A critical analysis of semiotic adaptations in post modern cinema

Abstract

Literature has influenced the semiotics in modern cinema and has brought a new meaning to the expressions of the characters in the stories. This paper would analyse the journey of semiotic adaptations in the post modern cinema. A detailed understanding of the factors responsible behind it and the development over the past few years would help in studying the new age films in a better way. The research would focus on the semiotics in the old age films and would compare it with the new age adaptations made in this field. The study would also include the modern cinema developments all over the world and would give an overall insight on the adaptations all over the globe.

Keywords: Modern cinema, Semiotic adaptation, Contemporary art, New age films, Film study

Introduction

Expression is an integral part of art full of emotions. And the sign language is a beautiful way of expressing those emotions. The idea is to make the viewers connect with the subject. Life is not a bed of roses, this is what we have read and experienced so far. But, still we hope for all our dreams coming true. It is the hope which keeps a dream alive. It gives you the required energy and stamina to work hard and pursue your dreams. The semiotic plays a very important part in defining the emotions. The early years of growth are the most important period of your life where you learn the basic lessons of life. It shapes your cinema values and you transfer these values to your future children. Semiotics shapes the basic roots of modern cinema and keeps them intact and grounded even in this complicated era of art. The cinema had seen a lot and that had only added to their learning curve and had made them more perseverant. The humble beginnings of cinema had made it realise the value of art. The industry knew the difference between needs and wants and had mastered the art of finding expressions in simplicity. We see people who are happy even with luxurious life and people having just the basic necessities for life could be happy. The cinema had realised the secret of happiness and turned out to be a winner at the end (Akomfrah, J., 1989).

Life is full of ups and downs and those who fight and survive the low times tend to emerge as a winner in the end. We always feel bad about the tough times we face in life but these struggles make a person more prepared for all the challenges of life. Sometimes, it brings the cinema all over the world together and places them on the same boat to fight the hardships of journey together and work as a team to strive for the good times. This research is about the semiotic adaptations in modern cinema that has seen a huge low in its journey and has battled the adversities in criticism with grace. The cinema has learnt to stay alive and together in the testing times of life. The story of cinema would give an insight on how optimism and sincerity could change your life in the long run in spite of having a lot of down times. This study of cinema has grown with each challenge that life has thrown to them and has stood victorious in this journey (Gledhill, C., 1980).

History of cinema

Talking about the old age cinema, that era valued human relationships more and life was full of simplicity. The life was very much unlike today’s time where people value their career more and prefer staying in nuclear families. Most of the tasks are done by house helps and children grow up with nannies and spend time in crèche. Technology has taken us so far that we have forgotten human interaction and have indulged ourselves more with virtual catch ups on social media platforms. Most of the middle class families have a car. Children spend their holidays in foreign locations and call that a vacation. A few decades have completely changed the way of living and the life style has become luxurious.  There were no cars in those days. Cycle owners were considered to be very rich. And a hundred rupee note was highly valuable. People used to enjoy the family time together and entertainment had a completely different meaning. That era valued the emotions and simplicity in the expressions. Semiotics originated in that era and continued to evolve with every passing year (Caughie, J., 1981).

The time has changed a lot of things today and digital era has changed the meaning of relationships. It has its own pros and cons. In one way it has brought the world closer and in another way it has made the people forget about the important of meeting the family and friends in person and spending time together. Ambitions have made people run after the opportunities and joint family has been converting to multiple nuclear families. Children are growing up without their grandparents in the house. The event of having a child is not that normal like in old days. Now people make everything fancy and every small event is celebrated. Nuclear families and good earning jobs have given the liberty to spend and lead luxurious lives to even the middle class families. The way of living a life has changed for every stratum of people and the pace of this change is not going to stop. The joy of simple living has changed to fancy celebrations and showcasing that on social media. Overall, the way of expression has changed. The meaning of joy and entertainment has changed and accordingly semiotics has adapted (Chakravarti, S. S., 1993).

