Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Representation of Age

Stereotypes:

The youth, are childish, lazy and aggressive.
Adults, are mature, sensible and have the most power.
Elderly people are, weak, grumpy and hard of hearing.

Waterloo Road



Watch clip to 1:05, then skip to 4:00 

Questions:

  1. The older teacher, Grantley, how is he represented? and what makes him represented in that way? using the 4 analysis areas.
  2. What was the third teacher, Chalky,  wearing? What does that show? Is it challenging a stereotype or reinforcing it?
What characteristics are used for a younger character, and what characteristics are used for an elderly character that are not already written above?

Friday, 15 November 2013

Sophie Bishop - Exam answer - The Street

Tv drama clip notes on the street clip 

Representation
Married couples fight all the time not happy
People in un happy marriages have affairs
Boys watch football
Little girl is quiet 
A negative representation, but not untrue some do some don't both families
Females stay at home go shopping in kitchen - all shots of her
But rather than he have an a affair she does
Man goes to work - hard work 
Working - ideology because use of vocabulary slang works not well educated? 

Mis en scene
Mum Religouse- cross necklace but has affair - casual clothes working class in kitchen -stereotype - woman 1960's stays at home cooks cleans 
Dad - casual clothes, works on building site - ideology of working class- stereotype - man work works - bread winner 
Kids in school clothes at school
Peter - business wear maybe middle class - stereotype boys watch football
Old man - stereotype of age weak faints
Props - the cake, the hammer, not a prop used that is a huge part in the drama apart from the car and tv 

Sound
Shouting at each other row, whereas kids are quiet used to it
Tv on during some shots, building up to a dramatic scene(girl getting hit)- busy loud sound
Loud crash- loud tv 
Loud breather in car- shows he is shocked
Shouting - is their a nurse round here
Sound track, builds up suspense, loud towards the end as diegetic sound is fading 

Editing
Linear 
Skips from row to after kids gone to school then after school then after the mum comes back from shopping

Shots
Mum has the most screen time, shots of her are all stereotype of a woman on the 1960's
Dark lighting - negative representation ? Or secretive of the affair, and unhappy marriage
180 degree rule during argument 
And at end 
 Medium shots
Full shots 
Close up shots to show emotions 
Close up of the hammer- dramatic shows anger
Close up of cake 

Exam Answer:

In this clip of the street, they show a negative representation of marriages, they show the mum and dad fighting in the first scene. This is an true in some cases but not all, so it can be seen as an un normal representation. The street is also representing that women in unhappy marriages have affairs, which is also a negative representation. It also shows a negative representation of gender, and it follows the stereotype of gender. The women are house wife's and the men go to work.

Step one The mother character wear's a casual costume, and wears a cross around her neck, which shows me that she is religouse. But having an affair is not the correct thing to do in Christian terms, this is not the dominant ideology which is told. Her costume shows me that she is working class, which is also an ideology. She is represented as a stereotype, of a women in the 1960's, she is a stay at home house wife. She is also shown that she cannot fix the broken pipe herself, and this could also just of been a scenario to get attention from Peter because she is not happy in her own marriage, and does not get the attention she wants. She is the archetype of a women, a house wife. 

Step one The father also wears a casual costume, which backs up the the ideology that they are a working class family. He is represented as an archetype of a man, being the 'bread winner' of the family, he is subordinate to his wife. He works in a stereotypical masculine job, a building site, that a working class man would work in. Their children are quiet, but this could be because they are used to their parents fighting. The boys are represented as stereotypical boys, they watch football which is seen as masculine. The boys (their children) are only seen watching football, on the couch which shows they're lazy, they are represented negatively rather than positively. Where as the little girl does not, and she is very quiet which is also stereotypical. Peter wears business wear, which is could mean he is middle class. The father has the most power in this clip, which also backs up the archetype of the male being the bread winner. He is shown from low angles, which shows he has the most power.

Step one The elderly man wears a casual costume as well, and he an archetype of an elderly man. He is represented as weak and I know this because he faints whereas the younger neighbours do not. The main prop is the car that hits the girl. This adds more drama to the scene, making it more engaging for the audience. The hammer the dad uses, represents the job the father does. It also shows the father s angry, because of the close up shot and the speed of the shot. The lighting is dull and dark, which makes the show dramatic  The low key lighting might be showing that their is a secret or that they are in an unhappy marriage, and are unhappy.

