Thursday, 1 December 2011

Skins: Exam practice examples:

Skins paragraphs on representation.

Teachers example:
'The mise en scene of the protagonists bedroom challenges and conforms to stereotypical views about youth culture. The establishing shot suggests that the series targets a teenage audience and it will follow the life and experiences of a teenager. The duvet cover shown is of a double bed with a naked man and woman, suggesting that this age group is sexually charged. The protagonist is positioned in the middle of the two bodies suggesting that he is sexually inexperienced. It could also be suggesting that he is alone and confused about his sexuality, which conforms to teenage sterotypes.In this shot natural lighting is used to give a sense of realism so the teenage audience identifies with the life of the protagonist.'

My example of mise-en-scene:
Mise-en-scene in the opening scene of the teenagers bedroom actually challenges the stereotypical viewpoint of a typical teenager. The protagonist is shown to have a bedroom which is displayed as very neat, tidy and well organised. This challenegs the stereotype that teengaers are all dirty individuals with poor skills of keeping tidy. When the protagonist is seen working out, many shots of the room around him are seen. You can see that the room is not very untidy as there is a large space where no dirt or misplaced clothes are in the position of the room that he is working out in. This is a demonstration that the protagonist keeps his room very tidy for various purposes. This is a further example of how the stereotype based teenagers beoing untidy is challenged. When it comes to what is there, there is a drawer placed in the room as seen in the opening scene. It is shown to be very nicely kept and arranged correctly. This and the fact that all items such as the bed itself are nciely organised to look very tidy are visual example of how the protagonist challenges the messy-teen stereotype.
This actually contrasts to the deutragonist in which his sister conforms the stereotype as she is dressed badly and is very messy from the night before.

The deutragonist (teenage girl) actually conforms to the stereotype that all teenagers are messy as she is seen with messy hair, clothes from the night before, and make-up that has been wore for a while. She is shown as someone who does not take care of herself, an interesting contrast to the protagonist who is shown to be more concerned about physical appearance, hence the weight lifting. This contrast shows the mise-en-scene both conforms and challenges the dirty-teen stereotype with alternate examples.

Camera angles:
An example of how camera angles show representation of teenage stereotypes is through the example of when the protagonist is in his bedroom and the teenage girl or deutragonist is seen via a high angle shot, so the audience is looking down at her. This shot portrays the teenage and general stereotypes that males are the more powerful gender and that females are dependent of them. This is displayed as the low angle shot of the protagonist in his bedroom is looking up at him, like he is the dominant individual in the situation. This contrast of high-low angle shots between the male and teenage girl show that the male is in charge and has the power to either help or not help the female. So these angle shots, related to the content of the plot in the scene, conform to the stereotype that females are dependent on the more powerful males as the male protagonist is represented as the one with the power in the situation due to contrasting camera angles.

Another example of this in the scene is the portion containing front view shots between the male adult (possible antagonist) and the protagonist. these front view shots cutting between the man and teenager in the scene with loud music protrays and interesting confrontation. These shots show the anger and fustration that the adult has to the teenager, and represetns the intensity of that anger. This conforms to the stereotype that adults and older people view teenagers as very annoying and are fustrated with them. The front view shots also portray eyeline match (editing) which shows that the teen is as tall as the man. This challenegs the traditional stereotype that adults are bigger, more dominant, and in control of the younger ones.

The track shot from behind the bushes towards a front view of the teenage girl when first seen shows us that she is a deutragonist as she is seen second, only after the teen male. This track shot and front view portrays her visually as a messy, rebellious teenager with responsibility issues. The shot shows how she is dressed and gives us the impression that she is badly behaved. This conforms to the stereotype that teenagers are bad and misbehaved.

The over the shoulder shot when the protagonist looks at the woman from across the window shows us how he is looking directly at her. He does this while she is naked and this suggests that the guy is sexually charged. This conforms to the stereotype that all teens are crazed with sex. The camera is over the shoulder and hand held, this is done to give the audience an experience as if they are holding the camera and they are actually there. This supplies a sense of realism to the sense and makes the representation featured seem to be more accurate and realistic.

Sound representation:
An example of how sound was used for the representation of the scene was the inclusion of the repetitive sound. This was non-diegetic as it was a soundtrack not caused by actions on screen. This sound implies that the events which occur during this are part of a routine. This implication of a routine challenges the stereotype that young people are wild and unpredictable as the protagonist takes part in a continous process which involves doing the same stuff. Also, this routine demonstrates how the protagonist is organised with daily events. This also challeneges that stereotype. The routine demonstrated by the repetitive soundtrack also portrays the idea that the teenager may be bored and somewhat unhappy. This conforms the stereotype that some teenage groups have minorities of lonely and sad individuals.

