I decided to write a textual analysis highlighting the Media Language elements of the short film That Old One.
The link below leads to a website that shows a short clip from the film:
http://www.jameshenry.org.uk/oldone.html
The use of camera shots and camera angles in That Old One are interesting, as there are a lot of close up and extreme close up shots. These shots highlight the main character's facial expression and reactions throughout, hinting to the audience how he's feeling. One main shot that shows this is when the man is in the club, a close up shot shows his face as if he was very drunk and not really knowing what he's doing. These shots are followed by point of view shots from the main character himself, these support the close ups in telling the audience that the main character is in fact drunk, in a dark night club not really knowing what is going on around him. I can tell this because the shots of him and what he is seeing are blurred around the edges hinting that his vision is distorted, and that he has his 'beer goggles' on. The two photo's below show the shots that have distorted edges.
The editing in That Old One is non-linear, this means that the storyline is going back and forth from two different situations. These two situations are the night before and the morning after a very drunk night out. By this happening it almost shows the audience as the main character having flash blacks of clips from what happened the night before, that he in fact is having trouble remembering. This helps in causing the confusion about what actually happened on this man's night out and whether he was or was not unfaithful to his wife. There are also a lot of hard cuts used, this means there are no transitions used between two shots. This is beneficial as it keeps the pace of the short film up and enables the audience to keep up with the storyline that could be seen as hard to engage with.
The mise-en-scene, especially the costume helps in adding to the storyline of the man going out and not remembering anything that happened. This is because in the scenes from the night before he is wearing the same clothes as he has on the morning after. This signifies to the audience that he hasn't been home since his night out. Along with this he has a cup of coffee or tea at the beginning of the film, this could suggest he is trying to cure a hangover he has received from drinking too much alcohol the night before.
Another significant prop in That Old One is the man's wedding ring, after his night out it seems he has lost it, this leads the audience to think did the lady he was with last night actually take it or was he too drunk that he was just imagining she did. The sound throughout That Old One is both diegetic and non-diegetic. One obvious diegetic sound that is being used is the characters dialogue. This is a diegetic sound as we can see the source of the actual sound on the screen. Some non-diegetic sounds that were used in the film were the background music both in the club and when the man found himself in a sticky situation. A sticky situation such as outside all of the houses trying to find the one with the woman in that he supposedly spent the night with. These non-diegetic sounds are sounds that we cannot see the source off as an audience and help in creating a mood and atmosphere throughout the drama happening on the screen.
