Textual Analysis

Analysis of Different Media Texts

Stay High Music Video

The song Stay High by Tove Lo is about engaging in doing drugs, getting drunk etc, to cope with heartbreak and missing someone. The song is about her own personal relationship and writing the song inspired her to be open about her mistakes.

Throughout the music video "Stay High" they use the same camera shot "shot to camera" to show the audience her night and let them witness it. It also allows the audience to view on how the drugs affect her. They use a handheld camera, the handheld camera is used to enhance the drunk and 'messy' effect that the video is trying to portray. A slow motion effect is used to enhance the idea of her being on drugs and the time passing slowly. The constant closing of the girl's eyes further enhances the effects of the drugs to suggest she is high which refers to the title “Stay High.” In addition, this gives the impression that the drugs are speeding up the girl's heart rate and activity. This helps enhance the narrative theme. The fast cuts create the fast party atmosphere.  A fish eye camera effect is used to show her distorted view. Slow motion cuts intertwined with fast cuts used constantly throughout, complement each other and highlight different stages and effects of the drug. Tracking shots are used to further the image of her looking confused and lost as she swings her head in slow motion from side to side. High angle shots are used to suggest that the drug is overpowering the girl and has control of her body and mind. The handheld camera moves with her body showing us and giving us a sense of how the drug is affecting her. 


We see the progression of the sort of lifestyle she is having affecting her in a negative way. 

Every time she comes back from these nights out, she reflects back on her decisions. However, she deals with that by drinking, even more, resulting in breaking down at the end.
She sees everyone else drinking and acting fine so she finds herself replicating the actions of people around. Although they are
represented as emotionally stable, it's probably not the case if they're continually drinking their pains away.

Fishtank (2009)

Fish tank is a typical social realism film due to the different conventions showed to the audience. The use of handheld camera shots and natural lighting gives the film a minimalistic look, expected by social realistic films. This could have been used as it was an independent film, which uses low budgets to produce films. Due to the teenage issues such as drugs, violence and relationships are now expected in films like this is used due to it becoming more mainstream.

The very first shot within this extract is a medium shot of a teenage girl, wearing a tracksuit and a top in an empty room. This instantly shows the director is trying to represent council estates and the working class. The clothes within this shot, help the director to represent the typical council flat teenager. The use of a tracksuit is stereotyped clothing items for teenagers of lower income. The audience now knows the type of film this is and who it is about.  It also helps to emphasise to who the director is aiming the film at. These expectations from the film can be related to how some teenagers as they all have lived through some of these issues, they can sympathise with the situations and the ideas raised some of the audience can empathise with the character. This gives out a documentary or improvised feel to it. As if it were reality and we were really there. It gives the audience a feel for what they could experience through the main character.
The camera angle does not focus on the character, it focuses out of the window. This could suggest that it's more than just her story. It’s meant to be an opening look at how people actually live. The character is then put into darkness due to the light coming from the outside it acts as a silhouette on her, which highlights that it could be anyone's situation. The use of natural lighting is a convention of British social realism, as it gives the film a representative ambience. Also, the shot focus is the outside which is to further establish the setting of the film.  The audience than are able to infer that the character is of low income due to the place she lives and the outfit she is wearing. It also gives the film strong reliability that it is showing real life issues that the lower class go through.
The dialogue used gives the audience an idea of who the target audience of the film is. Due to some of the words used the BBFC gave the film a 15 rating. The language used is almost essential to a realistic portrayal of council flat teenagers; it is expected in the dialogue of teenagers of current society.

Kidulthood (2006)

The extract begins with a slow motion, close-up shot of a boy playing with a football than the speed of the shot becomes real time, everything is now moving at a normal pace then slows down again. This type of editing could possibly be linked to the drug-taking teenagers, some drugs make teenagers hyperactive whereas there are other drugs that make them drowsy.

Mis-en-scene contributes to the construction of typical codes and conventions of this genre. The football being played with by students in the school playground doesn’t immediately tell us what genre this movie holds, however, the audience can assume that the movie will have teenage characters. The scene then is cut to a mid shot of a student on her phone, students handing out invitation cards and a student playing a handheld console. All these props are mostly used by teenagers, from all of this we can assume the movie’s genre is going to be based on an urban drama.

