Week 7 : Examine a Photograph or a Still Production

A perfume advertisement by Quizas

This is a perfume advertisement by Quizas. As you can see, the communicator of this advertisement would either be the photographer or the artist itself. The product or service being advertise here is definitely perfume for the woman.

Looking at the advertisement, it is clearly shown that the perfume is made for women ranging from teen to middle aged especially those looking to impress their date. It give the illusion that by using this product, the lady in question will be able to attract the man of their desire to her. By using this product, a woman will be able to get notice by the man of her dream among the sea of woman out there. This product exploited the fact that a lot of woman out there fear of being undesirable, unnoticed. This product give them a sense of power and confident in their own self.

Looking back at the advertisement, we can clearly see that it is not verbal. The pose of the model, the lack of text and the simplicity it has. It is a picture of a thousand word but yet convey a single message, about an elegant pefume by Quizzas.

Week 6 - Assumptions and Contributions of Semiotics

We decided to choose a scene from the movie "Life is Beautiful (1997)"  by Roberto Benigni. 

1. What is the story about?
> The story is about a Jewish Italian guy called Guido Orefice, who fell in love and married a wealthy non-Jewish Italian lady by the name of Dora, who happens to be the local school teacher. Their marriage granted them a child by the name of Giosue Orefice. World War 2 came in and Guido helps his family after they were all detained into the Nazi Concentration camp.

2. What do you think happen next?
> Giosue complain that  he was hungry and wanted to see his mum, Dora.

3. Who are these characters?
> It could be say that Guido is seen as a caring, funny and loving dad. No matter how bad the situation is, he always try to make sure that his son,Giosue doesn't know about the real truth. He always make sure that his son think of their time in the Nazi Concentration camp as a game in order to make sure his son doesn't get kill.

4. What are they doing?
> Giosue is suspicious of the whole "game" event his father was talking about as the detainees talked with each other.

5. What sort of people are they?
> The detainees, as seen in their blue and white striped uniform that they were force to wear.

6. What can you tell about the relationship between the characters in the scene?
> In  order to protect his son, Guido tell his son Giosue that the camp they are in right now are just a game.

7. Where is it set.
> In the Nazi concentration camp.

8. Why has the film/program maker chosen this particular background or location?
> So the audience can relate to the pain and torture that this particular group of people have to face during the time of Nazi concentration camp and WW2.

9.  What does it mean for the story?
> The location shown in the movie represent the dorm where the Nazis place the jews civilians and the horror they unfold upon them.

10. How does it relate to the story?
> The location, people, what they wear and props gives you an assumption on where it was. The audience know all of those civilians who were force into the train were going to be shipped to the Nazi Concentration camp. This is also further reinforce by Guido before he enter the dorm as we can see soldiers all around the camp.

11. Look at the props how are they relevant to the story?
> As can be seen by their iconic uniform, it is shown that they are the detainees of that camp. It is also easily recognizable by the people.

12. Are any props of particular significance?
> Yes

13. List all the features used by students to find out this information - such as sound actiong, props, camera work, colour, location music, etc.

> Acting : Guido always act like nothing horrible is happening. He always kept his cool and calming explained to his son about what is happening in a manner that won't make his son panic. This can be seen by how he lie to his son so that he would be safe and sound. The show of undivided love between father and son, Guido, as a father is willing to do anything for the safety of his son and his family.

> Camerawork : When Guido enter the dorm, a medium close up shot was use for the scene.

> Colour : A  bit dark, gloomy mood and colour can be seen at the same time. It symbolize the fear of Guido. The fear of the truth that he is trying to hide from his son.

> Location music : The music use  give you a sense of suspense to the audience.

Week 10-Semiotic Analysis

Introduction

Most advertising we see have powerful messages incorporated within them, which lead to some impact upon our society. Of course, in every message, there are always some hidden ones in them.

In this advertisement of Benson’s Hedge Cigarette, it portrays the attraction between a man and a woman, with the small input of the boxes of cigarettes of the associated brand within the picture. On the surface, it innocently told the mass audience of the pleasure and fulfillment of smoking such cigarette will earn you a woman for your pleasure. But within the picture itself, hides another hidden message that the mass audience easily overlooked and ignored. The advertisement itself reflected two types of sign and its message, which those with keen sight and have the knowledge on signs can truly understand.

Semiotic Analysis

This advertisement was produce in April 1976 inside the famous Time Magazine. It shows a handsome man smug gleefully while embracing a girl, apparently ready to kiss him. This advertisement, on the surface expressed the sign of male dominance and as the one in charge, as his hand wrapped around the girl’s body more dominantly and suggested he is the sign of the ‘leader’, as his face is shown more in comparison to the girl that he was hugging.

