Textual analysis of student work

TEXTU

AL ANALY

SIS O

F

STUDENT

WORK.

THE OPENING SEQUENCE :

The opening sequence we have chosen is a students piece of work called ‘A schools nightmare’ . This piece of work got 56 out of 60 which is a good piece of work but there is still small amounts of weaknesses throughout and me and Fraser are going to explore these in a textual analysis with strengths and weaknesses .

STRENGTHS :

Starting with a establishing shot is a good strength because it shows the overall area of where it is being filmed , they have decided to use that certain area because it is dark they have done this because the setting connotes a typical horror starting to a film . From talking about the set i'm going to move on to a few positives of the mise-en-scene , we see that after the cross cut from the car the composition of the 4 lads standing is clever because to start off with we cant see there faces which also once again connotes the genre of horror .

WEAKNESSES :

The weaknesses of the mise-en-scene is the facial expressions are key to the first scene in the because we know the film is a horror but all the boys are happy and smiling which goes against the 4 parts of media stereotype because they are going against the stereotypical appearances and behaviour which as the viewer you are not expecting so from this is connotes that maybe the film isn't going to be a normal horror film .

STRENGTHS :

This opening sequences would hit a good audience theory being a mass audience because a lot of people like horror so this would be the target audience . Whilst talking about the target audience we know this mass audience is going to love the ‘fake blood’ because horror fans love this . Also blood connotes death which horror fans also love so they would enjoy this film , so from using the fake blood it is a good use of the mise-en-scene but on a low budget and not over the top .

WEAKNESSES:

Although I have already praised the dark lighting in this analysis this has become a weakness as the opening sequence goes on there is no light change and it actually becomes a bad part of the mise-en-scene . They have nailed most of the aspects in mise-en-scene but I feel the colour and lighting has started off brilliant and then dropped , I say this because in the sequence they have tried to say time has changed but in theory it hasn’t and it has stayed the same dark from the outside ., which also goes against binary oppositions . They should of used small lighting outside so you can see the area a bit easier .