NicolaAstleyASMedia: Textual analysis - Twilight:

Analysis of Twilight

I decided to analyse Twilight because it fitted into both the genre of fantasy and thriller perfectly. It is fantasy because te film is based on fictional characters - vampires - and unrealistic events happening, in addition, the film is similar to a fairytale - one of the codes and conventions of fantasy films (not realistic) - as the film has the ablitlity to apply both the hypodermic syringe model and the uses of gratification theory to the audience. On the other hand, Twilight fits into the genre of thriller mainly because of the thrill of the chas, the audience is eager to know who the person is chasing after Bella throughout the whole film.

Camera:

· The film begins with a low angle shot of trees and bushes, to suggest to the audience we could be in a character’s point of view hiding from something or someone above us.
· 00.31, is a high angle shot, looking down onto an animal, this could suggest to the audience, we/character is more powerful than the wolf.
· 00.34, the camera is now a medium close up shot of the animal, and we are still able to see part of the background. This could possibly connate to the audience; the character is inspecting/analysing the animal in detail to see what it is.
· 00.38, has turned into a close up shot of the animal, only showing part of the animal eating, the camera shot still shows some background.
· 00.42, the camera shot is now zoomed into a big close up shot, showing only the animal’s head.
· The film uses a high angle shot again, looking below onto the ground.
· A slight high angle of a close up shot is used on the animal; whilst the animal is turning around, ready to run away.
· The next shot is the 30 degree rule medium close up shot of the animal leaping in the air quickly. This suggests to the audience, that the animal is being chased by the character, as it looks as if we are looking through a characters point of view through the camera shots.
· The camera shots starts to vary from 30 degree rule big close up shots to medium long shots during the chase, this is to build tension for the audience, as the pace is getting quicker, the audience is more eager to know, who the character is chasing the animal, and if he has captured the animal yet.
· 1.03, you get a medium close up blurred shot of a body figure, this could imply to the audience, this is one of the characters of the film.
· 1.06 is a medium shot of the animal captured by one of the characters leaping in the air.
· 1.13, a medium shot of Bella (Kristen Stewart), able to see the grassy background, and almost white sky.
· 1.30 is a medium close up shot of Bella and her mother.
· The camera then jumps to a long shot of the mother’s boyfriend, this suggests to the audience, he is not as important as the other characters in the film, or he doesn’t have much impact on Bella. We can see the boyfriend’s body language and gestures and the surroundings – the setting – from this certain shot, the setting looks deserted, dull and the middle of nowhere.
· At 1.41 it is an establishing shot. This camera shot sets the scene, showing the surroundings. In this case, this shot is to show the contrast between the place here and the place where Bella is going to – Forks.
· At 1.56, the shot used is an over the shoulder shot of looking outside the car window. This could suggest to the audience, we are seeing in Bella’s point of view.
· 1.58, they use a wide shot here showing a plane flying up into the sky, whilst showing the surrounding of the place.
· 2.02 is an establishing shot of the new setting, establishes where the events will take place. In addition, this is shown to contrast the difference between her hometown to the new place she is going to be living in.

Sound:

· The music of the institution – Summit Entertainment – is what you would typically hear in horror films, as it sounds mysterious. This could connote to the audience that the film is going to fit into the fantasy, thriller and horror genre.
· From 00.23, the film has included in diegetic sound. There is very little background music, whilst Bella speaks – “I’d never given much thought to how I would die, but dying in a place with someone I love seems like a good way to go.” This could be foreshadowing and suggests to the audience that Bella might die at the end of the film.
· 00.45, non-diegetic sound is used, the music playing in the background, is the typical background music that is used to create suspense.
· As the chase gets faster between the characters and the animal, the music pace starts speeding up to match the chase.
· There are some sound effects used, such as when the animal leaps, it sounds cartoonish, and exaggerated to emphasis the leaping noise.
· At 1.10, there is very little background music, and Bella speaks again, “So I can’t bring myself to regret the decision to leave home, I would miss Phoenix, I miss the heat, I would miss my loving erratic heroine mother. And her new husband’ this introduces and sets the story out for the audience, and let the audience know what has happened/is going to happen.
· 1.50, country music starts to play, relaxes the atmosphere and the mood of film from the previous scene of the chase.

Mise en scene:

· The beginning scene – the setting – is of a forest. This connotes mysteriousness as forests are typically the place where all mysterious/scary matters take place.
· The beginning scene is also mainly in dark green because of the trees. Experts have said that dark green usually associates with ambitions, greed and jealousy, which could foreshadow to the audience that greed and jealousy could take place later on in the film.
· The colours of the scenes are mostly dark, which suggests the atmosphere of the film will be dark, tense and mysterious.
· The beginning minute of the scene looks as if it is filmed in real life by a person holding onto a video camera and running along with it. At 00.49, the animal is running away, and the camera seems as if we – the audience – are running along with the animal.
· The mysterious character chasing the animal is wearing dark blue. Dark blue symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith and truth. We know that the character chasing the animal is Edward Cullen, but if we hadn’t of known, the colour dark blue on the character would connote to the audience that he is trustworthy, loyal, intelligent and faithful etc.
· Once the chase was over, the colours of the scene starts to become brighter, with neutral and peaceful colours. Bella is seen wearing brown and light blue, which suggests she is understanding, soft and calm.
· Bella comes across as a boring character in this scene as she doesn’t stand because the colour of her clothes blend in with the background.
· The scene of the place where Bella will be staying, suggests death, eternity and endless possibilities as the setting is set in a place which looks like the middle of nowhere and desert-like.

Editing:

· The film uses a lot of continuity editing, which creates a sense of reality and time moving forward. For example, during the chase scenes, it contained a lot of continuity edits.
· Jump cut is also featured in the first opening 2 minutes of Twilight, at one of the scenes of a long shot of the forest, we see the anima running forward, and then the character leaping in from the side conveys to the audience the animal has been captured.
· There are no credits at the beginning of the two minutes of the film.
· There was one scene which used cross cutting, where the animal was running ahead, and then in the next scene it was showing the character – Edward – running.
· Flashback could be considered to be used in the 2 minutes of the film as the chase scene could suggest to the audience that, it was Bella’s imagination and dreams because she was narrating along at the beginning scene about death.
· The film uses linear narrative as Bella is narrating the film, at the beginning; this is to guide the audience through the storyline.