Ever hear the phrase read between the lines or show, don’t tell when it comes to filmmaking? Well, exactly how do you do that? Welcome to the wonderful world of semiotics!

What the hell is semiotics? It’s a branch of cognitive studies about how human beings pass on information from one person to the next via signs. Here’s a quick primer on the whole subject.

Referent and Meaning

Signs have what’s known as a referent and a meaning. The referent can be either an icon, index or symbol and each one has a meaning. Below is a picture a red octagon for example.

Chances are, when you look at the sign you have the idea of “stop” in your head. So the referent is a red octagon and the meaning is “stop”.

Icon, Index and Symbol

Signs can be broken down into 3 subcategories known as icons, index or symbols.

Icon
An icon is something that represents an object or concept. Lets say you want to represent a Saturn V rocket as an icon, you can use a picture, illustration or a diagram. Other less obvious icons are maps or even metaphors.

Index
An index relates meaning to the object it’s associated with. I know, that sounds weird, but it’s actually a really easy concept. You’re watching a movie on your television and the volume is set at 1, you think “oh, this is too quiet” and turn up the volume. A bar appears at the bottom of your screen that fills more as you turn up the volume, that’s an index. It not only tells you that there’s volume but what you are increasing it to. There is a relationship between the two and it can vary. A traffic light does the same, it lets you know whether to stop or go while driving.

Symbol
A symbol has the broadest range of meaning. It’s anything that stands in for an object or a concept. A cross can represent Christianity. A red octagon represents stop. These are abstract symbols that by custom, culturally or religiously automatically represent an idea.

The thing is that symbols can have multiple meanings, red may mean stop but it could also mean danger or love. A red swatch may just even represent the color red.

Words are also symbols as you could show someone who only reads Mandarin the word “car” and they wouldn’t be able to make any sense of it. Even if you do speak English you may get the symbols mixed up as I could say mark and you may be thinking of a person named Mark. The meaning could be a mark on a piece of paper.

So What Does This Have to do with Film?

It has everything to do with film! Human beings have the ability to defer information, and it’s one of the most powerful tools we have. When you have a conversation or read a sentence like “John went grocery shopping” you are not there watching John grocery shopping. You’ve understood a set of symbols that your brain has derived meaning from.

When you watch a car chase in a film you’re not actually there watching a car chase, a group of filmmakers have created a series of icons (moving images of cars driving on the street), indexes (the speedometer increasing) and symbols (the traffic light ahead turns red as a character in the passenger seat screams “Go! Go! Go!”).

Using Semiotics in Film

Whether writing, directing or editing try to keep an open mind on how you convey meaning to the audience. A look between your lead characters can be more powerful than one telling the other “I love you”. That is the power of semiotics.

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