all aspects of film form including narrative contribution to the representations of cultures and societies’ (gender, ethnicity, and age ) including the ideological nature of those representations

ideology – a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

performance

• age
• ethnicity
• body language
• costume
• facial expressions

stereotype

a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing e.g. all black people are criminals

countertype

an opposite of the stereotypes that are already in place. it opposes stereotypes e.g. a black president instead of a white president

Sarah Conner example

Sarah was a stereotypical American waitress in he first terminator movie. She is shown to be weak and incapable of doing her job since she spills the coffee on the man and when she arrives late she isn’t phased or bothered by it.

in the follow up movie, she breaks away from the female stereotypes and becomes a countertype. During this time and becomes a heroin, she is shown holding a gun and she looks to be skilled with it, she’s also has muscles and is no longer the weak woman she was in the first movie.

Trainspotting Representation

1 who is doing the representation?

Renton and his group

2 who is being represented?

Renton and his friends represent a clique friend group who have issues and do drugs. drug addicts are being represented and so are people with mental issues

4 what message about particular social groups are being conveyed

The message was that drugs are a life changing choice and once you get caught up in social groups with people who drugs you are bound to fail e.g. tommy ends up dead due to his friends co orison into heroin

5 which characters or social groups have power within the representation

Mother superior had the most power since he provided them with drugs. The parents in the movie also had power since they were the adults and created rules.

6 do the characters adhere to or challenge stereotypes

I believe that they do challenge societies stereotypes of drug addicts since they are white men in a white base country. The character of Renton also came from a functioning family with two parents which goes against the ‘people who do drugs came from a broken home’.

7 are the characters typical of films in that genre

The genre of Trainspotting is a dark comedy and I believe that the characters do fit the the genre since they are young adult men.

8 what do representations tell audiences about society at the time the movie was made

It shows us how society viewed different groups of people e.g. woman weren’t seen often in the movie other than Diane who was only displayed as a woman used for Renton’s benefits. There was also little to no people of colour in the movie which showed how they weren’t expected to be in movies at the time and where an afterthought.