Representarion of Gender - Homework

My sound was broken on my computer so I had to analyse without sound.

Gender is nothing to do with biological gender, it's to do with masculinity and femininity and how the traits that are associated with each of these are portrayed.

At the start of the clip, the man and the woman look to be having an argument. The woman seems to be a lot angrier than the man who looks to be quite calm.They have represnted gender by giving this woman a feminine trait which is being quite emotional and the man is giving a masculine trait of being emotionless. From the very star of the clip we see that this programme is conforming to the stereotypes.

In the background you can see some police officers. You can see female police officers wearing high visibility jackets while the male police officer is wearing a black coat. To me, the fact that the woman is in a sort of uniform while the man looks more casual in a coat make me think that the man has more power because he has thw ability to wear this coat to work, he doesn't have to wear a high visibility jacket like the women. This shows that they are representing gender through the portrayal of power levels shown through costume.

The next scene is the man standing in his house while looking at pictures and premumably trying to figure out what they mean. I'm guessing this is to do with his work and he is getting quite stressed. The use of lots of different shots at quite a fast pace made it seem as if he was getting frustrated and that he'd been spending ages trying to figure out as much as he can just from the pictures. This, to me, shows that he is really into his work because even when he's not at work he is still trying to do work. I think this conforms to the masculine/feminine stereotypes because stereotypically, men are more absorbed into their career than women and this is what this is showing. I think they have represented gender by showing the male as very career focused.

It then cuts to the womans house where it shows that she has a son. This, once agains, conforms to the stereotypes because woman are seen as maternal and this scene proves that she is as she has a son. They are representing the different genders by showing the man as masculine and the woman as feminine and are doing this by having them conform to their respective stereotypes.

the next scene is a man that looks threatening driving to someones home and walking in. He then looks to be intimitating the others and getting himself quite angry and proceeds to smash someones head through a door. This represents gender in the sense that men are being shown as tough and strong and scary while it doesn't show the woman to be any of that.

The last scene is the man and the young boy from the earlier scene making some popcorn and it's popping everywhere, they don't get annoyed or angry but instead, they look like they're having a fun time. They then go to watch some TV and eat the popcorn they made and they seem to be having fun throwing the popcorn around, trying to get it into their mouth. This part of the clip made me think that it is not following all of the stereotypes completely because men are seen to be strong, tough and scary while this man shows he has a loving, caring side. They have represented gender by showing one man as violent and scary and another as loving and caring which means that they are giving masculine and feminine traits men which breaks some of the stereotypes.

Homework - Age

The representation of age is represented in this clip through the use of sound, shot types, editing and mis en scene. The first thing I noticed was that they have used a medium close up when the two men are talking. This is to show the height difference between the two. The younger man is shorter than the older man and has to look up to him which shows the other guy has more power. The use of this shot has shown that the representation of age is used by showing the different power levels of two people of different ages.

A different man walks up to the younger man and because they are the same height, it can't show the age dominance through this. Instead, they have shown one man being really assertive and getting in the younger guys face. He is giving instructions to the younger man and telling him what to do and this also shows us that the age is represented in this clip by the older person being more powerful than the younger person.

There is an extreme close up of the two men's hands as they 'fist bump' each other as a sign of respect which shows the importance of this action. I think it's important because even thought they have an age difference, they still show each other respect so they representation of age has been shown through their levels of respect towards each other.

When the man walks into a room where an older guy is, they have a conversation. The older guy seems to be leading the conversation with the younger guy just answering questions with short sentences or one word answers. it shows that the older guy is more of a leader than the younger guy as he's leading the conversation. One of the first things he says is "what did he want?" without even looking up. This shows that he knows the younger guy was talking to someone and he knows the younger guy is standing there without actually checking to look. The younger guy seems surprised that the man knows the person that he was talking to and gives us the sense that the older guy is quite smart and knows what goes on around the prison. I think they have represented age through using intelligence as a sign of an older person.

During this conversation, the younger guy looks quite uncomfortable and awkward while the older guy looks more relaxed and at ease. The younger guy doesn't know where to stand and hold his arms while the older guy looks like he's just used to being in prison and just starts making a cup of tea. This shows that the older guy is more experienced compared to the younger guy. At one point during the conversation, the older guy gets right in the younger guys face and towers over him, intimidating him. This shows power and dominance because he is older than him.

After their conversation, they go to sleep and during the night the younger person has a nigtmare. This shows that he's scared and weak because it shows he's vunerable. They have represented age as being quite strong and tough if you're older, as the guy casually said "I cut a mans arm off with a meat cleaver" and didn't even care about it while the younger guy is getting scared just from being in prison.

