Thursday, 5 December 2013
Stereotypical representations of gender in the TV Drama Hustle
The TV Drama Hustle represents gender in quite a stereotypical way. Different camera shots are used to portray different things to the audience. For example, a point of view shot is used to signify that the woman is smaller and weaker compared to the man. Another example is when a handheld camera is used when the woman is panicking to stereotype how women are often perceived as more dramatic than men and tend to overreact more. Gender is also stereotyped through dress sense in Hustle. The women are wearing skirts or feminine suits whereas the men are all in dark colours and wearing trousers or formal suits. Again with the makeup used, the women's makeup is a lot more obvious than men because in our society it is a lot more socially acceptable for women to wear makeup than it is for men. The location as well represents stereotypes. The women being in a clothes store, shopping and the men in a bar, drinking signify the difference between gender and social activities that each gender participate in.
Issue in the representation of gender summary
The Observer recently published an interview about the issues in the representation of women in society. Romola Garai, the actor being interviewed, talks of how although she has played glamorous roles and done photo shoots in the past, it is time to take a stand and make a change. The interview focuses on the media's objectification of women, how after appearing at the Bafta awards, one of the main points of interest about her for magazines was the fact that she 'looked like she had lost most of her baby weight already.' In a society where losing baby weight seems almost to be more important than a new life being created, Garai worries that by the time her daughter is an adult, she won't be able to enjoy life as a human being rather than purely defined by gender. Furthermore, Garai has signed up to the campaign, 'Lose the Lads' Mags' as she fears these magazines dehumanise women and encourage misogyny. These magazines normalise sexism and 'size zero' mentality. By banning them, the campaign hopes to decrease harmful attitudes and behaviours that underpin violence towards women.
Establishing shot notes
- What is establishing?
- What kind of shots are typically used?
- Why is establishing important?
- How long (what duration) are establishing shots?
- What are audience associations with establishing?
- How is establishing linked to genre?
- How does the soundtrack go with establishing?
Donnie Dark Movie Poster Semiotic Analysis
This is a movie poster for the film 'Donnie Darko'. It is quite a minimalistic poster, only using three colours to make each part of the poster stand out. The juxtaposition between the flat black background and the eerie whites and blues used in the foreground succeed in creating a mysterious, spooky feel to the poster.
The black background of the poster signifies fear, maybe of the unknown. This intrigues someone who may be looking at the poster and the background doesn't give much away about what the film is really like. The unusual foreground image, of the character's faces merged into a sinister looking rabbit's head, may signify that all the characters are linked to this rabbit in some way. This is quite an objective technique.
The use of bright, bold, white writing in the foreground for the title and actor's name connotes that the designer of the poster really wanted them to stand out to whoever was looking at the poster.
By using light shadowing around the title, 'Donnie Darko', it again connotes to any potential audiences that the title is the centre of attention on this poster.
The black background and the name 'Darko' may correspond together to represent that this film may have a lot of darkness in it and may be quite scary.
The foreground image may be quite frightening for some people and so by this, a potential viewer of this film can understand what the target audience is.
The mix of pale colours in the foreground image make it look almost as if it is illuminated and vibrating off of the background. This symbolises that the film is fast paced and enigmatic at times.
Overall, I would say that the simplicity of this poster is definitely very effective to draw an audience in and make them want to watch this film.
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