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, wardrobe, Facial expressions, body language and reactions.

STEREOTYPE– a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

COUNTERTYPE– A representation that actively seeks to subvert and challenge negative stereotypes usually of a person, group or place.

SARAH CONNNOR REPRESENTATIONS

In terminator one Sarah Connor started off as a small town “girl next door” archetype who works as a waitress. Sarah is represented as a ditsy girl who had no interest in being a waitress. Sarah’s character represents the dominant ideology of female characters in Hollywood.

In terminator 2 Sarah’s character does a complete 180 turning into a soldier almost. Sarah is spotted with many assault rifles and adorning big muscular arms. The clothing she is wearing is not showing cleavage which would usually be expected in a 90s action thriller. Sarah’s character has taken on more male characteristics like smoking a cigarette and wearing a pair of sleek sunglasses. The director James Cameron has evolved the character of Sarah Connor to be able to carry out her purpose as a fighter.

TRAINSPOTTING REPRESENTATIONS

1.WHO IS DOING THE REPRESENTATION? (DIRECTOR’S VIEWPOINT) DANNY BOYLE (DIRECTOR)

2.WHO IS BEING REPRESENTED ? (Identify specific social groups) The middle to lower class groups of Scotland who have been affected by heroin use directly or indirectly.

3.WHAT SOCIAL GROUPS ARE OMITTED FROM THE REPRESENTATIONS?- The upper class of Scotland and England. Young teenagers and children

4.WHAT MESSAGES ABOUT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS ARE BEING CONVEYED?- Tells the audience how lower class communities are affected by drug abuse and crime

5.WHICH CHARACTERS OR SOCIAL GROUPS HAVE POWER WITHIN THE REPRESENTATIONS? arguably the women. Lizzie broke up with tommy which lead him to heroin addiction. Diane coerced Mark into a illegal relationship despite only being 15. Gail denies spud sex because of an article in cosmopolitan.

6.DO THE CHARACTERS ADHERE TO OR CHALLENGE STEREOTYPES? characters like Renton challenge stereotypes with his commentary on gender and society adhering to neither male or female stereotypes

7.ARE THE CHARACTERS TYPICAL OF FILMS IN THAT GENRE?– The characters in Trainspotting break many stereotypes that are attached them, including sexual stereotypes and philosophical stereotypes and manage to show the audience that they do not think as people who are products of their environments, but as people who yearn for more outside of Scotland.

8.WHAT DO REPRESENTATIONS TELL AUDIENCES ABOUT SOCIETY AT THE TIME THE FILM WAS MADE AND/OR SET?

GENDER– Trainspotting has a unique take on gender expression throughout the film. Mark Renton quotes “1000 years from now there will be no guys and no girls, just wankers. Sounds great to me.” Mark Renton is so deep into his addiction that his ideas on gender and how society is changing could be an example of the haze that addiction has put him in. Most of the women in this film are more authoritative than the men, with the exception of Allison who was not level-headed due to her addiction.

DRUGS– Drugs on this film are represented though the middle to lower class, this is a direct reference to the Thatcherism that created a generational legacy of destruction and drug use that is still effecting Scotland today. In the film Renton says  ‘There was no such thing as society. Even if there was, I most certainly had nothing to do with it.’ Margaret Thatcher made a similar sentiment in 1987 saying ‘they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families, and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.’ Renton indirectly quoting Thatcher shows the effect her policies had on the working class. The claim that there “is no society” is the same attitude that creates drug epidemics in the first place by making people believe that there is no place for them. In trainspotting addiction isn’t just about drugs, these men use drugs to fill a void of the empty and decrepit society they see around them, an emotional result of decades worth of corrupt politics.

SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND– When Trainspotting was released, Scotland’s is represented as a gritty location rather than a place full of Scottish history and culture. Because of this, us as the audience see a more realistic and current representation of Scottish people in the 1980s. A lot of slangs, Scottish dialect and even hints of Football culture is used/shown throughout the film that helped solidify the culture of Scotland. England or more specifically London was shown as a place of consumerism and new culture. Mark Renton got a new higher paying job selling over-priced apartments to young yuppies in London, showing the difference between the economic and class structure in England and Scotland. Mark Renton also experiences the new culture of electronic music, compared to the Iggy Pop era he was in whilst living in Edinburgh showing that Edinburgh was not as progressive as London was.

SEXUALITY – Sexuality is represented through the use of heroin. All the male characters do not have regular girlfriends apart from Tommy. When Tommy and his girlfriend break-up he subsequently gets hooked on Heroin creating a new damaging and lethal relationship. There is also a lot of female driven sexuality, we can see this through the character Diane who is only 15, but pursuing a sexual relationship with Renton.

AESTHETIC DEFINITION.- the way a film’s visual and aural features are used to create essentially non-narrative dimensions of the film, including the film’s ‘look’. Aesthetics can be understand to relate to the style, tone, look or mood of a film

Social Realism- the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment.

Kneecap is a social realism film as it tackles the issue of sectarianism in the North of Ireland and the characters express their troubles and bio-logical trauma which stems from colonialism through music and self-expression, all while evading the police and R.R.A.D (radical republicans against drugs)

Verisimilitude- the appearance of being true or real.

I would class this film as having verisimilitude because of Gena Rowlands incredible portrait of an unstable bi-polar mother.

Magic Realism- Magical realism portrays fantastical events in an otherwise realistic tone.

Donnie Darko would be classed as magic realism. Donnie commonly converses with Frank a bunny who tells Donnie the date at which the world will end, Donnie believes this bunny is real, which classes this film as magic realism

Hyperreality-a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins.

