Advice from the Exam Board-Textual Analysis and Representation



You have to analyse how four technical features are used in the extract: camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound. Each of those features can be sub-divided, so for camerawork you should consider shot distance (LS, MS, CU etc), angle and movement, for example. For editing such features as pace, how time and space are manipulated, transitions and matches on action would feature. Mise-en-scene needs to consider costume, colours, props, settings and so on- everything that appears in front of the camera, and sound features voice, music and sound effects.

For each of them, you need to show how a particular representation is constructed through these technical codes. The different representations which can come up are gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, class/status, disability, regional identity. Whichever one comes up, it should be fairly obvious in the sequence and part of your job is to show how it is constructed for the viewer through those technical features.

Key to your task is note-taking: you might do this through a spider diagram or a chart or whatever, but you need to take as many notes as you can while you watch so that you have plenty available to write about. It is important that you cover all four technical areas and I would suggest that the simplest way to put them in your essay is to deal with each one in turn. DO NOT just write a blow by blow account of the sequence as you won't get a good mark! Pick out striking moments and concentrate on how the four codes work in those moments.

Examples are key and they are worth 20 marks, so make sure you have a lot of them to back up your points! Your introduction should be really brief- no more than a sentence, then GET ON WITH IT! A good conclusion would be to just say something about how the four areas, working together construct the representation. After 45 minutes of writing, draw it to a close, as you need to then get on with question 2!

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