Describe an important idea in the text. Explain how verbal and visual features of the text help you understand.

An important idea in the film 'Mean Creek' directed by Jacob Aaron Estes is revenge and its consequences. This idea is verbally conveyed through the use of music and silence. It is also visually conveyed through the use of lighting and camera angle to help paint the picture of what the film is about.

In the film, Sam, an introverted little boy is bullied by George when he messes with his video camera. George is an overweight annoying boy whose best friend is his precious little video camera. When Sam's older brother Rocky and his friends, Marty and Clyde hears of this, they plan a revenge along with Sam and his girlfriend, Millie to make him pay. A quote from Marty about the revenge plan is "we're planning on stripping him, throwing him in the river, and then we're gonna make him run home naked". The outcome of this revenge was that when George was accidentally pushed into the water, he drowned due to the fact that he could not swim. This consequence had a huge effect on the characters knowing that they had to deal with the fact that they are responsible for George's death. The significance of this idea is that revenge is never the solution to get even and that everything has its consequences.

The verbal technique used to show the idea of revenge and its consequences is the use of music and silence. After the death of George, when the group (Sam, Rocky, Millie, Clyde, excluding Marty) was in Sam and Rocky's bedroom, the background music was soft and slow indicating a very sad mood and dark atmosphere. The groups feeling of remorse hung heavily in the air as there was silence in the bedroom shadowed by the soft music in the background. A quote from Millie to George questioning about this incident is "... when we graduate high school, and go to college and become doctors and lawyers and all that, what do you think it'd be like?". This question makes the audience thinks about the effect this revenge is having on these characters.

Lighting and camera angle is used to visually make the idea of revenge and its consequences more understandable to the viewer. Before the revenge took place, the lighting of the riverside was bright portraying a beautiful day to go boating. The camera angle was mostly eye level, revealing the surroundings of the riverside and just giving it a peaceful tuning to it. The lighting changed from bright to dark when George fell into the water. We also got a close-up view of George under the water when he was struggling to come up for air, and then soon afterwards the camera was shaky giving us the feeling that we were looking directly from George's video camera. There was a loud 'pop' when his head hit the camera and there was blood in the water. Soon afterwards, the screen went black. The screen going black signifies death and for a moment makes the viewer feel sick inside knowing that these teenagers have to deal with the consequences of their prank.

An important idea in the film 'Mean Creek', directed by Jacob Aaron Estes, is the idea that revenge is never the solution to get even, and that everything thing we do has its consequences. This idea is verbally conveyed through the use of music and silence. The idea is also visually conveyed through the use of lighting and camera angle to help paint the picture of what the film is about.