My roommates and I recently finished watching season 4 of one of my favorite shows, Friday Night Lights. I have been a huge fan of the show ever since season one for multiple reasons. The characters and the dialogue always feel real, I always love a good family drama, and t top it all off, I am a huge sports fan. But it wasn't until this week that I realized another main reason that I love this show. After reading more about semiotics and how images and the layout of a show can work to convey a certain feeling or underlying meaning, I realized that the unique semiotics within Friday Night Lights is what keeps drawing me, and many other viewers, back to the show. The show is often shot with a handheld camera, creating what some people complain to be a "shaky shot." However, this is one of my favorite parts of watching the show. I think that the shows trademark "shaky" and extremely close-up shots are what give it its unique, raw feel. And though the camera techniques have gotten criticism, the connotation behind the scenes would be completely altered without them. The close-ups also enhance the dialogue, which is often spoken at a softer, more intimate level, like two people having a real conversation would speak. I know understand that all of these factors play into the semiotics of the show, or how the meaning of the show is conveyed, and as a result, I can better understand why I am so drawn to it.
Good point. What do the handheld and close-ups mean? Do they connote "realism" to you b/c of volume (intimacy) and documentary aesthetics? In total contrast to something like Pushing Daisies it attempts to make it part of the real world? By the way, I LOVE the show. Am behind on this season (but already plotting to get Dylan East t-shirt at the NBC store when I go to NYC).
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