Before we talk deeper into the hidden signs of the advertisement itself, let us provide the message on the advertisement’s surface. The advertisement’s intended target audience was always the dominant force of the sexes, men as the advertisement shows the sign of male dominance in the picture. The advertisement itself provided the signs of smoking such cigarette’s represents as a sign of male sexuality and attraction, and that smoke such cigarette will help you to gain a love of your life. It is said that a sign represent as a capacity (Peirce 1931-58, 2.228) and the advertisement represented the capacity of a male dominant force capability of giving an overpowering state of mind within the content of the advertisement. And that icon represented the sign within the signifier that imitate or representing the sign (Peirce 1931-58, 2.306), the significance of the man gleefully smug is an icon represented the male as a sexually dominant position within the advertisement itself.

The message “If you got crushed in the clinch with your soft pack, try our hard pack” was intended to encourage the male consumers to purchase their cigarette, as if their brand was stronger, more potent and better than others. The text itself denote of any distracting color, only the white color behind the character and the darken background, given the emphasis of its importance to send such messages to the mass. In the content of “Semiotic for Beginners”, it is said that a great proportion of the shots has an oblique relationship to the text; they stand for the subject matter indexical or symbolically (Davis & Walton 1983b, 45), as the advertisement message covers a good proportion of the advertisement, it was able to send a message to the mess while not overpowering the other sign of the context as well.

However, there is another side of message within the advertisement itself. Although on the surface it advertised the dominance of man, if you make a careful observation to the poster itself, you will notice something unusual within the content of the advertisement itself. Pay attention to the man’s left arm, though a simple glance shows him hugging the girl, a closer look reveals another story. A close inspection reveals that there is something between his four fingers and thumb, which actually resemble an erected male phallus. Another point of view is that the artist who enhanced the picture used the airbrush to paint out the male organ or make it harder to notice. It is said that sign connected with its object by virtue of the idea (ibid., 2.299), the male organ as a sign suddenly changes the view of the entire picture of the advertisement itself.

The man in the picture, before we see the organ appeared to be confident and smug gleefully, and now we can see there is an expression of uncertainty and nervousness in his looks. He appears to be nervous, as there is something clearly wrong on what he appears to be holding. This is the other side of the advertisement, where the advertiser shows hidden signs to give a hidden message to those who truly understand what the advertisement on the other side meant. The male character appear to be nervous, which show the sign that a majority of the men in our society are not as dominant as we might have think, it also secretly reflects the shift of changes of status of man being rightful, dominant to a person of lust and felt guilty of it. Sign itself cannot represent the entire picture of content, a sign is symbolic, iconic or indexical depends primarily on the way in which the sign is used (Grayson 1998, 35). In here, the advertiser was actually showing two similar yet entirely contrasted signs, one is a dominance of one sex over another, and another is the uncertainty of one sex over another.

In the advertisement, the man might not be comfortable of hugging the girl as we might think after we seen clearly he have done something of guilt. With the picture comes with the text that supports the hidden message even further. The message “If you got crushed in the clinch with your soft pack, try our hard pack”, the actual sign unconsciously define of soft and hard is as followed, defined as “If you are nervous about sexual intimacy, smoke Benson and Hedges to compensate”, the hidden sign of the advertisement itself was intended to defined two kind of signifier, one stance for the mass to socially acceptance on the product, another is a hidden secret motivation to be hidden from the everyday viewer. However, there is a wide debate on the actual means of the hidden signs itself, as it can have another meaning, which largely dependent on those who interpret it and defined its hidden signs.

The advertiser seems intended to have such hidden signs as a hidden signature for their advertisement, while the hidden signs are actually offensive and socially unacceptable to the mass, it is very hard to be interpreted even to this day without close observation and firsthand knowledge on the interpretation of sign itself. Signs such as these can be use as a tool to spread powerful hidden code and codec while having a surface to prevent the mass from immediately see through at first glance.

Conclusion

From the advertisement itself, we’ve learn that there are hidden signs within a medium can be spread while keeping the audience entertained, like radio announcement, television shows, movies, etc, and hidden signs can be either offensive towards the public yet they unable to actually see it due to the lack of knowledge or logic to actually interpret the hidden signs and messages within the content itself and thus make such messages or signs acceptable to the mass.

To us, this advertisement show us that we can actually give two kinds of message, one are for those who see only the sign on the surface, another are for those who can interpreted the hidden signs within a content itself, and that we can send both messages to the mass. Not only have we able to make the mass socially accept us, but also send a powerful hidden message whilst keeping us from being offensive to the mass.

Weekly Blog: Semiotic & Reading Film

Semiotic and Film

Whats the connection between analysis film with semiotic? Is film language? To understand certain aspect of film doesn't need to put amount of work by learning the vocabulary instead learned to read images. From that, it will result to basic understanding of cultural interpretations. But, although the word pratically point out to reading, it is not the same as reading a material that consist of arbitrary sign system, which composed of alphabetic symbol.

Film unrelated to grammatical subjects and somehow to appreciate the value of film doesn't require an intellectual comprehending. Thus, there is no link between language and film itself.

