The social group that has the highest status in society, especially the aristocracy.
Stereotypes:
Rich
Well dressed
Superior
Intellectual
Snobby
Posh
Well spoken
Land owners
High end properties
Middle Class
The middle class is a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy. The social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families. Stereotypes:
White collar
Managerial
Owns their home
Well educated
Well off
Affluent
Suburbia
Nice car
Working Class
The social group consisting of people who are employed for wages, especially in manual or industrial work.
Stereotypes:
Blue collar
Factory workers
Little savings
Inner city
Rented properties
Work for others
State schools
Manual work
Examples of class and status in UK/US TV dramas:
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of ethnicity using the following:
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
Editing
Sound
Mise en scene
Sound: During the clip, there are a number of different types of sound used, for example at the start a non-diegetic sound plays in the first office scene. This creates atmosphere and tension and then peaks towards the point of which the
man and women engage in conversation. In this first office scene the white women is meeting the ethnicity
stereotype of being pitied and the black man can be seen as dangerous as he
ignores the women and quickly storms out of the room when he finds out his mistress has committed a crime. Their professional status is used to represent the black mans power and dominance over the women, which is then emphasized by how he ignores her. The scene is thencut to a house and the man
is getting out of his car, non diegetic sound of music starts to
build up. This helps to build tension and forces the audience to speculate
about what the build up is going to lead to. By the music building up to the
black mans arrival and entrance is conforms to the ethnic stereotype of being
dangerous. The audience then hears the door bell ring which is a synchronous sound and adds to the curiosity of what's about to unfold. To support the growth of tension in the back
mans voice non diegetic music starts to play which slowly deepens. As the aggressive non diegetic sound music
build up this makes the audience feel sympathy and conforms to the white female stereotype of being pitied. The scene then moves on to a car setting, the non-diegetic sound when the arrested woman says 'your wife will know about us', this is used to represent the emotion of the black male proving his love for his family. In this scene the
stereotypical roles and binary opposites are reversed and it is the white women
that has all the power as she is manipulating the black man and being presented
as emotionally and psychologically dangerous. With the use of both diegetic and
non-diegetic sound the man conforms
to the ethic stereotype of being pitied.
Representation of Ethnicity:
South Asian:
Lost: Jin-Soo Kwon
Are the representations stereotypical or not?
Yes.
How and why is this the case?
In this extract this representation could be considered stereotypical as it shows an American introducing beer to a Korean man, Koreans are not thought of for drinking beer and the fact it's the first time introduced to it represents their difference in culture.
East Asian:
Skins: Anwar/Anwar's Dad
Are the representations stereotypical or not?
No.
How and why is this the case?
This extract shows the opinion if a east Asian Muslim man accepting homosexuality, whereas when his son had not accepted him. It is a stereotype that Islam does not accept homosexuality unlike what's shown in this extract.
Black:
Skins: Thomas
Are the representations stereotypical or not?
Yes.
How and why is this the case?
The rap/hip-hop music genre is very African-American orientated and this clip represents that by showing the three black males performing this type of music and everybody enjoying it.
White:
Are the representations stereotypical or not?
No.
How and why is this the case?
This extract represents white males as Neo-Nazis, this could be stereotypical as Neo-Nazis do havce to be white (Aryan) however are in a very small minority so can not be considered a stereotype.
The stereotypes: In his 1991 study, Paul Hunt found that there are 10 stereotypes of disabled people, used in the media:
The disabled person as pitiable or pathetic An object of curiosity or violence Sinister or evil The super cripple As atmosphere
The Inbetweeners: Disabled girl at the park In this scene of The Inbetweeners the disabled character is used to create the atmosphere when Will hit her in the head. It creates awkwardness and perhaps tension due to Will hitting her in the head which makes the viewer laugh. Laughable Little Britain: Andy Andy's character is used as part of a comedy sketch which emphasizes his disability to make the programme funnier. His/her own worst enemy Prison break: T-Bag T-Bag often got frustrated his his missing hand, he often found himself feeling embarrassed or less efficient than people that are the 'norm'. As a burden As Non-sexual Skins: Tony Tony is unable to have sex after an accident, embarrassing himself and the girl he's with. She wishes we could be 'normal' again. Being unable to participate in daily life
Diegetic sound-Soundwhose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film
Non-diegetic sound- Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that have been added in, this can include things like music, a narration and sound effects. Non-diegetic sounds are often used to add drama to moments that would be silent without it.
