Roland Barthes Enigma code

Barthe's enigma code is a theory that suggests a text (applies to television; a film or a post). Portrays a mystery to draw an audience in, pose questions and as such become intrigued in the piece.

For instance, a murderer mystery  will often not reveal the identity of the murderer until the end of the story which poses the guest 'who is the murderer?'

Narrative/Enigma code:
Barthe's theory of the five codes is a way of grouping signifies according to the role play in the text.

• The semantic code - the voice of a person - elements which convey a sense of connotation

• The proairetic code - the voice of empirics - builds tension for the audience/reader and to keep them guessing for future events.

• The cultural code - the voice of knowledge - specific concepts/subjects are usually known for this particular category (religion, science) further concentration on specific audiences.

• The symbolic code - the voice of the symbol - this code is a greater augmentation than the semantic code which has more additional meaning, new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideology. 

• The hermeneutic code - the voice of truth - refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and becomes an automatic mystery to the reader.

This is an element in a story that is not explained (kept as a distinct secret). Therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising question.

The five codes can be quite imperative to the audience. The text which is displayed conveys meaning and specification for the audience; the reader/audience will need to decipher the text to verify and confirm the particular meanings of the text. The codes are require for title sequences to give intentional concepts of ideology to the audience - if the codes give the desired amount of satisfaction to the audience than they might be more enthralled for the simplicity of watching the film.

Questionnaire feedback

In our groups, we came up with a questionnaire to give to people about our film, this is the feedback which we received: 

 

Summary:
 Overall, our audience expect for our film to be a dark comedy/horror/action. They expect to see death, violence and zombies. They expect to see zombies, killing, news footage and an introduction to the film within the title sequence. They expect to hear screams, zombie noises, gunfire and slow deep music in the title sequence. They expect to see low key / dark lighting. They think the protagonist should be aged from high teenage years to low 20 year olds. There is a 3 - 2 on the type of font the title should be (we should play around with the title more with these fonts and ask again). The audience would typically see the film late at night and at the weekend, typically children aren't around at night and this would put the audience in the mindset to be scared, getting the audience ready for the diegesis of the film. Typically, the audience expect to see a low budget.

Need to:

1. Play around with the fonts 
2. Question the same audience about the titles
3. Prelim/initial storyboards for the film

Improved Pitch for our film

Now we have a better cast to fit our budget, they are an all British cast (including new directors). Our Directors fit more with our zombie genre and our budget. We finally have a name for our horror/dark humour comedy genre of film; A Zombie Movie. 

Presentation - Kyle Cooper

Pitch

Pitch:

Feedback:

We gathered the information from the feedback sheets which were completed by the other groups during class. We have fixed the specific anomalies and improved our pitch from the information which we gathered from the other groups which filled out the feedback sheets. We realised that we need to change the director as Tarantino directs films for £20 million a picture.

Analysing The Conjuring Title Sequence

In our groups, we came up with a questionnaire to give to people about our film, this is what we got:

 

Summary:
 Overall, our audience expect for our film to be a dark comedy/horror/action. They expect to see death, violence and zombies. They expect to see zombies, killing, news footage and an introduction to the film within the title sequence. They expect to hear screams, zombie noises, gunfire and slow deep music in the title sequence. They expect to see low key / dark lighting. They think the protagonist should be aged from high teenage years to low 20 year olds. There is a 3 - 2 on the type of font the title should be (we should play around with the title more with these fonts and ask again). The audience would typically see the film late at night and at the weekend, typically children aren't around at night and this would put the audience in the mindset to be scared, getting the audience ready for the diegesis of the film. Typically, the audience expect to see a low budget.

Need to:

• Play around with the fonts 

  • Question the same audience about the titles

    • Prelim/initial storyboards for the film

Group analysis: Evil Dead - Wednesday

Evil Dead - Title sequence


The beginning of the sequence shows the title of the film; Evil Dead. the title looks like blood vessels which connotes that the film will be about blood and death. The music is orchestral which builds tension within the audience.The use of the red and black contrasts and makes the red stand out. Red connotes danger and blood. The use of extreme close ups make the audience feel uncomfortable and nervous as they cannot see any characters and only weapons.

 The shot of blood on the wood makes the audience think of cabins, which shows that the diegesis of the film could be set some where rural; like a cabin. The music makes the audience feel 'spooked' which makes the audience think of demons and part of the paranormal. There are multiple shots of skin/meat/flesh ripping, cutting, slicing, stabbing which makes the audience think there will be a lot of violence in the film. The lightbulb filling up with blood makes could symbolise no hope within the film and foreshadow that something bad will happen in the film.

There is a shot of a girl's head with a chainsaw ripping through it, this shows to the audience  the brutality of the film and the level of violence within the film. The use of slow pace editing makes the audience feel tension building. The finger dropping into a pool of blood connotes and foreshadows themes of torture and death.

The use of scratchy font and symbols makes the audience think of paranormal, demons and a higher power. The chain symbolises torture, restriction and prison, this may foreshadow what will happen within the film. The music builds and gets faster, this makes the audience feel more tense and foreshadows more death. The fire could connote destruction, hell and chaos, this could foreshadow what happens in the film to the audience.