Resemiotization in “ Mindhunter ”

by Joe Penhall, based on the true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside

the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.

idea of interviewing serial killers
-No tape recorder, no notes
-Lots

of research first

of Rick Iedema’s and O’Halloran’s view on resemiotization and how

resemiotization can be analyzed in audiovisual semiotic resources. Both works are based on Halliday’s social semiotics theory (systemic function theory). It explores how changes and shifts in metafunctions affects the message and meaning, also perception of the meaning.

In closing, resemiotization is crucially interested in how materiality (‘expression’) serves to realize the social, cultural and historical structures, investments and circumstances of our time.

In the way that multimodality re-emphasizes the multi-semiotic nature of representation, resemiotization seeks to underscore the material and historicized dimensions of representation.

-resemiotisation as remediation & intersemiotic translation

– particularly the tension between a desire for transparent immersion

and the value of very foregrounded and conscious hypermediation –operate across such diverse media as paintings, film, video games, and furniture.

On a general level this TV series is a product of remediation (but it has a combinative nature)- initial adaptation of the book and real-life interviews with serial killers. It’s a form of absorption of the old medium in the new one, as the TV series itself has to maintain the aspect of reality in itself, it doesn’t acknowledge the mediums it is based on.

+

mediums)
Ed Kemper. Documentary Interview (1984)
Ed Kemper interview in TV series
In

SF-MDA, the focus on the metafunctional organization (ideational, interpersonal, textual meanings) of semiotic resources is critical, but the actual choices in multimodal texts and processes are interpreted in relation to the context using the concepts of register and genre.

These dimensions are described using register theory (Halliday) , which is concerned with three key dimensions:

field—the nature of the social activity (realised through experiential and logical choices);

tenor—the social relations which are enacted (realised through interpersonal choices); and

the mode—spoken, written and visual forms of representation (realised through textual choices).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDYBmNYc8IA&t=13s

– resemiotization;
choice of semiotic resources - (resources are in

the way the same (audiovisual) but execution is different
- what meanings get expressed, fixed, carried over to the next stage – interview with a serial killer, actual facts and information about murders, sense of understanding.

addition, elimination of information – addition in terms of people that are in focus ( we’re interested not only in the serial killer, but also in agents, their perception, their actions; dramatization of serial killers ( through cinematic choices); mystery element; conversation, posing of questions to the audience, combination of things that make you question morality)

- opening up ‹-› closing down the space of interpretation/negotiation
of meanings

gives us a description of actions. Abstract level. Point of

view of the killer himself mostly.

TV series interview: aims to explain the behavior, to convey the darkness and nature of a killer. More fixed and precise level. Focus on dramatization and on the audience. Point of view from director.

Comments:

David Cendana
1 month ago
The real Ed is so.... human. Mindhunter ed has this eery stillness in his emotion. The real ed talks the way your best friend would. I understand why the cops did not believe ed at first.

Vean Studio
7 months ago
The real interview: what Kemper wants us to see

The show: what he really is

Paul Bordelon
1 day ago (edited)
Fascinating in that the real Ed is actually likable on a certain level. The Ed portrayed in MindHunter not so much.

the functions (called “‘metafunctions”) which the resources serve in society

(e.g. Halliday and Matthiessen 2014; Martin and Rose 2007):
• Ideational meaning which consists of experiential meaning: to structure experience of the world and logical meaning: to make logical connections in the world; (what is it about)
• Interpersonal meaning: to enact social relations and create a stance towards the world; (how does it enact he social)
• Textual meaning: to organize experiential, logical and interpersonal meanings into messages (how is it put together as semiotic construct)