The magnified sound when the girl walks down the street with the boots on and you can hear it portrays the idea that she has been out all night and she is walking home. This is supported by her appearance. The magnification represents the significance of the sound, and in this case, shows how the boots and her walking is an important factor in the continuity of the story. It implies she is an important character and what she does in this upcoming scene will be significant to the plot content. It basically supplies the audience with an idea that she is important in the show overall.

Editing techniques;

The Cuts and cutaways themselves manage to portray binary opposites in the scene. For instance, take the cutaway scene between the teenage protagonist and naked girl. These cutaways protray the idea that teenagers are crazed with sex, it also challenges the stereotype that older people actually react to this, as the older woman did very little to stop him from looking. The cuts between the male protagonist and female deutragonist are also very useful to presenting the binary opposites between the two characters. This works through parallel editing as the cuts keep changing from one scene to the other. On one hand, the boy is concerned with his appearance and is generally mature and well behaved. On the other scene, the girl is shown to be badly dressed and irresponsible. The two sides of parallel editing cut from eachother to represent the contrast until the point where they meet and the parallel editing becomes the continuity. The binary opposite principle is then conformed even more as the boy has the power to either help or not help the irresponsible girl, as she relies on him. This whole representation of binary opposites between the teenage boy and girl support the theory of Levi Strauss.

The fact that real time is used when it comes to the concept of narrative time is interesting as it provides a feel of realism to the scene. This means that the representation displayed in the scene will appear to be realistic  and more reliable. For instance, the representation of the bad girl and mature teenage boy will seem to be more accurate and truthful than if the narrative time used when something such as time manipulation which would indicate a fictional representation to the audience. Real time, in this case, suggests that the content displayed in the scene is typically real, for instance, the representation that the teenage protagonist and teenage girl are binary opposites appears to be more convincing and truthful to the audience since the time is realistic.  Basically, the real time gives an approach that other representation included is truthful as well. In contrast, there is a small amount of compressed time used to display shots of the workout, relating to camera shots, and this is an exception of the scene based on narrative time.

The mere inclusion of the eyeline match in the scene also helps to represent several stereotypes. For instance, the eyeline match between the protagonist and the female who is naked shows an eyeline match, meanong they are literally at the same level. It also portrays how his eyes are connected to the sight of her body, and this conforms to the stereotype that all teenagers are sex crazed. As well as that, the eyeline match between the father and son, provided with the assistance in the inclusion of the close-up to the fathers face, protrays that the teenager is annoying to the adult and in general that adults are fustrated with the irreseponsibility of teenagers. So this conforms to both the stereotype that adults are angered by teens and that teens are irresponsible.

Thursday, 24 November 2011

PPT: Johnny English reborn.

Download this:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/73666348
Working Title Film Presentation Version

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Paul: Printed review:

Printed review from the Rottentomatoes site:


5 reasons that why you know your watching a Working Title film:
* The characters, are they known British stars?
* The setting is either a typically well known English area or an American journey in lots of famous locations if the story requires it, like in Paul.
* Is the film bot British made and associated with Universal?
* Working Title is in the credits.
* The genre is either comedy, romance and/or drama.

Monday, 7 November 2011

My boy Jack editing techniques:

* Close-up shot of clock at beginning of the scene, then a cutaway to the vehicle. This suggests the driver is late as time progresses.
* Parralel editing, two scenes keep cutting from eachother, boy in room and man in car.
* Eyeline editing when boy is seen at camera height while the man handing letter is above him. Also when other boy looks down on him.
* Dissolve when the boy takes off his glasses and the word board disappears.
* Continuity when the king is waiting for man and looks at watch.
* Visual effects when the boy shows an expression which seems to display his compressed fear.
* Fade in and out with title shown above car.
* Different screen shots of car to display its value, thereby representing the man's view.
* The superimpose effect is used when the boy and the letter board are both shown on screen at once, then when the boy takes off his glasses the letter board fades away.
* The different screen shots of the car could also be considered as a montage, showing time passing by. This makes sense as clocks are associated with this scene.
* Long take is when car drives under title towards building, the car is shown on screen for a long duration at that point.
* Shot/reverse shot is when the boy is speaking to another boy who is looking down at him. A series of shots occur as they have a conversation.
* Jump cut when as boy walks into room for testing scene cuts back to man in car. When we see the boy next, he is already in the room waiting for testing.
* Not quite a graphic match, but close as the boy with glasses in a close up shot almost transfers over to the man with the glasses in a close shot while driving. Only a shot of the car moving is inbetween the two.
* Related to parallel editing, parallel action occurs. Both the man driving and the boy tested occur.
* Many cutaways occur between the man and boy due to parallel editing and action.
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