Textual Analysis of 'Never Forget' - Sam McLeish

Textual Analysis of ‘Never Forget’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVpSUVLA0dk)

From the beginning of the sequence, the effective use of the diegetic sound-bridge of the instruments from the location that the male character is in, as accompanied by the fade in transition of the ECU of the man unzipping the bag to his suit, shows that the character presented to the audience will be rather financially well off. This idea of a rich man is further conveyed by the diegetic backing-track being ambient music that you’d expect to find in a posh dining establishment, and the fact that his costume consists of a suit and bow-tie. This is useful in a sequence such as this because it allows for the eventual suicide to more shocking and impactful for the audience, as you wouldn’t expect for someone with a disposable income to be drawn into suicide as a last resort option. Therefore, the opening sequence presents to the audience the character of a rich man.

   

After the initial shots of the suit being zipped out of the bag, the editing then fades back to black and with another sound-bridge of her diegetic high-heels, the female character is first presented to the audience. The camera then tilts up as the female character walks by into a mid-shot of the character from the back and although she does not turn around, the woman is presented as being nervous for whatever reason as the editing allows ample time to see her exhale deeply, even though the soundtrack doesn’t show us this, and instead you can hear ambient background noise. Therefore, the female character is now presented as the one with the less power within the scene, despite the fact we still seen what either of them look like, as the male character is clearly more confident in his body language and actions. This idea of power between the two characters is further conveyed by the next shots in which the male is perfecting his bowtie in another ECU and the female is checking her makeup and again, it is clear that the hierarchy between them is more in favour of the male, and as the audience is aware of this, it is a theme that they will be reminded of throughout the sequence.

 

Next, the footage shows the man’s phone in a low angle POV shot, which clearly shows the couple together allows the audience to assume that the following telephone conversation, as indicated by the diegetic dial tone in the MS of the male and the phone ringing in the ELS of the female. This is the first time in the following shot-reverse-shot sequence when the audience gets to see the characters in full in terms of their costume, hair, makeup, body language and facial expressions rather than just assuming like the audience did with the little bits of information that they got prior to this.

After the female character picks up her phone, the other character reveals some exposition in his dialogue by saying “Happy Valentine’s Day”. This fills the audience of positive connotations of love and a sense of happiness between the characters, making the suicide at the end of the sequence even more unexpected. However, the theme of an awkwardness is soon presented to the audience, again via the means of the male’s dialogue-exposition, when he says “Good night last night?” in a sombre voice and lower in volume. This idea is supported by the fact that the character’s facial expressions also drop so that he is frowning and his body language suggests that he is generally uncomfortable. In retaliation to this, the female stammers in her speech, looks flustered in her facial expressions and body language and her eyeline moves frantically, suggesting that she wasn’t prepared to answer this question. Therefore, the audience assumes that the female character holds less power in the scene and is in some way guilty.

The sequence then further develops this by parallel cutting a scene in the nightclub, very briefly between the conversation that the two characters are having, and the diegetic dance music from the scene starts and stops with the cuts between the visuals. This is incredibly effective because it is clear that the audience can now see the female character at the nightclub, and in doing so the audience, through dramatic irony, now knows that she is lying to the male because she didn’t stay in with a “Chinese takeaway” and “a bottle of wine” like she she said. Due to such, the audience who already assumed that the female was in some way guilty now has evidence of such.

It is in the next part of the sequence when the narrative attempts to make the female character seem like an antagonist to the male’s character. This is because when he asks “so, you stayed in?”, the editing immediately cuts to a long shot of the female character dancing with another male in a date-like setting in which she is clearly enjoying herself and ready to kiss. Now it becomes apparent to the audience that the female is actively deceiving the male and should be shunned for it, as explored in the establishing shot in which she is not the main focus, physically distancing herself from the audience.

  

The sequence then takes an unusual turn and instead of frequently cross-cutting between past and present, the main focus is of scandalous events of the night before with their non-diegetic dialogue from the present overlapping the diegetic club music. The use of this rapid cutting and the overwhelming music creates of disruption over the various visuals of the adulterers, which is even more effective when the camera pans and over the SDOF reveals the ‘husband’ male character. This then explains to the audience why the character was feeling “sick”, which was said in his dialogue with a bitter tone that was apparent to hear.

  

After this, the sequence allows for a short pause before cutting for dramatic effect, it returns back to the present day with the phone call and the sequence now has an a rather dark mood to it after the exposition that the audience previously learnt. This is done by long awkward pauses in the male’s dialogue over the phone whilst also exhaling deeply, and the camera now favours an CU with extremely low-key lighting. This lighting change from unnoticeable low-key lighting, like at the beginning of the sequence, to the now noticeably low-key lighting, also effects the female character, which furthers adds to her dark personality that is presented. 

Now, the sequence chooses to portray the male character as the ‘dark one’ in preparation for the suicide. This is done through an ECU of the character and his dialogue to be slow, but also bitter and slightly twisted. Therefore, when the camera then cuts to an even more close up shot of his lips, and he says “that this is all your fault”, the audience can clearly see that he is angry or upset but like the female, they are yet to understand why he is blaming the female character already.

The final ten seconds of the sequence are rather chaotic to reflect what the female character in the scene is feeling. Firstly, the diegetic dial tone is heard from the phone and the character starts to turn her head away from where the camera is positioned. In doing so, when she sees the diegetic splat of the body, she immediately turns back to see the body and naturally, her facial expressions are that of shock and fear. This is then conveyed in a POV shot of the body, and what is especially effective is the use of the shakeycam, because if the audience is viewing it from the female’s perspective, looking down at the body, and she would be scared, it is only natural for her to shake. The sequence then ends abruptly with a cut to black, which is fitting, because like the man’s death, it was incredibly sudden.

Overall, I feel that this sequence was effective for an audience because earlier on it creates a false sense of security between the characters and then destroys it for effect. In all of its actions, the suicide is totally unexpected and shocks the audience at the end, which I feel makes it a successful sequence that captivates its audience.