Textual Analysis


In starting to plan what my short piece of film will be about, I have decided to do a textual analysis on the first five minutes of four films, looking at the genre and how the director has made the obvious to the audience. These films will help inspire some ides of what I would defiantly consider basing my opening to the film on.

The first clip I looked at was 'Skeleton Key' the sequence begins with Universal's clip of the globe and slow western sounding music. This suggests to the audience the film may be a western, set in the most likely area of South America. This music as well as later scene between a black man and white women could suggests traditional stereotypes of racism could be one of the issues that arise in the film. It then cuts to what looks like to be a flashback from the faded lighting and calming surroundings of weeping willow trees in the rain; whilst hearing the diegtic sound of a women telling a story. The connotations of this scene suggest a sad or depressing past. It then cuts to a scene with a young white female, whom we think to be a nurse by her costume and that there is a black male beside her in a bed. From the other nurses/doctors in this scene we think this may be a hospice. The female nurse that we see in this scene from the lighting and shot types we know that she may be a main character. We know Jennifer Hudson usually plays rolls in chick flicks or romantic films however from her plain clothes and make-up we can guess that she wont be seen in the same light as her previous films. At this stage we don't have many clues as to what genre this film is. However because of the sudden death towards the beginning of the film, this could suggests horror (more psychological rather than slasher).

The next film I looked at was 'Carlington Road', this film is more obvious in the way that they show what genre of the film from the start compared to the skeleton key. Straight away the scene begins close-ups and extreme close-ups of a young boys face. This is quite an uncomfortable shot for the viewer to watch; the sound of whispering is dark and suggests psychological thriller/horror theme. The non-diegtic music of drums increases the more the scene continues, hinting at tension and the currant genre of thriller. From the suburban surroundings we know the film is set in America, the open and bare setting makes everything seem ire. Because we see blood/gore early on in the film this could suggest slasher horror however we don't usually expect to see horror films using bright day light. We are also introduced to the actor Jeff Bridges who we know to usually play the protagonist in films. Overall the first five minutes of the film shows us the genre is most likely to be psychological horror/thriller, this is done by the mise en scene and certain other elements like shot types to make this obvious to the viewer.

'Something about Mary' is the next clip I looked at, in the first five minutes of the film we begin to think this may be a romance from the bright lighting and joyful music. The more the scene goes on we notice small clues at to what the genre of the film might actually be. For instance the opening credits are written in comically sized and colour fonts with names like Lee Evens appearing on the screen; this suggests a comedy style film. Other then this clue we don't see much indication to what genre the film might be, however we do see a later mid-shot of Ben Stiller. Ben comes with many connotations of being funny from his previous films, from this point we know the film will be a comedy.

The last film I looked at was 'The Departed' the scene begins with clips of prisoners in jail and policeman, the shots of broken windows and money all points towards the genre of action/crime. The synchronous sound of cars wheels spinning before we are introduced to the actor Jack Nicholson point towards a clear genre in this film. Jack isn't usually known for playing the protagonist part in films and with his dialogue using explicit words of swearing and racism it suggest he is very much an antagonist. We only see his silhouette in in shots of him, he is an older white male and he is referred to as Mr C. The genre of the film is clearly shown in the first five minute of the clip, the genre has been successful represented from the start.

Over all these films have chosen selective ways of showing the genre of the film from the start and I will try and use this in my piece of filming too.