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.
Wednesday 27 November 2013
Thursday 7 November 2013
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.
Tuesday 5 November 2013
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.
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.
Monday 4 November 2013
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.
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.
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