Semiotics are the study of sign using behaviour and it was defined by one of its finders, Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure as the study of ‘the life of signs within society.’

Saussure treated language as a sign system and his work in linguistics has supplied concepts and methods that semioticians apply to the sign system other than language. One semiotic concept is Saussure’s distinction between two inseparable components of a sign – the signifier which is a set of speech sounds or marks on a page and signified which is the concept or idea behind the sign.

Modern semioticians have applied Pierce and Saussure’s principles to a variety o fields, including aesthetics, anthropology, communications and semantics.

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). semiotics | Definition, Theory, Examples, & Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/semiotics [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].

How this will help me

Semiotics will help me in my work when it comes to filming my interviews when I think about mise en scene, shots, the way they’re sitting and the lighting etc. For example, when I film my interview with the historian, I will have him filmed near something related to Liverpool which is based on the topic he is talking about. I will focus on the shots, like when they are telling a story for example, when I get historian to speak about the history of the docks and he will tell the audience a story on it so I will use a mid shot of him. This shows the audience that they are telling a story and play a huge part in the documentary.

I will also use the semiotics theory when it comes to filming my cutaways, I will film them that is related to what is being said, for example, I will get loads of shots of the docks when the historian talks about them so that when he is talking I will have a lot of cutaways to use over his interview. This is the same for the voiceover, when it introduces the music segment of the project, I will have loads of cutaways of the music scene in the city, so I will film on Mathew Street and Seal Street, this is so that the audience know that this is now on the music scene and when it introduces the musician, it will show the musician so they know what they are going to see next.

UPDATE

How this has helped me

This theory has helped me when it came to filming, thinking of how signs and symbols represent my work and how the audience understand the idea behind my work. When it came to filming my interview with Frank, I filmed him with photos of Liverpool on his wall at home which shows the audience that I have done this intentionally and it was my original idea to do this so that the mise en scene represented the topic he was talking about which was Liverpool and its iconic attractions which are in the pictures within the city.

The semiotics theory also helped me when it came to filming my cutaways after filming my interviews and looking at interview questions prior to the interviews so I know what I needed to film. I went out after filming Frank’s interview and I listened to what he had said as well as after writing the interview questions for Paul who is the musician and I thought of what shots I could get to use as cutaways over their interviews, the audience will know I have done this because they will see the idea of the stories being told with images and shots of the related topics as well, this also shows visual representation.

The hypodermic needle theory helps with my audience theory. I did research on it to help get the perception of getting my message in my product into audience that don’t have the slightest interest and how I can use it in my own work.

The hypodermic needle theory is a linear communication theory that suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of passive audiences.

In this theory the media is seen as powerful and able to inject ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive and could be influenced by a message. In the 1930s in Nazi Germany and during world war 2 films were used to inject propaganda ideas promoting there Nazi cause to the German audience.

The Hypodermic theory gives the media a lot of power than it can ever have in a democracy. The concept ignores the idea that not everyone in an audience will behave in there same way. There will be many times that people have seen on television or thought something wasn’t funny or a show was awful.

Revisionworld.com. (2019). Hypodermic Needle theory – Media Studies – Revision World. [online] Available at: https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/media-studies-level-revision/hypodermic-needle-theory [Accessed 17 Apr. 2019].

This theory doesn’t apply to my work

I understand this theory as it persuades people to do something for example to vote by advertisements and documentaries for passive viewers who will be influenced and persuaded by messages but in my work it doesn’t apply. My production is more of people’s lives and telling a story and summarising different views on cultures in one city rather than it having any political views or propaganda.

I have done some research on reception theory to help get a better understanding on my audience and what positions they are in when they decode the text of my production.

Reception theory was developed by Stuart Hall which media texts are encoded and decoded. This is where the producer encodes a message and the audience then decodes it in different ways and not in the way the producer had originally intended. 

Stuart Hall states that audience members adopt one of the following three positions when they decode the text which are: dominant, or preferred reading, oppositional ready and negotiated reading.

Dominant, or preferred reading is how the producer wants the audience to view the media text. Audience will take this position if the message is clear and if the members are the same age and culture then if it has an easy follow narrative and if it deals with themes that are relevant to the audience.

Oppositional reading is when the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own meaning. This happens if the media contains controversial themes that the audience disagree with. It can also arise when the media has a complex narrative structure perhaps not dealing with themes in modern society. This may also occur if the audience has different beliefs, ages and cultures.

