After attending FEST this past Friday, I figured I needed a very relaxing Saturday night. And luckily for me, there were many sappy, romantic movies on TV for free.
My roommate and I popped on the couch with some popcorn and began watching our first movie, “The Notebook”, followed by our second movie, “Failure to Launch.” After watching both movies, I realized there was a theme to both movies during the “sad” parts: there was rain.
This made me begin to ponder about other symbolic movie tricks that directors use to exaggerate a certain point in movies. When there is a fight, sadness, or when someone dies, directors use rain. When there is a happy scene, there is normally sunshine. And if there is going to be a disaster or tragedy, normally there is a terrible storm or fight.
I began to question why directors use these symbols during these particular scenes, and it made me realize that if they used sunshine during sad scenes, or storms during happy scenes, it would confuse the audience members because we are programmed into knowing that when it is raining during a movie, people are sad. We will get so confused if there is sunshine during this part that we will get distracted from the plot and get sidetracked from the actual movie itself.
So maybe it is a good thing that almost every sappy movie has a kiss in the rain after a heart-wrenching fight. All of us girls (and admit, guys) are expecting it. And if there isn’t one, it just leaves us confused in our own thoughts, sitting there with our popcorn.
This blog serves as a perfect example of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols, which we learned in week #4. Filmmakers are well-aware of the signs that they use in movies, often using weather to evoke an emotion, such as happiness or sadness as you stated. Rain is a symbolic sign for sadness; in this case, rain serves as the signifier while sadness is the signified, together created the "sign" of sadness. The same can be said about sunshine and happiness.
ReplyDeleteAfter learning more about these different types of signs, a film viewer can be even more aware of what is happening within the film. In fact, a viewer can use these signs to have a sense of what is to come within the film. (For example, if it is raining or thunderstorming, then something negative will most likely happen within the movie). By learning about these signs, viewers can have a better understanding of the film as well as why the filmmakers chose to set the scene in a particular way.