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 representation.
Ideology is set ideas
Performance
age
ethnicity
costume
facial expression
body language
Stereotype
Ideas that aren’t progressive and confining certain types of people into set categories based on gender, race, class etc.
Countertype
The idea of braking away from set ideas and breaking harmful stereotypes. Example: a black president of America.
Sarah Conner Representation
Sarah Conner in terminator one is represented as a young ditsy waitress, falling in the the stereotype that all women are girly and aren’t fit to do action and violence. however in the second film she transformed into nan action heroine to be a powerful woman with ability’s and skills to yield weapons and kill bad guys, this countertype wasn’t common for the release date of the film. you can see the difference between the two images and can see the large difference between the character in the two films, number one being her dressed in pink with soft feminine makeup, and number two her holding large weapon in a harsh black tank top showing her new muscular build, with her hair pulled into a messy ponytail with visors on showing her to be ready for action and combat.
Trainspotting representation
1.WHO IS DOING THE REPRESENTATION? (DIRECTOR’S VIEWPOINT)
The director, Danny Boyle is choosing who and what is being represented.
2.WHO IS BEING REPRESENTED ? (Identify specific social groups)
There is representation of poor working class, representation of Scotland in the 1980s, representation of drugs, representation of drug addicts, representation of friendship, representation of sobriety.
3.WHAT SOCIAL GROUPS ARE OMITTED FROM THE REPRESENTATIONS?
There is very little representation of women positively as they are shown in not very positive light, no representation of any different races or different ethnicity’s other than white people, there is no representation of any lgbtq characters.
4.WHAT MESSAGES ABOUT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS ARE BEING CONVEYED?
It is conveyed that people who live in poverty throw their life’s away for drugs sex and alcohol, it shows that the poor will continue to be poor as they don’t try to achieve goals.
5.WHICH CHARACTERS OR SOCIAL GROUPS HAVE POWER WITHIN THE REPRESENTATIONS?
the characters in authority in this movie are the police, the parents, and the drug house runner. this shows that the only time people are in power are people who have something the characters want *(drugs) or have a higher social ranking.
6.DO THE CHARACTERS ADHERE TO OR CHALLENGE STEREOTYPES?
the characters adhere to stereotypes such as. women are only there for a relationship or sex. that all drug addicts are dirty and grimy. that people with addictions are irresponsible and do nothing but do drugs.
7.ARE THE CHARACTERS TYPICAL OF FILMS IN THAT GENRE?
the characters id say for a “black comedy” all act reasonably to fit the genre, as they still keep the film heavy and emotional yet still having the right comedic timing.
8.WHAT DO REPRESENTATIONS TELL AUDIENCES ABOUT SOCIETY AT THE TIME THE FILM WAS MADE AND/OR SET?
It shows within society that drugs where too normalised and by realising the film they shown people what drugs does to peoples lives.
9.HOW ARE ELEMENTS OF FILM FORM (MISE EN SCENE/PERFORMANCE/SOUND/EDITING/CINEMATOGRAPHY) BEING USED TO CONTRUCT THE REPRESENTATIONS?
The use of mise en scene depicts the reality of low class Scotland in the 1980s by showing their homes and the crack den to be mostly unpleasant. the performance of the actors shows the look and tries to convey the feeling of drugs to the audience. the editing in times shows the hallucinations of the main character, Renton.