ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to elucidate just how the comprehensive analytical frameworks developed by social semioticians to date, including Van Leeuwen and others, can be employed to effectively deal with significant empirical issues, such as narrative complexity, genre, and transmedial comparisons, which have been the subject of perennial debate in studies of narrative and the moving image. It focuses on the issue of multiple endings in fiction films. The chapter shows how addressing the issue of multiple endings drawing on systematic multi-level analysis suggests effective strategies for unravelling puzzle films. It elucidates precisely how the multi-dimensionality can be achieved on the basis of the methods proposed by Theo van Leeuwen and other social semiotic research on film discourse. The chapter points out that Cova and Gracia's stimulating discussion can definitely be seen as opening several lines of discussion and there are many empirical discussions in the offing regarding traditional and interactive media genres.