You see a razor blade being sewn onto a stick or something and their is an extreme close up of this, you don't really see who's doing it though but the importance of this was shown through the shot type. The mis-en-scene in this part of the clip shows us that it's quite dangerous and scary and there is low key lighting and the only light there is is a blue light on the blade which brings more focus to it.

In the morning, there are two police officers, you can clearly see that one of them is a higher rank than thr other by the mis-en-scene. One of them is wearing a shirt and tie with a long jacket while the other is in police uniform, the one with the shirt and tie looks more powerful as that's what you'd expect higher ranking police and detectives to wear. The one with more power looks visibly older than the other one which conforms to the stereotype of this clip that older people tend to have more power and age shows dominance.

The younger man hands the older man some paper which, to me, shows that the older guy is more intelligent and wise than the younger guy and he's handing him the paper because he could see and work out something on there that maybe the younger guy couldn't. This links back to my previous point that they have represented age throguh the use of intelligence, with older people being wiser and more intelligent and the younger people being less intelligent.

Preliminary plan

My plan for my preliminary plan will help me to do the actual preliminary tasks but there are some things that I could have done better now that I look back on it. For example, at the end of the video instead of having a conclusion where one of the girls got up and left or something, I just let it end during the conversation, when I actually do my preliminary task I will make sure I end it appropriately. Another thing is that I didn't show the relation between the two characters, so the audience didn't know how they knew each other.

Harry Potter opening sequence

Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone



In this film opening of Harry Potter, the first thing we see as the scene fades in from black, there is a medium shot of a lamp post and a sign (Privet Drive) with an owl on it. We can see straightaway that it's night time because they have the street light on and also because the camera is doing a sort of low angle shot looking up at the sign, we can see that the sky is dark. The owl shows us that something strange is going on because owls are usually in trees and are not normally seen but this owl is out in the open which is an abnormality.

The camera pans right and the owls flies the same way the camera is panning. Some trees come into view and we can see that the setting is quite misty and gloomy which, without the light from the street light, would make it seem scary. A man walks out from the trees and onto the street and the camera pans left to follow where he is walking. The man is wearing what looks like to be robes and a pointed hat which would stereotypically be associated with a wizard, we can relate this back to the owl as they are also associated with magic and wizardry. The camera then stops with a close up of a cat as you see the mans feet in the background continuing to walk. Because it paused on the cat it shows importance and that this cat will mean something and it's not just randomly there. The cat also add to the mystical atmosphere because black cats are stereotypically on the back of a broomstick with a witch.

There is then a medium shot of the man as he pulls out a device and begins to hold it up in the air. A close up of the device is shown which enables the audience to see more of this object. There is then an over the shoulder shot of the man as he begins to absorb the light from street lights with the device and there are several extreme long shots that are used to show which lights he is putting out and also to show the setting. We know the street is called Privet Drive from the sign at the start of the movie but now we know what the street looks like.

After the man has put out all of the street lights, the camera focuses back on the cat as the man turns and looks at it. A high angle shot is used at this point to make it look like you're seeing this cat from the mans perspective. The camera the pans to the left and a bit upwards to show the shadow of the cat as it transforms into a human. From this, we know that the cat is now a human and the camera pans left slowly as the woman walks into the shot from the right so we can see a close up of her face to see what she looks like. We can see from this shot that she is also wearing a pointed hat and some robes so we know she is also a wizard or witch of some sort and the way the man greets her shows that they already know each other.

There is a tracking shot as the two people start walking and talking with each there and the shot switches sides to show each of their faces. The two people turn around and the camera switches to a shot behind the people so we can see what they're looking at. We can see that it turns out to be a bright light in the sky which is getting closer and as the film continues, we see that it's a man riding a flying motorbike. and as he lands, he greets the two people to show that he knows them both. Even though we didn't know that they knew each other previously, we could have probably guessed it because if h is riding  flying motorbike then he is probably a wizard. I think he greeted them to confirm that he knew them because he, unlike the others, is not wearing a pointed hat and robes, he is just wearing a big coat and some goggles. We know something has happened because they have all come to the same place and it can't be a coincidence, it's we don't know what has happened. This is called the enigma code, there is a question that is unanswered that makes you want to keep watching to find out the answer and in this case it's what are these wizards and witches meeting up for?

It turns out that the man on the motorbike was delivering a baby so he picks the baby up and passes him to the other man. They then walk towards a house while the camera is using a tracking shot and the man places the baby on the doorstep with a letter. We then get a close up of the baby and the most noticeable thing is a cut on his forehead. The camera then zooms in until there is an extreme close up of this cut and it shows extreme importance of the cut. A light then shines from this cut and flashes white and when the light goes away you can see that we'e at a title screen (Saying Harry Potter and the philosophers stone) which was zoomed into but is slowly zooming out.

