In our media product
we have focused on the representation of the ages and gender of the characters
within the film opening of ‘Sketch’.
The girls within our
film opening are teenagers around the age of 15 – 16. This to the audience
creates the perception that the teenagers would be vulnerable because of their
gender usually where girls and women are seen as the weaker gender. However we
tried to both subvert and conform to this gender expectation. We were able to
subvert the expectation of teenage girls being weak by ensuring that the killer
was seen to be very powerful and dominating in the way that she decides to kill
people. On the other hand we were able to conform to the real life expectation
that people would have of teen age girls being vulnerable by the killer
targeting a bully. The bully may have seen to be powerful but then she gets
killed. This is another representation of teenagers that they may try to act
powerful however they are weak at heart.
To represent
particular social groups we have used a variety of different camera angles and
shots. For example we were able to show the vulnerability and how weak the
teenage girl that gets killed is within the first part of our opening sequence,
this is because of the long shot of the school corridor that twists and a
psychedelic way, to create the distorted mind frame of the killer. Not only
does it show how vulnerable teenage girls are it also creates a representation
of the teenage killer, being dangerous and mentally unstable. We also used an
over the shoulder shot of the teenage girl that is the victim of Rue the
killer; we used this to create empathy for the girl. This helps to conform to
the representation that teenagers are vulnerable and find it difficult to
protect themselves.
We also used a range
of different sounds that contrasted against one another, for example within the
long shot of the schools art corridor we used the sound of giggling children to
show how vulnerable the teenagers and other pupils within the school were. This
paired with the editing of splice cuts where horrific artistry images are shown
subverts the expectation and representation that the children/students at the
school should be happy however they are faced with a bigger evil. The children
giggling later is contrasted with the screams of the victim that is brutally
killed this shows that the innocence that can be associated with young adults
is shattered where the teenage killer murders someone. It also can represent
how unhappy the teenagers are in contrast to the representation that is
associated sometimes with them being happy at school.
A mixture of editing
techniques has been used to create a representation of the social groups of
females and teenagers. We used fast paced editing with the technique of splice
cuts. The fast paced editing of the opening sequence and the killing scene
creates a tension and also represents the mental state of the teenage killer,
not thinking before she acts out of the usual representation of teenagers. The
representation of teenagers is then seen to be dangerous and that they can act
out of character at any time making some of the teenagers dangerous to society.
This means that with the editing that there are two different types of
representations that go alongside the social groups of teenager and girls.
Teenagers that can be vulnerable or dangerous and girls that can be malicious
killers or innocent and incapable of protecting themselves.
The mise-en-scene within
our film opening helps to create a general representation of teenagers and
teenage girls. The set and location of the school corridor and the classroom
help to create the representation to the audience of the teenagers being
students and associate this with being well behaved and concentrated. Rue the
killer subverts this expectation of what the audience may be thinking and this
is shown by the long shot of the corridor with the twisted camera angles and
the saturated filter. The distortion shows her mind frame in comparison to the
victim that is seen to be concentrating on her art work to then be killed. The
bright saturation and the darkness of the killing seen contrast against each
other just like the representations that are associated with the teenage social
group that is portrayed within my film opening. For the costume of the
characters we decided to keep it very casual with jeans and a hooded top. This
is what real life people tend to associate with the teenagers of society. This
is associated with the thugs and the teenagers that downgrade the expectations
of the society; this is why we dressed the bullies as casually as we did. For
the killer (Rue) we dressed her in all black with a black mask, we done this
because we wanted to protect her identity. The black colour connotes danger,
power and mystery. This represents the overall social group of teenagers to be
powerful in their decisions and potentially dangerous to society depending on
their mind frame and how they are treated. As for the actors we kept this basic
and matched the social group we were trying to portray. We cast teenage girls
to play the characters this was to make it easier for the audience to identify
the social group that we were trying to portray.
Overall I feel that
our media product enables us to correctly represent the social groups of
teenagers and teenage girls from a range of perspectives that are identified
through a range of camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound skills.
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