Textual Analysis

• Genre
• Layout, Style and Design
• Technical and Audio Codes
• Visual Codes
• Mise-en-scene

Genre - Self explanatory, what ever category the media example fell into.

Layout - In Graphic Narrative terms this could be to do with the layout of the panels, colours, choice of art style (hand drawn), font.

Technical and Audio Codes - The use of voice overs, colours, music, sound effects, shot choice, shot angle and editing.

Mise-en-scene - Everything than comes inside the frame of view, including props, costumes, set background etc.

Learning/Reminding myself on what all these terms meant, I was able to apply them to 2 extracts and to pick up on details of the conventions of the genre.

#1 - The Walking Dead Season 3 Trailer -

• The music contrasts the theme of the trailer. The first song being very much a soft, gentle happy song while watching the killing and panic of the actors. This perhaps suggests the hope these people have left in saving their world, reinforced by the emphasis on "taking back what is ours" throughout the second half of the trailer. The second song sounds like a very traditional American style guitar and perhaps suggest their spirit and pride is still alive even with the majority of the world dead.
• Many of the camera shots are close up shots and many extreme close ups. This creates a more personal feel for the viewer as if they are involved in the show. It allows the viewer to feel the emotions the characters do also. 
• The camera is sometimes handheld which emphasises the fear and panic of the characters in certain scenes. 
• The trailer opens with a shot of the American flag (Mise-en-scene), but it's torn. Perhaps this reinforces the idea of keeping their pride and determination alive or the tear is a symbol of the fall of America.
• Many of the colours are dark and dreary.
• Between shots the cuts are fast.
• The trailer contains a lot of violent and graphic images perhaps not what you'd expect in just a preview trailer. This perhaps suggests that if scenes in the trailer are this detailed, the actual show is going to contain even more similar scenes and with added detail to gore and action.
• A few times in the trailer the camera angle is below the humans suggesting that they are still superior to the zombie outbreak.
• By the use of Zombies it would be typical to say that The Walking Dead comes into  the Horror genre or even it's own Zombie genre. But with the added action, suspense and drama it makes it hard to just class it into one category. Thriller? Drama? Action?
• Later on in the trailer the colours skip between dark and light more often, suggesting again that there is still a slim chance of hope.

#2 - American Splendor: Our Movie Year (Pekar 2004) - Comic Book Extract

• The Genre is Drama/Comedy, even if it's not to everyone's taste. The comic turns one man's life's events into an amusing comic book.
• Angles/Shots - There's an eye line match between the shop worker and Harvey in the 4th panel. The angle shows the shop keeper looking down on Harvey emphasising his size. 
• There are extreme close ups on Harvey's eyes then to the name badge to show what he's looking at.
• The middle two panels are close ups just to simply show who's talking and the main attention.
• Style and Layout - The speech bubbles are quite typical for comic books, with the font all in capitals.
• The panels are laid out in a simple and straight arrangement.
• The colour scheme is black and white.
• These simple actions put the focus more on the storyline and dialogue.
• Mise-en-scene - In the opening panel the signs and checkout show that it's set in a supermarket.
• The use of depth of field has the shop worker the main attention in the foreground, Harvey in the middle and the worker at the till in the background.
• Effects - Darker shades are used on the employee especially in the final frame.
• There is a general lack of effects.

Learning new terms and refreshing my knowledge of ones I already knew, has allowed me to extract the essential conventions of the Zombie/Thriller trailer and the simple comic book strip. I feel that if I can find details from these extracts in depth like so, I can put them into my own ideas when creating my graphic narrative and my film trailer.