Signs take the form of words, meanings, memories, sounds, flavours or objects, but without investing any meaning, such things can not become signs. With the evolution of CGI in movies, more and more emotions can be evoked by scenes. In contrast of pictures, where everything is still and more open to observation, films are motion graphics which show us numerous elements without letting the viewers’ brain rest. Therefore everything needs to be expressed in a quick, symbolic way. In order for a family movie (such as Pixar’s Up) to be successful, it needs to appeal to a wider sphere of viewers, or to be more specific - the young and the adult audience. What makes the movie understandable to both sides? One can look to the studies of structuralism and semiotics which describes how the human brain works and explains what triggers the audience’s emotions when shown a set of organized coloured pixels.
Denotation tends to be described as the ‘common sense’ meaning of a sign, when connotation is the deeper meaning behind it, controlled by cultural differences, feelings, mental states and even memories. The younger audience will be mostly unable to understand everything that the director had in mind, but will be able to understand the main concept of the story, and more importantly, the humoristic and dramatic emotions provoked by different situations. This process coincides with Panofsky’s claim that the denotation of an image or a piece of art will be seen as the same by people of different cultures and mind sets, excluding the really young and the mentally unstable, (Panofsky 1970: 51-53). A child’s mind will recognize the literal meaning of the CGI objects within a given frame. On the other hand, the more developed consciousness of adults will perceive deeper meaning and have a greater understanding of the story line and the themes developed throughout the motion picture. In semiotics, this is referred to as connotation. Fiske attempts to define it by arguing that 'denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed' (Fiske 1982:91). ‘Connotation’ refers to the personal associations from the receiver’s point of view and how one interprets the signifier. Factors such as culture, religion, ideologies, upbringing and experience all affect the understanding gained by the viewer. Having this in mind, this essay will consider these structuralist and semiotic ideas to analyse the scene form Pixar’s Up (the scene starts at 00:07:29 and finishes at 00:11:23).
FIGURE 01 (00:07:29, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)
At the beginning of the scene (fig.01), Mister Fredricksen –the main character of Up- is starting a new life with his wife, Ellie. He is depicted carrying her up to their new house, portrayed in a clichéd style, a quaint wooden house in a country environment. By analysing the connotation in the image, we can come to a conclusion that the house represents the starting of a new life, as it is the first step of commitment. This imagery is powerful as it represents the stereotypes about married couples and the younger audience will acknowledge it by its denotation.
FIGURE 02 (00:07:32, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)
Following this, the couple is seen restoring and repairing the old house in which they are about to live, so impatient to start their new lives that they are still in their wedding outfits (fig.02). The older audience will understand and relate to the imagery in this scene by empathising with its connotation as they know how exciting the first days of marriage are. Judging by the denotation, children will understand this scene because they notice the lack of furniture as a symbol of beginning. The wedding outfits represent the impatience in a way for the younger audience to comprehend.
FIGURE 03 FIGURE 04
(00:07:42, Up, Pixar Animation Studios) (00:07:46, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)Mr. Fredricksen and Ellie are then seen signing the mailbox in paint. By accident he leaves a hand mark of paint on the mail box, Ellie finds this funny and does the same. Children will understand that the couple’s relationship involves love and unity, which is symbolized by the touching hands in paint, hand painting being an activity that they used to perform at an early age. Figures 1, 2 and 3 show how the progress of the scene works together to create this image, of unity and working together in marriage, by its direct meaning. The house’s colours are bright and mostly from the warm part of the colour wheel, emphasising the happy mood and positive vibe of the scene.
FIGURE 05 (00:08:29, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)
The following example represents the couple’s next step- planning to start a family. Lying next to each other, they are seen looking into the sky, which represents their thought process. The fact that this process is shown through clouds is due to the fact that clouds are mostly used as iconic symbols, such as in comics and cartoons, as bubbles that represent thought rather than speech.
FIGURE 06 (00:08:35, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)
As seen in (fig.06), the theme of pregnancy is approached with innocent imagery. The connotation of the image reveals that the bright colours represent happiness. The ladder and the finishing in progress represent that the room is brand new and it is being prepared for a new arrival, referring to the baby. The third signified from the image is the stork on the wall. Kids know the stereotype, in fairy tales, of babies being brought by storks instead of the actual biological process. This third signified is referred to as the third order of signification (Fiske & Hartley 1978, 43; O'Sullivan et al. 1994, 287) also known as myth.
