Evaluation of Distribution Institution

Our DVD extra discussion in a compressed version for blog:

From left to right: Megan, Shauna, Cristian

Evaluation of Representations

Evaluation of Representations:

Our group did not originally want to follow too many representational conventions for our opening sequence to our film to avoid it being classed as a stereotypical thriller.

After working on our piece we found that it is quite hard to create a thriller which is not stereotypical as we wanted to cast a weak female victim and an antagonist male villain which is probably the most obvious chose of casting.

This stereotype of men being stronger then women and  therefore being able to over power them is so common and accepted around the world mainly due to how the media represent it makes our audience identify with our film so its more believable to stick to this pattern of casting. So that our film has a genuine authentic feel to it.

The stereotypical characters in thrillers consist of criminals, stalkers, assassins, victims on the run with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, cops and escaped victims etc.

There are mainly two main male characters in thrillers one being the antagonist and the other the protagonists.

Both men are usually portrayed as being physically and mentally strong especially the protagonist or “the hero”.They tend to be less emotional then women.

Males in thriller films tend to be brave and of high intelligence however they also usually come across as mysterious even the hero.They are seen to have a lot of independence.

The antagonist: Kidnapper

We cast Christian to be the kidnapper. We looked into how the villains of thrillers are normally represented.

We found that they seem to be masked or have an alternative identity. This technique seems to be used most of the time to build up tension for when the villain appears.

We as a group decided this would be a great way of making our audience want to watch more in anticipation of who the kidnapper is, this is why in our fist 2 minutes of our opening sequences Christian's identity was concealed; we only had shots of his arms, back, lips and hands.

 

Villains stereotypically have shady sense around them gives them the sense they shouldn’t be trusted. This character may have some physical deformity (which is why their identify is secret for the majority of the film as they do not want to reveal themselves).

This was one convention that our group was not going to follow as further on in our film we would have revealed   Christian's face. He belongs to a different stereotype - the villain who looks ordinary and is therefore terrifying because you would never pick him out. This also creates fear and tension.

Often the villain will wear form-fitting clothing that emphasize their build and therefore power i.e leather trousers or jackets.

Typically, colors of the characters clothes will draw parrels with their personality villains appear in dark cloths usually black.

We used Mise-en-scène to create a recognizable look or a kidnapper. This was a convention we stuck to, as we dressed Christian in dark black mysterious clothes. However this is a negatively stereotyping men.

This is a representation from the film 'The Hitcher' of a kidnapper.

The Protagonist: Innocent victim

Women in thriller and horror films often portray a variety of roles, younger females tend to have a sense of purity and innocence, however older women are portrayed as having great sexual appeal.

We cast Shauna to be the victim. As this role mainly consists of a female in her teens or 20’s. For example: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” which starred Jessica Biel or “The Hitcher” which starred Sophia Bush.

These characters are normally represented as innocent and young characters who wear pastel colors or white to emphasize certain aspects of themselves for example their innocence or purity and most certainly their vulnerability - and also on a practical note to allow blood to show up.

This is done to make the audience sympathize with the character more.

This is what we choose to do with our film as Shuana dressed in a white t-shirt.

This was to represent that she is innocent and vulnerable but mainly to show up the blood.

Women in thriller and horror films are usually portrayed as being passive and dependent upon men. Which is again what we chose to do as she later seeks help from officer Simpson.

However, the close ups of the knife suggest she fought back and maybe won - so she is closer to Carol CLover's 'fianl girl' character, the one whoi survives to the end of the horror film because they do not give in even when everything seems against them.

Our representation is slightly updated because we start the film by seeing the girl has survived, so she is not the victim for long.

The protagonist: Police Officer

A male hero is normally introduced later on in the film however we chose to place him in our movie at the early stages.

The hero’s in thrillers are often men that are accustomed to danger in their jobs or lifestyle i.e. a police officer.

Usually they have an aim to defeat the evil of the situation and will persevere even if nothing is going according to plan.

In general this character will appear smartly dressed in a suit and tie.

Films that stick to this stereotype are “Seven” were Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are wearing suits are ties nearly throughout the whole movie but also in “Inception” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

We represented our male protagonist character in a very conventional way - tall man wearing a suit.














This character is honest and trustworthy, seen through dialogue, but also authoritative, "I can't help you if you won't talk to me".

Overall Representation:

Both genders are greatly stereotyped in very different ways. The men are portrayed as being very conventionally masculine and powerful but one is the hero and one is the villain, so they use their strength in different ways.

The female character is seen as being very passive and not independent at first, but even by the end of the first 2 minutes it is hinted that she is stronger than this, so we are updating the representation and are not falling into the trap Pickering identifies of sticking to "biased and limited" stereotypes.

Initially it seems that we have used very familiar stereotypes but this will trick the audience into thinking they know what will happen in the film but we can then subvert this.

Evaluate how your Media product represents particular social groups

Evaluation of Gender

 

 

Main Character

• In thrillers female girls/teenagers are normally cast for the role of the victim as they are seen as vulnerable and unable to look after themselves, this is a common and controversial female stereotype.
• Our main character in our film is a female/teenager victim played by myself. This fits into the codes and conventions of a thriller. 
• I am seen to be very distressed with the situation and the viewer can clearly see that I have been attacked, by showing me with blood all over my body and a black eye.

