Enigma Codes Theory

 Enigma Codes 

• The Enigma Code Theory by Barthes is a series of questions posed to the audience to leave a sense of ambiguity and to leave them hooked by the media they are consuming. An enigma code is a piece of action raised with missing information that makes the audience wonder what the answer to the question raised might be. For example, this could be a character who is first introduced in a mysterious way making the audience think, “Who are they?” Enigma codes are used in films and television but also advertising and other forms of media.

Action Codes:

• Action codes are a part of almost every film. They are questions left for the audience to wonder what will happen after a specific action or location has been teased and will later be brought back to light in the film e.g. A secret door in a house is seen.
  
  
• Action codes are foreshadowing events that we will most likely see in the film later and the audience will get their questions answered behind the mystery or question raised earlier in the film.
  
  
• Its important that action codes raised during the film are at least addressed later in some form. Tank 432 is a bad example of this as they raised many action codes but did not pay most of them off towards the end of the film, this left the audience feeling dissatisfied with the film.
  
  
  

Examples of Action Codes in films:

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

• The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological thriller about a female FBI agent, Clarice Starling, who has to rely on the help of a convicted cannibal, Hannibal Lector, to help track down a serial killer.
  
  
• At the beginning of the film Clarice is training when she is asked to go and see her superior Mr Crawford. This is an action code because it changes the narrative and the direction of what would have happened within the film. We see another action code as Clarice gets in the lift full of men to go see Mr Crawford. The lift scene is an action code as it represents some of Clarice's  characteristics of being a strong, independent woman as she's in a lift full of men. If she had taken the stairs, things could have also been different; she may have missed Mr Crawford and we would not have found out what he wanted. When Clarice enters the lift full of other men, they are all wearing bold red uniforms whereas she's wearing a pale blue uniform. There is also a huge difference in height between Clarice and the other men. This emphasises the fact that she's an individual and that she stands out from the rest of the agents and also that she can hold her own in a male environment. Another action code used within this scene is the Behavioural Services sign as this reveals more about the location she's in and hints at the type of people she might be involved with later in the film.