FIGURE 07 FIGURE 08
(00:09:34, Up, Pixar Animation Studios) (00:09:45, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)The sequential scenes shown here in (fig.07) and (fig.08) are made to follow one and the other to illustrate and emphasise the contrast between the young Carl and elderly Mr Frederiksen. This is achieved by the changing in age of the protagonist by the style of the outfit that changes over time. In the first scene (fig.07), the connotation meaning of the tie is that it has bright colours and represents youth and desire to achieve and maintain a good look. In the latter (fig.08) it represents less caring about self-image and a neutral response to the judgement of others. This is shown by the grey top and the simple bow tie replacing the stylish tie.
FIGURE 09 (00:11:12, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)
As they grew older, Ellie unfortunately dies due to natural causes. Because of the change in the mood, the colour theme changes to cold colour associated with a depressing soundtrack. The connotation associated with the dark red colour is love and grief, the church setting helping the imagery of the funeral ceremony and the passing away of Mr. Fredricksen’s love. The long shadows and the lower light value of the image represent staying until late afternoon, this is also increased by the character being alone.
Glaze (1994) explains binary oppositions as the following: These occur in nature and naturally in the human mind. They are such things as night and day, left and right or nature and culture. Nature and culture often functions as a binary opposition in tales. However, depending on the tale or myth the binary opposition changes. For example, the binary opposition life and death is a useful one to explicate the scene. Ferdinand De Saussure - “the means by which units of language have value or meaning; each unit is defined against what it is not.” (Fogarty, 2005).
(00:07:46, Up, Pixar Animation Studios) (00:11:23, Up, Pixar Animation Studios) Having the above mentioned in mind, it can be seen clearly that fig.10 is a total opposite of fig.11. In the first picture we can see bright and warm colours with highly saturated theme and environment lighting. Having these details, fig.10 can be categorised as ‘Happiness’. The picture on the right (fig.11) reveals the same colours of the house, but with darker environment, low saturated colours. Therefore it can be categorised as ‘Sadness’. Using the structuralist ideas for binary opposites, the formula for expressing feelings through pictures can be made. The happier the first scene is, the sadder the following change of mood will be.
(00:10:35, Up, Pixar Animation Studios) (00:07:51, Up, Pixar Animation Studios)
Another example of binary opposition can be seen in the attached figures.
In conclusion, analysing this scene has distinguished the methods throughout which the developers of Up used the structuralist and semiotic ides of binary opposition, combined with connotation, denotation and myth in order to tell a story in a way that will be acknowledged easily by the modern audience. By understanding the way that the human brain processes the information, it is possible to use simple things like pictures on walls, correct colour themes and the fading in and out of various sound effects, to transform a series of digital images into a perfect play with a perfect script.
World Wide Web References:
Blackwell Reference Online. Binary Opposition and Myth. Available at: http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631207535_chunk_g97806312075355_ss1-14 [Accessed 23 November 2010]
Chandler, D (1995) Semiotics for Beginners. Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem06.html [Accessed 23 November 2010]
Fogarty, Sorcha (2005) Binary Oppositions, The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=122 [Accessed 24 November 2010]
Glazer, Mark. (1994) Structuralism. Available at: http://www.panam.edu/faculty/mglazer/Theory/structuralism.htm [Accessed 21 November 2010]
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2010) Denotation (Semiotics). Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denotation_(semiotics) [Accessed 23 November 2010]
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2010) Connotation (Semiotics). Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connotation_(semiotics) [Accessed 23 November 2010]
Books:
Badcock, C.R. (1975) “Levi-Strauss Structuralism and Sociological Theory”, London, Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) Ltd, The Anchor Press Ltd.
Fiske, John (1982) “Introduction to communication studies”, London, The Guernsey Press Co Ltd.
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1963) “Structural anthropology 1”, USA, The Penguin Group, Clays Ltd.
Levi-Strauss, Claude (1966) “The Savage Mind”, Great Britain, Made and printed by The Garden City Press Ltd
O'Sullivan, T., Hartley, J., Saunders, D., Montgomery, M., Fiske, J. (1994) Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, London, Routledge
Panofsky, Erwin (1970) Meaning in the Visual Arts, Harmondsworth, Penguin
DVDs:
Up (2009) Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (DVD)
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