Textual analysis: 'Sprokett'

Sprockett (Virgin Media Shorts 2012 shortlist) from Virgin Media Shorts on Vimeo.

The film starts off with a black background with bronze effect / brown writing of the Title of the film and who it was produced by. The brown could connote that the film is of a horror genre. The non diegetic music plays at the back; it sounds spooky. It also sounds mysterious and can be recognised that there are children involved in the film, because soft tones are used. The name of the producer is there to show his importance and so that the audience can recognize him using the uses and gratifications theory.

There are two boys against another, which looks like they are either telling scary stories in the dark or that they are bullying him to go into this scary place. The boy says that "he will cut you open" which implies that it's supposed to be a horror film, and since it's a little boy who says it, it connotes that the movie is aimed at a younger audience. This makes the other boy scared but as he is being forced to go, he faces his fears. The boy who is going in breaks the rule of thirds on the screen. This connotes that he is special and not like the others.

He enters the shop / workplace and moves slowly in order to find this monster that will tear him apart. Moving slowly an creeping in a place is a convention of a horror movie as usually people movie slowly to see if something dangerous is there.
The camera follows him through a tracking shot as well as over the shoulder shot to show that there is noting in front of him. This makes the viewers feel as if they are snaking inside with him.
The low lighting inside as well as outside connotes that something bad may happen to them in the dark, as there is usually no one in the dark to save them, whereas there would be plenty of people in the daylight.


As he moves closer, the music gets louder and more vibrant, to connote that there will be something scary coming up next. This creates tense and suspense. The man says "don't move", comes closer and says "well, well, well, what have we here?" and  shouts "I was just about to get hungry". This creates fear for the young audience, as they are scared that something bad will happen to the boy, especially after they see the mid shot of the man with a hook instead of a hand. This follows the convention of a fairy tale almost. For example, in 'Peter Pan', a children's movie, there is a villain called 'Captain Hook' solely because his hand is a hook. This relates to the children's horror genre.

The little boy is captured in a mid shot at the middle of the screen to show that he is at the centre of attention, the main target for something bad happening to him. This creates and equilibrium. The old man breaks the rule of thirds to show he is the important and 'scary' character, but there is something different about him.

However, a binary opposite occurs, as the man is not scary at all. In fact, there is a long shot as he helps the child to become stronger and prove to his friends that he is not afraid, by pretending to scream and beat the old man up, while the other two hide at the bottom of the gates.