Cinematic space in contemporary Ghanaian narratives: a re-reading of the film Sinking Sands

Abstract

Film is the replication of real-life which employs visual elements apart from dialogue and sound effects to communicate effectively to an audience. An aspect of using such visual elements includes setting, sets and props to define a character's social status, geographical location, period, and other circumstances. In addition, such visual elements in the cinematic space can present significations, meanings and visual metaphors in the story. These visual elements are signs and symbols perceived as film language and used to communicate in films. The explication of this communication apparatus and its study as signification is known as semiotics. As observed, very little scholarly attention has been given to research on setting, sets and props in Ghanaian films based on semiotics. Therefore, this paper focuses on setting, sets and props in the Ghanaian film titled Sinking Sands (2010). It employs the qualitative approach and framework. Based on the semiotics theoretical anchorage, this paper attempts to analyse how some settings, sets, and props are used in the selected Ghanaian film Sinking Sands (2010) to make meaning and present visual metaphors in the cinematic space. It is observed that the use of visual elements such as setting, sets and props in films, in addition to their functional or utilitarian purposes in society, also display different dimensions of meanings and visual metaphors in the cinematic space