Representation of Class Sherlock (2010)

Camera Shots

Close ups of Sherlock often either have just him in the shot or him blurred out of focus with the other characters – there is a clear barrier between him and the others, and the single focus on him shows a sort of self-importance that is often stereotypical of being upper class (though, generally, the new Sherlock is middle class, bordering upper).

Editing

Fast paced shots help to portray the speed of Sherlock’s deduction, mainly during his explanation of why he thinks Jim is gay. The shots are also blurred to show the focus of the characters as well as the boundaries between them – Sherlock is blurred when others are in close shots with him, probably to represent the ambiguity in people’s opinion of him (a common question raised is whether Sherlock actually cares for people or if he’s a sociopath who does things simply to entertain himself).

Sound

Sherlock is much more vocal about his thoughts than the others – the woman is in denial about her boyfriend being gay, the boyfriend is clearly in denial about himself being gay, and Watson is quiet for the majority of the scene with one of the first things he says being put down by Sherlock.

His accent is also more refined than the other characters – the others are clearly much more casual, where as Sherlock’s speech has a sort of elegance to it that you’d expect from the more upper-boundary of the middle class in society. The accent also helps to portray intelligence, a key focus of the series with Sherlock being, essentially, the most intelligent character in the show (not counting his brother).

Mise en Scene

Sherlock is sitting down – the other characters end up “looking down on him” figuratively by the end of the scene

Sherlock is wearing a suit, as opposed to the work clothes of the woman, the coat of Watson and the t-shirt of Jim.

Sherlock is the central point of the characters – they all face him, and the focus of the conversations are aimed at him as well (the introduction of Jim, the controversy behind Sherlock’s deduction and the counter points by Watson are, obviously, all focused around Sherlock).

Sherlock’s general speech is also very, very different from the others, not just in terms of his accent or formality, but in the way he shows his understanding of the others – ironically, for the most intelligent character in the show, he shows very little understanding of how the others think, another stereotype of the upper-middle class like politicians, who are very detached from the population in terms of understanding what they want.

Spooks Representation of Ethnicity

Let The Right One In

Male Gaze Durex Advertisement

The Durex advert attempted to combine sexualization with classiness, a combination that you don't see very often. The focus of the cameras is on the women's faces as they orgasm, which attempts to de-sluttify itself through the use of classic music dubbing over any of the sounds. For an advert based on a product that promotes safe sex, the sex side of it is really only implied - the facial expressions, the feet and the grabbing. The actual act of sex isn't shown, which is probably for the best, because it'd probably get banned at some point.

Preliminary Movie Work

Evaluation
What went wrong during the production?
We came across several problems during the filming of the short film, some of which only arose after we'd gotten to the editing stage. For one, we couldn't actually film the door itself opening, due to it being rather dark outside, and the shadow over the outside door handle being too dark to film. Also, at one point, Tom's head with the camera appears in the reflection of the door.
What problems did we fix, and how?
To fix the door handle problem, we came back on a lighter day and reshot it and the scene of the guy looking through the door - however, this created another problem of there being inconsistent clothing between scenes, a problem that we didn't have time to fix (as it would have probably required re-shooting the whole thing).
What could we have done better?
We could have made sure to keep the same clothing between scenes by making sure to bring the specific clothes on the days of filming, and we could have avoided getting Tom's head in the reflection by adjusting the lighting of the room, or even just having him move out of the way whilst we were shooting. In the future, lighting and clothing will be things we'll need to take into consideration when shooting, to avoid these problems from happening again.
We also need to censor what we say, apparently, because we had the whole scene revolving around a single line, but it was too "saucy" for the teachers so we had to remove it, which made the entire thing seem way too random.

Representation Facial Expressions

Facial Expressions

Marjorie Ferguson (1980) 

Chocolate Box

A half or full smile, with the lips together or slightly parted, teeth hardly visible at all and either full or three-quarter face to camera. The projected mood of this kind of expression is blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.

Invitational


An emphasis on the eyes, with the mouth shut or only a hint of a smile, and with the head either to one side or looking back to the camera. The project mood of this kind of expression is suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising's soft sell.

Super-Smiler


A full face, with a wide open toothy smile, the head being thrust forward or the chin being thrown back, hard often blown by the wind. The projected mood of this kind of expression is aggressive, 'look at me' demanding, the hard sell , 'big come on' approach.

Romantic / Sexual

A fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female 'two-somes', or the dreamy, heavy lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sexual or sensual. The project mood of this kind of expression is "possibly available" and "definitely available".

Trevor Millum (1975)

Carefree

A carefree look, that can be linked to sports because it seems as if they are active and/or healthy.

Practical

A practical look will include a model who seems to be concentrating on something, so their eyes will be focused and their mouth will be closed but not tightly.

Seductive

A seductive look requires the model to have their eyes slightly closed, with small expressions (but large enough to still show), and should also look somewhat confident.

Comic

A comic look has the model being stupid/comical/funny, and it will often be exaggerated in order to make the audience's view of it as comical as possible.

