Analyse aspects of visual and/or oral text(s) through close viewing and/or listening, supported by evidence

Link to the standard:  http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/achievements/2015/as91107.pdf

English Level 2

3 Credits

As stated in the standard:

1. Analyse aspects of visual and/or oral text(s) involves making developed interpretations of meanings and effects of visual and/or oral text(s), such as:
   • ideas (eg themes, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, feelings, insights, meanings,opinions, thoughts, and understandings within the text)
   • language features (eg cinematography, editing, production design, sound,performance, rhetorical devices)
   • other oral language techniques and structures (eg part text, whole text, narrativesequence, beginnings and endings) as used for particular audiences and purposes.

So you might choose to examine how camera angles, colour, sound and editing were used in a scene to build a message for the audience.

Or you might choose to focus on how symbolism, theme, dialogue and mis en scene were used.

FOR ACHIEVED: Do not simply state that these techniques or aspects create an effect. You must explain HOW the technique or aspect was used (by the director) to create that effect (in the audience). Then explain WHY it was used (i.e. why did the director want to create that effect in order to communicate that idea?).

Explaining how aspects work TOGETHER to build meaning, influence the audience, and/or fulfil the director’s purpose leads to MERIT. Providing perceptive interpretations and analysis on how these aspects work together leads to EXCELLENCE. Applying Level 3 type critical analysis (i.e. evaluating effectiveness, challenging assumptions, detecting authorial tendencies that may affect the message, interpreting through an alternate theoretical lens, etc) also leads to EXCELLENCE.

Example analysis paragraph on the aspect of the industrial/clinical mood of this scene.

Stating technique/aspect and effect: In the scene where Vincent walks down the staircase in their house, the dark industrial colours create a spare, clinical mood. Explaining HOW: This is created by the grey concrete walls and smooth steel of Vincent and Eugene’s home. With small oblong windows, the brushed steel spiral staircase and vast empty ground floor, the house feels more like a bunker or factory than a flat. This is accentuated by the array of industrial scientific equipment we have seen Eugene using to harvest his DNA. Explaining WHY (Director’s purpose – link to theme/ideas – impact on audience): The clinical atmosphere of their house reminds the audience that for the men, every aspect of their lives needs to be controlled and for Vincent, manufactured. Their living space is literally a factory that produces the genetic material Vincent needs to fulfil his role at Gattaca. Niccol wants the audience to understand that in this recognisable future, the precision and perfection the human race has achieved has come at the price of the more familiar messiness of chance and unknown possibility. This aspect works together with symbolism when…(complete STEEP task below and EXPLAIN HOW THE ASPECTS WORK TOGETHER TO BUILD MEANING, INFLUENCE THE AUDIENCE AND FULFIL DIRECTOR’S PURPOSE.).

This is one of the messages of the film: that despite the exactitude of the genetically engineered world, it is the indefatigable human spirit – and its unwillingness to allow fear or science or proof or any other detectable evidence of insufficiency – that is the strongest determiner of success. And that despite how indefinable or chaotic ‘humnaness’ may be, it is only through that inherently illogical belief in self that anyone can overcome cold hard reality and find the desire to strive for something better. The controlled industrial mood of their house contrasts with the fact that Vincent succeeds because of his own force of will and despite (or because of?) his messy genetic inheritance. Link to text as a whole and/or society. Use specific IRL examples:  E.g.

• A real world example of people who have overcome disability, hardship, prejudice or some other type of limitation. OR
• A real world example of a situation where the surface appearance belies the reality. OR
• A real world example of a situation where the science says one thing but people still believe in something else.

Try to analyse the symbolism of the above scene by following the same template as above.