Because of the importance placed on the baby, the fact that everyone is there just for him, we know that he is a very important baby and we can also tell that this baby is the main character because of a few reasons. Firstly because everyone is there for him just to see him go to a new home which shows he is important and because his name is Harry Potter (we know this because the man called him that) and that is also the title of the film.

Inspiration from Song 2

From this piece of music I pictured a camera following a car that a man was driving through the country, along a mountain road etc. The man was alone at first but then as the music went on saw a woman with him. They were arguing and you could see that they didn't get along, but as the music got happier I pictured the man having a flash back of when they first met and their wedding and the happy time they've had but as it continues it shows all the arguments and disagreements and hard times they've had. Even though I pictured it as just the man in the car at first, and then just the man and the woman, as it continued I pictured two young children in the back seat and after the man and the woman had finished arguing, the woman turns to the backseat and you can see she is crying but she puts on a fake smile and wipes away her tears and assures the kids that everything is going to be alright. You can see all of this happening even though you don't have the sound because the only thing you can hear is the song playing. At one point during the music I saw that the reason the man was driving was because he was going to an upper class gathering of sort, where he would be honoured for his bestselling book that he wrote and A backstory formed in my head, I saw that the reason for the arguing and everything was because he was spending no time for his family, he didn't care for his family, he just cared about writing his book and spent no time with them. At another point in the music, I saw that the man was getting fed up with his wife (he didn't have kids for some reason in this image) and was contemplating murder because it has built up over time and he is about to snap.

Inspiration from song

While listening to the song the images that came into my head was that it was a funeral setting. It is evening time out in a graveyard so it's still quite light out. The coffin is visible being lowered into the ground. I picture a lot of people wearing black, a few holding umbrellas and others just letting the rain pour down on them. The women were sobbing into their mans shoulders while the men stood there paying there respects. All of this would be happening while you can only hear the song, not any other sound. A few parts would be in slow motion, like if a woman turned her head away and buried it into her husbands shoulder. I then pictured a disruption happening. I pictured that there might be someone there that wasn't supposed to be there and he had some sort of blade and he was quite skilful with it and he goes around slicing and killing people. People were running and panicking while this man as killing and you couldn't hear it because it was still just the song playing. All of this was happening in slow motion.

Gender homework

My initial thoughts on this clip are that it shows the male character to be quite sort of emotionless and tough where as the woman is quite emotional and fragile. You can see when the woman holds the mans hand it is so much bigger than hers which shows a form of dominance and this is backed up by the woman being quite sort of passive and apologising to the man. You also see that the woman has to ask the man to do things, instead of being able to tell him to do things, for example, instead of her telling him to wait outside, she asked him. All in all, from my first look, I think that the two are in a relationship that the man is the head of and the woman is going to get her results back from a health check where she presumably had cancer.

Gender is not about biological gender, it is about the social norms that someone can associate as a womanly thing to do and a manly thing to do that differ in each society. What would stereotypically be done by a man would be masculine and what would stereotypically be done by a woman would be feminine, this isn't to say men can't be feminine and women can't be masculine.

At the start of the clip we see a medium shot of two people (a man and a woman) in the back of a taxi. The man picks up the woman's hand and kisses her ring twice, as he does this, you see that the woman is wearing a bracelet and some earrings and the man is wearing no other jewellery other than his wedding ring. Because it's only the woman wearing it, we can say the gender is represented in this part of the clip by using jewellery to represent feminine.

There are close up shots of the man and the woman after the man says "or didn't fin count?", this helps portray the emotions of the characters at the time and we can see from these shots that the man looks indifferent but the woman looks quite sad as she is looking down a lot. This shows us that they have represented being emotional as a feminine thing in this clip.

In the next part of this clip, I think the characters gender has swapped because the man starts acting a bit more feminine and the woman acts a bit more masculine, firstly the man looks shocked and a bit upset when the woman reveals that she "knows about Melissa" and the woman holds the mans hand to comfort him. Usually it would be the man (being masculine) that would comfort the others because they are strong and tough but in this clip it is the woman doing it which shows that the gender is represented by showing that the woman is strong and tough, not the man. I think this is backed up when she goes on to speak about how she might die and because it's a sad subject the man doesn't want to think about it and rejects it as a possible outcome but the woman is being strong and knows what could happen so she is taking control and telling him what she wants of him if she dies. Usually, it is a very masculine thing to be in control and to be strong but this clip shows the woman doing it so she is being quite masculine at this point.

You then find out that the woman has deceived the man and has planned for them to go to see her consultant instead of where they were actually meant to be going. The woman was quite deceptive so we can say that the representation of gender was shown through the woman being deceptive which is quite a feminine thing. From the mis-en-scene, you see that the taxi driver is a male which shows that it's the masculine thing to be working.