Mulholland rive would fit into the hyperreality category as the watcher is not aware that the first half of this film is a dream and the second is reality.

AESTHETICS TERM 2-

•Iconography- the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these. The film heavily evolves around dreams, what is real and what isn’t.

•Intertextual Referencing- the relationship between media products where one text references another text by reusing some its ideas and meanings.

I would class Almost Famous as intertextual referencing as many real-life bands including Lynyrd Skynyrd and the eagles are mentioned as if they belong in that world with the fictional band Still Water.

•Visual motif- commonly seen, repetitive symbol in a film

red roses are commonly used in American beauty to represent, love, lust, passion, murder, blood,

Sound motifs- commonly heard- repetitive sound in a film.

Gregorian chants are often heard at high tension points in the film as to make the spectator feel uneasy.

•Colour Grading- digital tools or photochemical processes are used to make videos or films look better or change the colour tone and mood. 

•Auteur Trademarks-An auteur is a director that has such a distinctive style of directing that they are considered the “author” because you can recognise their style from one clip- David Lynch as an example. A particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter.” David Lynch has a very recognisable style of directing, as the topics he usually drifts to are on the subjects of dreams, mystery and alternate realities. He often uses the colour blue in his films.

PATHOS- a quality that evokes pity or sadness.

BATHOS- an effect of anti-climax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.

SUSPENSE- a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.

COMEDY- film genre that emphasizes humor

DRAMATIC IRONY-  a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.

VERFREMDUNG- The distancing effect, also translated as alienation effect is a concept in performing arts credited to German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Paul breaks the fourth wall talking to the audience

POSTMODERN HUMOUR- postmodern humor features jokes about serious topics like murder or war. By writing characters who make light of such topics, postmodernists highlight the dehumanization they see in their society.

Travis Bickle makes it his mission to “cleanse the filth” from New Yorks streets.

“To create a sense of chaos within the films diegetic world”

DIEGETIC-  narrative techniques and elements in a fictional work. Appearing in the context of the film.

CATHARTIC EFFECT- involving the release of strong emotions through a particular activity or experience

REFRAMING- To change the way something is expressed or considered

CONNOTE- to imply and suggest meaning, along with a primary view.

•Throughout Joker, cinematography is used effectively to create a sense of chaos within the film’s diegetic world. This is particularly evident in the scene towards the end of the film where Arthur is shown in a  low- angle, close-up looking out of the police car window and reacting with glee at the riots taking place around him. Here, the camera is used to position  the spectator as not only connecting with Arthur, but now looking up to him. This suggests to the spectator that the tables have turned and Arthur, who was earlier depicted as pathetic and sad, is now depicted as powerful and heroic. This “reframing” of  the central character” has a potentially cathartic effect on the spectator who has, up until this point, been encouraged to sympathise with Arthur’s point of view as a victim of circumstance. The deliberate and stylised use of this slow-motion reaction shot, enables the spectator to get a sense of poetic justice being served: Arthur is now on his way to prison.

SOUND-In the opening scene of Trainspotting director Danny Boyle decided to use the song “Lust For Life” by Iggy pop. This is a fast paced song that matches well with the characters running from the police in Edinburgh’s streets. The title “Lust For Life” coincides with Renton’s monologue about choosing a normal life over heroin.

Cinematography- In every scene we see Swanny, also known as Mother Superior there is a halo of red light around him (2:30) This red light is only present in the drug den. This red glow is representative of the life style that the men live while they are under the influence of their addiction. Red is a universal colour in trainspotting that represents sex, drugs, death and all other things that won’t help Renton “Choose life.

MISE-EN-SCENE- (34:27) The set design of the drug den also holds important representation. The drug den has overwhelming shades of brown and dark, dirty colours with used needles and burnt spoons, But. Scattered around the den are muted vibrant colours, on the walls and carpet. These subtle vibrant colours represent the euphoria that the characters go through when they inject heroin, but the darker browns and greys represent the decay and disease that their addiction creates.

EDITING- (1:20) In this scene we see a freeze frame of each important character. The effect of this editing style tells the audience that each person we see is important to the plot and will be reoccurring.

I really enjoyed this film. my score out of 10 would be 8.5/10. there are some very realistic scenes and representations of how British politics created a legacy of disaster for Scotland specifically. There’s no censoring in this film which allows the audience to be shown what the realities of living in Scotland during the heroin and AIDS epidemic was really like.

The exploration of gender is very interesting to, as topics like gender expression in a place like Scotland during the mid to late 90s would have been very stigmatised.

a scene which was memorable for me was when Renton went to Tommy’s apartment. Renton was now clean and trying to get himself together, while Tommy was deep in the pits of addiction and had contracted AIDS. there is a parallel between Tommy and Renton as before Tommy was using heroin he represented the middle class of Scotland which had not been affected by the terrors of drug abuse. Renton represents the disease of drug abuse and how it can ruin peoples lives, e.g. the events of Renton stealing Tommy’s sex tape lead him to using heroin and eventually dying.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

TIME CODE 5:31

In this scene as well as many others we can see the character Swanny, also known as Mother Superior. Every time we see this character he is in the drug den surrounded by a sinister red light. The red light in this film represents all of Renton’s vices; sex, drugs, death, and everything else that is stopping Renton from “choosing life” When the audience sees the red light they know that Renton or one of his friends will most likely be using heroin, this creates a sense of anxiety within the spectator.

SOUND

TIME CODE