Textual analysis was the main focus for Week 5’s lecture, for me a little of the content reflected on my year twelve VCE media class with the terminology; Denotation (the literal of first order meaning and it’s partner) Connotation (cultural or second order meaning). 

Both Morris’s and Alan Mckee’s ‘guides’ (2001) were an interesting read- they focused on interpretation and judgement. Both the readings focused on the idea of labeling and how we should not label a text ‘inaccurate/biased’ but instead analysis the assumptions within the text, weather a piece is subjective (which is impossible not to be) or how it can be interpreted in various ways.

The activity completed in class focused on a clothing advertisement the denotation would have been a man throwing a boy into a pool but with the knowledge of ‘connotation’ we could see the advertisement was aimed at the clothes the two were wearing and the idea linked to it about comfort and freedom.
It was nice to have the repetition of the terminology replenished into my mind as it had been a while since I had talked about textual analysis especially after studying the practical Diploma last year.
Textual analysis including connotation and denotation obviously helps in the presentation of mise-en-scene especially for ‘Project Brief 3’, which is creating a short interview or portfolio on someone else within our lives.

Last year I shot a semi-professional interview as apart of my Diploma and it will be interesting to see how this independent more freedom shoot will look like aesthetically, metaphorically (especially with the layout) and technically as the equipment will be completely different (No LED kits or three point lighting, no mixer and boom mics). Below is last years completed edited and audio mixed interview.

I think my skills have been building and i’m quite looking forward to this challenge or brief so below are a few of my ideas. I want to focus this project on a subject who has the ability to travel on limited budget by using the resources he has to their ultimate potential having traveled in Europe for six months on two thousands dollars and recently working in Japan for another six months, I think it would be an interesting project to watch and alongside some nice images the subject has taken it would be aesthetically pleasing as well. The backdrop will be the subject home but in an area where the mise-en-scene can be surrounded with souvenirs from the subjects adventurous. I’ll get back to you soon.