The woman then asks the man to wait outside while she gets her results. This shows the man is the dominant person in their relationship because instead of the woman telling the man to wait outside, she had to plead for him to wait outside. Representation of gender is shown through the use of dominance and shows that masculine is more dominant than feminine.

As the clip swaps between the man waiting for the woman to come out and the woman receiving her results you can see two things, firstly that the woman is crying which we have already established that being emotional is a feminine thing to do so that's one way the gender is represented. We can also see from the mis-en-scene that her consultant is a man. Throughout the whole clip so far, all people that have been working are men so going back to my previous point that working is a masculine thing to do, we see that the masculine gender has been represented through the use of working.

The woman then exits the building, walks out into the middle of the road and get's hit by a car. At this point, there is a lot of effects and editing involved. Firstly all sound is removed except a heartbeat which is gradually getting louder and everything goes slow motion. I think what they were trying to do was show what it was like from his perspective, all he could hear was his heart, everything else was drowned out and it all seems to go in slow motion.

The man runs over to the woman that is now laying on the ground and starts to comfort her which as I have said before, is a masculine thing to do. The woman dies and the man begins to cry and although he is showing emotion, I wouldn't call this feminine because he has just witnessed the death of his partner, there are exceptions. I just think from this part of the clip, we see the man holding the woman and comforting her which shows that gender has been represented by showing that the man is the one that looks after other people because he is the leader.

In conclusion, I think that the representation of gender has shown us that the masculine traits are usually strong, tough, emotionless and dominant where as the feminine traits are passive, emotional and fragile. I think this clip follows most of the stereotypical masculine and feminine things but it contradicts a few.

Prezi on Regional Identity

Prezi on Gender

Stereotypes in Shameless - Homework

In the previous work that we have done we have established that there are certain things that make you label someone, or a group of people and categorise them even without knowing them. These are called stereotypes. Stereotype are often wrong but help give the audience more of an insight on the characters without actually having to show a back story. There are some aspects that people would put down to be more of a working class thing to do, so the working class stereotypes in this clip are:

• The man has long hair and messy stubble which shows he doesn't really take care of himself and doesn't clean very much.
• He has wearing dirty clothes that are old.
• There is a large family which is generally associated with the lower-working class.
• They will be living in a caravan (which doesn't make you working class if you're a traveller and it's your choice but if you have to live in a caravan because you can't afford your house then it does).
• They swear a lot.
• The man drinks a lot of alcohol, there are many empty bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks on the table in the garden which confirms this.
• The young girl already has a baby (I'm assuming it's hers).
• They wear tracksuits and joggers and the girl walks out on the street in just a dressing gown.
• The house looks untidy.
• They don't have a big garden, or any flowers/grass in their garden.
• They live on an estate.

Some of these stereotypes don't apply to all working class people, but instead just more of the lower-working class. There are some stereotypes that are actually challenged by the clip, these are:

• When the man walks down the stairs he says "Is this my family, which I see before me?" which is an adaption of "Is this a dagger, which I see before me?" from Shakespeare's Macbeth. This shows that he is educated which is going against the lower-working class stereotype that they aren't educated, or at least not very well.
• They also have a moment in the clip where they show their strength as a family and how much they love and care for each other, no matter what they do (even if their dad gets completely smashed all of the time). This opposes the stereotype that all lower-working class families argue and don't get along.

Prezi on Class

Class & Status - Homework

Class and status from NathanFrancisHC

Eastenders - Homework

Initial thoughts

In the clip, Patrick is shown to be talking to the rest of the family. During the time he is speaking, everyone is listening intently. This shows that they have respect for him and the age is represented in the first 30 seconds by showing that older people are generally well mannered and respected. Patrick is telling the rest of his family about a past event, and have portrayed the fact that elderly people will stereotypically, be telling a lot of stories.

There denotation is of empty bottles and half empty glasses of win on the table and the connotation of this is that they have drunk them. Wine is usually thought as more of a sophisticated drink that is drunk by adults and this is how it's representing age, through the use of drink.

At one point, Denise says "Chelsea taking an interest in something? How much have you had to drink?" this shows that this clip has represented younger people to not be interested in peoples past stories and that it is a rare thing for her to be taking interest.

The representation of age is shown by having Chelsea (one of the younger girls) as being quite stubborn so they are showing that younger people are generally more stubborn that older people.

During this clip, Libby is talking and after she finishes she says "Ain't that right Patrick?" which shows the younger people are referring back to the older people to make sure they're correct which shows that the representation of age is shown by having older people more knowledgeable and having a lot more wisdom than the younger people.

Analysis

Age is how old you are, it is the number of years you have been alive and is represented in this clip by showing how the different ages act and how they act towards each other.

