How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
In our opening sequence, we
have three characters, which are seen and observed by the audience. Through the
uses of mise-en-scene, camera movements, sound and editing, we have portrayed
our characters in a specific way to help cast an image of their personality in
the audiences mind.
The first
character we see is a woman in an elevator. We used a woman as we wanted to adhere to the stereotype that woman are saucy the victim of crimes and murders. We tried to make her look like a
typical businesswoman, and to emphasise that she is the story’s main focus.
Through the costume elements of mise-en-scene, we made her dress in smart
office wear such as a blazer and white blouse. This helps to show that she is a
businesswoman, but we also wanted this to portray that she is highly
intelligent, which means that she may work for an intelligence agency or secret
company. This is done, as the clothing she wears is typical conventions usually
seen by smart women. We also have her handle headphone props, which used to
signify her financial strength, which helps to symbolise her formal status. Additionally,
the briefcase prop is a main focus in the media product. We wanted a very
important-looking case, so we went for a silver once which is quite thick. The
camera work on this character focuses a lot on close-ups of her face and wide
shots of her body, to help keep the audience aware of her, and to help show
that she is once again one of the main focuses in our media product.
Additionally, the editing used when this character is on screen is very
slow-paced which means she has a lot of screen time. This is used also to help
increase the ‘shock factor’ when she gets murdered. The non-diegetic soundtrack
we used is similar in the whole sequence and has no significance in helping to
portray the woman in a particular way.
The second character we see,
which is a male character, is very much an on purpose misinterpretation for the
audience. Anxiety and fear is first drawn to this character through our
editing. We moderately cut from body shots of the mysterious character back to
the woman. This is to create the idea that the man is after the woman and that
he is going to try and cause her harm. In addition, we include a close-up of
the man clenching his first, which is part of the mise-en-scene element of
character movements too, to help portray a sense of danger and hostility from
the man. Once again, the clothing of the male character fits the stereotype
image of a scary thug looking for trouble. He is some what the opposite the
female character, as she was wearing smart clothing whereas he is wearing
tracksuit bottoms, white trainers and a hoodie, which a typical conventions
used to help emphasise a dangerous, thug-like character. However, as the pace
of the editing speeds up as the elevator doors open and the two characters
meet, we realise that our representation of the male character was incorrect.
This is an example of us subverting the stereotype but yet adhering to it, as
we use typical clothing of a thug, but then him turning out to be a harmless
witness.
Finally, the final male
character we use is a good example of us adhering to the stereotype of a
professional hit man, who is very respected and absolutely perfect when it
comes to doing his job. The use of mise-en-scene drastically helps to show
this. First off, the clothing this character is wearing is very helpful in
distinguishing his profession. He is wearing a black suit with a red tie and
very expensive shoes. This character from the HITMAN: ABSOLUTION series acted as big inspiration for his
appearance. These clothes are typical conventions of dangerous, professional
hit men, especially as we wanted to focus on the ‘professional’ aspect of his
character. Also, we have the character using a pistol prop which has a
suppressor attached to it. The use of a pistol on its own can be seen as quite
unprofessional or irrational, but with the addition of the suppressor, it
emphasises how prepared and professional this character is, as he knows he
needs to be as quiet as possible to avoid any unwanted attention from the police
or general public. He is similar to the female character, as they are both
shown to be professionals. When this character is first introduced, the camera
work we did only showed a close-up of the back of his head passing through the
screen, then we see his hand reaching out the gun and shooting the woman. This
all happens before seeing any glimpses of his face. We also used low angles and
tracking shots when he got out of the car. We wanted these combined angles to
help portray this character to be strong, professional, and in a way we wanted
him to seem untouchable and unstoppable. Similar to the camera work, we used
quick pace editing when he was shooting the woman to help increase the tension,
and the fact that he was originally hiding in the car, the fast editing helps
to emphasise how quick he acted and how ruthless and unmerciful it was. But we
then slowed the pace down as he was walking away, which is used to help give
the audience time to absorb what has just happened, and to portray this hit man
in a very intimidating and fearful manor. Through the use of the non-diegetic
sound of a gunshot, which was done by SFX, we were able to successfully
stockpile on the belief of this characters professionalism and brutality, which
was mainly created for the audience through the other elements of the product-
the mise-en-scene, camera work and editing.
To conclude, we used a female character to adhere to the stereotype of females being victims, but we also subverted to the stereotype of woman as she is wearing a businesswoman costume to show off that she is an intelligent woman who has responsibilities. Our first male character was used to adhere to the young adolescent stereotype that all young adults are thugs and go out of their way to hurt people. Finally, we had our second male character wear a suit, to show off his professional status. This adheres to the stereotype that his particular social group of an assassin, are very professional and merciless.
