Media Theory Integration

For my Cambridge portfolio project, to ensure my two-minute film opening looks sophisticated and well done, I would like to bring in some elements of media theory to result in the success of my mission as such:

The Semantic Code is somehow the ultimate means of creating a climate of fear without uttering a single word in the context of media theory. It superimposes objects and places that contain some kind of hidden meanings that point towards the fact that there is a danger lurking behind the scene. There is nothing in a thriller that is neutral, the half-eaten lunch on a table or a door that is just slightly open indicates that the life of a person was disrupted or that a safe place is violated. Lighting is even, dark shadows and high-contrast low-key lighting reveals the unknown or the darker aspect of people. By placing in the shot items which are vulnerable such as a broken mirror, a discarded phone, or a toy belonging to a child in an adult environment you are telling the audience that the world of the film is unstable, even before the storyline has begun.

The Action Code, also known as the Proairetic Code, is the literary pulse that leaves the spectators on the edge of their seats. Since it is all based on the reasoning of action and the resultant inevitable action, it leaves a trail of breadcrumbs that one cannot help but follow. One of the tropes in thrillers is a character performing a banal activity only to realize that it became strange such as turning a key on a lock only to discover that it is already open. Such a move triggers a response and the viewer immediately begins to ponder the result. It is all about the what comes next feeling, when you initiate a series of actions which are interrupted or are life and death, you put the viewers mind on the screen, anticipating the eventual payoff or collision.

The combination of these two theories allows you to create a cool thriller by the opening despite the fact that the plot itself is still blurred. One can work on little tension piles using action codes and work on adding semantic clues to saturate the scene with a mood. An example is when a character is searching something in a dark room the tension is the search, but the objects that the person bumps into such as a sharp kitchen knife, a pile of heavy keys, or a digital clock with a dial slowly drifting indicate a semantic narrative of a sense of urgency and potential violence. The two-layered treatment is what makes the opening clingy and classic, thus the audience gets the feels of the thriller off the vibe and the energy even before they get the entire plot.

Such codes also aid in offsetting a short, two minutes opening. Semantic codes provide you with density, the dumping of a ton of information in a single shot, whereas Proairetic Codes provide you with momentum, the propelling of the viewer into the next shot. Thrillers are important to have that mixture as it allows the opening not to look like a motionless scary image. Instead, it becomes an active series in which each object spooks of death and each action foreshadows the results. Being able to master these codes results in the ability to elicit a sharp reaction in the audience so that they feel the tension in their gut rather than merely seeing it on the screen.