The language of the moving image and links to citizenship

The first three techniques relate to the analysis of moving image texts.

Freeze frame

For this technique you need a video player with a frame stop button or a DVD and DVD player, or a DVD playing on a PC. Freeze framing helps students discuss single shots, or a sequence of single shots, in film or television by looking at and discussing:

• What they can see in the 'frozen' image;
• How the elements of the image are positioned in the frame (the mise-en-scène)
• How lighting and colour affect what is seen
• The distance between camera and subjects
• Camera shot and angle
• Movement of camera during shot

This technique encourages students to interrogate the ways in which point of view and audience identification are constructed through the use of the camera, costume, casting, lighting and set design - see Thinking about films in the World in Movies resource.

For example, freeze frame a point at the beginning of a news programme and analyse it to answer the following questions:

• Which channel is the programme on? How do you know? Is this a channel you usually watch?
• Who are the presenters? How are they dressed? Where are they sitting (or standing)? What does this tell us about how they relate to the audience?
• What else is included within the frame?
• What time of day is this news programme shown? How does it differ from programmes shown at other times of day?

In this way students will begin to see that news programmes are constructed to convey a particular impression to a particular audience.

Freeze frame can also be used to stop a moving image sequence to predict what may happen next. In doing this students can reflect upon what they know about text: character or genre conventions for instance. In a TV soap, for example, students can see whether the next sequence confirms or challenges their expectations.

Sound and image

Before showing a moving image sequence to the students, play the sound only and ask them to listen very carefully, identifying and describing everything they hear. Then ask them to identify the type of text that they think it is and guess the content and style of the images in the sequence. Finally, screen the sequence with the images and discuss how the sounds and images affect each other.

This technique encourages pupils to think about:

• The different elements of the soundtrack and to see that these all contribute to the meaning.
• That sound - particularly music - can set the mood of a moving image text and establish its genre.
• That sound can often establish the meaning of a sequence more than a visual image can.
• That sound can affect not only the way viewers interpret the images but also what they actually think they see.
• That silence can have a very powerful effect.

In television, music is often used at the beginning and end, but hardly at all during the programme, unless it is a TV drama or a film. It plays an important role in the identity of the programme and most students will be familiar with the theme tunes of popular programmes.

• Try to find theme tunes of less well-known programmes and get students to listen and identify what kind of programmes they are for. This will test their familiarity with genre conventions, and indicate the role music plays in preparing us for particular types of programme.

Voice and ambient sound can also play an important role in conveying certain types of messages.

• Play the voices of several newsreaders and presenters and ask students to guess who they are, what type of person they are and from where they are speaking (eg in the studio or on location). Some students may be more familiar with certain voices than others and you could discuss the effect of 'knowing someone' as a basis for trusting what they say.

Spot the shots

This technique is useful in exploring the role of editing, by considering the length, pace and juxtapositioning of the shots in a sequence. After the first viewing of a short moving image sequence students guess at the number of shots used. They watch again and note each change in shot, scene location and sound (use pause if necessary). Watch again and look carefully at how the shot transitions are created and whether the sound transitions happen at the same time; they can also time each shot.

• Watch a few minutes of a programme such as a soap or a police drama:
• How many shots are there in the sequence?
• What new information does each change of shot and/or each change in sound give us?
• What types of transitions are used between shots? Why is each transition used and how would it change your impression of the sequence if another one were used?
• How are the shots paced over the sequence? What kind of rhythm or pattern do they create, and what is the effect of this? How does the sound affect the sense of rhythm? What emotional impact does it have?
• Watch a 10-minute news broadcast and analyse the balance between shots of the main presenter(s), on location reporters, and news footage. You could also look at the news footage itself in terms of the number of different images that are presented and how long the camera dwells on each. Then discuss with students the differences between how each news item is presented. What conclusions do you draw about the relative importance of each item and whether there should have been a different balance of items.