Woman as victim stereotype

• This shows the audience I have been hurt and therefore feel sorry for her.
• I am also seen as weak as this has happened to her and this fits into the rather disturbing stereotype of women, so in some ways although I like our piece, I can see we have reinforced some not very positive female stereotypes.
• Lacey suggests that thrillers are often used to comment on the role of women in society.
• In films such as ‘Taken’ women are portrayed as being weak and a sexual victim.
• The women are seen as an object to take advantage of.

Our representation

Character from 'Taken'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Another film which portrays women in a vulnerable way is ‘Paranormal Activity’ as the women is trying to get away from the ghosts and demons but as she is seen as weak and defenceless she is unable to.
• I can see why there are concerns about this kind of stereotype, but I also understand how it comes about having used the stereotype myself.
• I think this is a tempting stereotype for the genre because having a vulnerable main character creates the tension and sympathy you are looking for instantly and connects with the audience straight away because of the familiarity of the representation.
• You also have to look to the end of the film - our character fights back and so is like Clover's 'final girl', which is a more powerful representation. It would be more damaging if she accepted the abuse and this was the more common stereotype.

Males 

• The attacker is a young male which also fits into the codes and conventions of the genre thriller. Every time the attacker is shown on screen, it is seen with a black and white colour to suggest to the audience this is the villain of the film and should be wary of him.

Our attacker

• The stereotype that men are stronger and therefore are likely to be the attacker of the girl.
• In our piece we show an extreme close up of the male attacker grinding his teeth together very aggressively connoting the audience that he is a threatening character.
• This creates a negative representation the attacker. Due to the audience feeling sorry for the girl and knowing he is the one who is caused this to happen to her, the audience automatically feel negatively towards him.
• This is also the case with the male attacker from ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’

Girl with Dragon Tattoo

• This picture is taken from an interesting article that discusses the 'revenge' idea:

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured/posts/the-bigger-picture-what-happens-when-we-find-the-line-as-viewers

•  Our attacker is stereotypical - male, physically stronger, hoodie etc. We have done this because we only had two minutes to make an impact. in a real opening sequence you can take things slower. Ours had to be more bold as nobody is going to watch the rest of our film to see how things play out.
• Using the common stereotypes also makes it more believable for those who are influenced by what they read in the press - but this can be seen as cheap maybe as discussed in the article. 
• The attacker fits into Lacey's idea of films of this kind enacting a patriarchal social revenge on 'troublesome' groups such as women and teenagers.

Aggressive representation

     

 

 

Current press concern around abuse - society's big fear

 

• There is also a contrast between the male characters.
• The police officer is seen to help the girl in need and comes across in a very positive representation.
• There is the use of a shot reverse shot of the conversation between the girl and the police officer showing him caring about the situation and wanting to help.
• He uses a very soft tone of voice to portray he is a caring character.
• Police officers are often seen to caring members of the community and we tried to portrayed this
• Police officers have been seen in the press to be caring members
• In the film ‘Taken’ The dad is seen the be the hero character which is a contrast with the villain who is a male  

Our similar representation of a positive take of males 

Press representation of a positive take of males

Similar character in ‘Taken’

Overall representation

• The overall representation of women are weak and vulnerable
• They are seen to have less power than men
• The overall representation of men are mixed
• On one hand the villain is seen as negatively as uses power to control and abuse women
• Also the caring character uses his power as the police officer to help the girl in need 

Evaluation of how gender is represented in our piece

Gender Representations in Our Opening Sequence

 

Overview of Issues around Gender Representation

Representations partly dictated by genre conventions, psychological thriller

Victim stereotypically  young female because  seen as weak

 

Villain stereotypically an older man - men  seen as having (physical) power over women

Negative stereotyping of women as weak?

 Adorno: stereotypes essential in art (media) because trying to compress narrative - stereotypes make this achievable.

 Lacey:  women  normally victims because patriarchal society trying to take revenge on them.

Clover:  women often overpower captor and survive at end (final girl)

 

Our Representations

 

Conventional female stereotype of victim used.

 

Created through mise-en-scene: casting of young actress, white (shows blood, connotes innocence); blood and black eye; deserted wood location.

Also through editing - pacy shots of vivtim running creating tension.






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Is an example of Clover's final girl - suggestion is she fought back and survives



Girl's revenge

Male attacker potentially negative representation of man using strength to abuse woman

 

attack scene

 

However, competing representation - male police officer in position of authority (expressed through official badge and handcuffs) but is kind.

Shot / reverse shot editing puts them as equals despite situation unlike attack. lighting is warm and cosy creating feeling of safety.

 

sympathetic police officer

 

 

Girl with Dragon Tattoo - similar attack / revenge plot line

Media reporting women as weak e.g. domestic abuse articles.

Attack shown to be frightening - reduced colour saturation, attacker never fully seen, aggressive expression, grimy basement location.

Exploitation of women's fear?

Attack is violent

Aggressive representation

 

Our police officer has power / authority - uses it for good.

 

Liam Neeson manages to use his  power to get his daughter back  in Taken - more positive representation of men.

 

 

Male power to protect

Taken

Male power to protect

 

Can be seen as positive representation of men.

Could be seen as demeaning to women - need man to 'save' them?

Important therefore that our heroine has saved herself.

Conclusion

Mixed representations of both men and women:

Women - initially weak but saves herself

Men - have power and authbority, can use it well or badly.

                                                

Coursework Before Break (Third Cut)

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