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  • Writer's pictureFiqah

Presentation on the Theory; Roland Barthes's Media Codes and

The second presentation was on all the theory we've studied so far; Steve Neale's genre theory, Roland Barthes's media theory codes and Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory and explain each one but using the film genre we've chosen.



I've chosen musical for this presentation.





First of, I explain what is musical in the most simplest way. I then explain the conventions. Unlike other film genre, musical does not have much specific conventions. For the settings and characters, this all depends on the film. For example High School Musical took place in school but other musical films for example The Greatest Showman has a different main setting, in this case, it mostly took place at a circus.


The characters also depends on the film such as the Disney movie Frozen, the main characters are princesses but in the film Hairspray, the characters are town folks.


Colors in musical film are sometimes very bright and colorful and at times are very dark and dull. This all depends on what the film is about.


There are different kinds of camera settings in musical. Sometimes the camera follows the character as they move and dance, at times the camera angle is from the bottom to the top to show the surrounding and the other characters, sometimes the camera can be at just one angle to show the perspective view of a character or the audience.

The slide below are the explanation of sound examples used in film. Here are the sounds I used that I present in the slides;

  1. The Northulda (From the soundtrack of Disney's Frozen 2) - As musical films are heavily fill with music, the background music for when they are not singing can be very soft

2. Flynn Wanted (From the soundtrack of Disney's Tangled)- Just like any other film, sometimes the background music matches with what is going on in that particular scene


3. The Greatest Showman (From the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman) - Musical film sometimes use music that is fill with excitements to hype the audience.


The slide above is the Mise en Scene. The Mise en Scene all depends on the movie scenes. Mise en Scene are the props, costume, settings to complete the scene and for the audience to understand what they are doing and what's going on. In the first photo from the movie High School Musical, you can see the players are holding a basketball and proper basketball uniform which shows they are basketball players. At the right side of the photo, you can see the girls are holding pom-poms and wearing short skirts with the name of the basketball team on the shirt which shows they are cheerleaders. In the second photo, you can see different types of characters and doing different talents with the main showman in the middle which shows that they are circus performance. In the third photo, you can see the man is somewhere at the side of the street in the raining with an umbrella but he's smiling which shows he is happy.




I then analyze a musical film and I've chose the Disney Princess movie Tangled.





The symbolic codes that are found in the poster is the dress. Rapunzel (the main character) is wearing a dress which shows she's a princess.


The semantic codes that are found is the mix of colors used which might show that the film has different emotion and also to get the attention of young kids as the movie's target audience are kids. At the back, you can see a tall tower with no doors which shows that it's a trapped. As you can see the main character (Rapunzel) is not wearing any shoes which shows that she probably don't own any shoes and have probably never been outside.


The next slide show the proairetic/ action codes found in the poster.


In the poster, you can see all kinds of things going on which will make the audience curious and puzzled and would make them want to watch the film.


If you haven't watch the film, you would not understand the cultural codes. One of the cultural codes you can find is Rapunzel has long hair. People who have watched the film would know that her magic power can heal the sick and if it's cut off, she'll lose the magic power.




I then present the narrative stages in the film.





The stage of equlibirum in the film, Rapunzel in the tower enjoying her time but also begging to see the lantern that always comes out during her birthday. The other main character, Flynn Rider (Eugune) doing what he normally do, stealing. In this case he's stealing the crown of the lost princess and now was a wanted criminal.


The disruption of equilibrium is when Rapunzel went out of the tower to go and see the lanterns and Mother Gothel saw her and when a bunch of badies was fighting for Flynn Rider to bring him to the guards and get the rewards for catching the wanted criminal.


The recognition of disruption is when the guards came so Flynn Rider and Rapunzel knew they have to hide and run away so they did. On their way, they did got caught but they manage to fight them and run away again.


The repair is when Flynn Rider cut off Rapunzel's magic hair which cause Mother Gothel to be old (Rapunzel's hair is the reason Mother Gothel looks young, healthy and alive) which in the end she dust away to death. Rapunzel was then reunited back to her original family before she was stolen by Mother Gothel.


The new equilibrium 'new norm' is Rapunzel is now a princess as she was the 'lost princess' when she was stolen and now happily engaged to Flynn Rider and she was the one to propose to him.



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