Catalogue

A catalogue look requires the model to have a neutral expression, such as a dummy (artificial/wax-like). The features may be in any position, but it's more common to have the eyes wide open and with a smile, but the look should remain vacant and empty still - personality has been removed.

Sites used for reference:

• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze11.html
• http://www.slideshare.net/nickemo/male-gaze-based-on-mulveys-fergusons-shroeders-and-millums-theories-of-the-male-gaze

Representation The Gaze

Eva Mendes

She has a fairly sexual posture, as seen by the messy/wet hair (linking to the glossy skin as well), along with her "orgasm face" (not my words). These points are emphasized as well by the fact that her lips are parted, as well as her legs being open, a posture often linked to sex. From a "feminist" perspective, the hands on hips could be a sign of empowerment, and the fact that she's looking purposefully away from the camera could be a sign of "disappointment". The length of her legs has also been emphasized somewhat, probably because longer legs are seen as an attractive trait in women (their emphasis is seen by the fact that she's on her tiptoes, whilst wearing high heels).

Fredrik Ljungberg

The way that Fredrik has been directed in this advertisement shows both feminine and masculine qualities, which I'll assume were to attract both audiences. On the masculine side, you have the toned muscles, and possibly hints of aggression (left hand being a fist), which fits somewhat with the red background. On the feminine side, the pouting lips and apparently manicured right hand could be to appeal to the female audience, which again links to the red background (red being a colour related to the idea of lust). This also fits with the forced sexual portrayal of the model in order to attract the audience, as shown in the Eva Mendes advertisement above, though in this one I think it's more to make guys want to be the type of man within the ad, and for women to want the man within the ad (which would in turn make guys want to be like him, in order to attract women).

Shameless Representation of sexuality and identity

Rushmore Is Max Fisher a stereotypical teenager?

Is Max Fischer a stereotypical teenager?

Various elements within the montage video portray Max Fischer as different from the average teenager, the most obvious of which is his choice of clothing - in the majority of the scenes, he has chosen to wear his full school uniform (blazer, trousers, etcetera.) rather than the preferred clothing of those around him, even in the Fencing club where he wears the majority of the fencing outfit, yet retains his school uniforms trousers.

This choice of clothing could potentially be due to many factors in the character’s life, one of which is poverty, which is again suggested towards the latter end of the montage where he is seen training for the J.V. decathlon by running across a bridge over a highway, rather than the more traditional setting of an actual track.

His entire demeanour seems to be very formal in comparison with the rest of his school, from his hairstyle to his clothing to his very posture, and even though this kind of formality comes with the stereotype of submissive and shy teenagers, he seems to show a great amount of confidence at various points, which is also seen by the fact that he is one, if the not the, “top dog” in each of the clubs, such as being President of the French club, Vice-President of the Stamp and Coin club, etcetera. This formality could potentially point to some form of OCD within his character, which is further emphasized by the Lacrosse part of the montage, where rather than watching the team play he instead chooses to arrange the equipment along the floor, despite being the team’s manager.

At several points there seems to also be a conflict in decisions within his character, mainly the contrasting choices of doing activities in groups and doing activities alone – he also seems to do most of these clubs with students who are noticeably younger than himself. These things point to a main interest of control/power in his character – he seems just as happy doing individual activities than group activities, and companied with his position in the various clubs and the company of people who are probably less powerful and intelligent than himself (though this could be argued, seeing as he was earlier described as being one of the “worst students” at Rushmore, and that despite being older than the rest of the Kung Fu club he is still only a yellow belt). Control over a situation seems to be what he desires, rather than control over others, and in the “Model United Nations” part of the montage he resembles Russia, one of the world’s superpowers.

This desire for control/power, along with his great amount of confidence and formality, may link to some form of arrogance in Max, which is suggested at the beginning of the montage by the image of bee’s on front of the “Rushmore Yankee” (the yearbook, probably). This image links into two main popular sayings: “busy bee” and “the bee’s knees”. The “busy bee” phrase links into the amount of time his character spends actually doing stuff, being a part of a lot of clubs (this also links to the choice of song: “Making Time” by The Creation). The “bee’s knees”, however, is a phrase used often to state something is important, or great, etcetera., which links into his character’s arrogance.

These things set Max Fischer apart from the stereotypical teenagers, and after analyzing the montage and linking it to the fact that he’s “one of the worst students” and potentially poor, we’re left with another question:

How has he managed to get into, or stay in, Rushmore?

Skins Tony Stonem

What do we learn about Tony in the opening scene(s)?

Systematic Nature

In the opening scene, we see Tony open his eyes at the sound of distant church bells, and the camera zooms out from his face and reveals his bed. The bed sheet itself has two headless bodies on, and Tony sleeps between them, looking like a 'floating head' - this could be the directors way of portraying Tony as detached from normal feelings and the like, as you see later on in the series when he decides to cheat on his girlfriend and win her back just to get create excitement. The bed is also extremely neat, and, coupled with the fact that he's awake before his alarm actually goes off, it's suggested that he may suffer from insomnia (being unable to sleep, either at all or for extended periods of time).

