1. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
The product beings with no image, however, the
audience are represented with the gradual build
up of non-digetic sound, which they are able to
identify with (uses and gratification theory)
straight away. Furthermore, they are also
presented with an enigma as they will begin to
wonder where the sound is coming from and
why there is no image to coinside with the nondigetic sound. The sound resembles a gust of
wind which gradually heightens to represent an echoing travelling object through a
tunnel. The audience are then represented with the sound intensifing and becoming
more distinguished by the heightened pitched, which is similar to the sound of harsh
breaking, further connoting a travelling object. The colour black is stereotypically
associated with mourning, evil, violence and the end, which further produces an enigma
to the audience.
A trasistion shot is then used to represent a solidersuddenly awkaening from a
wretched dream, which is portrayed to the
audience through the soliders heavy
breathing, connoting the audio to be
something he is startled by. The soldier is
portrayed with a dazed look in his eye,
connoting a head injury which is further
supported by the blood on the side of his
face, representing a fight and or war.
Furthermore, through the sound bridge,
the audience are left to wonder what it was that injured the soldier, as nothing in the
image portrays that and, therefore, are further enticed in the product due to the enigma
still upheld. The director has used an extreme close up of his face to represent the
devestating effects of the war, whichattracts the audience from the very start of the
product with an enigma as they wonder who he is and what has happened to him.
Although the scene has not been set by the
stereotypical establishing shot that is normally
associated with the beginning of a war time
period drama, representing the product to
challenge the codes and conventions of a war
time period drama, the audience are still able to
identify (uses and gratification) with the man
being a soldier, due to the conventional
camoflague helmet. Moreover, the use of lighting
portrays the binary opposition of soliders, the good vs the bad is challenged within this
image due to one side of his face having a harsher complexsion than the other. This

2. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
further challenges the role of a soldier as although they are seen as patriotic heros to
their country, they are still seen as immoral as of the murder they are inflicting on their
opposition. The audience are additionally represented with the long lasting effects the
war can have on soliders as of his sudden awakening from the sound and the heavy
breathing to coinside with it represents a form of ‘shell shock’.
The next image represents the soilder coughing, this has been represented through
continuity editing, leading from one scene to another and moreso, a zoom out shot in
order for the audience to be identified with the characters body. The chocking enables
the audience to identify (uses and gratification theory) with his sudden awakening. The
sound makes the audience more aware of what is going on and helps create the
atmoshpere needed to portray that the soldier has gone through some sort of pain.
Moreover, the weapons on his chest portray the violence that is connoted through war.
However, the white cloth covering his uniform could connote purity and goodness to
the audience, this has been further portrayed through the weather conditions as of the
white snow, though this could also be challenged due to the dark circles within it, which
could represent that although war may have good intentions some aspects of it are
immoral and evil. Furthermore, in order to fight a war properly the soliders need to
save themselves from becoming injured, which could represent the villian (8 props
characters) within the product as the cloth could be used to camoflague himself within
the snow, to distract the opposition from shooting at him.
Sound becomes considerably amplified in
volume during this scene, which allows the
audience to further identify (uses and
gratification theory) with where the soldier
is, although still not being able to see the
foreground he is on. The sound consists of
firing guns and bombs which further
represents war and fighting. The sound is
represented with a fair distance to the
solider as of the echoing of the gun shots,
which could portray him being lost and or
deserted by his fellow soldiers. Due to this
the audience are represented with the
information that each is to their own when
fighting a war and that no one is to look out
for others because of the fear of them
becoming hurt or injured. The soldier then
begins to look around as represented within
the image below. As the character observes
his surroundings a panning shot has been

3. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
establishing moving with the characters eye, portraying an establishing shot to the
audience and further representing the effects of war, with the burning dip on the left of
the image which represents the damage of the bombs. Moreover, the audience are also
gaining a perspective from the characters point of view, enabling them to feel a part of
the product and, therefore, allowing them to connect further with the character within
the product.
The close up shot enables the audience to
engage with what is happening to the soldier,
as the soldier reaches round to touch his
arm and reveals the blood on his fingers the
audience are witnessed with the potential
narrative of the product and the enigma has
been answered, for instance, the audience
may have wondered why he was lying on his
own in the field, the blood reinforces the idea of him being injured through the battle of
the war. The black glove, moreover, represents this as black is assosicaed with badness
and villians, these people are clearly identified (uses and gratifcation theory) through
the soldier being injuried, allowing the narrative to develop further by developing the
characters further. The music within this scene, is very melow and calming, however, is
contradicted through the use of the gun shots within the background of the music.
The character then gets up and walks away from where he has been lying, similar music
from the scene before is played to portray a soundbridge and the joining of both the
scenes, representing a flow within the product, furthermore, ambient sound has been
introudced with the blow of the wind and the crunching sound of stepping in snow, this
allows the audience to clearly idenitfy (uses
and
gratifcation)
with
the
sound,
representing that conditions at home are
featured with that at war creating a potential
bond between the character and the
audience as they are aware of the ceratin
conditions the character faces and is facing.
The character waslks away a mid shot is
represented so that the audience are able to
identify (uses and gratification theory) with the current surronding and the character.
He is then pictured pulling a gun out of his pocket, which has been evdiently portrayed
through the use of the close up to reinforced the stereotypical conventions of war and
fighting a guns were the main use of battle. The gun is black which in itself already
representes the badness and immorality of the use of one portraying the character as
the villian, however, this has been opposed through the use of the colour white which
represents purity, again portraying binary opposition between war.

4. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
An empahsis has been placed on the
characters legs which could represent the
travel needed to be taken in order to get back
to base or the extent of his injuries that he has
been presented with. This gives the audience
an emotional attachment to the product as
they gain a sense of sympathy towards the
character. Fruthermore, it also enables the
equilibrium to develop as the product begins with the soldier lying injured and now
with him walking away, possible representing
the change of attitude and the way things will
get better for him. However,the aspect of
survival is once again challenged in the scene
that appears after, the sound changes to a deep
and harsh tone, representing a bad
atmosphere and further putting the characters
on edge as an enigma is built up again, this has
been further represented through the use of the character walking infront of the
camera, giving a fear of someone watching him as the camera begins to shake slighty
emphasizing the prospect of someone behind him. Throughout these two scenes a
match cut has been used in order to link the shots together to one another allowing the
audience to idenityf (uses and gratification theory) betwene the two scenes linking to
one another.
The character is then witnessed to have dropped from the floor, enabiling an enigma as
the audience wonder why he has fallen and
whether it is down to his injuries, however, as
the scene beings to develop the sound
heightens and emphasizes on sharp notes,
reinforcing the idea of cruelty as this is down
the camera angle changes and moves infront
of the character, the audience are then
witnessed with seeing things from the
characters perspective, which is when other soldiers are represented garding a building
which clerly represents the swastika
(stereotypical convention of a nazi soldier and
nazi during the time of the war), reinforcing
the idea of immorality due to what they had
done to various people during the 1940s. The
character is then represented turning and
running away from the scene, portraying that
he is not a soldier to the nazis. The sound

5. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
slightly changes as the character getsup to turn
away, a mixture of harsh and soft tones have
been used in order to represent the ‘unknown’
as to protray an enigma to the audience as they
wonder what will happen to the soldier.
A blank screen shot has been used to represent the changing of time and to portray the
elongated time the soldier has spent walking in order to find his base of his fellow
soldiers. The next scene has been represented through the use of a fade, something
which we would like to represent within our
product ‘venture’. The sound continues
throughout this process, portraying a sound
bridge and the following of the product as there
is not drastic change within the audio. However,
the sound does become sharper and heavy,
portraying an unsafe atmosphere and enabling
an enigma to develop with the audience as they
will wonder what is going to occur next. As the soldier continues to walk he is witnessed
with an other soldier in front of him, the character runs to hide from this other soldier,
who could be a potential enemy, reinforcing why the sound had heightened slowly
throughout the scenes leading up to this one.
The scenes that follow focus on the second character in order for the audience to
identify (uses and gratification theory) with who he is. He has been portrayed as a
dominant and uncaring character by the use of him calming lighting a cigarette and
having no fear as to whether there are people watching him, due to the lack of him
scanning the area which he is.the first character accedently makes a sound, which is
similar to that of a breaking of a stick,
causing the second character to become
alert of someones presence, as this is done
the character speaks in german which
represents that he is the opposed side as
previously we saw the first character run
from the nazi base. Sound begins to decrease
in volume and sharpness which emphasizes that the
character will hold a dominant role within the product
at this time, due to th sound decreasing once the
character begins to speak. The character is then
witnessed getting a shot gun out which reinforces the
stereotypical conventions of war and the immorality
that the war upholds.

6. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
Towards the end of the product, both characters end up firing shots at one another,
chasing eachother in order to save themselves from death, however, the product ends
with both the charcters dying as they had both been shot by one another, representing
that the war has no benefit to anyone and that each whether the villian or the hero end
up in the web of the immorality the war causes. The final shot was portrayed to the
audience with a match cut, representing the effects of the soldiers shots and the damage
it causes to ones life.
Within this product a variety of different editing techniques have been used, for
exampl,e match cut editing is used in order to join two scenes together, for instance, the
scene where the character got shot is joined with the scene of when he fell to the
ground. Moreover, trasition shots have been used in order to introduce new scenes and
moreso, fades have been used in order to build suspense as the scene gradual comes
onto the screen. This allows the audience tomove with the flow of the production.
Throughout the product and as the equilibrum developed the pace of the product
changed, for example, the equilibrium at the beginning of the product linked with the
slow pace of the movement of the production, however, this was challenged when the
dis-equilibrium appeared to be evident within the production as once the disequilibrium began to establish itself the pace of the production fastened as more action
was being introduced, that stereotypical to a war film, moreover, once the new resolved
quilibrium appeared the production went back to the slow pace portrayed at the
beginning of the product, representing the equilibrium to change with the climax and
pace of the production.
Moreover, natural lighting has been used throughout this product as it was located
outside in the open air, this represents the contrast between dark and lightness that
was created through various props (mise-en-scene), for instance, in order to represent
the villians as the nazis a shack was built above the ground, iconic for a war time base
due to them being able to spot out opposition, however, the roof aided the darkness
which portrayed the nazi as the opposition. This portrays the signifcance that props
have within productions.
Furthermore, camera shots and movement are very signifcant in portraying the
product, for instance, the camera shots and movement need to flow together in order
for the audience to understand the narrative that they are being presented with. Within
this product ‘Duel’, the majority of the shots used have been close up/extreme close up
to represent the true emotion of the characters, moreover, a range of establishing shots
have also been used in order for the audience to gain persepective of location (uses and
gratifcation theory).
To conclude, the product uses a significant amount of close up shots in order to
represent true emotional content that the audience are able to identify with (uses and
gratification theory). This enables the audience to connect further with the character by

7. Duel – Textual Analysis
Marianna Savva
seeing things develop from their point of view, moreover, sound has been used in places
needed to emphasize cruelty and in order to create an enigma so that the audience stay
enticed throughout the product.