Meaning in Film
Here are notes from the lecture where we learnt about mise en scene, semiotics, ideology, hegemony among many other insights into films and film-making.
Mise en scene
What is it?
It’s everything in front the camera.
- All the things including your location/set, lighting, actors, costume/props
- All of those the things that help you determine the story in front of the camera
- You can use these in a number of ways to affect the meaning that’s being conveyed to your audience it’s not necessarily the literal meaning.
- There are all sorts of subliminal meanings that are conveyed through certain conventions like the genre of the film and subtle messages.
So really what we’re trying to do is answer these
essential questions: -
What?
Who?
Why?
When?
How?
Any film should be able to do that.
If you can turn off the sound and you can still understand
the film you've shot it well, it should still be determinable by the pictures.
I should be able to watch it as a silent movie
and be able to understand the plot, if you've done that you've kept good control
of all of the things in front of the camera.
Terminology and Methodology
There are a number of tools and theories that we use to
analyse meaning and it’s communication in film.
Semiotics
What is this?
It is the analysis of film.
It is derived from the work of film
theorist Ferdinand de Saussure.
- He understood meaning is acquired through social constructs
- It’s not literal meanings, we’re not simply watching a film and having something given to us
- We are interpreting it based on our own understanding of the world, which is constructed by the society we live in
- Therefore depending on the society and the culture there are a number of different meanings that can be conveyed.
- Not necessarily the same things in any one culture.
- For example in a one society you may have a culture of winners and losers so shows that embody that sort of ideal would work but in a different society they wouldn't work because the ideal conveyed isn't there in their social norms.
- So the construction of what we perceive to be desirable, the norm and those social ideas we accept are different in every culture.
- The ideology of a culture, is all the ideas that we all assume are normal because they are everywhere there but they are actually specific to us.
Ideology
What do we mean by this?
Prevailing values, dominant values in the society or
culture.
- They might not necessarily be obvious, they can be quite subtle, depending on how ideas are presented, how they are construed and how they are accepted.
- There’s a transaction involved between what is given out to you and what is received.
- In film there are ideological influences that affect the way in which values and norms are presented for example:
- 1950s post-war Britain there was a shifted balance of power in our culture, the men had gone away to fight then after the war they came back.
- In film this ideology was created around women being the home-maker the men needed to take back the jobs they’d given over during the war, like working in the factories.
- So this ideology of a perfect house wife was again conveyed through film and that became the conveyed ideology of the time.
Hegemony
What do we mean by this?
This is when we dish out particular values or ways of behaving which are only ‘sensible’ choice.
- It’s like they become the only thing anyone can understand and anything else is in some way strange or damaging.
- Patriarchal society with women are the 'homemakers' and men are the 'breadwinner's anything else is strange, society would think that if they didn't do this they could damage their children, women are meant to nurture and care.
- Values and norms hack into this prevailing hegemony, which determines the stories chosen;
- The way the characters are presented, it’s about knowing you audience. You can’t make a film if you don’t know who you’re making it for, you can kind of battle against prevailing norms but normally we’re all trying to fit in.
Polysemic
What is this?
It is possible in film-making not to have just one obvious
meaning in a film; multiple meanings can be conveyed and are open to interpretation
by the audience.
- It’s not necessarily about clear communication. There are a number or other ways films can be read: -
Dominant reading – The most prevailing idea around it
Negotiated reading – You have your own take on it, the
way in which you interpret it
Oppositional reading – The absolute opposite to what is expected, a film ‘taking’ a picture of society but viewing from the
complete opposite way seeing it as oppressive and very negative
Transmission of Meaning
How does this happen?
Basic principle - anything and everything, even factual programs, is
open to interpretation.
- Everything is there through a partial point of view nothing is fact.
- Doesn't matter what you present, everyone making a film makes editorial choices.
- We will be doing this.
- We will be deciding what we want in our film and what we don’t. That comes from our own vision but also from our own message we want to convey.
- What we want people to understand.
- What we want them to get out of it.
- The content, slant and the approach we take is all tainted by our own view point and social construct on what we feel is normal.
- We have to bear in mind when we’re watching films as well as making them they are all subjective, they all have view points, they all have something they’re trying to achieve so we have to make sure that when we’re making a film that we’re considering all of this in our choices.
‘Representation’
What does this mean in film?
How people are used, presented and represented in film.
- You can influence people’s ideas of who people are and what they are like. What sort of image you’re giving them.
- These are the sort of issues linked to ‘representation’: -
- Disability
- Income/Class
- Values/Culture
- Ethnicity and Race
- Religion
- Sexuality/Sex (Gender)
- Issues e.g. Crime, Immigration, War, World’s Uneven Distribution of Wealth, Nuclear Proliferation
- Tokenism – The worst way of dealing with representation is to be very token about it, to tick a box and say ok I’ve done that and that, it’s best is about responding to what’s out there, what’s important in the world. About giving people a basis, about making them a person and not boxed in by any of these categories because they are more than that. Diversity is what we’re aiming for.
- Youth/Middle/Old Age
- How we understand all these sectors of society.
- How we make our film contributes towards how we construct the world around us.
- How do most people nowadays receive their information about the world? Where do they get it from?
- Mostly television or the web, so it’s very influential it sets the agenda.
- It determines what’s important.
- It influences us in terms of what’s out there what’s going on.
- Who do we need to listen to? Who don’t we need to listen to?
Diversity
Whenever you make a film you need to think about the
themes you are covering.
- It’s not just what is being said but who is saying it and how they are saying it so think about the people you are putting in there what sort of image are you conveying?
- Are you conforming to a stereotype or are you going to be smashing that stereotype?
- Are you going to present a real view of the world? That isn't as obvious, that is isn't lazy.
