Volume 34, Issue 1, 2025
DOI: 10.53555/03276716.2025.10
Mapping Chromatic Semiosis In Digital Intermediate (DI) Tamil Cinema: Integrating Narrative Syntagms And Metafunctional Analysis Across Genre Defining Films
Abstract
The analysis represents an examination of Tamil cinema's (Post Digital Intermediate (2015-2024)) use of colour as a semiotic signifier, in its use as an analytic resource. The research builds on Metz's (1972) theory of narrative cinema, the semiosphere model (core-pertiphery), Lotman (1975), and the principles of visual semiotics described in van Leeuwen's works (2012, 2014) and investigates how colour shifts used in narrative segments are associated with changes in thematic signification, cultural encoding, and affective responses. Participants of the study comprised six films from three predominant academic genres (cultural, romance, and socially centered films). The films were analysed using the K-means cluster (K=6) and accompanied by a sequence of sign analysis. A Kruskal-Wallis H test of (p=0.0) observed cluster and dominant hexadecimal value signified palette in popular films, statistically confirmed expectation, with films categorized into their respective genres' drama films. The use of light and warm reds and saturated pastels provided a nostalgic, intimate feel for romance films, while earthy and desaturated tones punctuate the socio-political discourse in socially centered films, and the popular films employed shattered tone colors, high saturation with neons to stimulate an ideological reception of popular cinema. Metz'sMetz's syntagmatic contrast observed in discourse structuring colour for narrative illumination and drama films, expressed Lotman's semiosphere (core-ideological). Van Leeuwen's function of colour in interaction and composition, while structuring the response of the audience. The research proposed the concept of colour units and provided a methodological model for the analysis of Tamil cinema's use of semiotics and of the resource as colour.
Keywords
Colour Semiotics, Colour Units, Tamil Cinema, Digital Intermediate, Visual Grammar, Genre Theory, Narrative Syntagma, Semiosphere