Description
Reading on Lacan
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Psychoanalysis-CINEMA-AND-THE-MIRROR.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/lacancin.html
Basic guide on how To analyse a Film – Semiotic Reading
As you might guess, conducting a semiotic analysis of a the visual moving image is a somewhat more complicated venture than conducting a semiotic analysis of a print advertisement. This is not to say, of course, that movies and advertisements do not share similarities. Both, for example, are “texts” that rely on visual imagery to tell specific stories, and both are in the business of promoting specific ideologies. At the same time, print advertisements are limited by the static nature of their medium. Film, on the other hand, is not a static medium, and thus its stories are much more complex. Analyzing a film, then, as our text relates, is much more like “reading a novel”. In short, analyzing a the visual requires you to take a careful look at the setting, plot, characters, dialogue, symbols, metaphors, archetypes, etc., as well as those factors that have an influence on the film, such as the social, historical, and political context in which the film was created.
STEPS FOR CONDUCTING A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
PLEASE NOTE – This is a basic level of approaching your task and you must engage with more complicated frameworks covered in the module!
You need to watch this
https://youtu.be/kD8hbg67u5c
Despite the differences between movies and advertisements, the goal of a semiotic analysis of a film is nonetheless the same as a semiotic analysis of an advertisement, namely to determine its current social significance. With than in mind, here is an expanded and modified version of the steps for conducting a semiotic analysis, tailored specifically to film:
1.) Establish the sign (film) to be decoded
2.) Set aside your opinion; your task is to analyze the current social significance (This assignment is NOT a review)
3.) Determine what the sign means (analysis of setting, plot, characters, symbols, etc.)
4.) Discuss how the scene represents its topic
5.) Sketch the overall context (historical, cultural, and political) in which the sign appears
6.) Develop a list of questions, concerns, and/or issues that will guide your analysis
REMEMBER THIS IS NOT A TASK IN DENOTATION!
Visual Cultures – Interviews File
The Cognitive Semiotics of Film
