Analyse How Gender is Represented in an Extract of Prime Suspect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuJt7mF_Jzo (first 5 minutes) 


Men are presented as thinking themselves superior to women in this extract to the extent that Helen Mirren's character feels pressured to be like a man. A man who is superior to her describes her by stating, "She's got balls." This shows that, as a woman, she is expected to be masculine in order to do her job. This is also shown by Mirren's short hair-cut, presenting her as more masculine. Although Prime Suspect appears to support the view of equality between men and women, it is clear that Helen Mirren's character feels inferior to her male colleagues. 


In the first scene Helen Mirren is being interviewed by a man. He is shown first in a close-up, indicating that he is important. He speaks first and is therefore leading the dialogue. The man and woman are never in the same frame. Over-shoulder angles and close-ups are used to show that both characters are of equal importance despite how it may seem to the characters, and also to separate them and therefore show the segregation between men and women. Mirren looks down to the floor when the man is talking sternly to her, this shows that she is less powerful than him. She is dressed slightly more informally in white, there the men are all in black suits, matching the dark, sensible decorating. This connotes that the men all belong in this work place where the woman does not.


After Helen Mirren has theft there is 1 wide-angle shot of the man at this desk with an empty chair opposite to show that he does not need her; her absence is welcome. Also as she leaves there is a close-up of the "Commander" sign on the man's door, undermining Mirren's authority and importance. However she is higher in the frame than the sign, therefore indicating that she is more important and associating her with a higher position.


Later this scene is paralleled by an interview between 2 men, the original man and a man superior to him. The 2 men are shown as equal, sitting across from each other in a wide-angle shot. Both men belong in this profession as both are wearing black suits and match the aforementioned environment. Many of the shots and angles used in this scene show both men in the same frame, signifying that they are equal, less close-ups are used for the same reason. Neither of the men ever mention Mirren's character's name, she is always referred to as "her". This undermines her as she is not considered a person, only a female. When "female murder squad officer" is mentioned there is a close-up of the first man to show his discomfort at this prospect.


When this prospect is mentioned to the other staff the office is panned slowly. This denotes the male dominance in this occupation as only men are present. Women are not accepted. In this scene all the men laugh at the thought of a woman being superior to them. Although this undermines Helen Mirren's character, the men have to be addressed like children which almost ridicules them.


Helen Mirren's character is presented as much more empathetic and human. There is a close-up of Mirren followed by a close-up of the Victim's photograph. Mirren's expression is slightly pained, this shows an emotional connection. This shot also compares the victim to her as they are both women, possibly showing Mirren as weak. However when talking to a woman, Mirren is more relaxed and in control. 


There are more 2 shots when Mirren is talking to a woman, showing them as equal, just as with the 2 men in an interview. Mirren is, however higher in the frame, so she is more powerful than the other woman. This may be because she is thought to have a man's job, and in this scenario authority comes hand in hand with masculinity. 


There are many tracking shots of Helen Mirren's character, indicating that she is important as the main character, who the TV drama follows. When leaving the Commander's office a second time, a tracking shot is used. As this angle the "Commander" sign is even lower compared to her than in the first scene. She is very sensible until she celebrates to herself while walking. Although this depicts her as less sensible and dignified than the men, where the men's desks are empty and under-used, hers is full and she is clearly immersed in her work, denoting she is more intelligent and therefore superior. 


No non-diegetic sound is used in this extract. This brings an element of realism to Prime Suspect, denoting that the program was produced knowing that women are thought of as inferior, and raising this as a very real issue. 

Production Values and Verisimilitude.

Production values

• How much a film/TV program costs to produce.
• TV is cheaper, so therefore has a lower production value. 
• TV's PV is spread over 9 or so hours of filminess.
• TV is usually filmed in studios whereas films are mostly filmed on location, so TV is cheaper. It costs more to hire/use a public/private location, not your own studio. 
• Low PV films sometimes make more profit than high PV films. 
• E.G. Blair Witch Project = Low PV, but is more successful than many high PV films.*
•  PV is affected by:         
• Actors,
•  Locations,
• Effects,
• Expensive shots/angles/movement (E.g. Helicopter or crane shots),
• Equipment. (E.G. Paranormal Activity = Cheapo camera) 

* Benefits of using cheapo equipment:
Makes film seem more realistic and therefore more shocking as paranormal unrealistic themes are juxtoposed with realistic filming techniques. (Hand-held camera, only diagetic sound, Etc.) 


Verisimilitude

• The quality of realism in something. 
• Qualities in-keeping with the style and/or themes in a film/TV?

 E.G. It is unlikely that a giant magic unicorn with breast implants would galavant into the courtroom in Judge Judy. Meaning said unicorn is not a common theme in Judge Judy, and as Judge Judy is a reality TV program, and most people do not consider unicorns realistic, this would be lacking in verisimilitude. Whereas if a giant magic unicorn with breast implants galavanted across a rainbow in the My Little Pony movie it would be much more verisimilitudinous. (Thought not completely, as Ponies are not unicorns.)  




