For my AS Media Production task we created a film opening to a thriller called "Behind Closed Doors." The synopsis, in simple terms, is that the protagonist is still in love with her ex boyfriend and the break up causes her to become greatly obsessed with him and plans on getting revenge by crushing pills and walking out the room. By doing so, we wanted to create an enigmatic effect right from the start to keep the audience engaged at all times. The unawareness of why Beth (protagonist) was crying as she was first introduced created suspense and anticipation for the viewers. The crying portrays a typical female character as they are stereotypically known to be quite weak and emotional, and this conformed to that assumption. Gaye Tuchman's theory can relate as Tuchman found that men were always portrayed in a dominant and superior position to women and our film opening shows she is upset about a male which supports that women are weaker and emotional because of the male figure.
Roland Barthes' enigma code can relate to this as our thriller opening includes enigmas/mysteries as the film develops. In this theory, it is solved usually at the end of the film, or continued in a sequel, but as we didn’t need to produce an ending, this didn’t matter so much.
Our film opening holds many codes and conventions towards other theorists such as Levi Strauss's binary opposition theory. In regards to the love/hate and control/panic relationship, it is obvious to see that this is presented in our product when we see that the protagonist is upset with the given situation but her feelings soon changes into hatred as she switches from a calm mood to an angry one as she starts tearing down the photos. We used the blurry effect at this stage to help signify a distorted and unclear mind of mixed emotions.
With regards to Propps theory, we subverted to this as his states that the hero is usually the protagonist, but ours clearly shows the 'victim' turning into the 'villain' thus opposing to his theory and making her the protagonist and perhaps the 'hero' the antagonist. (We are unclear as to who the antagonist is as we only see one character within the film opening)
In comparison to the other products we studied such as Prom Night, we aimed to stick similarly to the common codes and conventions of the film genre. Mise-en-scene (such as the use of the colour pink and messy room) automatically stereotypes a teenage girl’s room which suggested that the target audience would be towards a feminist approach, but aimed to appeal to both sexes with the thriller/drama hybrid.
With regards to lighting, it was hard to conform to the typical conventions into making it gloomy for the sad and upsetting scenes and vice versa. It was difficult to block out the light from outside and control the natural light into creating the perfect setting due to our limited budget, creating a constraint. We instead used the aspect of looking back into the past colliding with present events and differentiating the two with the use of black and white to represent events from the past.
In conclusion my film opening mostly conformed to the stereotypical conventions required in a thriller opening as it followed similar patterns and trends as opposed to subverting from it. Due to the lack of time, I think it limited us from exploring contents of a thriller opening in which we could subvert to.
"Analyse one of your products against narrative theories"
Roland Barthes - The enigma code
Going against Propps theory - victim turns into villain - is the protagonist
Levi Strauss - love/hate - binary oppositions
1) What product did you make and when?
2) What is the synopsis and a brief idea of what your intentions were.
3) Key questions that arrised for the production in terms of the specific construction: narrative, genre, audience, representation, etc.
4) Codes and conventions that relate to the specific theory - subvert/conform, pos/negative?
5) Analyse against theories and explain why.
6) Evaluate the codes and conventions against theories and explain why.
7) Conclude how it conformed or subverted conventions and explain why...
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Friday, 6 January 2012
Internalised Stereotypes
Kidulthood, Adulthood, Fish Tank.
Correct or Incorrect portrayal?
These films are arguably a correct portrayal as they represent the youth negatively, no different to how we are presented within the media of today.
"Based in West London, where rich and poor rub shoulder to shoulder, treading the same playgrounds in very differently priced shoes." This helps portray a clear juxaposition of class and shows what happens when the two clash. It becomes apparant that those of a working class are out of control, filled with anarchy.
Noel Clarke, a young black male is known to be more involved with the youth to portray them the way they actually behave and discourse. Exaggerated truth, to cause an effect on both adults and the youth. apathy, raising awareness, glorifying, able to change our views, youth do have hope, can act rebellious but repent too.
whereas Andrea Arnold, who is an older British white woman may just bring her stereotypical persopective into the film. H
*shabby apartment block
Accurate to actual experiences of teenagers?
An adult fascination of youth?
Conforming to stereotypes ciculated by news media?
Who makes these media texts and for who?
Correct or Incorrect portrayal?
