Semiotics

Semiotics is commonly explained as //the study of signs//. What does this mean? What it doesn't mean is the exclusive study of road signs, but it propses that almost everything can be interpreted as have meaning or significance. Thus, in a film, each shot, its composition, the actions and appearance of the characters and locations, all have meaning which can be decoded. Furthermore, this meaning usually goes beyond mere communication of plot or character.

Two influential thinkers who use semiotics in film analysis are Christian Metz and Stephen Heath.

In //Film Language// (1968), Metz argued that cinema is structured like a language in which each shot used in a sequence works like a unit in a linguistic statement, equivalent to, for example, a phrase or a word. However, unlike traditional semiotics, he believe that the individual film constructed its own unique language, unlike spoken or written language which follows already existing codes.

Stephen Heath was one of many challengers of Metz's ideas. Heath proposed that cinematic representation itself formed the preexisting codes which comprised a cinematic language consistent to an extent between as well as within films.

A slightly mad, but useful, guide to semiotics in film (check out the rest of the site too): http://afronord.tripod.com/theory.html

A great (but complex) 'How to' for semiotics: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem12.html