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Abstract
Nollywood filmmakers most often strive to evoke particular feelings in their audience -they try as much as it is possible to create prevailing effects on the minds of viewers', using widely shared conventions. This article reflects on the use of images, light and sound to create beauty and believability in Nollywood video films, using a semiotic approach to analyse select movies. The article suggests that certain aesthetic elements are used in sharing meaning in Nollywood movie productions. Such elements include but are not limited to signs, codes and conventions, and particular camera, lighting, sound and editing techniques, as well as some other specialized vocabulary of movie productions.
Keywords: Aesthetics, Nollywood, Video films, Semiotics, Conventions.
1. INTRODUCTION
Nollywood video films are most often create aesthetic reality on the minds of viewers. Aesthetic reality, according to Akpan and Etuk "involves nature rearranged", it is a kind of reality that reflects through the filmmaker's personality and indicates selection and treatment given life by the filmmaker, with the aid of the camera, sound, light and available techniques of video production (AKPAN & ETUK, 1990). Of course, we all know that film is often arbitrated by the filmmaker, but the extent to which this arbitration takes place is what we may not really be able to measure. Chandler notes that television and film use certain common conventions often referred to as the 'grammar' of theses audiovisual media. These conventions according to Chandler are important for conveying meaning through particular camera and editing techniques as well as some specialized vocabulary of film production (CHANDLER, 2001). Aesthetics lies in the ability of the filmmaker to utilize all the available tools at his/her disposal to pass a message across to his/her audience and make the feel the way he wants them to feel. The actions of the audience while watching the movies are usually programmed by the filmmaker, who blends in diverse proportions, images, light and sound, with his wealth of experience and vocabulary as well as the diverse technique at his/her disposal. This article is an attempt to explain how filmmakers are able to make their audience react in different ways while watching their movies.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study specifically examines:
1. how shots are combined to...