Making Meaning in Audio Visual Texts

1. ● M/S Juno looks at the guidebook and looks around to make
sure nobody is watching her.
● Narrative - She is making a decision, quickly and clearly,
that goes with her decision to take them to a different cave
system.
● This will come back to haunt her – when we look at her later
one thing we will see is guilt/responsibility for the position
she has put them in.

2. ● Low angle MCU as she looks down at the guide book – by
looking up at Juno she is made to look a little bigger and more
significant and powerful whilst she is making this decision.
● Editing – this all happens very quickly, lots of brief shots –
like a lot of the short episodes early on involving Juno if you
didn't know what was to come you might barely notice, but
they are there for attentive viewers and for second viewings.

3. ● MCU as Juno puts the guide book back into the car
● Narrative – she has made her decision, she acts on it, and we
don't go back and dwell on her face again – she has moved on.

4. ● MS of June closing the door, job done.
● Narrative - If we had cut within this sequence to a shot of one
of the other women looking at her (Beth, perhaps, given that
we see Beth watching her and Paul by the river at the
beginning) it would have changed the meaning of this – but
we don't, we cut between different shots of her and the book,
the others haven't noticed.

5. ● MCU of the guide book left in the car, which goes from being
in the light to being in shadow as the car door closes.
● Narrative – this is a visual sign that this one (of many) turning
points for the narrative – a symbol that things are not going to
go well, as the shadow falling on the guide book has
connotations of a shadow falling on the trip as a whole.