The social semiotic study of performance in a classical Hollywood film

Zhang, Zhen

The social semiotic study of performance in a classical Hollywood film

Zhang, Zhen

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2018

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Zhang, Zhen
dc.date.accessioned	2018-10-05T03:08:38Z
dc.date.available	2018-10-05T03:08:38Z
dc.date.issued	2018
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/127959
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.	en_AU
dc.description.abstract	Taking a social semiotic perspective, this thesis aims to develop methods of film segmentation, transcription and analysis which can be applied to the research of feature films, especially classical Hollywood films, through a comprehensive study of three scenes from the 1953 Hollywood film Roman Holiday directed by William Wyler. The thesis combines top-down approaches such as Syd Field’s script structure, William Labov and Joshua Waletzky’s narrative structure and Konstantin Stanislavski’s acting preparation method, and bottom-up approaches, such as Theo van Leeuwen’s rhythm segmentation. Taken together, these approaches support a comprehensive method of segmentation and can be applied to selected scenes that differ in their use of verbal and gestural semiotic modes. Three scenes from Roman Holiday are transcribed for analytical purposes after being segmented. They are first etically transcribed, using perceivable rhythm cues, and then emically processed, drawing on van Leeuwen’s summarised genre analysis and Michael Gregory’s phasal analysis. Thereafter, the thesis analyses how acting, art direction (such as props, costumes, and settings), cinematography (such as camera angles, frame sizes) and editing develop characters, relations, situations and genres, and how art direction, cinematography and editing work to support and shape actors’ acting by following approaches by Erika Fischer-Lichte, and David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. The primary method of segmentation and analysis used throughout this thesis is based on Stanislavski’s ranked system of performance units – Action, Task, Fact, Event (a unit added by this study), and Episode. The thesis chapters show the ways that actors and the filmmaking team create the boundaries between these performance units and the ways they develop characters and stories with the aid of a range of verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources. In particular, this research focuses on how actors and the filmmaking team within each unit realise phases, generic stages and genres of the development of the story through acting, art direction, cinematography and editing.	en_AU
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_AU	en_AU
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/127959/2/02whole.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.subject	Social semiotics.	en_AU
dc.subject	Perceivable cue.	en_AU
dc.subject	Film segmentation.	en_AU
dc.subject	Roman Holiday.	en_AU
dc.subject	Film transcription.	en_AU
dc.subject	Cinematography	en_AU
dc.title	The social semiotic study of performance in a classical Hollywood film	en_AU
dc.type	Thesis	en_AU
utslib.copyright.status	open_access

Abstract:

Taking a social semiotic perspective, this thesis aims to develop methods of film segmentation, transcription and analysis which can be applied to the research of feature films, especially classical Hollywood films, through a comprehensive study of three scenes from the 1953 Hollywood film Roman Holiday directed by William Wyler. The thesis combines top-down approaches such as Syd Field’s script structure, William Labov and Joshua Waletzky’s narrative structure and Konstantin Stanislavski’s acting preparation method, and bottom-up approaches, such as Theo van Leeuwen’s rhythm segmentation. Taken together, these approaches support a comprehensive method of segmentation and can be applied to selected scenes that differ in their use of verbal and gestural semiotic modes. Three scenes from Roman Holiday are transcribed for analytical purposes after being segmented. They are first etically transcribed, using perceivable rhythm cues, and then emically processed, drawing on van Leeuwen’s summarised genre analysis and Michael Gregory’s phasal analysis. Thereafter, the thesis analyses how acting, art direction (such as props, costumes, and settings), cinematography (such as camera angles, frame sizes) and editing develop characters, relations, situations and genres, and how art direction, cinematography and editing work to support and shape actors’ acting by following approaches by Erika Fischer-Lichte, and David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. The primary method of segmentation and analysis used throughout this thesis is based on Stanislavski’s ranked system of performance units – Action, Task, Fact, Event (a unit added by this study), and Episode. The thesis chapters show the ways that actors and the filmmaking team create the boundaries between these performance units and the ways they develop characters and stories with the aid of a range of verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources. In particular, this research focuses on how actors and the filmmaking team within each unit realise phases, generic stages and genres of the development of the story through acting, art direction, cinematography and editing.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/127959