These films are arguably a correct portrayal as they represent the youth negatively, no different to how we are presented within the media of today.
"Based in West London, where rich and poor rub shoulder to shoulder, treading the same playgrounds in very differently priced shoes." This helps portray a clear juxaposition of class and shows what happens when the two clash. It becomes apparant that those of a working class are out of control, filled with anarchy.
Noel Clarke, a young black male is known to be more involved with the youth to portray them the way they actually behave and discourse. Exaggerated truth, to cause an effect on both adults and the youth. apathy, raising awareness, glorifying, able to change our views, youth do have hope, can act rebellious but repent too.
whereas Andrea Arnold, who is an older British white woman may just bring her stereotypical persopective into the film. H
*shabby apartment block
Accurate to actual experiences of teenagers?
An adult fascination of youth?
Conforming to stereotypes ciculated by news media?
Who makes these media texts and for who?
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Do Kidulthood and Fish Tank create a realistic representation of youth?
The youth are generally represented in the media to be quite negative and are generally the focal topic of debates, reports, and in recent news, associated greatly in the Riots with the words such as “destructive”, “yobs” and “thugs”. Michel Focaults theory is based on the fact that everyone is born with a basic identity, which is then mediated through the people we meet and soon becomes limited as stereotypes are created. Both Kidulthood and Fish Tank can support this.
In Kidulthood, we immediately see a clique of young boys in their uniform in school. However, they have adjusted their uniform, with a hoodie, hat and a loose tie which creates their own sense of collective identity and a sense of rebelliousness. This can be said to be true as youth these days like to have their own recognition within their groups whether that is a symbol or a particular item of clothing, however it forms automatic stereotypes, so the thoughts that the media and outsiders have of us is misinterpreted and perhaps false. The use of hoodies and tracksuits is heightened in the film which creates a dominant view in society. For example, we see them hanging about in street corners, getting into fights and stealing a purse; showing that perhaps youth are in fact immature and troublesome. Print media, like tabloids and broadsheets newspapers, reflect and construct these views of youth, calling us “yobs” and “thugs” during the London Riots which therefore supports the 2k film. Focaults theory can also be related here as in a scene of Kidulthood, a security guard follows Trevor out of the shop as he assumes he stole a hat. This was clearly only done to show how strongly people feel about youth being in hoodies and tracksuits and how quickly assumptions can be made. In comparison to Fish Tank, the protagonist also wears similar type of clothing and is portrayed to be a destructive character as she gets into fights and rebels. These two personas can be classified as the 'in-group' where they see the adults and those who stereotype as the out'group, according to tajfels theory.
"Identity is complicated, everybody thinks they’ve got one" David Gaunlett says this and is presented clearly in both films. Being a youth, especially a teenager is a tough time period as we are still finding out ‘who we are’ for our identity. This is the phase in which we experiment, act both good and bad to see what we prefer, and as we grow older our identity becomes complicated. For example, in Kidulthood, Trevor talks about his notorious uncle who is a dangerous man, where no one believes him. When he goes to visit he doesn’t like the look of hurting others and is forced to use a blade to prove his ‘strength’ and commitment to his uncle. After that he repents for what he does and is highly ashamed as he runs away. His loneliness gives him time to think about what he’s done; therefore demonstrating mixed thoughts and a blurred identity. Furthermore, in Fish Tank the scene of which there is an open landscape and just a horse, presents a lonely identity, and her attempt to free the horse symbolises her attempt to free herself into finding her identity.
Both classes are of a similar type as we are shown they live on various council estates (block of flats) therefore deprived and of a lower class, which could suggest a hard lifestyle and neglected upbringing. This could be a reason as to why they both rebel and perhaps show a realistic representation of youth as it’s usually ones with a neglected upbringing who cause anarchy in society. (quote in-group –out group) those of a higher class are the out group in their view. Character in Fish Tank is impartial as she wants to dance, but to dance alone and not in a group. She likes being with her family but sometimes can’t stand them.
Merlau Ponty's embodied experience theory suggests that we physically use our hands on our phones, the internet and social networking sites to make and form our identity. Technology is a big factor of youth’s identity as we seem to revolve around that in contrast to historical times where family interaction and games used to be a major pass time. In Kidulthood we see a lot of mobile phones used, to communicate and meet up, and in Fish Tank, we also see her using a phone but the digital camera is used more to portray her identity, by dancing. This can therefore be said to create a realistic representation of youth as we highly dedicate a lot of time on technological devices and depend on them majorly.