Earlier, relationships used to be priority and people preferred to stay with the family and explored different ways of earning. Moving to cities for better opportunities were limited and hometowns were preferred to earn the livelihood. Joint family culture prevailed and people were happy sticking together. That gave them a moral support and the satisfaction of living with the family. The priorities were completely different in those days. Entertainment industry and cinema also followed that old tradition until human values started changing. Cinemas are the reflection of society and society in turn tries to relive the characters in the cinema. The struggle for semiotic adaptations started when the work culture and family values started evolving and practicality was given priority. The career prospects were valued more than staying together. Different parts of the world were explored and that led to migration of people to different countries leading to the cross cultural adaptation in modern cinema (Mayne, J., 1984).

The real struggle of life starts only when you come out of your comfort zone. It gives you an opportunity to fight your weaknesses and master your strengths. It brings the best version of yourself when you continue to work hard with honesty and perseverance. The art has always been a big source of inspiration for the human behaviour especially for the kids because childhood is the most critical phase of their life when they learn the lessons of life and their personality is in the phase of development. They reflect everything they see and their behaviour is highly influenced by what they see on different entertainment platforms. The journey of semiotic adaptations has been interesting with the evolution of human behaviour and ay of expressing emotions. The adaptation of the sign language in the post modern cinema has followed the suit and continues to change with the changing society (Nowell-Smith, A., 1987).

Semiotics

The expression is the basis of emotion and semiotics beautifully defines that. The sign language inspires and develops hopes in many people across the world that can only depend on semiotics for understanding emotions. The hope is the essence of life. The entire world is surviving on hope. We need to look forward to something in life to be able to keep on going in all forms of life. Time is not same and every phase of life is different. The only thing that is common during all times if the hope on which we build our dreams. Life is not about the destination. It is about the journey that we had to reach to that destination. We have to enjoy every moment of it instead of waiting for the good times to come and bring joy. Happiness is not something which can be asked for. It lies within the person and we have to feel it. Material things and fancy ways of life might seem alluring in the beginning. But, if you will think deeper and introspect, you will realise that happiness has nothing to do with the material things in life. The key of a happy and successful life is having a string faith and devotion. That will give you a hope and would keep your soul calmer and happier. The main essence of life is staying happy. Everything comes later. This cinema had understood that essence and were always ready to face any challenge life threw on them and survived all the hardships of life with dignity and wisdom which comes only with hope and faith (Ozguc, A., 1988).

The learning from his life experiences is priceless and hence cinema has always wanted to capture that through semiotics. The sign language talks about all the ups and downs and the ways used to handle the grim phases of life. It is a live example of the power of honesty and patience which always pays off in the end. The cinema is an ideal learning model for all the people in this world who has been facing rejections and hardships and had been thinking that bad fate does not have any solution. Semiotics could help all those who think that they cannot fight with the bad times of life and have lost the hope. The cinema’s fighting spirit and the perseverance has helped them rise and shine in the end and that would inspire many more lives to follow that path (Furniss, M., 1998).

A lot has been said and discussed about the beauty of sign language, but the journey of an adaptation is also equally challenging and full of happiness. One emotion is more than a hundred languages combined. An expression is the ultimate layer of protection. The lessons it teaches, the words of wisdom it expresses, the values it exhibits, they are carried along by posterity. The love comes in many shades. Sometimes a medal of honor, a pat on the back for a good grade, a loud scolding for a task left incomplete, only to teach us meaningful lessons. An expression teaches you to lead, by setting an example. It also shows and helps you how to respect others and stand up for yourself.

An expression is a close companion, a confidant and the source of strength you carry for your lifetime. Grow big, grow old, grow fast they say. Yet, they turn around; look at you, wanting to see a younger version of you they carried on their shoulders, played with while you stood on their chest, dancing to the tunes of emotional melodies. The same tunes we heard as children, just newer words, and tables turned this time, an expression is no longer an emotion. Time flies and we move into the new shoes, the life starts becoming clearer and we start appreciating the decisions of our lives more than ever before. The change is the only constant in life and hence the semiotic adaptations in post modern cinema have always been the topic of critical analysis amongst the reviewers (Fusco, C., 1989).

