analyse the effects of the 3 codes in my media text, part 2

Symbolic Codes.

Well, there is a variety of reasons why we 'did the things we did', its not always apparent to the audience, a lot of people don't actually watch a film and think 'that jacket represents his mood', however, there is in fact a lot of people who do and most symbolic codes are too obvious that the audience processes them automatically, e.g. there is a character holding a blood-covered knife - the audience automatically can tell what character they are - violent, angry and murderess.

Therefore, the symbolic codes in a media text are just as important as anything such as the type of text, or camera shot used. A symbolic codes can be anything to do with mise en scene, clothes the particular colours etc.

There are a few scenes in our trailer where the character's feelings, mood and personality come through because of their clothes and particular surroundings.

There is a scene where Charlotte is outside Summer's house, wearing a grey hooddie. This was used to demonstrate her mood, grey, distraught and also slightly cunning. The weather was also drizzly, cloudy and cold, so these factors made the scene look eerie and mysterious.

In our trailer, we liked the idea of using bright red doors when filming. Even someone who was watching our clip saw this and mentioned it! The trailer is meant to start off slowly and calmly and increase with suspense as it goes on, e.g. it starts off with symbolic red doors and moves to blood on Charlotte's hand! We first used the doors when Charlotte sneaks into Summer's garden and in school when Charlotte is spying on Summer and her boyfriend.

Summer in our trailer is the sweet, popular girl who is loved by everyone. Her dress sense therefore has to reflect this. She is always looking stylish and is the envy of other girls with her perfect life, but this takes a turn when Charlotte befriends her.
In the montage and thrilling scenes we used fake blood for a gruesome but not 'disgustingly Gorey' effect, and the audience wonder 'who is that from?' this helps portray the deeply disturbed character of Charlotte. We also smudged Summers make-up to show how upset she is and her despair, she is usually a tough character but with the recent events she faces the audience can see her emotion when she is crying in the end scene. Her body language is completely different to earlier scenes when she is her happy and confident self.