1B Representation

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of Audience

Representation is the way someone or something is portrayed in a particular way.  Within my AS coursework of a film opening called 'Untamed' representation was crucial throughout, we showed representations of Gender, class and age. Our film opening was based on teen drama with the story following a teenage girl named Aubrey and the contrasting relationship she had with her mother Carol. These two main characters showed clear opposition and conflict through their views and different generations, Carol struggles to accept Aubrey as a troubled vulnerable teenager and does not understand her rebellious actions. 

When analysing representations for our teen drama film we looked at similar films such as Blue is the warmest colour and perks of being a wallflower this gave us an insight into how representations of teenagers are portrayed. We noticed that they often showed a stereotypical group of teenagers such as a group of young girls on their phones texting, taking pictures of themselves and then contrasting this with an image of a teenager that was different from the stereotype. We learnt from this research that representations were portrayed through not only costumes but camera angles, lighting, sound and the use of editing. 

In Untamed our main representation was age. We used Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposites which suggests conflict is based around opposition amongst characters and that this results in the central climax of a narrative structure. We conformed to this theory as we used Carol and Arbury to represent our binary opposition. The opposition represented to the audience can be seen through the appearance of the characters. Aubrey is seen drunk walking home at night from a party, she has a scruffy appearance with messy hair and makeup wearing oversized baggy clothes, she comes across as young naive and vulnerable. In contrast Carol is  sober and at home waiting for Aubrey she is portrayed as a middle class white women with her tidy appearance her hair is tightly pulled back and she is wearing a dressing own whilst sitting on a leather sofa in their luxury decorated living room. Not only did we represent these characters through mise on scene we also used various Camera angles. When Aubrey arrives home to have an argument with her mum, we show the camera looking up at Carol to create a since of authority and empowerment when Aubrey talks we then used a camera angle looking down on her, this represents her as weak and inferior to her mother Carol. Using camera angles, we were able to represent the stereotype that Parents know best and hold all the power and decision making whilst teenagers are less significant and don’t have a say. Therefore, this shows how we conformed to the negative stereotypical drunk and reckless teenage image.

To represent Aubrey as a reckless and unstable teenager we also used camera movement, in the scene where Aubrey runs away we used a hand-held camera which made the footage shaky and unstable representing her character as rebellious and unstable. We also used editing techniques such as blur and blackout to show the representation of Aubrey drunk and unaware of her surroundings. In contrast when filming Carol we used a tripod to create still and smooth footage representing that she is a stable character.

The second theorists we studied was Angela McRobbie who focuses her work on gender roles within the media and suggests that we are heavily influenced by how the media tells us to behave. She states that men are usually portrayed as strong and powerful whilst women are submissive and weak in comparison. In some aspects we did conform to her theory Carol was a stay at home mother which could perhaps portray how she is financially dependent on her husband giving her a representation of being weak.  However, we also subverted to this theory as were no male characters used in our film opening which gives all screen time to women creating a sense of empowerment. 

The final theorist studied was Mulvey in which her theory suggests women are represented as a 'male gaze' and that men simply view women for their own pleasure. We subverted to this theory as both female characters were strong independent women in their own ways with strong views and voices. Both characters were dressed non-provocatively which meant the concept of the male gaze was avoided. The women in our film opening were represented with their own voices and intelligence which showed they had more than just their bodies to provide entertainment to a film. 

In conclusion, research into these theories enabled us to gain a deeper understanding into representations and how they are formed. This helped us to develop representations in our film opening.