The journey of semiotics post modern cinema

The cross-cultural work practices in modern cinema have been quite effective in building characters’ morale. This project includes an in-depth study of the available work practices in the cinema and its impact on the characters’ morale in the long run. Modern cinema is one of the leading entertainment sources all over the world. People connect over cinema and understand the culture of a foreign country through its cinema. This is how important the impact of cinema is on people. The cinema has defined its course of journey to further establish its presence across the nations. The strategic planning of the cinema is highly dependent on the defined aims and objectives of the industry which further determines the approach adopted for creating those strategies. The industry strategy is based on medium term and long term gain which helps in further strengthening the vision of the cinema. The semiotic adaptations of the industry have been aligned with the strategic planning and the approaches adopted for fulfilling the long term vision of the cinema has been in sync the cinema’s expansion plan would work with this strategic planning and the aims and objectives would also be satisfied with this approach. The cinema would continue to expand by acquiring new adaptations and limiting the criticism for the existing adaptations (Elsaesser, T., 1987).

Modern cinema aims to provide the best source of entertainment to its adaptations at an economical price across the world. The cinema is people centric and has a strategy to capture majority of the adaptations in their entertainment area. The intent of the cinema’s objective is to play on volumes and get back the investments as a profit in the long run with the increasing volume of adaptations. Now to align these strategic objectives in place, the cinema has designed the team performance which focuses on the viewers’ satisfaction. Team performance is rated better when the adaptations handled by the team show less criticism and more loyalty in the long run. Further, bringing more business through acquiring new adaptations and convincing the existing adaptations to go for higher range of entertainments is another way of measuring cinema performance to achieve the set strategic objectives (Higson, A. and Maltby, R., 1999).

The current performance is the benchmark for modern cinema in defining the performance targets within the industry. The aim is always to beat the current performance and do better in every film. The cinema sets individual targets by dividing the overall target set for the year. The individual targets are then monitored regularly to make sure that the performance is on track and the defined target would be met at the end of the project. The cinema strives to maintain a balance between team’s growth and performance by aligning the cinema’s objective as per the strategy defined by the higher management. The world has appreciated the efforts made in the semiotics and its evolution in the past few decades. A critical analysis reveals that the industry has been reflecting the behaviour of people in the society and is changing with every change in the societal values.

The actors are the backbone of the film industry. Modern cinema considers the individual contributors of the cinema as a long term asset and makes sure they stick to the cinema for a considerable period of time. The cinema acknowledges and appreciates the work done by every individual to encourage and motivate them to work better. The awards and rewards are designed in each department of the cinema to take care of the individual contributions and recognise them to give a fair chance and motivation to everyone to perform better. Individual’s commitment is also enhanced further by channelling their energy to set a growth for them which would include their long term goals of life (Rheudan, J., 1993).

            Modern cinema aims to establish them as a leader in the entertainment industry across the world. The cinema’s objective is to become a one stop entertainment station for all the entertainments and gain people satisfaction in the long term. It also plans to reduce the criticism for the adaptations and acquire new adaptations in the long run. The cinema has define its current strategy to fulfil its aims and objectives by designing a long term plan to take care of the existing problems in their journey and have planned to launch features based on the people pain points to gain an overall acceptance in the market. The industry has set a target of making their adaptations happy and churns a lot of profit with the volume of adaptations and their trust is expected to create a brand value for the cinema in future.