The elements presented in both Kidulthood and Fish Tank can therefore be said to be a near enough perfect view of youth as it seems as though in society we have become desensitised to the typical hegemonic view of the youths of today. It comes to no surprise if they are recognised in the news as the media will always continue to represent youth in such a way so their story sells, continuing to reflect youth unfairly with the inability to change such a dominant view in society. To some extent it can be argued that Kidulthood holds more of a realistic represenation of youth as Noel Clarke, the producer, is younger and more involved with the youth of today to be able to present his view realistically.
In Kidulthood, we immediately see a clique of young boys in their uniform in school. However, they have adjusted their uniform, with a hoodie, hat and a loose tie which creates their own sense of collective identity and a sense of rebelliousness. This can be said to be true as youth these days like to have their own recognition within their groups whether that is a symbol or a particular item of clothing, however it forms automatic stereotypes, so the thoughts that the media and outsiders have of us is misinterpreted and perhaps false. The use of hoodies and tracksuits is heightened in the film which creates a dominant view in society. For example, we see them hanging about in street corners, getting into fights and stealing a purse; showing that perhaps youth are in fact immature and troublesome. Print media, like tabloids and broadsheets newspapers, reflect and construct these views of youth, calling us “yobs” and “thugs” during the London Riots which therefore supports the 2k film. Focaults theory can also be related here as in a scene of Kidulthood, a security guard follows Trevor out of the shop as he assumes he stole a hat. This was clearly only done to show how strongly people feel about youth being in hoodies and tracksuits and how quickly assumptions can be made. In comparison to Fish Tank, the protagonist also wears similar type of clothing and is portrayed to be a destructive character as she gets into fights and rebels. These two personas can be classified as the 'in-group' where they see the adults and those who stereotype as the out'group, according to tajfels theory.
"Identity is complicated, everybody thinks they’ve got one" David Gaunlett says this and is presented clearly in both films. Being a youth, especially a teenager is a tough time period as we are still finding out ‘who we are’ for our identity. This is the phase in which we experiment, act both good and bad to see what we prefer, and as we grow older our identity becomes complicated. For example, in Kidulthood, Trevor talks about his notorious uncle who is a dangerous man, where no one believes him. When he goes to visit he doesn’t like the look of hurting others and is forced to use a blade to prove his ‘strength’ and commitment to his uncle. After that he repents for what he does and is highly ashamed as he runs away. His loneliness gives him time to think about what he’s done; therefore demonstrating mixed thoughts and a blurred identity. Furthermore, in Fish Tank the scene of which there is an open landscape and just a horse, presents a lonely identity, and her attempt to free the horse symbolises her attempt to free herself into finding her identity.
Both classes are of a similar type as we are shown they live on various council estates (block of flats) therefore deprived and of a lower class, which could suggest a hard lifestyle and neglected upbringing. This could be a reason as to why they both rebel and perhaps show a realistic representation of youth as it’s usually ones with a neglected upbringing who cause anarchy in society. (quote in-group –out group) those of a higher class are the out group in their view. Character in Fish Tank is impartial as she wants to dance, but to dance alone and not in a group. She likes being with her family but sometimes can’t stand them.
Merlau Ponty's embodied experience theory suggests that we physically use our hands on our phones, the internet and social networking sites to make and form our identity. Technology is a big factor of youth’s identity as we seem to revolve around that in contrast to historical times where family interaction and games used to be a major pass time. In Kidulthood we see a lot of mobile phones used, to communicate and meet up, and in Fish Tank, we also see her using a phone but the digital camera is used more to portray her identity, by dancing. This can therefore be said to create a realistic representation of youth as we highly dedicate a lot of time on technological devices and depend on them majorly.
The elements presented in both Kidulthood and Fish Tank can therefore be said to be a near enough perfect view of youth as it seems as though in society we have become desensitised to the typical hegemonic view of the youths of today. It comes to no surprise if they are recognised in the news as the media will always continue to represent youth in such a way so their story sells, continuing to reflect youth unfairly with the inability to change such a dominant view in society. To some extent it can be argued that Kidulthood holds more of a realistic represenation of youth as Noel Clarke, the producer, is younger and more involved with the youth of today to be able to present his view realistically.
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