From the very start of the clip you see a masters shot to show the proximity of each of the characters but also to see how many characters there actually are. You can clearly see that there is three generations sitting the the dinner table, Libby and Chelsea being the children, Lucas and Denise being the parents and Patrick being the grandparent. I don't actually know if these are the actual relations to each other but from the way they are having dinner and having general discussion, they are either family, or very close friends. From this shot you see that age is represented in this clip by showing that Patrick, as an older man, is leading the conversation and is at the head of the table. This means that he is the head of he family which is obviously a respected role so we can say that the representation of age is showing that because Patrick is older, he is more respected.

As the conversation continues between the family, Chelsea asks Patrick a question to which Denise, her mother, responds "Chelsea taking an interest in something? How much have you had to drink?" which shows that age is represented by showing that the mother doesn't actually know the daughter that well because when she asks a question, Denise makes out as if she never cares about anything but in the clip you see she obviously does. This shows that the younger children are probably more secretive and less sociable with the family so the parents don't actually know them that well.

Libby asks questions throughout the conversation that they're having which shows that she is curious. At one point she says a fact about the riots which she then proceeds to say "Ain't that right Patrick?". To me this shows two things, firstly, that age is represented by showing that the children are still in education and are knowledgable on facts and events. It also shows that she was referring back to Patrick, as he is older than her, to make sure she was right which shows she trusts him to know the answer because she either thinks he must know because he is older than her or because he has lived through it. I think overall in this part, age is represented as older people being more wiser and knowledgable and children still in education.

In conclusion, I think that the overall representation of young aged people are that they are curious, smart, still in education and kept to themselves and the overall representation of old ages people are that hey are wise, knowledgable and respected.

Lecture notes

The media is a "text" that people read.
The producer makes the media.
The consumer reads the media.
The gatekeeper decides what goes in the media.

The producer encodes media with a preferred reading (the meaning that they want the audience to take away from it) which the consumers (the audience) will then receive and decode. This theory related to encoding and decoding was created by Stewart Hall.

However, people may not decode the text the way the encoders want them to, there are three different ways the decoders can do this.
Firstly, they can have negotiated reading which is where the decoders understand the meaning of the text but doesn't relate to it so they have no interest in decoding it.
Secondly there is oppositional reading which is when someone makes a conscious rejection or subversion of the preferred reading.
Lastly. there is aberrant reading. This is when someone misreads or misunderstands the message the producers are trying to portray.

There are three different theories related to how the audience consumers media and these are:

The hypodermic syringe: This is where the audience is passive and heterogeneous and accept all text presented to them. Basically the information passes into the the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated. This theory suggests that we as an audience are manipulated by the media and that the behaviour of the audience could be easily changed by the media-makers.

The Two step flow: This is where the media is consumed by opinion leaders who decode it and then pass it down to less active associates which they have influence over. The audience can then mediate the information they receive form the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders.

The uses and gratifications: This is where people watch the media because they want to watch it, they watch it for pleasure and aren't just mindlessly accepting what they're shown. There are four purposed that it is proposed the audience would use the media for and they are:

Diversion: The escape from everyday problems and routine.

Personal relationships: Using the media for emotional and other interaction, e.g substituting soap operas for family life.

Personal identity: Finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values form texts.

Surveillance: Information that could be useful for living, e.g The news

The mode of address is the way in which the media "speaks" to the audience, e.g news reporters will be very formal. It is a construction using a number of codes from all elements of the text.

Roland Barthes came up with the idea that symbols in media texts affected how we decoded he information we received. He called this idea semiology (the study of symbols). For example, if you see empty bottles of alcohol on the table with two people acting drunk, you would think that they must have drunk the bottles of alcohol. Two words that are used to describe this is connotation and denotation. Connotation is what you see and denotation is what you deduce from what you see e.g, a red truck with a ladder and sirens is the denotation, and the connotation would be that it is a fire truck.

Conversation

Shameless

Class and status is devised of two separate words meaning different things. Your class is defined by the amount of income you have, people with lower income will be a lower class than someone with a higher income. Status is more to do with the levels of respect you have and your power in society. It is represented in the Shameless clip through the use of camera shots, editing, sound and mis-en-scène.

My initial thoughts on this clip is that the father isn't a very good father. It seems to me that he is a drunk and a drug taker and doesn't really look after his children that well. They don't seem to have a lot of money and are not a very close family as you see that they have an argument in this clip. However at the end, you see that they are all laughing together.

