Week Three - More Than Just A Picture

Semiotics means literally ‘the study of signs’, and ‘signs’ here could include traffic signs, symbols, letters, languages, music, clothes and almost everything that we could sense with our five given senses – and if you want to include your sixth sense too, it is up to you. And ‘sign’, according to Roland Barthes, is the sum of two different parts – ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’.

‘Signifier’ is the object being examined and ‘signified’ is what the object concerned means.

Semiotics helps communication analysts to figure out how people interpret signs and in my case, to predict what genre a movie would be just from its promotion poster. For this very purpose, I would randomly choose movie posters that I have yet to watch in the cinema.

First movie poster is ‘Going The Distance’, directed by Nanette Burstein:

The sentence below the title of the movie is a give-away – “A Comedy of Meeting Each Other Halfway”. What else could have the movie be but a romantic comedy? Supposedly, there are no words provided on the poster but the title. So, in terms of semiotics:

Signifier: A man and a woman standing in close proximity, holding/touching each other and looking at each other, smiling

Signified: A close relationship – a couple?

Signifier: Sky-blue and yellow background

Signified: ‘Warm’, ‘happy’ colours – perhaps something that can make the audience happy...a comedy?

Sign: A romantic-comedy movie, most likely

Second movie poster is ‘Senario: Asam Garam’:

And this is even easier than the first one, especially for those living in Malaysia, Singapura, Brunei and Indonesia. Most people in these countries would be familiar with ‘Senario’, a comedy group and most certainly, people would instantly know that this is going to be a comedy:

Signifier: Senario

Signified: Comedy

Sign: A comedy

How the characters are positioned within the poster also contributes to this movie mostly being depicted as comedy. Each character is shown with a different expression, and most are comedic expressions. And somewhere behind them is a burning house right next to a non-burning one. Usually, a burning house is considered a dire situation but combined with the comically-reacting characters in front, one could predict it might turn out to be a humorous situation.

Below is another Malaysian-release movie, ‘Magika’:

The genre of this movie does not come as easy as before…until the dragon comes into view, and dragons are usually perceived as mythical creatures and only appear in fantasy settings. Immediately, one could say this is most likely going to be a fantasy movie with an adventure crossing time and space. Why do I suggest this? The clothes, simply from the clothes worn by the characters.

The two characters in the middle – a boy and a young woman possibly – are wearing 21^st century casual clothes. And this is the tricky part; for those who are unfamiliar with Malay history might not noticed this but most people living in Malay-speaking country would realize that the rest of characters are wearing those-centuries-old-clothes. Some of these traditionally-clothed characters then are lined up in a gesture of ‘welcoming’ the two ‘modern’ characters. It is like the two ‘modern’ characters are going from their 21^st century home to somewhere-way-back-in-time wilderness.

The title ‘Magika’ also plays a part; just tweak the word a bit and it would sound like the word ‘magical’ – hence, fantasy.

The movie poster of ‘The Hole’ also does not give a straight answer of what genre it belongs:

Signifier: Dark surroundings, especially the hole on the ground, even after being shone by light

Signified: Mystery, the unknown, death, danger – creates anxiety and fear

                 

Signifier: The hole on the ground – a pit?

Signified: Trap, reference to ‘Dante’s Inferno’ and its ‘Nine Circles of Hell’, giving the impression of being unable to escape

Signifier: “What Are You So Afraid Of?”

Signified: Sounds ironic, considering the surroundings in the poster; as if challenging the viewer or whoever the question is directed at to uncover the mystery, bringing even more anxiety at the prospect of expecting the unexpected

Sign: A possible thriller/horror movie

Now, the last movie poster, ‘Vampires Suck’:

At one glance, it looks like romance with the three main characters standing in close proximity, like those in ‘Going The Distance’. It might also be comedy, with the characters positioned like the ones in ‘Senario: Asam Garam’. Reading the title, it can be fantasy as vampires are as mythical as that of dragon in ‘Magika’. The background is dark and hazy and there is fog depicted lightly at the bottom of the poster – is it a thriller/horror like ‘The Hole’?

However, if one is up-to-date with recent movies, the poster may seem familiar, even the way the characters are presented… Remember the movie poster ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’?

By now, most people would realize that ‘Vampires Suck’ may be a parody based on ‘The Twilight Saga’. And as a parody, it might be ranging from romance to comedy to thriller and everything else. And if one squints hard enough of the movie poster of ‘Vampires Suck’, there is Lady Gaga on the farthest left, followed by Alice of Wonderland – judging by the white rabbit in her hands and her golden curls – and a young woman holding a stake and wearing a sleeveless top with the word ‘Buffy’ on it – certainly, a reference to the famous Buffy the vampire slayer. This is the trademark of a parody – always bringing in characters from other stories or famous people to join the chaos of the way-altered movie.

This is just one way of using semiotics, and there are hundreds and thousands of ‘signs’ that can be analyzed using semiotics as for communication students and professionals, there are no such thing as ‘just a picture’.

Reference:

§  Stokes, J. (2003) Semiotics. How To Do Media And Cultural Studies (page 70-75). London: Sage Publications.