Textual Analysis – California Screaming

California Screaming has been reviewed in ‘total film’, a well-known film magazine that generates a mass audience each month. The product represented has been featured on a double page stead, symbolising its significance and the mass audience that it would like to generate by having a full page spread.

The majority of the product is dominated by the image which holds significance to the product, as of it being featured within it, further allowing the audience to identify (uses and gratification theory) with the product. The features of the image are of planes, these planes were symbolic to the war as it was the main aspect of fighting over boarders and ‘spying’ on enemies. Air-raids were very common during wars; hence the development of gas-marks,

a symbolic feature to wars. Moreover, the planes could potentially signify freedom and the freeness that the war could bring. Furthermore, the pieces within the air represent the damage the planes have done as they portray the parts of buildings and houses,

representing the damage created from war and how significant the planes were in causing damage to the enemies. The colours are represented as dark and mysterious, causing an enigma to the audience as they will begin to wonder what the product entails. The dark colours are connoted with mourning, hurt and pain, all emotions that the war brings to people involved due to the immorality the war upholds. However, a binary opposition is

portrayed with the background colour of a shaded grey/white; white connotes purity and innocence, representing an opposite with the dark colours.

The product challenges stereotypical conventions of a magazine article as it steers away from the house style that most magazines follow. Within the page review there are no conventional page numbers and font titles. Moreover, the use of challenging this entices the audience as they gain a sense of enigma as to why this product is portrayed as ‘different’ as the

rest of the film reviews. This entices the audience to want to watch the product, due to them possible thinking it to better than the rest and higher reviewed as of it challenging and not sticking with the normal conventions of how the previous reviews have been represented.

Textual Analysis – California Screaming

Additionally, the typography and the actual article has been reviewed at the bottom of the page, decreasing its importance as it has not been represented within the rule

of thirds, which is the audiences direct eye line. The colour of the typography has been portrayed in the colour white, signifying its purity and innocence. However, this has been challenged by the title being portrayed on a black background, connoting a binary opposition between the two colours, which can potentially represents the villain and the hero (trodovs 8 props) within the product. Moreover, the product stays within the stereotypical conventions of house style, when it comes to the article as, due to the columns being presented and the title represented above the typography which is stereotypically conventional, though it has been previously challenged with where the image had been placed.

The image has been represented within the rule of thirds and, therefore, dominating that of the text; however, the text has been represented in a different colour, contrasting that of the main image which could represent a binary opposition within the narrative of the product. Furthermore, the layout of the text has been represented in columns structuring the article like expected of that in a film, though with scenes, splitting up different content mentioned about the product in order to have the article flow like that of the narrative. The double page spread reinforces the idea of the product being significant due to it being spread out; this further entices the audience as an enigma is built of why the article has been represented differently to that of the stereotypical house style of the magazine, enticing them to want to read the product. The language is very limited in order to not reveal much about the product so that the audience are left on an enigma of how the product develops or what happens at the end of the product, enticing them to go and watch the production. War is a significantly fragile subject due to the damage caused and those lost, therefore, the article needs to be of a tamed nature due to a wide range of audiences reading the magazine for various reasons, conversely, this is not necessarily a negative as more enigma is built by the use of the limited explanation of how the narrative of the production unfolds.

Conclusively, the article stays within the stereotypical conventions of representing a war time product, due to the natural and earthy colours used. The symbolic connotation of the war, such as the helicopter allows the audience to further identify (uses and gratification theory) with the genre of the article.