Media Language Essay

Media language essay. Media language does not refer to the words spoken by and actor in the text, but the language and codes of the medium. Semiotics is a major topic when exploring media texts in horror films. They are used to describe how meaning is constructed through language and codes for example a sign is anything that carries meaning, it can be explicit icons, implicit symbols or iconic signs. I will be exploring different theorist’s beliefs and theories on media language in horrors. The first theorist is a man called Ferdinand de Saussure, he explored the signifier and the signified. He stated that the signifier is the physical form of the sign, the signified is the idea that the signifier produces and the referent is the real thing it stands for. Regarding my summer there are many elements that relate to Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory. For example in my trailer we use the weapon of a knife to stab and harm the protagonist. The referent would just be that it was a weapon used against someone to hurt them. On the other hand the knife is also seen as a signifier used against the protagonist to signify penetration. Instead of stabbing the protagonist, the antagonist is penetrating the protagonist sexually. It explores the idea of male dominance and power that they have over someone usually a woman. Symbolic codes are also explored through the media language of a horror. A theory was created in regard to symbolic codes, this was that mise-en-scene is a way the media language is shown through. These are things like costume, props and setting and lighting. Lighting was explored through my media summer trailer extensively, it is a very important aspect of films as different lighting helps to establish setting, characters and moods. I made sure I filmed at night in a setting that didn’t have a lot of light. For example a lot of it was filmed in an alleyway next to a field. This only had street lighting and the occasional use of a camera torch, I found this effective because the darkness behind the main subject of the scene created enigma and suspense. This is because no one knew what was happening and therefore was scared in suspense. Technical codes are also explored through the media language of horror films. When describing movement with the camera in a film we consider the primary and secondary action. For example the primary being the movement of the characters and the secondary being the movement in the camera relating to those objects. The camera shots and angles we use is very important in horrors because it lets us create different scenes that are effective in different scenes of a horror. For example in my summer trailer we used multiple tracking shots of the protagonist in things like chases, this is an effective camera movement because it creates suspense and puts us in the point of view of the antagonist. I will defiantly be using this camera movement in my actual teaser trailer because I know its effective and will help achieve the way I want my trailer to look. Editing is widely effective and explored in filming too. A lot of the important work for films and their pre-production is done in the editing suite and can be broken down using a range of language. When my summer trailer was being created we filmed a lot of long scenes and therefore felt we needed to edit them. This was great when we wanted to do shorts clips that helped create a montage. Instead of filming short clips we just edited long ones down to short and smaller ones. This was very effective and I know for certain if I hadn’t edited the trailer before presenting it then it would be nowhere near as good as it was as its final product. Finally audio codes are used to be explored in horror films, this is sound. Sound refers to the strong relationship between dialogue and visuals and the effect sound has to a text. A main type of sound that is explored in horrors are diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Non diegetic sound was widely explored in my summer trailer. I used a soundtrack that fitted my horror genre and scenes well and it was therefore really effective in my final product. I will definitely be using it in my real final product. In conclusion media language has been explored by many theorists that created different explanations about the horror genre. After analysing their theories against my own summer trailer I feel it has helped me improve on my previous work in time for my future work. I now won’t make these mistakes that are identified through the theories and it will therefore improve my grade for the future.