Codes in Media

Codes are systems of signs which create a meaning. They are spilt into two different sections, technical and symbolic. An example of a code that is used in order to create a meaning is a candle lit dinner with roses on the table would denote the fact that two people are on a date.

Technical codes: This is all about the ways in which we use the resources around us like camera work and editing software in order to help you tell your story.

Symbolic codes: Unlike technical codes that you are aware of while watching the short film, the symbolic codes are what show what is occurring beneath the surface of what you are watching, like the emotions in the characters are feelings or the type of relations that they have with the other characters during that scene as that may change the atmosphere of the scene.

Conventions:

Conventions are the ways in which everything is down in media. All forms of media have different conventions to them, while studying media last year I learnt all about the different convections that music magazines have.

Media codes and conventions work together in any genre of film in order to make it as successful as possible. You can not start to describe a media code like what something during the film symbolise without talking about the conventions as to why it has been symbolised in that particular way: for example- The lighting that has been used with be that high or low due to the conventions that are stereotypical of that genre. 

• Romantic film will have bright lighting making the scene happy.
• Horror film will have dark lighting filling the scene with mystery that something dramatic is going to occur next. 

Due to short films only being around 5 mixtures long it can be hard to put them into a genre of their own, they sometimes have aspects of more than one genre in them. This makes finding the stereotypes of that genre harder to look out for meaning that the typical conventions are harder to analyse.