Textual analysis of a Three-Minute Clip from the Successful essays

Textual analysis of a Three-Minute Clip from the Successful essays The Oscar-winning film Titanic (James Cameron 1997, U.S.A) proved to be one of the most profitable films ever made. In this essay I am going to analyse at a three-minute sequence from the film, where I will be specifically looking at features such as mise-en-scene, editing, framing, sound and lighting. I will then be discussing how these aspects help to reinforce the broader areas such as narrative, genre, representation and style. I am going to particularly focus on the representation of class as I feel that the class system is vividly portrayed in the film. Titanic is a love story set against real historical events: the sinking of the great ocean liner amongst the ice packs of the North Atlantic in 1912. Directed by James Cameron; famous for Aliens, True Lies and the Terminator movies, and starring actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane; it is listed amongst the top ten grossing films of all time. It has won eleven Oscar awards including the much sought after award of 'Best Motion Picture', tying with the illustrious record set by Ben Hur in 1959. In its first year of release it sold more tickets than any other motion picture in history and it was the first ever to gross one billion dollars in worldwide sales. The three-minute sequence I have chosen to look at starts with Old Rose telling the discovery crew about what the Titanic was like. She then has a flashback and the film goes back to the day of the Titanic's maiden voyage. The end of my clip is where Jack and Fabrizio are gambling in a pub. I chose this sequence because it introduces the two main characters of the film, Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), and shows the stark contrast between them in terms of their class. The sequence begins with a close-up shot of Old Rose's face, which helps us to see that she is very old. She says "Titanic was called the 'ship of dreams'Â ¡K" and the camera slowly pans right so t...