**posts with red text have been revised after feedback.

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Barthes's Codes

Action Code - advances the narrative and tells you what's coming next (car engine, siren, explosion)
EG - "Run" dialogue - chase scene follows.

Enigma code - controls what the audience sees or knows. Sets up clues as to what's to come. Audience has to work it out. Common in advertising.
EG - Close ups of knife in thriller opening.

Semantic code - recognisable visual element that gives a meaning different from what is visually being shown. Like connotations and denotations.
EG - white mask = purity, angelic - contrasts Masked Murderer's personality.

Points of cultural reference - things we normally see/value as important to out culture. Shared knowledge about the way the world works. Tied to events like Christmas, Eid or using a bus.

Symbolic codes - similar to semantic codes but act on a wider level. Organise semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. Typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas.
EG - Heather wearing red, Sean wearing black - danger and baddie. 

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