Synchronous sound- Soundthat is matched to certain movements occurring in the scene e.g when footsteps correspond to feet walking.
Asynchronous sound- Asynchronous sound is sound that is not synchronised with what's on the extract.
Sound effects- A sound other than speech or music made artificially for use in a play, film, or other broadcast production.
Sound motif- A recurring or dominant theme/sound.
Sound bridge- Common transitions in the continuity editing style, one that stresses the connection between both scenes since their mood (suggested by the music) is still the same.
Dialogue- A conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or film.
Voiceover- A piece of narration in a film or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker.
Direct address- The name of the person (normally) who is being directly spoken to. It is always a proper noun. It does not have any grammatical relationship to any part of the sentence. It is set off by commas.
Sound perspective- The apparent distance of a sound source, evidenced by its volume, timbre, and pitch. This type of editing is most common in how the audience hears film characters’ speech.
Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender using the following:
Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
Editing
Sound
Mise en scène
In this extract we see an exchange between the protagonist Luther and antagonistic Alice. This conversation shows a fight for dominance, a number camera shots, angles, Mise en scene and exchanges show the viewer which of the two managed to win the battle for power. At the start of the video the establishment shot sets the scene and is a close up of Alice, this indicates she will play a main feature, which she does, in the extract to follow, it could be considered she asserts her dominance early on. As the scene moves on we see an over the shoulder shot at a high angle so the shot is looking down on Alice over Luther's shoulder giving the impressing Luther is empowered by his natural physical presence over her. Again later in the scene we see another over the shoulder but a low angled shot from a different perspective as the camera is looking up to Luther, again this asserts his dominance as it shows he's above and physically superior to her.
Further into the scene Alice tries to use her sex appeal as a woman to seduce Luther to distract him from his interrogation of her, momentarily this appears as though it may have worked and Alice had used her female superiority to get what she wanted. However, Luther does in turn reject her but it does show that she may have slight hold over him in the sense that he knows she is willing to have sex with him to avoid the whole situation and it looked as if it may have crossed his mind. This would also prove that Alice could be considered a 'mad, bad, dangerous' woman and so doesn't really care how he views her as a woman or anybody else. This is significant as the camera angle does show a close up of the two stood facing one another in an intimate position glorifying her sexual power over him, this camera shot emphasizes her sex appeal.
Towards the start of the extract, it is highlighted by Alice how exhausted Luther looks and she invites him in. This could reflect the stereotype that men go out to labourous jobs, as to why Luther is exhausted after a long day at work, and women stay out home and keep their house guest suitable, as to why Alice invited him in to a clean looking home. It could be argued this represents the old fashioned way of life.
The scene then transitions to where Alice takes off her coat, it's an over the shoulder shot and shows us as viewers Alice's perspective of the room, Luther being in the focus and centre could indicate he is her main focus during this entire extract, where as it appears Luther is more concerned about his investigation than Alice's presence. He just wants her there to interrogate and nothing more. We then witness a combination of camera movements such as close ups and mid shots once it has moved away from Alice's perspective, the close up's are of Alice and could indicate her being under pressure from Luther's interrogation and this could be considered him imposing his dominance.
A lot of editing has been carried out on this extract, for example shot reversed shots are often used. This emphasises the characters almost staring each other out through the scene which shows the tension between the too. This in turn creates an atmosphere which potentially indicates domestic verbal or physical abuse, despite it not being included in the extract, there's always the sense that it could take place when the characters become less calm and uncomfortable with each others questioning.
