All aspects of film form including narrative contribute to the representations of cultures and societies (gender, ethnicity and age) including the ideological nature of these representations -All aspects of a film, from performance to story, can portray ideas about different people and societies

Performance

• Age
• Ethnicity
• Costume
• Facial Expression
• Bodylanguage
• Gestures

Ideology

Ideas and ideals that an individual holds about a concept, group of people, place or thing.

Stereotype

A stereotype is a character based on a fixed and oversimplified idea of a type of person

Countertype

A countertype is a character that is the opposite to what the stereotype would be for that type of person e.g black president

Representation – Sarah Connor

Terminator 1

 

In the first Terminator, Sarah Connor is a very standard representation of a working young woman. She is part of a character type that was present in a lot of movies in the 80’s: young, single, overworked, ditzy, clumsy and average. She’s meant to be a sort of everywoman “normal” character

T2

In the sequel, T2, Sarah Connor is a very different character. She has evolved from the relatable “normal” character from the first film, and has changed from that previous character into a hardened action movie hero style of protagonist. Instead of her first introduction, where she’s late to work and is shown being clumsy and overworked, in T2 she is introduced in a mental hospital doing pull ups on an overturned bed. The character is much more capable and is able to fill the role of the character of Kyle from the first film by herself, and is a much more memorable character than he was. Her outfit has also changed to suit this development, going from her pink waitress outfit to stylish, practical clothing suitable for combat. T2’s Sarah Connor is a more action movie heroine character, a countertype to the working girl stereotype she was in the first film.

REPRENTATION IN TRAINSPOTTING

1. Who is doing the representation? – Danny Boyle (Director)/Irvine Welsh (Original Novelist)
2. Who is being represented? – Lower/middle classes in Scotland, drug users, young adults
3. What social groups are omitted from the representation?- Elderly
4. What messages about particular social groups are being conveyed? – Drug users have a hard life, everyone needs money, life in the UK is not very glamourous for common people
5. Which characters or social groups have power in these representations? – Drug dealers, higher classes, court system
6. Do the characters adhere or challenge stereotypes? – The characters challenge stereotypes, as the drug using characters are portrayed with sympathy and as good people rather than being vilified, and a character that doesn’t do drugs, Begby, is the most villainous character
7. Are the characters typical of films in that genre? – I think that in the genre that Trainspotting is (black comedy drama), the characters are not typical. The drug users would not be the nice, sympathetic characters they are, Begby would not be the aggressive, borderline evil character he is etc.
8. What do representations tell us about the time the film was made and set? – The film is set in the same year it was made (1996), and the representations show understanding of drug use and normal people, as well as showing us that there is a lot more understanding about people in general.
9. How are elements of film form being used to construct the representations? – Boyle uses shots that hold for a long time to create a boring, monotonous atmosphere to make the pubs and streets feel normal and familiar and not at all exciting, like the scene at the London pub after they picked up the money which uses long shots and close ups that hold for a while to make the place feel boring, and more frantic editing is used to show drug use, like the scene where Renton ODs, which uses creative editing of the red carpet framing Renton’s POV shots.