Firstly, the camera shots and mis-en-scène work well together to portray class in this clip. As the man comes down the stairs at around 0:10 there is a medium shot showing the top half of his body. This allows the audience to see the state of his clothes, his face and his hair. From this shot we see that his clothes are reasonably dirty, His hair is greasy and he has short stubble on his face. After this, at 0:12, there is a long shot of the table where you see 4 people and a baby which, in my opinion, may show that they could be of a lower class because having more people in the family means you need to spend more money on food and other resources so you would generally have less money for other things, like a bigger house. Also, stereotypically, people with larger families tend to have lower class than say, someone with only one child in their family. There is then a close up of the mans face to see more detail and features. As the clip progresses, at 0:37 you see a confrontation between the man and a teenager. Just from the shot types you can see the expressions of the rest of the family through use of close ups. This helps us see how the rest of the family are feeling and how they will react to this situation. You can also see the the state of the house in the background, it doesn't look very clean and there house is quite bare. There aren't many decorations and the table is very small so just from these few shot types and the mis-en-scène, we can see that the class is represented through the state of the house and the people living in it.

After this encounter between the two of them, at 1:04 to 1:10 there is a series of close ups on the man. It switches to slightly different angles each time as he does different actions and they are very quick and happen one after the other. To me, this shows that it is very hectic and stressful in the house because of the speed the different shots were happening. We can then link this to the class of the family and say because of this stress and the household, we can put it down to maybe a lack of money. In the shots we see the what looks like the man screaming in anger as his facial expressions are that of an angry person.

The next few shots are pretty much the same shots over and over as they continue to engage in conversation. They are just close ups of the man, to long shots of the family or close ups of an individual member of the family and back to a close up of the man. We can see from the mis-en-scène that the clothes the family wear suggests a lower class family because a family with a higher class would usually wear things like jeans and polo tops, not joggers, tracksuits and jackets.

The next interesting shot is at 2:05 when it cuts to an establishing shot where it shows the state and a caravan outside the house that is being delivered with them all standing outside waiting for it. We can be stereotypical and say that it's just gypsies that have caravans and maybe relate this family to gypsies. In my opinion, most people see gypsies as lower class as they don't tend to have any high paying jobs or a big house but instead, they do cash in hand jobs and live in caravans. However, gypsies do not pay taxes so they will have that extra money and are a lot richer than most people think. You also see in the background the back of another caravan which could belong to the family or could belong to someone else, either way it shows that people on this estate own caravans and we could argue that this is because they haven't got a lot of money, therefor being lower class.

There is then a close up of a turtle crawling down the street at 2:24 while the family just watches and we can say that this could be their pet and maybe they can't afford a dog or a cat so instead bought a turtle and link this back to them being lower class. At 2:49, the turtle in run over by the caravan that is being delivered and the girls of the family walk over to it and the rest of the family start to gather round to look at it, none of them looking that sad.

A man in a suit then approaches them from behind and immediately, just from the look of him we can assume he is an upper class citizen. He is cleanly shaven and has a well kept suit that is ironed and well fitted. He holds a document in his hand which shows that he is an important man and can link class to status as because it looks like he has a lot of money, it also looks like he has a lot of power and respect. There is a medium shot that shows the upper class man handing the lower class man a slip of paper (3:07) while the lower class man looks outraged and the upper class man acts as it's completely fine (3:10). The rest of the family being to laugh and then the lower class man joins in too. The last shot in this clip is at 3:18 where there is a high angle shot that is looking down at the family and the upper class man walking away.

At the start of this clip there is some non-diegetic sound which means it is sound that is not actually in the story, it is just being added for effect. To me, this is just a piece of mood music to set the scene as when he first stumbles downstairs the music adds to the effect that he may still be drunk from the night before and he is confused and can't remember some things.

From the speech in this clip we learn that this man is indeed their father and is a drug taker and a drunk. We also know that they do not have a lot of money and are selling their house to live in a caravan as they can not afford it anymore. From speech it is represented by literally telling us that they are a lower class family.

There is a piece of synchronous, diegetic sound in this clip, it is when the baby makes a sound while drinking milk. The sound is diegetic because it is actually happening in the story and we know it's synchronous because we can see the baby make the sound.

The last piece of sound is when you hear a dog barking. This is what we would call an asynchronous piece of sound because even though it is diegetic and it's actually happening in the story, we can't actually see the source of the sound. This shows that they would probably live in a lower class estate because in films and TV programs the lower class people will have the dogs that bark and the upper class people have well trained dogs that don't bark.

The editing in this clip is mainly only profoundly present at the point where the close up shots were coming really fast over and over to add the effect of stress in lower class families but other than that, I can't really see where the editing in this clip helps represent class. 

Shot types 1 - Nathan Francis

Shot types 2 - Nathan Francis

Gender Identity Health Check

Gender is represented in the media in various different ways, for example males will be wearing suits and women will be wearing dresses, this is just one example of many. Gender doesn't mean male or female, it is nothing to do with the biological gender, it is the gender identity that has been created by humans themselves. There is no law that says women have to wear makeup and men can't wear skirts but because of the way gender is represented in the media, we are influenced and therefor chose to conform to the expectations of society.

