The process of film making can be thought of as beginning with a person's feeling or concern about something. To communicate this feeling to others, the film maker (sender) must develop an organic unit which will provide a vehicle that can embody the feeling/Story-Organism. The film maker selects and orders a series of signs, images, or events which translate the Story-Organism into a message. The film viewer (receiver) then reverses this process. In order to understand this process, a science of sign language (semiotic) must be developed with reference to films. A film may be thought as a series of videmes; a videme being defined as a generalized shot or take. The videme may then be examined from the standpoint of the five parameters of the structural elements of film language--Image in Motion over Time in Space with Sequence. To further develop the semiotic of film making various concepts and definitions of developmental linguistics ma y be useful. However, a methodology of research must be developed to explore them as they may apply to films. What is needed are specific hypotheses which can be tested, either by an analysis of film making or film viewing, or by controlled experiment. At the conclusion of the paper several ideas for research problems are set forth and a list of reference notes is given. (JY)