CC2221 Digital Art And Design
Structural Semiotic Analysis Task
Joker (2019) Poster
Group Members:
-Adilah (Digital Media)
-Syasya (Digital Media)
-Syiqqin (Creative Multimedia)
-Syasya (Digital Media)
-Syiqqin (Creative Multimedia)
For this task we have been assigned to form a group of three people, we must discuss and analyse the "Joker" movie using semiotic perspectives that we learned in the lecture.
Our analysis must include:
1) Identify the signs and codes within the “text” (Printed ad) to interpret their meaning.
2) Identify the distinctive concept (pragmatics) as well as its structural relationship between the various referents (Syntactic).
3)Discuss the ideological functions of the signs in the text and the text as a whole.
Denotation
In the poster, we see half of the subject’s face, positioned on the left. Behind him is a dark, black background and he is seen wearing a blue button-up under a red suit. As well as this, he is wearing face make-up that matches his clothes and resembles that of a clown’s. Also, he has green hair. Furthermore, he has an expressionless face with a blank stare.
In the poster, we see half of the subject’s face, positioned on the left. Behind him is a dark, black background and he is seen wearing a blue button-up under a red suit. As well as this, he is wearing face make-up that matches his clothes and resembles that of a clown’s. Also, he has green hair. Furthermore, he has an expressionless face with a blank stare.
The texts are printed in white and gray to separate between the highlighted contents. The text JOKER is printed in tall condensed font to indicate that’s the title for the poster. The text JOAQUIN PHOENIX and the date are also printed in white. Inside the JOKER text, there is a silhouette of a bullet in the letter ‘K’.
Connotation
For the position where the subject is placed, we can only see half of his face because it creates a sense of mystery, and this is emphasized by the fact that he is wearing face make-up to hide his real identity. In the poster, the light source is focused on his face, to highlight his features and create contrast with the black background. As well as this, the light is arranged to give depth to his face, resulting in a hint of raccoon eyes, to invoke fear and a threatening nature. The black background represents loneliness and emptiness, as well as memories of a dark past, which may be what occupies his mind.
For the position where the subject is placed, we can only see half of his face because it creates a sense of mystery, and this is emphasized by the fact that he is wearing face make-up to hide his real identity. In the poster, the light source is focused on his face, to highlight his features and create contrast with the black background. As well as this, the light is arranged to give depth to his face, resulting in a hint of raccoon eyes, to invoke fear and a threatening nature. The black background represents loneliness and emptiness, as well as memories of a dark past, which may be what occupies his mind.
The subject’s clothes consists of the color red and blue, and this color scheme is also used on his face make-up to harmonize the image as a whole. Additionally, his colorful hair, make-up and clothes resemble that of a clown’s, except that he does not look like a typical and happy clown, rather due to the darker tones on the colors and the messy and rough texture of the make-up, the subject appears disheveled and impulsive and at the same time cold-hearted, cynical, and melancholic. This is further highlighted by the make-up around his eye, that can symbolize tears, but this is contrasted by the big smile that is painted over his mouth. This contrast can show that he is unstable and is not able to properly control his emotions.
The term "Joker" can be defined as someone who is constantly telling jokes to people which refers to the main character himself who is always constantly laughing and telling jokes in the film. The "Joker" is also the persona that the main character, Arthur, takes on during the end of the movie. It also refers to the "Joker" from the DC comics, which is where the movie is based on, the title being just the name of the antagonist can suggest the movie is focusing on the villain in the DC world.
The title "Joker" is the largest and thickest text among the other texts. This is done intentionally so viewers will instantly notice the name Joker who people may recognize as being the villain from DC comics.
The actor who played the Joker in this movie is Joaquin Phoenix, his name is written in all caps and is more thicker compared to the rest of the text (Apart from the title). This may be done intentionally in order to attract fans of Joaquin Phoenix to watch the movie, it can also be done on purpose to introduce Joaquin Phoenix to people who have not heard about him. There are no other actors name attached on the poster except the main actor, this also connotes a sense of isolation which portrays the character he is playing who is also an outcast from society.
The rest of the text like the director's name is thinner than the main text, this is done so that the viewers will focus on the actors name and title first. The date when the movie is released is also attached under the Joker title so that from a quick view, viewers can see the essential information first such as the actor, title and date released. In Hollywood, the director is the one who leads the film so this can be the reason why the directors name is also included in the poster. It suggests that the idea of the film comes from him.
The reason why the text is all in white can be to make it pop out from the dark background and also to attract attention. White usually brings the sense of new beginning and cleansing oneself. Which in this case can refer to the beginning of the Joker's era as the villain in Gotham and also him "cleansing" himself of his past and becoming an ultimate psychotic villain. When we look at the poster again, we can see how the texts go from bright and darkens, this can imply how the Joker's mind in the film slowly degrades and makes him nihilistic and violent. The main text Joker is also rusted which can suggest the Joker's purity being tarnished by his mind and society. If we look closely in the K, there is one bullet embedded in the letter. The letter K can connote many meaning, such as Kill which can refer to the Joker killing people using guns which has bullets. It can also refer to his first fill with a gun in the movie.
The text is indented to the right because if we were to apply the rule of thirds in this poster, the text would hit right in the intersection of the lines. According to the theory of rule of thirds, our eyes are usually attracted to objects placed on the intersection which makes it feel aesthetic.
"based on DC comics" is to show the audience that the characters in the movie should be as similar as the characters found in the comics. Also to grab the interest of fans of the comics from DC.
The genre of this movie are Action, Thriller, Crime and Drama. It's related to the movie title in some ways. We can see a bullet in letter 'K' to represent a crime and action. The texture of the title is rusty and gives off this cold and dirty environment to fit the theme of thriller. Not to mention the intense lighting that is directed to the subject while the surrounding is dark can be interpreted that the subject is a wanted criminal.