Modern cinema has been excelling in creating the long term strategies to align with the cinema’s aims and objectives. The existing strategy focused on people satisfaction and expansion by acquiring new adaptations and reducing the criticism of existing adaptations truly align with the cinema’s aim of growth and expansion along with its objective of people satisfaction and becoming one of the best entertainment providers. The strategy also focuses on the short term goals of the cinema by maximising its profits and acceptance of viewers. The cinema would achieve its defined aims and objectives with these long term and short term strategies by excelling in all domains and gaining adaptations. The investments made under current strategy would bring future cash flows which would further make the cinema more profitable (Stam, R., Burgoyne, R. and Flitterman-Lewis, S., 1992).

            Modern cinema is a people centric industry and to measure the performance target, people satisfaction index and the number of new adaptations acquired sums up the criteria for to measure the team performance targets. They use people satisfaction index, criticism and percentage of new adaptations acquired to set team performance targets and the team and individuals are measured against those set targets. The cinema evaluates the set targets at a quarterly level to make sure the team performance is on track and this timely check on performance metrics helps the team and individuals to modify their strategy in case it is required to achieve the annual targets. The semiotic adaptations are being analysed and reviewed from time to time to take inspiration when ever and where ever required in the journey of its evolution.

A critical analysis of the semiotic adaptations

The viewers all over the world have appreciated the adaptations made in the semiotics post modern cinema. However, the critics have expressed their opinion has well. The performance plan of adaptations is designed to meet the strategic objective. The performance plan is adhered by each team in order to achieve the strategic objectives defined by the cinema’s higher management. The performance plan is reviewed by the senior management to ensure that the team is set to perform and fulfil the goals and objectives of the cinema to help them achieve the set target and profit. The shareholder’s interest is also kept in mind while setting the goals and objectives and designing the performance plans. The decision is made at the top and the performance plan drills down at each level to support the higher level goals and objective. So it is based on the top to bottom approach and based on that team performance plans are designed to meet the strategic objectives (Hull, G., Scott, P. B. and Smith, B., 1982).

Individual dynamics define the cinema as the individual interests become the team interests in the longer period of time. Industry politics in modern cinema is kept to a bare minimum by encouraging the teams to think and align together for the common benefit of the cinema. Sharing the knowledge and skills is promoted across the departments of the cinema to inculcate an environment of inclusive growth rather than focusing on increasing the disparity between performers and non –performers. The commitment of individuals to strategy is secured through this methodology and the industry interest is put on priority and individual’s dynamics, interests and politics are suppressed in a natural way to promote a regular growth in the cinema for both individuals and the stakeholders.

The aims and objectives in modern cinema are audited on a regular basis to make sure that the cinema is adhering to the set standards and shareholder’s interests are preserved. The people satisfaction index is one of the important factors and an important objective of the cinema which is measured by the people survey and feedback conducted in every financial year to understand the adaptations’ sentiments for the entertainments of the cinema and to understand the value of the brand image of the cinema. The profit diagnostic index of the cinema measures the current financial year profit along with the expected future cash flows against the investments done in the past years. This makes sure that the overall progress of the cinema is assessed and the measures are taken in case of any gaps (Doane, M. A., 1984).

The existing strategy of modern cinema has shaped the entertainment industry goals and objectives by defining the cinema’s vision of long term growth and development along with the establishment of brand name. The people satisfaction has brought further stability to the cinema, thus defining a clear goal of long term development of the cinema. The existing strategy of the cinema has also focused on reducing the criticism of the adaptations and hence helping in the achievement of the semiotic adaptations’ goal and objective of achieving expansion across the world by further acquiring the new adaptations. The modern cinema goals and objectives would further be modified based on the cinema’s performance and long term vision which would in turn be changed as per the cinema’s growth plan and performance.

