Applying theories to 'Lovefield' - A2 - Maisie

Applying Rick Altman

The genre for the majority of the film is thriller. The semantic and syntactic codes that communicate this, including sound, are as follows:

Semantic	Syntactic	Sound
Large isolated field	Crow – signals that something bad is going to happen	Wind – isolation
Crow – symbolises death	Restricted narration – leads the audience to only assume that an attack is taking place	Crow – harrowing sound, reinforces symbol of death
Blood – an attack	Camerawork – tracking shot of man running to the car, gives a sense that he doesn't want to be caught, the audience is ‘chasing’ him	Screaming – torture, murder
Discarded bag/money/clothing – possible robbery, rape, murder	Plastic bag – iconographic, wants to hide the body, typical thriller narrative	Creaking sign – reinforces the town apparent reputation of being scary and unforgiving
Knife – weapon, iconographic in the thriller genre, immediately suggests a violent attack	Binary oppositions – man appears to be the antagonist, then changes into hero	Music – tense, builds up to a crescendo and there’s a loud sound when he stabs the knife in the ground reinforcing the thriller genre, music calms when baby is born
Sign – old, wooden, suggests eeriness of town		Phone - no signal, reinforces isolation, victim trying to call for help
Man – skull tattoo, ‘red-neck’ stereotype of being violent
Lighting – quite dark, gloomy at the beginning, brightens up when the baby is born, changes the mood and atmosphere completely

Applying Steve Neale

At the beginning of the film, the music and diegetic sound of the wind suggests something is wrong and something bad is going to happen. Usually in thrillers, wind implies a sense of isolation. The music is mainly made up of stringed instruments, creating a tense atmosphere.
The crow is very symbolic and could suggest several things. Crows were seen as symbols of death and evil, and with a flock of crows creatively named a 'murder', it fits the thriller genre.
The sign that the crow is perched on creaks eerily in the wind, implying that the town it shows is old, which links to the genre; an old, eerie town in which bad things can happen.
When the male character is introduced, the audience are led to assume that he is the antagonist. He is given the identity of a 'red-neck' and is stereotyped to be violent; he is quite large, has tattoos (skull), overalls and dirty vest.
When the baby is born, the lighting that was originally low key and dull, literally brightens up, which isn't normal in a thriller. This signifies obvious change in both mood and genre.

Applying David Buckingham

The antagonist in the short film is represented in a very traditional way at first; he's a threatening-looking male, dirty clothes and bares tattoos, which obviously signals to the spectators that he isn't a nice person. But what the director, Mathieu Ratthe, is possibly trying to convey is that not all 'red-necks' and tough-looking men aren't always violent and unpredictable. It shows that they are sentimental and caring, and people need to stop stereotyping them.