Objective:

Understanding Film Semiotics is designed to initiate you in the scholarly analysis of motion pictures as it has developed historically, philosophically and methodologically. Specifically, it will, acquaint you with the basic vocabulary of film studies and film theory and help you use that language to articulate your observations about motion pictures. Develop your abilities to discuss and write critically about philosophy. Deepen your enjoyment and appreciation of film and video as art forms and experiences.

Course Outcome

At the end of the course, learners will be able to:

CO1: Understand the importance of Semiotics and Representation.

CO2: Acquire the significant knowledge about Cinema and its structures.

CO3: Acquire an in-depth knowledge about the Denotation, Connotation and Film Semiotics.

CO4: Acquire basic understandings about the Film theory, Film form and Film function.

CO5: Understand the Film Semiotic Analysis.

 

Unit: I INTRODUCTION TO SEMIOTICS                                                 

Semiotics: Definition, Nature & Scope, The Object of Semiotics, Defining the Sign, Structural Properties, Semiosis and Representation, Types of Signs, Nonverbal Communication. General Features of Signs, Six Species of Signs, Signal. The Study of the Verbal Sign, Verbal and Nonverbal Signing.

 Unit: II INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA                                                      

What is cinema? History of Cinema, early cinema and film form, Cinema and society, film as language. Screenplay, Rule of ABDCE, story, plot, screen duration, structure, beginning – middle – end, characterization, character functions, restricted and unrestricted narration, open and closed narrative, voice over, objective and subjective narration alterative narratives, structuralist approaches to narrative, narrative codes, new forms of spectatorship.

Unit: III SEMIOTICS OF FILMS                                                                    

Films use signs, Denotation and Connotation: The enigma code, the connotative code, the action code, the symbolic code, the cultural code. Filmic semantics, Symbolicity and film, Cinematographic connotation and denotation, Semiotics of filmic perception, Semiotics of filmic montage, Semiotics of moving camera, Semiotics of filmic sound, Semiotics of filmic movement, time and space.

Unit: IV FILM THEORIES                                                                            

Film theory – form and function, Film analysis, Auteur Theory, role of Cahiers du cinema, effect of auteur, Contributions of D W Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, Jean Du Godard, apparatus theory, feminist theory, formalist theory, Marxist theory and psychoanalytical theory of film, Digital Aesthetics, Music and choreography, film genre.

Unit: V FILM SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS                                                          

Deleuzian filmic semiotics, Metzian filmic semiotics, Semiotics of the postmodern cinema, Semiotics of Hyper-Reality, Semiotics of Filmic psychology. Films for viewing: The Birth of a Nation (1915),Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Breathless (1960) ,Grease (1978 ),The Dollar Trilogy, Face/Off (1997), No Country for Old Men (2007). Semiotics of the film Se7en (David Fincher; 1995)

 

 

Total: 90 Hrs