Lecture - Semiotics (OUAN401)

Boy, this lecture was a bloody brain boozler. No wonder film students are all depressed weird nerds when they’re forced to analyse every aspect of every prop, set, sound effect and line in a scene of a film.

Semiotics – the study of signs. Every sign consists of the signified and the signifier. The signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing being represented by the signifier.

For instance, if the concept is good and evil, the signified in this case, we would signify that with a signifier, such as a dichotomy like white and black. This kind of stuff is taken into consideration all the time in films. What is the best way to convey a mood or a theme by signifying it with colours, sounds, props or dialogue to give it the best dramatic impact?

It’s relevant to animation because animation is just filmmaking for people who are too shy to ask for real life filming location permits. Also we never learnt how to use boom microphones.
It’s important because every prop used in an animation needs to be carefully considered, otherwise what’s the point mate? What’s the bloody point in anything? In LIFE? One of my biggest fears in life aside from dying alone and dying with someone is my fear that I will go on to design really generic looking film sets.

Well, it’s not one of my greatest fears. It’s one of my moderate fears.

Well, it’s something I occasionally consider

Well, it’s something I’ve never given any thought to until the writing of this blog post

What I mean is that unless every prop and background in a scene is considered from a semiotic perspective, it can look bland. If I had to design a spooky castle I could just throw in bats, cobwebs, wall sconces and suits of armour, but it’s not thought through and it’s boring!

I'm sure that there are well thought out design choices behind both of these spooky castles, but it would be wrong of me to just copy them

I would have to consider stuff like:

What’s living in the spooky castle? What kind of marks would they leave?

How long has the spooky castle been abandoned/ inhabited for?

When was it built? What era?

How often do strangers visit the spooky castle? What happens to them?

If I consider all this and more, then I can use my props and background design to help build up a story behind the location. Every prop should tell a story, everything is in the place that it’s in for a reason.

That's the main lesson I took away from this lecture. Semiotics give things PURPOSE.