To move further into reading film, certain amount of reading depends on three different element that act as keys to it:

1. The physiological good readers have efficient and extensive saccadic patterns
2. The ethnographic the most literate readers draw on experiences and knowledge of a wide variety of cultural visual conventions
3. The psychological readers who gain the most are the ones who assimilate sets of meaning and integrate those meanings as part of the experience of the text.

Apart from the different element, reading film can take place within different level where a certain level of viewers understand plot which is one of basic aspect in film, and another level is overlooking towards film by crtics and such. And thus film somwhat feels easy to grasp but on the other hand, film can become a hard part of subject to understand.

Week 5: Titanic!!

Titanic, the award winning story about a story of love between a boy and a girl, divided by class on an ill-fated maiden voyage of RMS Titanic. Directed by James Cameron, the film have a lot of meaning behind each scene as you go through the film. Let's talk about the two main character, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater.

This might have happen in the movie during the sinking, somewhere off the screen. 

Jack Dawson, his character represent a very poor, low class, very easy-going but determined American male. This is shown during his poker match to win the ticket to Titanic with Fabrizio from a couple of Irish guys. All their cash was on the table, Fabrizio shake nervously during the poker match but Jack stay calm and cool, giving the impression that "American are cool compare to the rest". After they won the ticket, Jack did it again by saying to the ship guard who were trying to inspect them that it's alright because they are American. 

The cool and calm artist in question.

Jack is also an artist and love to travel. Despite being poor, he has traveled to multiple places, meet multiple people, to draw especially Paris when he mention about the time when he draw a portrait of a one-legged prostitute. This shows him to be a slightly more complex person despite being poor, where usually someone of his stature are associated with being a criminal, a thief, a weakling, or a useless person. Another interesting thing to mention about him is his philosophy, which he mention during his dinner with the "first class" peoples. " I work my way from place to place", he says, which describe him as a free and independent character from which was further reinforced by his other statement "but I won my ticket on Titanic here at a lucky hand at poker". 

The not-your-typical high class lady in question.

At first glance, Rose DeWitt Bukater/Dawson is shown to be a high class lady who is expected to be behaved, appropriate and rich young woman. Well, that is just the outer shell. Whats' inside is a screaming young lady, forced into an engagement with Caledon Nathan "Cal" Hockley, in order to save her family from debt. She wish nothing more than to be free and independent. Jack came in into her life and show her how to have fun the simple way. Jack independent and free simple life make Rose fell in love with him.


To conclude this, I would say that every element in this movie is important. How the director arrange those message to be relate to the audience. In the end it all falls back to the basic of semiotic in linking those message with the audience. I think this what makes is movie a memorable and a legend to remember.

Weekly Blog: Denotation, Cornotation & Myths By Roland Barthes

Denotation, Cornotation & Myths

From what Saussure defne semiotic as a subject of science which studies the role of signs as part of social life. And from Pierce who define semiotic as similar to logic where semiotic is a formal doctrine for signs. Furthermore, the subject matter which stands to somebody and have aspects of respect and capacity and therefore every thoughts count as signs.

Whereas Barthes define semiotic as whatever substance and limit; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects and complex associations of all these in a form of ritual, entertainment or convention are system of signs where aim by semiology. These constitute, if its not apply as languages, might as known to systems of signification.

Barthes indicated semiotics with mythologies. The myth represented as the secondary significations. An aspect of sign that can communicate with words, images, film or whatever it is that somehow the meaning used to define the bourgeois society and thus become a part of a new sign community.

“ According to Barthes, the principle of myth is that it transforms history into nature. Signs and codes are generated by myths and in turn serve to maintain them. Popular usage of the term ‘myth’ suggests that it refers to beliefs which are demonstrably false, but the semiotic use of the term does not necessarily suggest this...”

“...Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our experiences within a culture (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 185-6). They express and serve to organize shared ways of conceptualizing something within a culture. ”

A myth is a complex cluster of connotations frequently associated with an oft-repeated story. Barthes

Weekly Blog: History Of Semiotic: Basic Concepts of Semiotics by Saussure and Pierce

History of Semiotic

"It is... possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life. It would form part of social psychology, and hence of general psychology. We shall call it semiology." By Saussure

Semiotic is comprehend as a representative of meaning creator through any forms alike.To be more exact, two form which is text, a form where it be interpret through mediums in aspect of verbal, non verbal or both. Text most likely the the link between a sender and receiver which is known as a message that been us in every aspect such as audio or video recording. To be more specific, when sender/encodes send the message, as interpret to a noise, verbal or non verbal action and receive by a receiver/decodes as to acknowledge the message and give feedback to the sender. As been inform, communication also been organize by semiotic rules:

Syntatic, form of symbols and signs.
Pragmatic, relate to a point between users and the relation of signs and expression and..
Semantic, study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent.