The letter

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

‘The letter’ is a short film that contains 2:19 minutes of footage, though this is shorter than the product we will be making it holds great significance to how we want our product to come across. The emotional content of ‘the letter’ entails the emotion we will be portraying within our product ‘venture’ and, therefore, it will allow us to know how to represent the codes and the conventions of a period war time drama suitably.

The product begins with a gradual fade in of an indistinct image of a yellow carnation, which is symbolic to war as the yellow carnation connotes disappointment and rejection, emotions that are experienced throughout the war and which are conventional to a war time period drama. Moreover, it is represented within the rule of

thirds to portray the significance it holds to the audience as their eyes are directly drawn to the centre of the screen; furthermore they are immediately able to identify (uses and gratification theory) with the symbolic flower. It is represented to hold great significance in the product as the title ‘The letter’ has appeared in the left hand, lower corner, portraying that the flower is of more importance. The title colour is white which connotes purity and innocence which could represent the soldiers of the war. Additionally, the background music adds a slow pace to the production. Sound is very significant in allowing the audience to develop emotions and being able to identify with that character, within this scene the sound is very mellow and of a sad nature, portraying to the audience that not everything is all well and good representing unease, representative of the theory binary opposition. Discomfort is more so portrayed by the shady/dark background colour, as dark colours represent mourning, evil and the end. Furthermore, the music adds a sense of enigma to the product as the audience will begin to wonder what the next scene will bring.

This next scene represents an extreme close up shot of some ones hand picking at the flower, portrayed through continuity cuts, which are cuts made by the editors that take a logical form from one scene to the other. The nit picking at the flower could symbolise the pain he has gone through due to the inflicting violence he is causing on the flower by picking it apart piece for piece. During this scene a males voice is heard which produces an enigma as the audience will begin to wonder who he is taking to or why he is picking the flower apart. The opening of what he says beings with the line ‘the war is over’, this is said in an empathetic way, representing the feeling people had after the war as, although the fighting was over a new fight began with trying to clear away the disastrous effects the war had on countries and on the people themselves. The background sound continuous

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

on within this scene portraying a sound bridge, however, the sound is lowered in volume in order to not distract the audience attention from the man’s voice, which has been portrayed through non-diegetic sound as the audience are unable to identify with the person saying the dialogue. The character then goes on to lift the flower to his nose, represented within an extreme close up, still portraying the importance that the flower holds, as he does this he goes on to mention how they ‘lost’ the war, connoting devastating effects for his country. The dialogue has been spoken in a gloomy way connoting that he was involved in the war due to the deep emotional content in which the dialogue is being spoken, for instance, the character could have been a part of the war as a soldier. The effects of losing could have had a devastating effect on him as he may believe he could have done more in order to bring his country to victory. Moreover, the audience are still held by an enigma as they begin to wonder what the man looks like and where he is. The contrast shining light on his finger and flower to his face represents a binary opposition, further, representing he may not be all good and may be in some sort of danger, as said dark colours represent the bad.

Emotion has been built up greatly throughout the previous scenes, the audience have a various amount of unanswered questions and should feel sympahetic towards the soldiers as of the clear pain he is going through because of the war. This next scene has been portrayed through continuity editing, the character is represented writing a letter, the voice over is clearly of what he is writing within the letter, the audience are still left

in suspense as they do not know who the letter will be sent to. Furthermore, the brightness of the sun light reflecting on the paper represents the purity and innocence the solider has in writing the letter and potentially in who he is, however, this is represented as a binary opposition due to his colour in clothing as the black could represent the bad. The rule of thirds

focuses on his pencil, further portraying the letter to hold great significance. Moreover, the ring on his finger could symbolise that he is writing to his family as a wedding band represents companionship and love with someone you’d hope to spend the rest of your life with. The sound from the first scene is still continued over through a sound bridge and represents more or less the same meaning as it did in the beginning, however, this is challenged as the sound heightens once the imaged moved to him writing the letter, additionally connoting the signifcance the letter has.

This exreme close up is used in order to portray the characters true emotion, the saddness and sorrow represented on his face portrays the devestasting and lasting effects war can have on people. As this shot is represented, he states that ‘he can come

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

home now’, representing the pitiable time he has spent with family, his facial experssion could portray the guilt he has for this. Furthermore, the image is directly represented within the center and in the rule of thrids, two flower stems are covering apart of his face which could portray him hiding something that is troubling him, which is further evident through the use of not being able to see his eyes, the director has done this as a lot of emotion is portrayed through someones eyes, by the audience not being able to see the other eye it symbolisies mystery and secrets connoting an enigma. Half of his face is shaded darker than the other, representing that the guilt he has is potentially ‘taking over’ causing him to mourn for what he or someone else may have done.

For the second time within the product the letter is portrayed, more so representing the signifciance that the letter holds and the importance he sees it as. The camera movement represent that of a tracking shot, as the camera moves him the characters

hand, representing both to be insinc with one another. Aditionally, through this scene he states that, ‘god wont forgive him’, portraying that what he has done is immoral and evil and shouldn’t have been done, it portrays the guilt he has. The audience are further able to identify with this as they may have had a time where they felt guilty about something they

had done in the past. Moreover, the audience will begin to feel sorry for him as of the resentment he has represented to what he has done. However, he could be portrayed in a negative way because of what the audience may believe he has done, connoting him to be the villain (8 prop characters) within the product.

This next scene has been portrayed by an over the sholder, two shot to represent both characters within the scene. The scene has been introduced with a jump cut as it previously had nothing to do with the other scenes as the other character suddenly appeard. Footsteps were heard which were portrayed through digetic and ambience sound. The first character flew up

to turn to find someone pointing a gun at him, possibly representing the war not to be over. The lighting shifted to a darker intricacy during this scene which could represent something immoral happening. The audience are witnessed with the identification of both males as they are able to identify with the stereotypical conventional army wear of camoflagued uniform. The

audience are also identified with the country the first character is fighting for due to the

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

nazi symbolic swastika on his upper arm. The sound suddenly changes during this scene, once he jumps up the muisc stops and the audience are identifyed with the natural sounds of the nature, reprenting ambient sound, for example, you can hear the a bird cherping within the background and the fuffling of the soldiers.

This long/establishing shot allows the audience to recognise (uses and gratification theory) where the soldiers are. During the war, if not all but most of the fighting was done within the fields and in the country due to the advantage of using highlands to view opposition from a camp base. Both of the soldiers are holding their guns up to one another, representing that although the war may have been over and won there is still bitterness towards the opposition. The shot then moves back to a two shot when the first character states that, ‘the war is now over’, conforming that the character opposite

him is his rival, however, the first character is portrayed in a good light but imitating that the war is over and that he just wants to move on and settle the rivalry, representing himself as the potential hero (8 props characters).

The shot then changes to directly represent the opposing character who

from the scene before is represented in a bad light, portraying himself as the villian. This has been further evident due to the dark shading on and around his face. Furthermore, this shot is representative of a mid shot portrayed in the rule of thirds to draw the audiences attention to his face. Sound within this scene is ambient and the most significant sound is the characters speaking to one another in a manner at which both seem

apprehensive. He begins to argue with the first character who attempts to make peace, again portraying him in a good light, this is further represented through the contrast of lighting on each characters face, the brighter the lighting the purer and inocent characters are portrayed. The first character on the right has been represented as being taller than the one above, from this it is evident that there is a further sense of fear within the second character as the first holds a higher dominance over him.

The character is portrayed bending down in order to put his gun to the floor as the other

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

has told him too or he will shoot, whilst he does so he mentions his family and speaks about them to try to hold some connection with the other soldier. Moreover, he is represented in a good light due to him trying to settle the peace, he seems co-operative unlike the other soldier. The emotional content of the product develops from this stage from the beginning as he begins to mention his family. Additionally, the close up shot allows the audience to see his emotion as he should be threatened by the other character as he has the gun, however, for the first time he is represented with a smile which connotes how much his family mean to him and portrays how badly he wants to get back to his family. During this scene the music begins to heighten and the slow, melow, sorrow music helps to entice the audience as they begin to wonder why the sound has heightened, furthermore, it allows the audience to know how to feel as they will slowly feel the sadness and begin to gain a sense of enigma of what will happen and why the music has heightened. The first character begins to speak to other character in his language which allows him to identify (uses and gratification theory) with him.

The second character on the left looks deciveing and evil, portraying him in a bad light, the lighting is darker and, therefore, represents him more so in this way. The extreme close up is used to emphasis his look and represent his true emotions, adittionally the smile on his face when the first character dropped his gun portrays how manipulative

and evil the war could be and the effects it has on people. The shot of the right represents the character shouting at his sargent in a manic way that he has a prison, representing that although the first character has dropped his gun, the other is still threatened by him and is scared of what may happen. Within this shot lighting is portrayed brighting which represents that this character could potentially be good but is putting on a persona in order to act brave because no one survives in the war being weak. The lighting could represent that he is initially good but war has made him immorale.