The camera shots in this clip is one of the ways that show how gender identity is represented. They do this right at the very start at around 0:15 in the clip by having high angle shots of the male worker looking down at the women. This shows that he has higher status than the women that he is talking to as he is looking down at her and she is looking up to him. This status may be because of money but while this shot is taking place, you don't know that the woman cannot afford the dress, it is merely a status shown through gender dominance. Even though this woman may not be able to afford this dress, she still wants to look nice for her daughter. This sense of women wanting to look their best has been portrayed by her saying herself that it's her daughters wedding and she wants something "nice". This shows that it's the woman's job to look good for other people.

During the confrontation of the shop worker and the woman, the camera shots are placed so you can see that the male has a height advantage over the woman. There are a few master shots that show how close they are and how much taller he actually is, for example at 0:30 when he is mocking her when she says "nice" you can clearly see him towering over her, looking down at her and intimidating her. This represents gender identity by showing that men are superior to women and have more power.

After the woman leaves the shop, the male focusses his attention to the other woman in the store. There are come close ups on the woman to show her accessories like her watch and ring which look expensive. The male notices this and heads over to her and engages in conversation. Even though we see she is a wealthy woman, the camera shot is still high angle which shows it doesn't matter about your class in terms of money, the status and power levels are shown to focus on the gender of the person and the male worker will have higher than any female. This woman is dressed a lot differently to the previous woman, she is wearing a blazer and a knee-length skirt made out of suit material which shows she is more professional and wealthier.

There is a tilt shot after the man gets the dress for the woman which shows the whole of the outfit. I think this objectifies her as more of a sex object now as before the camera was focussing on the accessories that made her look wealthy but now it is focussing on the woman herself. This point is backed up as she says "oh yes, oh yes!" in, what some might think, a seductive tone and the camera tilts up to show the dress is a backless and braless dress. This just adds to the objectivity of the woman as it is showing off a lot of flesh and portraying her in a sexy way. Even in the outfit she was wearing prior to trying on the dress she was still showing some cleavage which backs up the point that she is being shown as a sex object. The reason she is buying this dress it presumable to look good for her man which shows that it's the women that are trying their best to look their best for others.

After the woman agrees to buy the dress, the shot then transitions into a different scene where there is a medium shot of two men. The men are at what is presumably a bar drinking an alcoholic beverage and smoking cigarettes. The Mis-En-Scene in this scene is a very strong, visual portrayal of the gender identity that men can just sit around without a care in the world and it's perfectly acceptable for them to be smoking inside and drinking during the middle of the day. One of them is wearing suits which shows that they are in a position of power and the other is wearing casuals. They are both however, wearing trousers, which is completely normal but in the whole clip you see women wearing skirts and men wearing trousers. This shows that the gender identity is shown through the clothing, the males are expected to wear trousers and the females will usually wear skirts or dresses.

The next scene is back to the shop, where the woman has realised she has lost her ring, she gets really stressed and panicked about it but the male shop worker stays calm and in control instead of losing his head like the woman. The representation of gender identity is quite profound in the scene as it shows that to be masculine you can't be stressed about things, you have to stay calm and the feminine side would be to get really stressed out over everything. She also says that her husband will kill her if she loses it which shows that she is scared of what her husband will think because he is the "leader" in the relationship and she doesn't even care about the value of the ring, just what her husband will think of her. This shows that feminine people care more about what others think of them and less about money. We could generalise this to why more females spend lots of money on clothes, because they don't care about the price of them, they just want to look good for other people.

Then next scene is very short, it is a male doing some manual labour, he is wiring an alarm system. With just this very scene we are shown that it is a masculine thing to do. They could have used a woman to be doing this work but instead a man was used to portray the fact that it is more of a masculine thing to do than feminine.

When it transitions back to the shop, you see a man has entered and a tilt shot is used so you can see his full suit. It then swaps to a high angle shot of the new man looking down at the shop worker who is on the floor. I think this is because it is to show that the new man is now more masculine and therefor has more power so he is given a higher position of power. I think he is more masculine because the shop worker is now starting to feel a little bit stressed while trying to look for the ring because he really wants the reward and we have previously established that getting stressed out is more feminine than masculine.

After this scene it goes back to the two men at the bar, there is no dialogue in this scene, it just shows them sitting and laughing together. I just think it enforces the idea that they don't have any cares in the world, they can just sit and have a drink together while other men are reading newspapers and stuff.

I think the scene after is very interesting. It shows the two men (the male shop worker and the new man) having a heated discussion about the ring that the new man had just found. What I found interesting is that neither of them really wanted to return the ring back to the women just to be a good person, they were both just hooked on the fact that will get a reward if they return it. This shows that masculine people are quite money hungry and greedy.