The alternative strategic option for modern cinema has been on focusing the medium term gain and that mainly involves the criticism of the adaptations. The medium term strategy aims on analysing the competition in the market and provide competitive offers to the adaptations by understanding their requirements and pain points to retain the adaptations on the long term basis. The cinema has been phenomenal in gaining the advantage of changing era and retaining the essence of emotions in its adaptations. Apart from this medium term strategy, the cinema has also been excellent in planning its long term strategy by acquiring more adaptations with the aim of expansion across the world. The implication of these strategies has brought a positive return for the cinema, thus ensuring its profit and shareholder’s interest in the long term. The cinema’s stakeholders have been motivated throughout the term of the cinema and have been working together to achieve the modern cinema goals and objectives. The strategy making has been beneficial for modern cinema with respect to long term planning and vision. The cinema strives to establish a good presence across the world and develop as a leading film entertainment provider with these strategic options adopted by the cinema (Taylor, C., 1996).

The alternative plan for modern cinema has been on cutting down the criticism of the existing adaptations and acquiring the new ones. The cinema aims to establish a strong base before expanding further and for that the satisfaction of the existing adaptations is important for the cinema. The aim of the cinema is to excel in the field of entertainment and maintain a brand image for its unique and excellent performances. The people satisfaction would bring more adaptations and then volume to the sales of the cinema which would in turn bring profit to the industry in the long run. The risk assessment has been done for this strategy based on all the existing horizons and the alternatives have been defined based on the options available in the market.  The feasibility analysis has also been done to make the strategic objectives a successful attempt to define the cinema’s vision.

Conclusion

Overall, the semiotic adaptations in post modern cinema have brought an advanced aspect of human expressions by keeping the essence of emotions preserved and intact. The story is same but the cover is new. The journey of adaptation has been interesting and can be studied further to understand the other sources of evolution. The individual contributions need to be awarded and rewarded both as a token of acknowledgement and appreciation to value their work. The strategy made to utilise the value of human resources to help the cinema grow in the right direction is the result of the methodologies designed to value the individual contributions. Further encouraging the performers to take training session to share their knowledge would give them a sense of achievement and would make them feel as a part of the industry. It would also help the growth of skill sets of the human resource of the cinema.

Individual dynamics indeed impact the industry’s overall culture and long term strategy. The political interests are secured by individual’s commitment to help the long term strategy. Modern cinema ensures that the cinema’s interest is put at forth above all the other interest which does not add any value to the cinema. The cinema values talent and resources more too any other interests and believes in securing the commitment of its characters. The political interests and other negative dynamics are kept away from the work culture of Modern cinema in order to maintain a positive and progressive work environment. The research has been done keeping modern cinema work practices in mind and its impact on the characters’ morale. The overall market was analysed to understand the different work practices in this regard and then the cinema studied was compared. (Metz, C., 1972).

The research has limitations on the numbers of countries researched and studied for this analysis, which can be covered further in next project. The changes are suggested based on the performance and the gaps identified to the predefined goals in order to meet the cinema’s objectives. The change is usually initiated all round the year to avoid major setbacks and losses as the industry believes in continuous improvement. The evaluation of the research work reveals that the association of new adaptations with the existing adaptations with an approach of critical analysis would help the cinema in the long term. The mentoring and coaching for this strategy would require a string management with the experience of handling multiple people bases which would help the cinema expand with its vision and mission. Team performance of modern cinema has been seriously evaluated all round the year to align the work with the cinema’s strategic objectives. The continuous feedback and 360 degree assessment helps the cinema in maintaining its characters on the right track and together they strive to achieve the goal of the cinema (Ahmad A., 1996)

Individual commitment is equally important to the industry to bring a strong team effort in the long run. Individuals in the industry have to be motivated enough to contribute to the tangible and intangible benefits of the industry. From the unique perspective as the global leader in entertainment industry, modern cinema is committed to sharing insights for the global community’s benefit. The cinema’s leadership is committed to value both individual performance and team achievements to evaluate the cinema’s long term gains and losses. The cinema strategy is based and dependent on the contribution from human resources of the cinema in order to plan a long term vision of the cinema. Modern cinema acknowledges the effort of characters’ commitment to the cinema’s long term growth and development. The modern cinema would continue to inspire the semiotic adaptations and the world would see a further adaptation in the sign language (Kaes, A., 1996).

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