flat chested is very hard to be a 10’ this suggests that he thinks that there should be a certain way women should look to be a 10/10. ‘ I tell my friends to “be rougher” with their wives’ again shows how he thinks that women should be subjected, and lastly, ‘ Women, you have to treat them like shit’.

The Headless Women of Hollywood

Everyone has seen one of those movie posters which only show a women’s body, but not her face. For example, ‘Youth’ and ‘Hall Pass’. As you can see, women are headless in these posters however we get to see the male characters face.

Why are these types of images so prevalent in our media industries?

It’s because media is a way of communication, it communicates messages about how we should act, what we should buy and what we should look like.  In a way it maintains males authority by using different messages to indicate that for instance, the headless women which shows male authority.

The biggest challenge faced by male authority is shown through the way women pose, this authority is shown when women are shown as objects to keep them subjugated. The way they do that is by telling women that their only value lies in the way they look.

Male Gaze

Male gaze is the most influential and prominent feminist approach to analysing film and art. Laura Mulvey was a British feminist film theorist. The ‘Male Gaze’ model is all about the gender imbalance – the male is active, whereas the female is passive. This also affects the structure and narrative, for example when women are looked at. The story slows down and makes women look like erotic objects. On the other hand, the male is always active and the story moves forward.

In 1975, Laura Mulvey published a paper titles ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’. She argues about classical movies where men were shown to have the power while the women were “Objectified” (seen as objects). She also talked about how women were sexual gratification, and obstacles for the protagonist (who were usually male).

Moreover, the audience is encouraged to identify with the hero and we are forced to adopt to a male subjectivity. This causes the audience to see the diegetic world through the male characters eyes with his perspective.

The ‘Male Gaze’ outlines three looks within the texts. First, the lead characters would usually be male; therefore, the perception of the females was through a male’s view. In other words, the audience is encouraged to identify with the hero, however we are forced to adopt a male subjectivity. Second, the audience at the cinema have the same view, because we are looking at the perspective of the male we are forced to share his subjectification of the women. Third, is the look of the female at the male character, as a female viewer you transsexualise (at times).

The pleasure of watching a Hollywood movie is heterosexual and erotic. Women were only used in the classic films for the gratification of the male spectator.

Moreover, a big part of the pleasure of cinema come from a form of spying which is also known as; voyeur. A voyeur is someone who gains pleasure form watching others.

Furthermore, the male gaze can also be linked to scopophilia; taking pleasure in looking at others who are usually naked. Its like controlling another by looking at them thereby turning them into an object.  

However, there can be an argument which involves the representation and construction in films and documentaries. Mediation – is when media takes an idea and uses it to represent it in a specific way. We don’t see any reality in media and film, we see it from someone else’s point of view.

Who do women identify with in films?

I would say that it depends on what kind of film it is, for example the movie Bumblebee. I personally identified with the female character whereas my brother said that he also related with the female character. I was expecting for him to say the brother or Bumblebee.

I also asked my brother who he identified with in the film Jumanji, his reply was “The Rock”, I too have the same response. Therefore, I believe that who identifies with who depends on the story and the character backgrounds.

If female characters are only used as objects to be looked at in Hollywood films, why do women enjoy watching them?

I did some research and found out a bit about why women enjoy watching films even though we normally see it from a male perspective. We all watch films mainly for the plot and characters (actors), therefore there are many things for a woman to enjoy.

Another theory I read about said how women adapt to the male gaze when watching films. I agree with this in a way as, when I’m watching films, I do compliment how good a woman looks and etc.

Audience Questionnaire

I made a questionnaire to get a better knowledge of what different audiences like to see in a documentary, and also to see what kind of content they want to perceive.

My first two questions were about gender and age as these two questions can have a huge outcome on their way of thinking. Younger people tend to know more about newly released movies and documentary. Whereas, senior citizens tend to know about movies and documentaries from 10 – 20 years ago. Which is beneficial to know as it helps you get knowledge about different aesthetics and topics.

The third question was Why do you watch documentaries? I asked this question, as I was generally curious as to why people watch documentaries. In my opinion, there are many reasons as to why people watch documentaries, mainly they watch them to educate themselves, learning new things and also to learn about new cultures. We watched a documentary at college about Taco’s which also educated us about its history and cultural.

Furthermore, the fourth question was How often do you watch documentaries? I asked this question due to research I did. From my research I found out how different age groups and people in different circumstances all have a different pattern of how many times they watch documentaries. Did you know? People who live alone are more likely to watch documentaries twice a month.

Next, I asked, how do you watch a documentary? this question is simply for me to know which place is the best for distribution for documentaries.

Do you enjoy watching documentaries? If yes then why? I asked this question as I’m curious about what the reason could be as there are many reasons stated online. For instance, people watch documentary to learn new things, to socially interact with others. Lastly, to escape from their daily troubles. As you can see there are many reasons, I would like to see what people actually say.

My next question was Would you watch documentaries about dreams (that you have when you sleep)? I asked this question to see if people think that dreams is a good topic to make a documentary about as I’m still a bit unsure.

And my last question is What dream have you had recently? I asked this questions as I now have an idea of how my documentary is going to be structured. And this question will help me as I’ll be able to use it in my documentary.

Fahrenheit 11/9

We watched Fahrenheit 9/11 to get an idea for different types of documentary, this documentary falls in the comedy section. I believe this due to many reasons, for instance: informal language has been used to make the documentary and the topic somewhat comfortable to talk about. The narrator uses swearing and slangs (etymology) this makes the documentary more interesting and realistic.

It was constructed in a very ingenious way, we already knew that Donald trump was going to be the president. Nevertheless, when I was watching the documentary I forgot what was going to happen (the fact that Donald trump was going to be the president). He creates a juxtaposition (contrast) by using music and tone of voice, when presenting the democrat point of view the music is optimistic, as well as his language in the voice over. Initially the documentary uses clips to create a sense of optimism and to present a favourable point of view (democrats). Conversely, when represent it as a republican’s point of view. The music is ominous and his language shifts into a more abrasive tone.

Overall, I love how this is documentary is contrasted, its very persuasive, and creative. However, I still don’t know what topic I’m going to make my documentary on. But I would like for it to be a bit funny at times, because It just makes it more interesting.

SWOT Analysis

Having concluded the swot analysis, I have discovered that I have many strengths for Example: I am good at visualising different shots and angles which helps me receive cinematic shots. Furthermore, I’m good at managing paperwork and doing pre- production work. I enjoy story boarding and risks assessment, as well as set designing. Additionally, I’m good at using different equipment such as cameras, lens, lighting. Lastly, verbal communication is my strong point.

On the other hand, I also have many weaknesses like spending too much time on social media. As it distracts me from work I’m meant to do. Moreover, I’m not good with managing time and meeting deadlines. Blogs is also a weakness for me as I’m not the best at analysing. Lastly, I don’t enjoy editing which I consider as a weakness.

I do get a lot of opportunities and access to different things such as, YouTube tutorials which allow me to learn new techniques to use on adobe premiere pro. I also have expertise and technical specialist at my college who can help me give me more information on certain topics. In addition, equipment like cameras, drones, microphones, lighting can be rented from my college. Moreover, I get many opportunities to work in groups with other people at my college, which allows me and the others to share ideas of different aesthetics. At last, I have access to lots of social media which I can use as distribution and marketing sites.

Finally, there are threats such as getting distracted easily, having a job – job commitments, limited access to equipment and holidays. These things just slow down to cycle of me working.

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