The diegetic and non-diegetic sounds used throughout the extract helped construct the genre. For example, the non-diegetic sound, the soundtrack, had a mysterious feel to it and also had a fast tempo. This could have also represented the type of music some teenagers listen to. 
Also, the diegetic sound let off by the handheld console played by Moony helps categorise this movie, the majority of video game players are between the ages of 18, most teenagers play video games and would be familiar with the sound. The characters play is one of the most important genre codes and conventions of this film, the personality and lifestyle of each character are typical of the urban life. For example, we see Trife making something, us the audience are not quite sure what it is, but we can assume it’s something dangerous due to the fact that he doesn’t take the item with him but rather he hides it.

Trainspotting

The audience is immediately involved within the opening sequence through the first shot. A medium shot establishes a public location whereby a subject is swamped into the scene. Through the way in which the character is not immediately distinguished, we can only assume the subject is the main focus subsequently meaning the unidentified individual is the main character. Natural lighting is exposed; clearing an aspect of drama and portraying a British element to the frame which allows the audience to identify the fact that this is a British production. A combination of drums, guitar and bass are immediately revealed alongside the subject. This may have been used in order for the audience to sense aspects of suspense and tension to enable the audience to identify and work with the emotions expressed by the main subject. 

A non-diegetic voice over begins to narrate the opening sequence. A medium closes up is focused on to the left subject to enable the audience to identify the fact that he is the individual talking as the non-diegetic voice over. It is blunt and informative, the speech begins with ‘Choose life’ implicating that the genre is of being a Social Drama through the way in which the character appears to be contemplating life.The characters are introduced with an appearance of which compromises their personality in order for the audience to identify their individuality and possibly be able to relate to the characters. 

‘Renton’ is introduced first which dictates he is the main character and the main focus whereby the audience will follow a storyline based on his perception of life. Renton has a deranged affliction in this shot which is sustained on to the next shot whereby a sense of irony is conflicted. The audience is able to diagnose the fact that Renton could more than likely be troubled and hysterical. Match-on-action is administered for the action whereby Renton displays affections of a rebellious nature. The cut between the two shots is smooth in order to create a visual bridge and allow the audience to follow the action through. Renton’s foolish behaviour is exaggerated further when a sense of irony is released through this scene of him smoking with a non-diegetic voice over of “choose good health, low cholesterol and good dental insurance…”. The cinematography is stable and fixed, no transitions or creative camera work is incorporated within the sequence; portraying the genre further with the fact that it is low budget and simplistic due to the film being a British production. 

When introducing the other relevant and main characters, the camera slowly zooms in on the subject’s face to allow the audience to get a better perceptive towards the character’s identity. When presenting ‘Sick Boy’, a low angle shot is used to portray his superior position so the audience can ‘look up’ to him as an authoritative figure. In contrast to Sick Boy, ‘Spud’ is arranged in a comical presentation in order to imply he is in a lower position of the hierarchy within their subculture. The audience can recognise that Spud is providing the comical feature to the film.

This is England: Film Poster Analysis

This is England uses the colours red, white and blue in the title which links to it as they are the colours of the union jack. This gives the audience a sense of what the film is about just by seeing the colours used and the title itself. The layout of the poster has the characters at the bottom half which suggests that as important as the characters are throughout the film, there are other factors that are also important. This is portrayed through the metal fencing they are stood in front of that is separating them from the houses. The title is placed above their heads in large printed letters. The font and size have the effect that it is printed onto the metal fence which suggests that it is permanent and also that they are the gates to England and the gang are the guards of it. 

The characters are stood in a long line, showing they are a united gang. Even though the characters do have similarities in clothes, for example, the boys are skin heads, they wear the same boots and jeans and shirts, and they are all stood in their own individual position which shows that even though they are part of a gang, they each have an individual identity. The colours they are wearing consist of blues, blacks, whites and red where this shows that even the colours of the title are leaking into what they wear. The tag line reads “Summer 1983. A time to stand out from the crowd.” This gives the audience a greater understanding of what to expect from the film, such as the idea that they are a group that are trying to form their own identity with new values and appearance that will be new to this time period.