During the whole clip the television occasionally was on in the background, this all built up to the dramatic ending, it was creating suspence. The noise of the mum and dad arguing, does not bother their children, which shows me that they must be used to the arguing. The soundtrack to this television drama, is dramatic in the most dramatic events. The football on the television was also apart of the non diegetic sound track, which also got louder. The soundtrack built suspense, making the audience watch on. At the end the sound track becomes louder, and the diegetic sound fades out.

Step two The frames have been put together in a order, which gives this clip a linear narrative. The clip does not show the characters traveling to somewhere or using cross fades, but it just jumps from scene to scene, but because the music gets louder as the scene changes it is less noticeable, and is still affective. The editing has shown clips of the mother only in the neighbourhood, where as the father's shots show him at work. This shows that during editing, they have tried to represent the stereotypical characters. They are creating a dominant ideology through media.

The mother has the most prominence on screen, she is show through out, she is shown mostly in the kitchen. They use the 180 degree rule during the argument, and use lots of close up to show emotions clearly. There are also shots of close up's of objects, such as the hammer which also shows emotions. Their are also medium and long shot's, which show body language which communicates to the audience emotions. Step three The mother and father are opposites, the mother is weak and the father is strong, the mother is dependant and the father is independent. 

When peter fixes the pipe, it is a high angle shot, which shows the mother at a higher level than peter, which could reverse the roles of the man being the breadwinner and that she is in control. But on the other hand, he is fixing the pipe rather than her so he is still represented as the strong man who fixes things. In shots with the mother and father they are far away form each other, which shows their relationship is not close. Whereas the space between the mother and pater is closer, showing they have a closer bond.

The whole clip is showing a dominant ideology, which is trying to be put across to the audience. It is representing characters as stereotypes, and representing age as a stereotype as weak, and gender, females, as house wife's, and males as the bread winner.

The red is where I have improved this piece of work.

Sophie - UK and US TV analysis


British TV drama:
Skins
Skins is a British TV drama, which has stereotypical teenage characters and explores each characters story's.

Cook
James Cook is a stereotypical teenager, who is portrayed as a violent, destructive and troubled character. Who has come from a troubled background, he is always in the limelight and wants all of the attention. The use of language he uses, presents him as being not very well educated, and in the first series of this cast he is at college, but does not study or pay much attention. His costume is usually very causal and laid back, he is involved in fights a lot. Even though he is this violent character, the audience still feel sorry for him, because he is always second best when it comes to Effy. In the last series his emotional side is shown, which makes the audience see that he is actually just a teenager and hasn't had a great home life. And makes them see he is scared, and not as bad as he is made out to be in earlier series.

Effy
Effy is the tearaway character, who is portrayed as being reckless, a rebel and popular within her group of friends. Her and cook are similar because they both starts to let their guards down and show their vulnerable and emotional side. Effy's costume is always casual, but is dark and gothic as well. She is not that intelligent, because she does not pay attention in school. She always gets what she wants, but she becomes very vulnerable. The audience find out that she has a mental illness towards the end, which makes her character very complex. Her behavior becomes very childlike, and Freddy has to look after her a lot, making her character unexpectable at times. The audience can't help but feel sorry for her, because she is so vulnerable and helpless.

American TV drama:
Pretty Little Liars
This an American TV drama, which is a mystery thriller about four girls who are trying to solve a mystery or their friend Alison, while getting threatening messages from an unknown character.

Alison
Alison is a very controlling character who gets what she wants when she wants it. She is a very stereotypical teenage american girl with blonde hair who acts vulnerable. The drama portrays Alison being mean and manipulating  to her friends, but her friends remain blind of her and try to consistently impress her. Her costume always makes her seem sweet and innocent. She wears light and girly coloured dresses and skirts, and her costume is not casual, because she always dresses up to be seen better than her friends. She has a big social life away from her four friends, she has a lot of older friends so she acts older and is secretive to her four school friends.


Spencer
Spencer is an intelligent character, but is also often stressed and worries a lot. She is the brains of the group and is constantly studying and doing home work. Her costume is business wear, she has a lot of pressure from her family to do well at school so she is often stressed and try's very hard at school. She looks like she would be a boring character, but because she is intelligent she constantly want to reveal the mystery of what happened to Alison, which makes her ruthless at times. She is also a strong character, and rarely gives up.

Tuesday, 12 November 2013