Barthe's Enigma Code

Barthe's Enigma Code

1. Proariretic code (the voice of empirirics): The code of actions. Any action initiated must be completed. The cumulative actions constitute the plot events of the text.
2. Hermeneutic code (the voice of truth): The code of enigmas or puzzles.
3. Connotative (or Semic) code (the voice of the person): The accumulation of connotations. Semes, sequential thoughts, traits and actions constitute character. 'The proper noun surrounded by connotations'. 
4. Cultural or referential code (the voice of science (or knowledge): Though all codes are cultural we reserve this designation for the storehouse of knowledge we use in interpreting everyday experience.
5. Symbolic code (voice of the symbol): Binary oppositions or themes. The inscription into the text of the antithesis central to the organization of the cultural code. 

Carol J. Clover - Her body, Himself

The article of 'her body, himself' (extract) expresses how women are portrayed on TV and how it has changed over time. Women have gone from being the 'pretty' images on TV in which they are victims of murders, being killed off to becoming 'The Final Girl'/ Films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978) explore the aspect of the final girl. In the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. Sally becomes the final girl, escaping from 'Leatherface' and in 'Halloween' Laurie, being the last one of her friends still standing, but Michael Myers still not defeated. I personally believe that women have come a long way on TV and in film and have definitely had a role reversal over time. The article explores in depth women on TV and how they are usually implicated by men. One suggestion from the article was that a man would rather see a pretty women on TV being murdered than an ugly women or a man. This could indicate that women are still being presented as 'sex symbols' on TV even though they are taking on a more masculine role, becoming the 'alpha female'. Some men would rather sexualise the heroine than see an ugly woman take on that role which I believe is unfair, women should be rewarded for their acting, not looks.

I still believe that it happens today as 'final girl' roles are usually depicted by good looking women. Films such as Psycho (1960) explore women being portrayed as inferior to men and men have authority and dominate women on TV.

Why do 'men act and women appear'?

Laura Mulvey wrote a very influential essay, 'visual pleasure and narrative cinema' (1975) suggests that the way women are viewed in cinema is 'unequal'. The camera necessarily presents women as 'sexualised', for the pleasure of men.

The Male Gaze

1. The look of the camera as it records the filmic event.
2. The look of the audience as it watches the final film product.
3. The look of the characters at each other in the visual images of screen illusion.

Voyeurism - Stemmed from Sigmund Freud. The compulsion to seek gratification by secretively looking at sexual objects or acts; the actions of a Peeping Tom. For example, in the opening of Psycho (1960), the camera pans into Marion Cranes bedroom which gives a sense of an audience watching something they're not suppose to be seeing as it is private.  

Audience Theories

Hypodermic Model



It has immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. An intended message is directly received.

Copycat/Modelling Theory

                                                                                                                                                                         









It is modelled or inspired by an act which has been publicized in the media.    

Cultivation Theory                                        

Leaves people with a mis-perception of what is true in the world.

Uses/Gratifications Theory


Is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media.

Desensitisation Theory


When media audiences' reaction grow weaker due to the exposure to violence and death etc.

Reception Theory



It emphasizes the readers reception of a text that can be read.

Paul Wells

In class, we looked at theorist, Paul Wells and reviewed his research. As you can see from below, I made some notes on his research in which he conducted.

41-55 years (1945-1974)

• Conducted a small focus group study. (12 people)
• Interest in horror whilst younger, rather than enduring with age.
• Night and dark - reminded them of walking home in the dark as youths. 
• Real horror of World War 2 meant they didn't like imaginary horror. 
• Contemporary films showed good SFX.

26-40 years (1960-1974)

• Slow disengagement with the genre, disliked silly predictability of films in 1980s that relied on certain conventions.

16-25 years (1975-1984)

• Enjoyed the spectacle - blood-letting and gore. Engaged with extra-textual world of horror e.g. websites. 
• Horror watched socially.
• The relationship to being frightened changes with age,
• Audience between 1970s and 1990s are more anaesthetised to explicit special effects.
• Young audiences are aware of artificiality and are becoming harder to shock. 

Research Into Horror Trailers

Prelim Task - Prom Night Remake Trailer (2008)

After a couple of days filming, here is my final preliminary production. My group and I took it in turns to edit and film the work that we did. We didn't use any soundtracks, but used some digetic sounds such as the scream over the 'mom's' scream. We wanted the production to be menacing. I think that we were quite successful at doing so, but we could have done a lot more work to gain that success. Unfortunately, we didn't have a spare battery so our camera died on us and we couldn't proceed further. We had to use the footage we had to finish the story line with a cliffhanger. I personally would have filmed in different lighting or changed the contrast of the movie on iMovie. I also would have filmed a lot more if our camera didn't die on us. I think that the scene we remade could have been different, but we had so little time, so we had to be very prompt when making a decision of what scene/trailer we wanted to remake. Overall, I think that all of my group members worked well and I think that I worked well too. I think that this is a good starting point and we'll learn a lot from this. We will be able to look back at this task and see our infinite improvement.

Prom Night Opening

Prom night is a 2008 American slasher film. It is a remake of a 1980 Canadian slasher film. This is the scene my group and I are planning to remake as we felt that this scene of the movie was the most thrilling. The location we are planning to film in, is at Shari's (a group member) house. We decided to change a couple of aspects from the scene such as the characters, in which meaning excluding the dad and the brother in the scene. We plan to focus on the main character, Donna Keppel (named Courtney in our production), her mother and the villain. We personally believe that the remake will look quite successful, but being on a low budget, it will obviously not look as good as the original. Due to our low budget, we have to remove the blood and gore which will not make it look as effective. We plan to work very hard on this production, but are aware that this does not have to be such a high standard production as we will compare our future trailer to this prelim task and learn from what we've done to gain success.