How does your
media product represent the area of Class and status as well as Ethnicity?
The media extract
that we created from the institution that is ‘us’ has the characters mainly adhering
with the stereotypes. I am going to look at how camera angles, Mise-en-scene,
Editing and Sound help discover how these four things begin to communicate how
Class and status as well as ethnicity are portrayed to our audience.
First of all I am
going to focus on the variety of camera angles and shots that we used. We are
shown an extreme close up of our victim who is attached to the chair; we
therefore see the frightened and fearful emotions shown on his face. As an
audience we feel sympathy towards him here we have a created a character that
is adhering to the stereotype that ‘white middle class’ people are good and
almost always innocent in such situations. Through a mid long shot we really
see the stereotypical representation that the man working for the Special
Forces playing the ‘hero’ role is good as well as middle-class. We see this
through his professional gear and serious facial expressions. He is also adhering
to the positive stereotype that middle class workingmen are honest and
responsible all of the time. In contrast we see how the stereotypical
representation of the ‘villain’ is shown through camera angles. As an
institution “we represented” him from two different sides to begin with we shot
with low angles showing how he has power over our victim, but we adhered to
the stereotype that the ‘villain’ never wins and the plot changed when our
‘hero’ special forces man entered. From then on our working class villain was
only shot using high angles which portrayed him as smaller therefore of lower
status then the middle class men and this had particular significance when he
lay dead the audience were ‘looking down on him’ in a negative way. Showing us
the negative way in which the media represents lower class people and those of
different ethnicity.


I then went on to look at Mise-en-scene and how this helps to reveal ethnicity, class and status in our thriller. I first looked at costume and how this plays a huge role in the representation of the various characters. For instance we represented our villain wearing a costume, which was all black, which connotes death and adheres to the negative stereotype that all villains wear black. In terms of showing his working class background and foreign status we dressed him in rugged, dirty clothes this adheres to the stereotype that foreigners are dirty and may not present themselves as the ‘typical Wight good guy’ would. He also has a black balaclava mask that covers his face for a lot of our thriller therefore we cannot see his emotions and so can’t relate to him, we also feel he is trying to hide his identity as an audience you then feel he is untrustworthy and this makes us feel intimidated and fear the unknown.

I then went on to look at Mise-en-scene and how this helps to reveal ethnicity, class and status in our thriller. I first looked at costume and how this plays a huge role in the representation of the various characters. For instance we represented our villain wearing a costume, which was all black, which connotes death and adheres to the negative stereotype that all villains wear black. In terms of showing his working class background and foreign status we dressed him in rugged, dirty clothes this adheres to the stereotype that foreigners are dirty and may not present themselves as the ‘typical Wight good guy’ would. He also has a black balaclava mask that covers his face for a lot of our thriller therefore we cannot see his emotions and so can’t relate to him, we also feel he is trying to hide his identity as an audience you then feel he is untrustworthy and this makes us feel intimidated and fear the unknown.

In contrast we have the binary opposite of our innocent victim whom we represented in a white shirt which connotes purity, innocence and heroism with smart black trousers and shoes suggesting he may play an important role in society this adhers to the well known stereotype that middle class men have smart clothes and hold high positions of responsibility in society. His shirt however is covered in red blood suggesting he has been beaten up therefore the audience are aggravated by the negative treatment this man has received which has taken away the purity of the all white shirt. I then looked at another section of Mise-en-scene we tried to represent which were facial expressions. We only see the villains face up close once here we see his anger and therefore feel concerned for our victim and his safety, as he appears to be in serious danger we sympathies with him. Another area of miser-en-scene that plays a large role in our thriller is the prop we chose to have our villain with a big black gun, which immediately acts as a warning for the audience letting them know that there is potential for danger. Here our villain is adhering to the stereotype that all criminals carry weapons on them. The gun connotes violence and because of whom has it unpredictability. Contrasting with our villain we have our hero Special Forces man who also carries a gun. However here the audience does not feel threatened instead we have represented our character to look in power and therefore the audience is actually relived at the sight of the gun as they feel protected going with the stereotype that guns in the hands of ‘honest’ men are nothing to worry about, here we see how the same prop can have such a different impact depending on which character is in contact with it.

Next I went on to
look at how my media product represents ethnicity, class and status through
editing. We used slow motion as our villain turns around to try and shoot the Special
Forces man. This helps emphasise and focus on how evil he is, the audience also
then immediately side with our special forces man adhering to the stereotype
that hero’s always come out better then the villains and often win. We also
used fade-to-black at the beginning of our scene when we first see our victims
face, showing him looking vulnerable this helps put more meaning on his body
language and face that looks scared, this creates the audience to fee concern
and realise just how much danger he is in. To represent how ethnicity is shown
we used lots of short shot duration for our foreign villain man, this means
the audience don’t get long to analyse him therefore they feel like they cannot
understand him or his motives and the audience is left feeling distant. This is
very important as it adheres to the terribly negative stereotype that people of
different spoken language are outcasts, as they cannot be understood in
everyday society. We also used longer shot duration in our editing, which help
represent social class and status as well as ethnicity. The long shot duration
were of our middle class hero and victim, signifying they are more important
therefore the camera gives them more time on screen to be watched by the
audience in comparison with the working class man. Going with the stereotype
that the higher your class position the more recognised and trusted by society
you are.
The last way that
representation can be showed in my thriller is through sound. Arguably the most
important aspect in portraying ethnicity is through the use of diegetic sound such
as the dialogue this is when we hear our villain speak and the audience’s
suspicions that he is foreign and not English are confirmed when we hear him
speak Spanish. This shows how he is ‘different’ as the language he speaks is
unrecognisable to the audience they feel intimidated and therefore associate
him with a bad and negative image. We purposefully represented him with a
Spanish voice as this adheres to the stereotype that foreign people often are
the villain in both the media and in real life and automatically because we
cannot understand their language we jump to the conclusion they have something
to hide.
In contrast both the
white men speak English adhering to the stereotype that all white men are
decent people whom are clean and have nothing to hide. We also used the
diegetic ambient sound of gunshots. We used this as it helps set the violent
tone of the thriller and reveal just how dangerous things can get when
different ethnicity’s and people of various social class fight.
Overall our video extract uses camera angles, mise-en-scene,
editing and sound to help explore the representation of class and status as well as ethnicity. I think it is clear how our media product represents these two areas. The end leaves the audience with a clear idea that all the characters in this thriller opening seem to be adhering to their stereotypes, and we do not have any characters that are challenging or subverting to the stereotypes you may see within a thriller.
Great use of pictures to make this an illustrated essay and develop upon the point you have made. You are clear of the social group you have represented, and explore al four technical areas and how they have constructed this representation effectively. Though at points you need to explain how your arguments show representation this is nonetheless well understood and delivered through a very good post. Consider the picture layout you have used, and also developing upon your conclusion. Overall a very good post.
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