The soldier is portrayed reaching into his pocket, which is seen as misleading to his oppsition, however, in the pervious scene it was represented that he put the letter to his family in his pocket, this, nevertheless, is not known to the other solider. Once he reaches his hand in his pocket the other soilder turns to have a panic and beings to

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

shoot him which has been represented in a long/establishing shot. This allows the audience to identify (uses and gratification theory) with the location that they are in. The yellow carnations are symbolic during this time as they represent the rejection he had from the solider who shot him, the first character portrayed resentment for what he had done and portrayed apologetic emotions in pervious scenes, however, he had been rejected by his opposition for being a naiz and had, therefore, been shot. Sound becomes increasingly significant during this time, as the action intensifies so does the music, in order to allow the audience to gain the anticipation and enigma needed for the scene to be portrayed in the light needed. The pitch becomes exaggerated and the emotions are heightened between the characters and the audience, making the audience feel fully apart of the product as they gain the same emotion as the character should. This represents the manipulation sound can cause on audiences as they feel what the character feels due to the way the audio moves them, for instance, if dark and deep music came on the audience should stereotypically feel down and angry.

A match cut has been used, in order to link the two shots together as Once the solider has been shot he drops to the floor where the letter falls infront of his face, this signifies the importance it had to the solider as it was the object he went to take out his pocket before he got killed. The

contrast within his face, portraying the bad in previous scenes is supported by this as it represents that although he was sympathetic about what he had done, it still lead to his death.

The product ends with the black background to represent the mourning of the lost soliders and the white letters representing the title portray the purity and inocence of those who fought in the war but were killed or hurt during the prosess, the product represents the devestating effects of the war in various ways.

Throughout the production sound has been evidently significant in representing the true codes and conventions of a war time period drama, for instance, all non-digetic sound had come to hall when the characters were seen exchanging words with one another, this signifies the importance of what they were saying and more so enables enigma to be built up as no other sound was evident, meaning the audiences eye were directly on the characters. However, when digetic sound was evident it was represented a very mellow and calming, signfiying the potential peace the character is at now that the war is over. Additionally, sound bridges had been used to link the scenes together, for instance, the change of a scene signified a different character speaking.

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’

Furthermore, the pace of the product was slow throughout the production, this enbaled the narrative to develop within the short space of time that the editiors had to include every scene, the majority of the editing techniques used were matched scenes and continuity editing, again due to the lack of time more complex editing techniques were unable to be used as the audience would have gotten confused and mislead by the narrative.

In addition, camera movement has also been used in order to represent the flow of the production, the most significant movement that has been used has been a tracking shot which follows the characters movement aorund the scene, this was portrayed within the scene where the character reached into his pocket to try and reavel the letter, moreover, point of view shots have also been used in order for the characters to gain perspective of what it is like to be on the reciveing end. The director has used a point of view shot only from the first character, this creates the adience to feel as if they should be sympathetic towards him which has been developed through the narrative of the production.

The product clearly follows the stereotypical codes and conventions of a war time period drama due to the quick build up of suspense which was evidently portrayed through the very beginning of the product. The use of lighting representing the villian and the hero (8 prop characters) which is stereoytpical to that of a war film. Therefore, representing that the product incorporates both war and drama within its narrative.

Various theories have also been challenged, for instance, the most common used was binary opposition which was represented more so through the use of lighting, however an equilibrium has been clearly idenitfied, for example, the begin of the prodyuct begins with a clam setting which then gets challenged through the use of the arguing soldiers creating a dis-equilibrum, a new resolution of equilibrium is then introduced when the character has sadly been shot by his rival army member. The enigma code has also been significantly used, this has been further developed through the use of sound as it allows the audience to know how to feel, for example, when the soldier dropped to the floor slow, melow, sad audio came on allowing the audiences emotions to be manipulated by the changing audio, something which had been represented throughout the product.

Conclusively, this product holds the emotional factor that I would like to be portrayed within my product. A various amount of close up shots have been used in order to represent the true emotion of the characters, furthermore, the limited use of characters represents the emotional bond between two people more and allows them as characters to develop within the short amount of time they are presented with. The lighting is suffienctly used to represent binary opposition and the bad vs the good. Aditionally, sound has been used in a significanct and memorable way as it was used in signifcant and important places within the product to give the audience time to build true emotion.

Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’