- Lazy is easy, where you are dragged into a set of conventions and norms which say okay ‘This person is bad and this person is good’ This could be based around all sorts of different types of people but it’s not necessarily going to give a rounded view of the world.
- So you could be reinforcing dangerous prejudices, and basically stereotyping.
- Throughout the 70s right to the present day there has been a raft of legislation which has been built for addressing different discrimination; gender, race, sexuality etc.
Legislation
All of these things contribute now to the sorts of laws
that govern the media. The body that is in charge of regulating the media is
called Ofcom.
- They are there to police what goes out, so when there is a serious complaint they are the people who will then rule on it and if necessary determine if a fine needs to be paid. For example
- Hillsborough, 2011 Ofcom says that the TV channel ‘exploited viewers’
- 2011, Ofcom warned TV broadcasters to be more careful around watershed to ensure that programs shown before 9pm are suitable for children. ‘media.ofcom.org.uk/2011/09/30/ofcom- warns-tv-broadcasters-to-be-more-careful-around-watershed/’
- How people represent facts, in journalism you are liable, you can be sued for representing someone in a negative way which is affecting their own place in the world, their job, potentially their life.
- When the girl had been murdered the landlord had been thrust into the number spot of suspicious characters when he had nothing to do with it.
- All of these things have to be considered when you’re making a television program or something for the web.
- Films have a film consensus; that has to decide who the suitable audience for the film is, e.g. what ages and assess the content on our behalf.
- What’s going on now about the press?
- Leveson is basing a whole argument over democracy being based on the press.
- If you regulate basically it’s a dangerous thing that’s a counterargument but it’s clearly not doing a very good job of self-regulation.
- How the things are presented, how the press and media work in a certain set of guidelines. If they can’t regulate themselves someone else will do it.
Ethnicity, Race, Gender and Sexuality, Disability
Looking at how people and places etc. are represented
- Opinions and values are important, even though legislation has been established now there are still prejudices.
- There are still ideas of who is bad etc.
- Recently there has been a lot of criticism on a channel 4 mockumentary called Derek, it has been given another series but it’s worth thinking about with this argument
- Subtle and subliminal references in the media is harder for regulators to discern, they are ingrained very deeply in ideology and social constructs, they become part of ‘rational’ thought.
- Who was good and bad in history?
- The history books are full of ideas, opinions, they are all subjective there is no fact as such.
- Everything presented to you is someone’s take on it. Somebody recalling someone’s memory and that will filter through how things are communicated to us on the screen, TV screen and computer screen.
Audiences
Who is your film for?
- Who is about? Regulate what you put in it to make it suitable for your audience in content, approach and style.
- A filmmaker must be aware of the even the subtle and subliminal meanings they are conveying and ensure they aren't adding to an already deeply ingrained stereotype or prejudice within society.
Symbolism and Metaphors
- Just like with any art form, not just in film-making can be used through language, colour, light, objects or characters – anything that is in the film and to create something beyond the literal meaning.
- Hitchcock films use certain symbols and frames to create sense of unease, something subtle that transcends the basic sound/ dialogue you use to communicate your ideas, something different, something much more powerful.
- I rather like the following quote
- ‘Hitchcock’s objects are never mere props of a basically theoretical mise-en-scene, but rather the very substance of his cinema’ – Andrew Sarris
- This website gave a further in-depth analysis of symbolism and influences in Hitchcock films.
- Symbolism in Eisenstein 'Oktober', the way he edited it was using montage to create a sense of revolution of over throwing power through symbolism. Not a linear way of editing – the exact opposite. Focussing on revolution . There’s a lot of symbolism in the shots, they convey meaning of communism, he conveyed political messages to influence the audience’s reading of the film.
- Very much using the medium to communicate his political message.
- Not a very calm, settling, gentle film, it’s meant to make you feel unsettled and make you feel the political uprising.
- I think he has done this very well.
- Similarly symbolism is used in modern politics: -
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| Labour – red rose |
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| Conservatives - Green Tree Blue Shadow |
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| Green Party - Green Planet |
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| Lib Dems - Yellow Bird |
- They are part of our society, they were so carefully decided.
- The conservatives changed to softer, more caring image, somebody thought about that. It wasn't an arbitrary decision.
- Typically in political debate programs they will wear the colours on their ties; they’re aligning themselves literally conveying the meaning of what political party they belong to, what they stand for.
- Similarly, advertising and branding uses colour like broadcaster branding;
- BBC 1 – red as well as all of their indents’
- Sky – blue
- Cadbury - purple, which is the colour of good judgement, people seeking spiritual fulfillment and is used in meditation
- The feelings and emotions people get that are attached to colour are very important in film making Attacking into certain responses, cultural responses, emotional responses are being used. Particularly these strong colours; -
Red – connotations to revolution, passion, power and
speed.
Green - evokes calm emotion, connected with
environmentalism and fairness.
Blue – interpreted with conservative politics in Britain,
although the blue is played down on the new logo and the green in more dominant.
Film-making Symbols and Metaphors
How do we use it in film?
Shot sizes, camera angles, framing, lighting, colour, editing
techniques, music and mise en scene - all of these things attack into emotions
and meanings.
- It’s not simply cutting it together to make a continuous flow you can edit to evoke certain emotions, make somebody feel something’s gone wrong with jump cut sections rather than a smooth continuity.
- The genre can utilize certain film-making metaphors, which we expect to see for example:
- In horror you would expect to see shots with low lighting,
- In romantic films ending with a happy ever after
- It may be something subtle or something very obvious.
- Film Noir, thriller and detective shows of the 1940s - 50s are known for using low key lighting and silhouetted figures, were used to denote a sense of unease, danger and untrustworthiness.
