Barthes codes of narratives are guidelines to filmmaking that allow easier distinguishing between protagonists and antagonists and give a general set to the storyline when pinned out. the five codes include:
- enigma code- Used by usually showing a clip or scene at the start of the film that currently makes no sense to the audience at present time such as "guy stabbed by masked man" but as the film progresses it would begin to make more sense so you watch in order to figure out who the man at the start was making the viewer enticed.
- Semic code- Simplistically it is a symbol or sign that can tip the audience as to what the film may be about or a major part of the film or location for example a war film may have a Nazi symbol to indicate world war two or a flag to indicate a country.
- The cultural code- Used to an culturally aware audience for example martinis in James bond films, and are usually used repeatedly to familiarise specific traits of a character and the audience can easily recognise the real world elements.
- Code of oppositions- This code is simple and used frequently by directors it binary opposites i.e. black background for antagonists light for protagonists, woman vs. man, war vs. peace.
My uses of narrative codes is fairly frequent however there are gaps that could have been improved via precision editing, examples of the semic code in my horror drama introduction is the countdown in the TV static white noise close up shots that show a centred clock counting down to when the last scene with me in terror occurs throughout the first 3 quarters of the film, by using this it puts the audience on edge as they begin speculating to what happens when it reaches zero. However the flashes of the timer though were sometimes to fast or sudden to see the actual countdown so this may loosen its desired affect, I should have extended the timeframe that they appeared in.
Main use of code in my clip is the enigma code, this was used at the very start of the film by showing intense moments of running panting and fear before a final clip a third of the way in the film of me being shocked and looking up, by not showing the death scene the audience is left being unaware of what happens then it cuts away to after the possible murder this leaves them wondering "
who was the murderer?" "
who's the victim?" and "
did he die?" coaxing people to continue to watch, this code was executed as planned and no apparent flaws were noticed.
A possible use of cultural code is that the start of the film was entirely recorded by phone and made to look like it by having shaky parts, especially when the boy holding it is scared to seem more realistic this could be applied to the social aspect.
For code of opposites I have used an affect on the phone camera scene to make it appear darker in lighting to give a more sinister effect, this gives the villains main scenes more drama by clocking there body more to shroud there body, another is the use off sound, as I dulled and lowered the volume in non intense moments such as the walking scenes after the attack in the last 45 seconds of filming and raising the volume dramatic in intents scenes to create tension and potential jumps from the audience. If I had more time or were aware of these guidelines during its creation I could have set another effect besides lighting and sound such as saturating the colour in the antagonists scenes.
