All aspects of film form including narrative contribute to the representations of cultures and societies (gender, ethnicity and age) including the ideological nature of those representations.

Performance

• age
• ethnicity
• costume
• facial expression
• body language and gestures

Task 2

Stereotype -a general belief about a certain category or person
countertype – goes against a stereotype of certain beliefs example a black president of America rather than a white president of America.

Sarah Connor

Sarah Connor looks stereotypically of an American waitress. In Terminator one and in this scene she is late to her job and she seems careless about it, she is being called from every direction e.g. people missing drinks, somebody putting ice-cream in her uniform dress pocket. However she shows many feminine traits she looks kind and maternal and caring.

In this scene and in the second movies, Sarah Connor is more of a countertype of a stereotypically self in the first movie. Sarah also show more masculine traits as she is holding a gun while is not conventional of a female. She looks like she is the hero and she is trying to protect something. She is wearing a tight shirt and we can see her muscles showing the audience that she is a countertype of a kind, maternal looking waitress self in the first movie.

Representation in Trainspotting

1. Who is doing the representation ?
   Danny Boyle – the director
2. who is being represented ?
   drug addicts, white ( sort of youngish) men who are Scottish
3. what social groups are omitted from the representation ?
   people with money, coloured people, old people, women are underrepresented
4. what message about particular social groups are being conveyed ?
   don’t try drugs as they are bad for mental health and physical health
5. which characters or social groups have power within the representation ?
   the main character have a main power of how drugs can have a harmful impact and them representing what they can do to you
6. do the characters adhere to or challenge stereotypes ?
   they adhere to the stereotype of young people in the backstreet of a city.
7. are the characters typical of films in that genre ?
   As the genre is crime/ drama you do suspect that the characters convey characteristics to fit into the genre for example Spud going to jail – crime. However drugs is more countertype of a crime/ drama genre.
8. what do representations tell audiences about society at the time the film was made and or set ?
   it shows the audience the time the film was made in and the society that was around and the ideology people have in that time and how films represent them.
9. how are elements of film form being used to construct the representation ?
   for example the drug den in the opening scene where they are taking heroin for the first time, the mise en scene of the place creates an ideology and representation of the characters and how they have a living of off drugs, and a unclean and messy lifestyle.
   

Scottish, young white men being represented in the film as drug addicts who are quite scary, mean and unkind people.

Older people being represented in the film as being kind, fun caring people compared to the younger people in the film. For example Renton’s parents are a loving couple who are deeply concerned for their son and want to make him a better person.

Women are being represented as the girlfriends to the main characters in the film. They are more represented as an object through the men’s eyes