Sorry I think I got a little carried away with that example... But it turned out too beastly to replace.

Preliminary Task: The Sandwich. (By Rodeo and Clara)

Shots, Angles and Movements

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/gramtv.html


This is a rather nice website. :D
Look at the Dennis the menace pictures! Look at them! (No really they're acually useful... Seriously.. they have shots and movements and angles and such but... with a little stachue of Dennis the Menace!)

Reverse Zoom (Hitchcock)

Anchorage presentation!

The colour green connotates to the environment, but also to elements of horror such as zombies. Envy is also represented by the colour green. As Shakespeare once said, envy is "the green eyed monster". It also signifies illness and Irishness. 

The audience decodes these meanings by the use of sound, image and dialogue/text. 

Doctor Who - How gender is being represented through mise-en-scene.

In Doctor Who women are presented as generally equal to men, however in the stills that I annotated the woman was presented as superior to the man. Although the woman has a frightened expression and is standing behind the railing as if she has been put on a shelf by the man, she is higher up in the picture than the man, suggesting that she is more important. She looks as if she is looking down on the events and seeing them from a god-like perspective. This is partly due to the woman's costume. Her hair is styled in a naturally fancy-looking way, and she is wearing little make-up, the style of her dress is almost Greek goddess-like, with a modern seductive twist. The red of her nails and dress connotes power and possibly evil. She looks out of place in the scene as she is the only colorful thing there, and she is not simplistically dressed. The man  is dressed in a simple black and white tuxedo, which shows he is rich, however he looks untidy in comparison to the woman and their environment. He is holding a casual position, and looks relaxed. Where the woman is standing straight and powerfully, he is slouching informally and this ridicules him slightly. He looks as if he is comfortable in this environment, possibly because he thinks that he is in control, and is possessive towards the woman, however she holds a passive and strong position and is higher up, so may feel that she knows she is more important than the man.


Their surroundings are simplistically decorated with modern natural wood furnishings. However there are also high-tech scientific diagrams on the walls, and unnatural lighting. The wooden furnishings therefore seem pretentious. The ceiling is large and black, this looks scary and gives an underlying effect of tension and makes the scene seem more dangerous.


There is unnatural white lighting coming from the left onto the background and the man, the fact that it is not natural connotes that his power is superficial. However the lighting on the woman is coming from the right side, and is an unnatural pink/red light. This could show that she is a much-loved possession of the man, but also that she is seductive, powerful and/or evil.

Three requiarments of preliminary tasks!

1. Match on action (Continuity editing)
This is how you make the different shots run together smoothly. If there is an action going on, to capture it using more than 1 shot you must use continuity editing. This is where you pick up the action in the new shot where you left it in the previous one.
E.G. A close-up of a door handle being turned is followed by a tracking shot of the person opening the door.


2. The 180* rule
When shooting a scene, you must not cross the 180* line. This is an imaginary line or boundry that stops you from filming anything outside a 180* scope.  Apparently if you cross this line the film could become dissorientating for the audience.


3. Shot/reverse shot convention
This must be used at some point in your prelim task. It is when a shot is repeated, but on the opposite side that it was originally. It can be used in exchanges between characters.
E.G. Over the shoulder shot, or POV shot.

Doctor Who - Annotations on how gender is being represented through mise-en-scene.

How do Camera Movements Reflect Ethnicity in "Spooks"?

The scene opens with a crane shot on the scene, however due to the lighting the ethnicity of the characters are initially ambiguous. In this crane shot, as a viewer you are already able to see that one man has power over two others, who are sitting down back to back. You can see that they are less powerful because of their height levels. All of the shots of the Asian man who has the power are low angle, and mostly close-ups or extreme close-ups. This is to make him seem taller and therefore more powerful, whereas the other two characters (a white woman and a black man) are shown from higher-angled shots and less close-ups. This is because they are less powerful. There is a crab-shot on the Asian man, this shows that you will want to watch him intently as he is dangerous. The camera movement mimics the point of view of the characters. The crab-shot is not used on the white or black characters, this signifies that they are not dangerous. Tilt shots are also used, only showing the Asian man, again to show the extent of his power.


The Asian man is shown as a danger, this supports the negative racial stereotype linked with people of this ethnicity, and because of that the focus is on him. Hand-held camera is also used throughout, this makes the situation seem more real as it is less manufactured. This presents the Asian man as a more real danger.


The black man and white woman are on the same level of power, shown by similar close-ups and lack of tilt-shots, however the Asian is the centre of focus and also more powerful. This presents the idea of racial separation. The Asian man is separated from the other characters by appearing to be in a different class from them. This connotes separation of the Asian community from other ethnicities, via stereotyping. The Asian man is dangerous, this represents all Asian people as also dangerous, and separates them from the rest of society.