In film, meaning is about what the audience take out of a piece of film. This is shown through the mise-en-scene, the sound, the genre, narratives, editing and any enigmas that are created within the film. In 'The Boggart' these features are also present.
In 'The Boggart', meaning is created through the use of mise-en-scene. Sets create meaning through the use of locations, particularly iconic locations that link with urban settings and the target audience. Teenagers (the target audience) are known for hanging out in chip shops and in parks and on streets, therefore meaning is created through the locations. The characters and costumes create meaning in 'The Boggart' as the characters are all wearing thick coats which not only associates them more with the youth of today as teenagers always wear big coats in all weathers, but it also helps the audience understand what the weather is like in the film. Meaning is created through the different camera angles and shot types. Within the film, the frequent wide shots showing the physical distance between the characters also reflects the emotional conflict that the characters are going through after their varied arguments.
In this shot, Sean is centred in the middle of the medium close-up. This shows the audience that he is thinking intensely about something as himself and his head are the focus of the shot. This creates meaning as the audience learn that despite the physical and emotional distance that the teenagers are going through, the group are still friends and care for each other.
Another way that meaning is created is through sound. In 'The Boggart' there are three types of on-screen sound; ambient sound, soundtrack, and dialogue. The ambient sounds have little impact to the overall meaning of the film, ambient sounds like birds chirping, pond water rippling, wind, and cars rushing by. These ambient sounds affect the overall verisimilitude of the film, as without them the story would seam faked and it the atmosphere would be uneasy as the audience would realise that something was missing. But ultimately, they create limited meaning for the film. The dialogue creates a greater meaning for the film as this is how the story is told. Colloquial language such as "chippy" and sarcastic attitude such as "err-- and why would we need to do this?" create meaning for the audience as the verisimilitude of the realistic nature of the lines as they would actually be lines that the audience might say in similar situations. The final way meaning is created through sound is through the soundtrack in our film, we create meaning through the soundtrack because of how it is linked to the genre of the film. The genre of the film is urban, and the target audience is teenagers ages 15-19. With this age group and this genre is was easy to work out that the soundtrack be of the rap and pop genre of music.
Meaning is also created through the different questions and enigmas that the audience are forced to ask themselves. In our film, these enigmas are presented through the mysteries surrounding the mythical creature, the 'Boggart'. Questions like: what is a 'Boggart'?, and what happened to Joseph? Other enigmas are presented in the form of the cliffhanger at the end of the film as the audience do not know whether Sean was successful in his attempt to save Jaymie, or whether the three will make it safely out of the park.
Meaning can also be created through the genre of the film. 'The Boggart' is an urban genre urban legend. Genre gives the film meaning through the locations, the way the characters speak and the narrative through which the story is told.
Narrative gives the film meaning through the way that narrative theory can be applied to it. Barthes theory of enigma codes shows us that meaning is created by the questions that the film is asking the audience; this can be shown through the cliffhanger ending. Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposites is presented through the difference between reality and fiction, myth and legend. Todorov's theory of equilibrium shows us that meaning is created through the cyclical nature of stories. That all stories have five key plots to them. This is presented in 'The Boggart' here:
- Stage 1: Equilibrium; Jaymie is on her way to meet her peers to start working on their joint homework project. As far as she knows, nothing can go wrong.
-Stage 2: Disruption; disruption is presented through the argument that Jaymie and her peers have when neither of the other two come prepared for the day. And then Joseph goes missing.
-Stage 3: Recognition; Jaymie and Sean recognise that Joseph is gone and attempt to go and search for him.
-Stage 4: Solution; the characters try to find Joseph but end up going missing themselves.
-Stage 5: New Equilibrium; the three peers are missing and they have no way to warn people to stay away from the park and so the cycle is doomed to start again with more people who go to the park.
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