SEMIOTICS AND THE LANGUAGE OF COSTUMES IN NIGERIAN VIDEO FILMS: A STUDY OF CRY OF A WIDOW AND ADAEZE

Abstract

This paper discuses signs and symbols of costume for visual communication and the contribution that the concept of semiotics analysis makes with regard to enhancing a costume designer’s experience and engagement with the elements of costume. The concept of semiotics is indicated as contributive factor to effective visual communications; meaning is seen as dynamic, predominantly described in terms of subjective reality. To address this, the researcher employed Semiotic theory: the foundation of contemporary film theory and qualitative methodology in order to analyze selected Nigerian video films. This form of analysis allows costume a distinct voice in words dominated film. It reinforces costume as communication through style, lines, colour, fabric and texture. This work has been able to create a communicative distinction of costumes in films using the socio-cultural and conventional interpretations of colours, lines, fabrics, styles and textures of clothes and accessories. It has attempted to understand how lines, colours, fabrics and textures convey meaning in film. This paper discovers that costume helps us to form individual opinions about characters and at the same time reconstruct their socio-cultural realities. Based on this discovery, semiotic interpretation can be recommended as a useful adjunct to traditional idealistic research, particularly when the film costume being studied is so complex that objectivity is hard to maintain. Having analyzed the costumes of selected Nigerian video films in relation to semiotics theory, the contexts of the films selected and the researcher’s experiences and observance of convention and Igbo culture; significations of costumes are presented as subjective truth, making way for further interpretations and several different meanings. The paper argues that the meaning of costumes in video films centers on the viewer’s experiences and culture. Thus this research emphasizes the participation of the audience in visual communication process and film costumes.