Negotiated reading is a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the producer’s views and also has their own views on parts. This can occur if the audience members like the media, same age as it may help get a better understanding, but the narrative is complex and it inhibits full understanding.

My audience would fit into the first part which is the dominant, or preferred reading because the audience will be able to go follow my product easy if they are of the same culture it deals with themes relevant to the audience who will mainly be from Liverpool and they will get the message that I as the producer am giving.

Revisionworld.com. (2019). Reception Theory – Media Studies – Revision World. [online] Available at: https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/media-studies-level-revision/reception-theory [Accessed 4 Apr 2019].

How this will help me

This will help me when it comes to planning and editing my documentary because I know what position my audience fit in when decoding the text of my production. I will make sure when I am typing my script out and when I am writing my questions that the message of the documentary is clear to my audience which is the culture of Liverpool. When I am typing my voiceover script out, I will make sure that I am making it easy to follow for example, when I introduce the music part of the production, I will introduce the musician and I will introduce the music of the city as well to give some background information that the interviewee doesn’t talk about so the audience can follow the narrative.

UPDATE

How this has helped me

When writing my interview questions for Frank, Paul, Grandad and my friend, I asked them questions so that the audience can follow what they are saying and talking about. I have put cutaways over their interviews so that they know what is being said and they have a visual representation. I wrote my grandads part so that the people who are from Anfield and grew up in the same times as him and the audience and I want the audience to view this media text as I wanted them originally which is how Anfield has changed over time from as early as the late 1950s/ early 1960s.

When writing my script, I spoke about the history of the docks, music culture and the football culture. I have the narrator introducing each part so that the audience find the narrative easy to follow and they will know what is coming up next and with montages and cutaways to match so that they once again have visual representation of what is being spoken about. By doing these three different segments of different cultures, the audience will be able to follow it easier because they will most likely be of the sane culture and most ages will be able to relate.

I have done some research on Bill Nichols as a whole because I used his work for my research on expository documentaries.  I did some research on his theories and techniques in expository that he talks about in his book and how  I will apply them to my own work in Expository Documentaries – Bill Nichols.

Bill Nichols is known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary study of documentary film. His book, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary applied to modern film theory to the study of documentary for the first time.

Nichols has lectured in numerous countries countries and served on film juries on different continents and published over 100 articles. He is former president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, a former American Filmmaker Institute and served as Department Chair in Canada and the United States. The Encyclopedia of Documentary Film describes his place within film studies as the most significant documentary scholar in the world. Nichols has been to offer a conceptual framework for the study and production of documentary film.

Cinema.sfsu.edu. (2019). Bill Nichols | School of Cinema. [online] Available at: https://www.cinema.sfsu.edu/people/emeriti/bill-nichols [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019].

Nick Broomfield is an English documentary film director. He studied Law at Cardiff and Political Science at Essex University. He went on to then study Film at the National Film School. His work shows the techniques he uses and I will apply the same techniques to my own documentary film.

He discovered his love for photography when he was 15 on a foreign exchange visit in France. He made his first film on Slum Clearance in Liverpool called ‘Who Cares’ whilst at University.

Professor Colin Young at the NFS influenced his work who encouraged participation and observations and introducing him to Joan Churchill. Joan and Nick created several films together; Juvenile Liaison, Tattooed Tears, Soldier Girls, Lily Tomlin and more. They also have a son together.

Nick originally was influenced by the observational style of Fred Wiseman and Robert Leacock before he moved on to the more idiosyncratic style by accident for which he is known for. When filming Driving Me Crazin in 1988, he decided to place himself as the producer of the film in the story, this was a way to make sense of the story.

This experiment led to the sense of freedom, from the confines of observational cinema and led to a more experimental type of filmmaking like; The Leader The Driver, Aileen Wurnos, Kurt and Courtney, Biggie and Tupac.

Nickbroomfield.com. (2019). Bio – Nick Broomfield’s Official Website. [online] Available at: http://www.nickbroomfield.com/Bio [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].

QUOTES

‘You know so many documentaries now are very carefully scripted before you start, and then people are sort of put in chairs which are beautifully lit, and they tell their stories and you do that with another 10 people and you then construct a story from what they say. You do a sort of paper thing, and then you put some images in-between, and that’s your film. And that’s so not what I think is a good documentary. It can be so much more than that, it should be much more of an adventure and much more uncertain… like real things are.’ – Nick Broomfield.

