The document summarizes the production elements and character representations in a 1950s American crime drama. A male detective does a voiceover to narrate the case of a dead young female found in her apartment. The production aims to portray mid-20s females as inexperienced and vulnerable, while mid-30s males are depicted as dominant and knowledgeable. Both main characters are represented as white, middle-class Americans adhering to some crime drama stereotypes, but the dead female subverts expectations by meeting an unconventional end.

1. AS MEDIA-Q2

2. Gender
• I only had 1 male and 1 female in my production
MALE
• My male was a detective who did a non-diegetic voice over
• He represents males as confident, knowledgeable and dominant
• We can tell this because of his deep tone of voice, his understanding of the
situation and the feeling of authority

3. Gender continued
Females
• My female character was a femme fatale who had been killed and was
slouched over her dressing table with
• She represents females as beautiful, vulnerable, alcoholic and
mischievous
• We can tell this because the actor was pretty, the high camera angle
makes her look inferior, the empty alcohol bottles make her look like
she drinks a lot and the fact that she’s dead means she must have
done something bad to be in that situation

4. Location
!
• My production was set in a middle class apartment in 1950s
America, New York.
• We can tell it’s America because the detective has an American
accent
• The dressing table shows that she’s in a bedroom
• The diegetic sounds show that it’s in a city
• It looks middle class because we can see the bricks in the wall
but she’s wearing a nice dress and has make-up

5. Age
• The characters in my production are ages 20-30
• The girl is mid 20s so less experienced because she has died,
she is attractive and is smoking
• This presents mid 20yr olds as inexperienced
• The male is mid 30s so more experienced and in his voice over
his deep voice makes him sound confident and he knows about
the girls background again showing his experience
• This presents 30yr olds as dominant, experienced and
knowledgable

6. Class/Status
• We can tell that the detective is higher class because
he is well spoken and you have to be of a higher class
to get a job as good as detective
• The detective has to keep a relatively low status for his
job
• The girl has a highish class, we can tell this because
she has her own apartment and is well dressed and
can afford to smoke

7. Ethnicity
• Both of my characters are white and quite high class
• 1950s America was very racist against black people
meaning they couldn’t get well payed jobs and
therefore were generally lower class than white people
• A detective probably wouldn’t care about a case
involving a black person because they were seen as
less important

8. People
• Both my characters are American
They are represented as:
• mysterious because we don’t know why the girl is dead
• Vulnerable because she has been killed and the high camera angle
• aggressive because they are capable of killing someone
• American women are represented as pretty and well off because of the
make-up on the dressing table and the cigarette
• American men are represented as confident because of his deep voice,
knowledgable because of how much he knows about her and how he
explains it

9. Stereo Types
• The female character is in some ways a typical femme
fatale because she is attractive
• But the female character is in some ways not a
stereotype because she has end up dead which is
unconventional and she is not blonde or seductive
• The detective is a stereotype because he is doing a
voice over and has a deep confident voice and he
knows a lot about the situation which is normal for a
film noir detective