Media Language: Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of 'signs'. The basic formula for semiotics is made up of 'the signifier' and 'the signified'. 

The signifier is the image itself, what it shows, and what the audience sees when they look at it. The signified is the connotations suggested by the image, and the implied meanings that the audience will take from it. 

Some examples of semiotics taken from my AS Coursework: 

In this image, the audience sees a woman using a photocopier. By her style of dress, and the environment she is in, we can guess that she is in an office type environment of some kind. This simple view of the image would be the signifier.
The signified aspect of this image is was really gives it it's quality. In the lower left hand corner of the image, you may or may not have noticed the strange looking girl standing on the staircase, visible through the window. Although she is not hiding, most people would not see this character straight away. This idea of 'hiding in plain sight' encourages the horror theme running throughout my coursework. The implied meaning of this is that danger can be right in front of you but most of us don't pay enough attention to notice it. This is boosted by the idea that the 'danger' in this scenario is not an object, but another person.


The idea of 'hiding in plain sight' has been sucessfully used in many horror films, but possibly the most effective use of it i have seen was in Insidious.

The signifier of this image is just a stack of paper, probably some sort of office filing, nothing overly interesting. only upon closer inspection would the audience notice the writing ON the paper, which informs us that this 'office filing' is in fact a psychological assessment, stating that the patient it relates to is classified as 'Extremely Dangerous.' From this, the audience are able to make their own decisions about the reasons why a person could be considered dangerous, and therefore each person's interpretation of the film will be different. This is intended to be a horror film, so i really like the idea that the audience are able to create their own fears because they are putting their own interpretations into the film, so will make the film more personal to themselves. 

This screenshot, taken from the opening credits of my coursework, initally appears to be a typical horror film cliché. Bloody handprints are not uncommon in horror, and are most often left by the 'victim.' In this case, the signified aspect of this is formed by the fact that the handprint features 6 digits, as apposed to the 5 we normally expect. This hints to the idea of something paranormal or unusual. Although in most cases, the significance of this handprint is missed by the audience, due to the style of our editing. From this mistake i have learnt how best to present these signifiers to the audience, for fuller impact.