1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’
The character is portrayed bending down in
order to put his gun to the floor as the other
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.

6. Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’
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
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

7. Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’
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.
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

8. Textual Analysis- ‘The Letter’
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.