The last scene in this clip shows that the new man and the woman that lost her ring had met up in a café and new each other and the new man reveals that he got "one and a half" thousand pounds from the shop worker to which she responds with "you did ok". This shows us that they were working together and had set the whole thing up to get £1,500 from a (I'm guessing) worthless ring.

Throughout the whole clip all you see are men working, for example, the man in the shop and the man behind the bar, which shows it's the mans job to be the worker and not the woman's. However, this idea is countered at the very end when you see a glimpse of a woman working in the café.

The editing of this clip is pretty similar throughout. They don't tend to use cuts, instead they use transitions, like swipe left or swipe down (where the picture moves left or down to reveal the next shot). They also used a freeze-frame at 1:54 while playing the jaunty music of the scene in the shop as it transitioned into the scene at the shop which allowed it to look seamless and smooth.

In conclusion, I think the gender identity in this clip is represented through things like clothing, actions, emotions, camera angles etc. and I think it is used so effectively that unless you are actively searching for it, it would be hard to notice.

Powerpoint on Conventions

Pp on conventions from NathanFrancisHC

Homework - Greek yoghurt

Regional identity is identifying a person's identity which is rooted not only in the setting of the film but also in speech, costumes etc. and in the region they live in.

This advert is about a young boy that lets his cow out of the pen to then go and recue it to earn himself some yoghurt from his mum.

The regional identity is represented in this advert by many things, the first being sounds. Right from the very start of the advert there is a banjo playing a tune in the background. This immediately gives the effect of a foreign country to the viewers.

The second thing that helps portray the regional identity is the clothing, a boy is shown in the advert wearing a vest with a shirt over the top and shorts. The clothing didn't look like it was in the best condition and wasn't very clean either, this shows that he might not be in a family of very high class. As he runs through the village you see a priest wearing what looks like a robe and he is ringing a bell. The robe signifies that he is religious but plays no further part in the advert other than showing the audience that he may be In a religious village. All of the outfits worn by all of the villagers seen in the advert seem old fashioned as they are not bright and colourful like they are today, but instead dull and bland.

Going back to my previous point about the boy being in a lower class family, I think he may be indeed in a lower class family. I think this because when he runs through the village you see that people are wearing full outfits (like the cowboy on the horse) so it's not just a poor village, and he is still wearing what looks baggy clothes that are sweaty and dirty. The make up used helps add the dirty effect.

Most of the regional identity is shown by setting. From the very start you are shown an establishing shot of the region and you can see that they are on a farm in the country near some mountains which makes people think they can't be anywhere near a city or anything but instead near a village which is supported when he runs into the village to find his cow. There is also an establishing shot as the boy runs towards the house. It shows that it is quite far away from the cow pen but there was no risk of him being that far away from the house because everyone in the village is nice and no one would ever do anything bad to him. It also shows the mother in the house which adds the effect of it being in the past from her outfit, not being a sex object but instead just wearing normal clothes, and also because in the past the women had to stay indoors and do the cleaning and the man went out to work which is presumably why he is not in the advert.

Near the start of the advert the boy calls for his mother by shouting: "Mama!", this shows that they are not in an English speaking country as most people in countries that speak English say "mum" or "mother". The foreign country idea is backed up as the young boy has a tanned colour skin, this, combined with everything else makes me think they are probably in a country like Greece.

Through out the advert it leads the audience into thinking that it is set in the past, having a cow for milk instead of a milkman, people batting their clothes to get rid of dust, riding horses and having no sign of technology being shown. This is the case until right at the very end when the mother pulls her phone out which shows that it is the present time, but everything seems older as the yoghurts formula is unchanged since that time. This adds the effect that even though in this present day there is so much technology, you can still live the rural, simple Greek life by buying their yoghurt.

 

 

When the boy runs to find his cow, there was no worry him being a little boy in the village all on his own, it was made to make you feel as if he was safe. They man on the horse just pointed him towards the direction of his cow, there was no risk of him being a criminal or anything. As he runs through the town he was asking people where his cow went, and there was none of this "stranger danger" in the village, and even if he already knew them, it just adds the effect of the small village where everyone knows everyone and gets along. Finally, when he gets to his cow, there is a butcher waiting to kill it. The boy approaches and just leads it away and the butcher, although he looks disappointed, doesn't try to stop him, he just lets him take the cow and go on his way.

 

Almost all of the camera shots are establishing shots which really help to portray the regional identity in this advert. They are used to show the viewers where the boy is at all times, it usually does a medium shot of him running and then an establishing shot of the area where he is running. An example of this is when he is running down a lane it uses an establishing shot but then cuts to a medium shot when he glides his hand along the stone wall.

 

 







In conclusion, I think that having all these different elements brings a feeling of safety and simplicity to the viewers and shows them the rural lifestyle while advertising their product effectively.