Text Analysis: A Quiet Place

This is my video analysis for A Quiet Place!

The text was an extract from the film, A Quiet Place. The film maker used technical elements to convey that in this world, silence has a major part in the survival of the people, the world has gone into ruin and is mostly abandoned and the people have changed their lifestyles in order to live.

First, the scene started with multiple static shots of varying angles, showing the environment, showing the desolate nature of the setting. During these shots, there were only diegetic sounds of the wind whooshing and the leaves quietly rustling. This connotation is used to show the audience that the bustling nature of civilization has been eradicated as the sound of the ambience is peaceful but eerie. After that, the audience is shown the inside of a store, which has been run down, padded with cardboard on the floors. Since cardboard is known to dull noise, this indicates that they were placed intentionally to avoid the production of any sounds while navigating through the store. The characters are soon introduced, using sign language to communicate with one another, their body language being shown clearly through mostly close up shots taken from the front. This decision was made by the film maker as the characters’ expressions are important to exaggerate since emotions can not be conveyed through words. Normally, a child would have difficulty in learning sign language however in this case, the child is shown to communicate quite proficiently through sign language. This shows the audience that being in silence is a big part of their survival to the point that they had to incorporate it into the way they communicate. The silent nature of the clip highlighted the scene of the toy plane falling, the volume or the “crash” was louder than all the audio that played so far, the camera stayed static for a moment when the girl thankfully caught it. This showed the audience the potential disaster that could have arose if the plane did fall onto the ground since the girl was also breathing in relief after. Lastly, during the clip there was little to no audio or music being played, all the sounds were purely diegetic however, when the toddler brought the toy plane to show his family, suspenseful music begins to play, portraying the danger that just a mere toy holds only because it can produce sounds.