AMultimodalDiscourseAnalysisoftheMovieSpotlight’sPosterfromSystemicFunctionalSemiology

何雨柔

【Abstract】Choosing the poster of Spotlight as the multimodal discourse and based on the systemic functional semiology and visual grammar， the present research aims to analyze the representational meaning， interactive meaning and compositional meaning of the poster.

【Key words】multimodal discourse analysis； systemic functional semiology； movie poster

1. Definition of Multimodal Discourse

Human interact with the outside environment mainly through their senses， and interaction through one sense is called mono-modality， while interaction through two or more senses is called multimodality. （Gu 3-12） Multimodal discourse is a discourse that contains multiple communicative modalities， like sound， word and image， to deliver information. （Wang 31-34） Multimodal discourse can be divided into static multimodal discourse and dynamic multimodal discourse. （Zeng 28-32）

2. Theory of Systemic Functional Semiology Analysis

Kress & Leeuwen established the frame of image analysis in Reading Images， contrasting with Hallidays three kinds of metafunction in systematic functional grammar， and they advocated that image was social symbol as well. They extended Hallidays metafunction to visual modality， and created the grammar of visual design used to analyze images， and its core contents are representational meaning， interactive meaning and compositional meaning. （Kress& Leeuwen 1）

3. Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Movie Spotlights Poster

As a kind of advertisement of movies， film poster is one of the most popular advertising means， which takes the content related to the film as source material.

3.1 Representational Meaning of the Poster

The poster of Spotlight mainly displays the five protagonists of the movie. Robby is the editor for the spotlight team；Mike， Sacha and Matt are members of this team. All the four are setting around the table. The four mens eyesight are all focusing on Sacha， which implicates that they are a team and Sacha is reporting something important to her team. Through the position of these four people and the information conveyed through their expression and motion， it can be inferred that Robby， Mike and Sacha are the main characters in the movie.

3.2 Interactive Meaning of the Poster

In this poster， none of the five people have eye contact with viewers. All of them are concentrating on their activities. This kind of image will make viewers to think about who they are and what they are doing. In this poster， the table and five people are the main parts of this image， and there is no close-up view， instead， it is a view from some distance. This kind of image represents the objective attitude of the designer and the movie theme. The five participants are in the middle of the poster， and they are described from a parallel sight angle， so it reflects the relatively equal relationship between the viewer and the participants. In this poster， the lower part reflects black carpet and dark corners， and the higher part describes white walls， a very bright light through the window， and lightful ceiling. And the table and people around it are in the middle of these two parts—— they standing on the darkness but under the brightness. The lower part and the higher part contrast well with each other， and the table and people around it are good transitions. The color design of this poster fully reflects the battle between good and evil.endprint

3.3 Compositional Meaning of the Poster

In this poster， the office room and files on the table hint that they may be lawyers， reporters， teachers or something likely. Six actors names are on the upper right， showing their contributions to this movie. Name of the movie， is under the actors names， and the font and color of these letters are quite arresting in the image. At the lower part， there is also a sentence， which provides further information about the story and makes viewers more curious. In this poster， image is static， but story is developing. And through the description of the scene of discussion and peoples expressions in the image， the image shows the serious and intense atmosphere. The higher and the lower parts are mainly pure colors with not so much lines， so these two parts are of low salience. The color in the middle part is more complex， with a lot of lines， so this part is of high salience. And as for texts， the name of the movie is of very high salience， and the names of actors is the next， and others are of low salience.

4. Conclusion

Taking poster as a multimodal discourse not only can help viewers understand the meanings and grasp the social functions of image and language and could have a better understanding of the movie， but also provides a new perspective for the audience to recognize and appreciate the movie poster， which can facilitate a better understanding of movie.

References：

[1]Halliday，M.A.K..An Introduction to Functional Grammar.London：Edward Amold，1994.endprint