2. Point- how did you intend to represent the
social group’s featured in your production?
We intended to represent the little girl (Ella) as weak and
vulnerable. We did this through mise en scene. For example
we made sure she was wearing bright colours including pinks
and reds in order to portray her age and helplessness. In our
production we left the colour of her red trousers and her pink
rucksack, however we turned the rest of the footage black to
connote her innocent clearly to the audience. Additionally we
included high angle shots looking down on Ella which showed
the audience how small she was in comparison to Harry the
kidnapper. Our audience feedback suggested that the use of
‘leave colour’ (on Ella’s costume) throughout our production
was effective as it drew focus to the young child. However
some of our target audience stated that this technique was
not effective as it detracted from the narrative. To improve the
representation of Ella’s character I think we could have used
dialogue to show her lack of development.
3. Cont.
I think the stereotype associated with the character
of Ella would have made the audience feel
sympathetic and protective of her. For example the
audience may have been able to empathise with her
mother. Stereotypes are important within films as
they allow the audience to have a pre-judged idea of
the character before they feature in the text.
Stereotypes help build a personality for the specific
character as the actions of the character will be
already established. Sometimes this can help the
narrative of a text to develop as the stereotype may
be prone to a certain way of living.
4. How did you intend to represent
the social group’s in your
production?
The second stereotype we featured within our
production was the antagonist. For example
we specifically chose the antagonist to be
male. Males are usually stereotyped as being
the antagonist as their character usually has
to convey anger and violence (which may not
be seen natural for a woman). In order to
create this stereotype the mise en scene in
the shot had to be effective; for example he
needed to wear dark clothing (black coat and
dark jeans). We additionally succeeded in this
stereotype via the use of body language. For
instance we made sure the antagonist was
standing behind a wall and looked very
sinister in order to connote evil and danger
ahead.
5. Cont.
I think the stereotype used in this example would
have an impact on society as this may reinforce
the idea of men being the antagonist. For
example the behaviour of males is usually
regarded as more ‘suspect’ than the same
behaviour of women. We could have possibly
treated the groups more fairly by including
another antagonist (a female) as this would have
been an counter-type and would have
represented both men and women in a similar
way.