‘Music documentaries are hard to tell, but I think they’re an amazing vehicle to look at racism, our attitude to sex, the way we judge drugs. There’s the ability to get a big audience because of these incredible, iconic, charismatic people. You can look at a number of issues – the challenge is to make sure you choose something that has all those issues. Popular music is like a mirror of culture, of who we are.’ – Nick Broomfield.

A-Z Quotes. (2019). Nick Broomfield Quote. [online] Available at: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1588440 [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].

I have decided to use smaller interviews as well as the main interview with the historian who will be talking right throughout the whole thing. I have decided how I will have my interviews, I have looked at existing interviews in documentaries and looked at all the techniques like the shots, looking room and the lighting etc. I did these in Interview analysis – Leaving Neverland.

I am talking about different cultures throughout my documentary, I was thinking I could interview people from the different cultures in the city like a musician and they can talk about the music culture in the history and how it has developed. My main interviewee will give information on the history and development of the city and the docks and then the regeneration in the city and how it affected people’s lives.

Whilst speaking about the regeneration of Liverpool, I will interview my grandad who lived in the bad conditions in Anfield and what it was like living in them conditions and what it is like today and how it affected people after it changed. This will give the audience an idea of what it was like coming from someone who actually experienced it.

I will then go on to talking about the music in the city and I want to interview someone within the music industry so I can get all the information who may be more knowledgeable on the subject to show the audience that he knows what he is talking about. They will talk about the music of the city and how it affected the city and the success it brought to merseyside.

The art of the city will then be brought up and I have decided if I interview someone it will be an artist in the city and they will also talk about the affect art has had on the city and their influences. If the artist has any of their work in a museum or a gallery then I hope to interview them in front of it after getting permission.

The last segment will be on the football which is Everton and Liverpool and I will interview someone who will know how the football has affected and influenced merseyside culture. Hopefully, I will be interviewing someone from the Liverpool or Everton club which will be impartial with the views and positive comments about both teams rather than be biased. The interviewee will most probably be Scouse because there will be more proud and have more to say.

Interviewing people will let the audience see how the different cultures in the city have affected different people and their lives as well as affecting the city. Having interviews will get other people’s honest opinions and will be more balanced hearing different views on things.

I need to start looking at the platforms I will be uploading my project to, I need to do research on the different platform by looking at the stats on the audience and the genres shown on there.

I have looked at the different possible platforms I could upload my documentary up to which is a film festival that I will need to do more research on.

YouTube which I need to look at the statistics to the audience and what they watch on there depending on who my target audience is.

I could upload my documentary up to a Liverpool history account on Facebook, instagram and twitter and look into their followers by looking at their profiles and looking at their gender and age. I will also look at the things they upload.

My documentary will contain some archival footage as it will have some history information in it. Archive is a huge technique used in historical documentaries. Archival footage is library pictures and film or video footage used again in other films. It gives the viewers more of an idea of historical events that have happened and are spoken about in the film or documentary.

I have watched a documentary called The Romance of Indian Railways which is a 50 minute documentary about the 150th anniversary of the first transmitted in 1975 and a visit is made to India to survey one of the world’s most impressive railway networks. I have used this to get an idea of what and when they use archival footage throughout the film and how I can apply the same to my own documentary.

The documentary starts with archive of a vintage train moving with diegetic sound which is the sound of the wheels moving along the tracks. This being the first shot, the audience know straight away what the documentary is about which is obviously trains back in the 1900s. After this shot, the next one is the front of the train moving so we get more of an idea of what it looks like. This has Indian music over it so we know it is set in India.

The voiceover comes in after a short montage of the trains and the railways for a few moments but as the voice over comes in, the archive montages continue to show but different trains and railways. I will use archival footage when I speak about the docks and how they developed from the Blitz up to now and I will get my footage from libraries in Liverpool and other small documentaries on the history of Liverpool. I will continue looking for archive footage when I do more research and see what I will need to get it on.

The archival footage is used right throughout the documentary because it is a history documentary so I will most likely use archival footage as well as my own shots.

The archive footage will be used under the voice over and what the interviewee will be speaking about for example, if they speak about some famous tourist attractions in Liverpool like the Liver Building then I will take my own shots of them and then get some from books and the internet which will be my archive footage.

Bbc.co.uk. (2019). BBC iPlayer – The World About Us – The Romance of Indian Railways. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0120460/the-world-about-us-the-romance-of-indian-railways [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].

The sources I will be getting my archive from will be a library from by my house and I will be getting permission from the library because it is their property but I will also getting it off the historian I am interviewing who I have already spoke to and he offered to give me some. I will get them to sign a release so I have proof they have allowed me to use their work.