Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512183
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 111 communicate to the audience. Leo Murray says that: "Whether we are looking at the macro level of genres and styles, or the minutiae of individual sound elements in a sequence, a semiotic analysis can shed light on the ways the particular sound representations work, and how explicit and implicit, overt and covert meanings are transmitted through the elements of the soundtrack, which are received by the audience." (Murray, 2013). Let's analyse a film scene's soundtrack applying Barthesian semiotics. In Chloe Zhao's Nomadland (2020), there is a shot at [0:55:30] where Fern (Frances McDormand) is cleaning the community bathroom and the sound of flies is used to mythically signify filthiness and stench by connotation. The toilet is visibly dirty in the frame, and stench cannot be filmed, but both characteristics and others in the same semantic field are being evoked by sound and reaffirmed in the diegesis, even before we see the fly, four seconds later. I must confess that on my first watch, I didn't notice the fly at [0:55:34] and probably others didn't either. But since the sound of flies is a filmic code often used to connote filth, the moment I heard the fly, I understood the bathroom was filthy. This is a good example of how a simple but adequate use of off-screen or OS sound can enhance storytelling by invoking very precise meanings or myths. Peirce proposed that signs consist of signifier, signified, and interpretant. Interpretant is "The effect of the sign produced in the mind of the interpreter." (Murray, 2019). If we apply Peircean semiotics al., 1966, p. 67). For Saussure then, "Signs are made up of sounds and images, what he called signifiers, and the concepts these sounds and images bring to mind, what he called signifieds." (Berger, 2015). Peirce proposed that signs consisted of signifier, signified, and interpretant. Interpretant is "The effect of the sign produced in the mind of the interpreter." (Murray, 2019). He also introduced three kinds of signs; icons, indexes, and symbols. Icons signify by resemblance, indexes signify by cause and effect, and symbols signify based on convention. For Roland Barthes, there is an element in signs called myth. To explain Barthes' theory of language and myth, I will quote a paragraph from Dan Laughey's Key Themes in Media Theory. In the case of rat, therefore, its sign in the 'language' order of signification defines it as, say, 'a small rodent with a pointed snout.' However, its sign in the 'myth' order of signification would be extended to what rat means in particular social and cultural contexts. In English-speaking, Western countries such as Britain, rat as a myth signifies dirt, disease, the darkness of underground sewers and cellars. Most of the mythical meanings that we attach to 'rat' are negative, because most of us dislike or even fear the 'real' creature which the word signifies. (Laughey, 2007). What does this all mean for us filmmakers? First of all, cinema is full of mythical meanings. Sounds carry mythical meaning and connotations depending on the cultural milieu in which they are used. It is important to keep this in mind when creating films. Since sounds can be inserted into the diegesis after a scene has been shot, it is important to be aware what it is that we are trying to Relationship between signifier and signified. Note: Reprinted [adapted] from Media and Communication Research Methods (p. 62) by Berger, 2015, SAGE Publications. Peirce's triad model of the sign. Note: Reprinted [adapted] from Media and Communication Research Methods (p. 66) by Berger, 2015, SAGE Publications.