His bedroom as a whole is extremely neat, and his clothes are folded and packed neatly into drawers - this hint at a possible case of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in him. He also goes through a rather specific series of workouts when the alarm goes out, suggesting he does it repeatedly each morning, with a specific routine to go through - this is again suggested by his watch alarm going off (apparently set by him) that tells him when his sister has come back, and he goes through a routine to distract his father so she can let herself in. This is apparently a part of the routine, as his father states that it happens "every morning".

Confidence

The neatness of his clothes and the systematic workout he goes through in the morning, accompanied by the unashamed flirting with the (then naked) woman across the street, shows Tony's confidence, taking pride in both his appearance and his effect on people. This may also add to the self-centred / detached nature of his character - he doesn't seem to get ashamed or regret things (until later on when he becomes rejected by his friends after cheating on Michelle), and just does things to keep himself entertained and feeling good about himself.

Attention Seeking?

Both the flirting with the woman across the street and the focus on keeping himself completely neat and, in some ways, 'superior' suggest a possibility of 'ADHD' (which may also be hinted at later in the series, when he does a lot just to get his friend's attentions after they abandon him). It's also suggested by the fact that his character stands out against the background of his house, which is mostly comprised of neutral colours.

Pretentious?

The book Tony reads whilst in the bathroom is called 'Nausea' by Jean-Paul Sartre - a book on existentialism. There are two main views on what him reading this book actually means - that he is either mature for his age (as at the time the show is set, Tony would be around 16), or that he is reading it simply to look intelligent (showing him to be pretentious, as well as adding to his pride in his looks).

However, the book's plot itself could relate to his character:

"The novel concerns a dejected historian in a town similar to Le Havre, who becomes convinced that inanimate objects and situations encroach on his ability to define himself, on his intellectual and spiritual freedom, evoking in the protagonist a sense of nausea."

The character of Tony believes people to be simply objects in his life, able to be manipulated and the like for his own personal gains (in order for him to "define himself, on his intellectual and spiritual freedom", if you will), whereas later on he finds them to be obstacles in his pursuit of excitement as they refuse to be manipulated by him (Michelle doesn't go back to him, Sid doesn't do what he says, etcetera.).

American Beauty Family Notes (Dinner Scene)

What do we learn about the family?

Mise-en-scène

Jane's Portrayal

When the camera cuts to the short of the family at the table, Jane can be seen to be sitting directly behind the roses as well as being surrounded by candles. This could be presenting the idea of innocence in her character, or possibly that she is the 'rose' of the family. This also links back to one of the first scenes of the film, where Carolyn can be seen to take care of the roses in the garden - this could be the directors way of suggesting that Jane is in fact the only reason that Lester and Carolyn are together, as they clearly don't seem to love each other anymore.

The Family's Portrayal

There are mainly muted colours in this scene, again, which I think is the director's way of displaying the dullness of the family themselves. The separation and formality of the table scene seems to suggest that there's also not very much of a connection between them (even if they do want to connect to one another, as in the case of Lester and Jane). The parents are also directly opposite of each other - which may not seem to abnormal, but it again adds to the formality of the situation and also suggests the two to be 'direct opposites'. Lester's submissive nature is also shown by his slumped posture in the chair (as well as his retreat to the kitchen when confronted by his wife).

Camera Work

Jane's Portrayal

The scene starts with the camera focusing on several small tables - on these tables are multiple pictures of a smiling Jane, accompanied by roses. The camera then cuts to a wide shot of the dinner table (above), and directly in between the parents sits Jane. These shots seem to be the director's way of portraying Jane, again, as 'innocent', as well as being directly in the middle of the conflict between the parents - perhaps the only reason the parents are staying together.

The Family's Portrayal

The slow zooming of the camera suggests that we, the audience, are "spying" on them, or to put it more accurately, seeing into their real lives (rather than the fake one they portray to others, as seen by the personality difference in Carolyn whilst speaking to the neighbours at the beginning of the film). This is furthered at the end of the scene when you see through the camera of Ricky, who is spying on Lester and Jane in the kitchen, and it zooms in slowly in the same way.

You also see various close ups of picture frames, besides Jane's pictures, that show the family in a seemingly happier time - one of these shows the family in a more stereotypical family hierarchy, with the father standing above the mother, adding to the feeling of regret within the character of Lester. It also shows the rag that Lester throws on the side after cleaning his hands land directly next to an old picture of the family again being happy, showing possible 

Music

The diegetic sound within the scene - referred to as "elevator music" by Jane - is 'Bali Ha'i' from South Pacific, an old song from 1949. From the dialogue, you can tell that the mother is the one who chose the song and that she's an old-fashioned person for doing so. It also shows her to be dominant, as the other characters don't really have a say in the choice of music, despite them all having to listen to it. Jane also complains that they "always" listen to it, furthering the suggestion of earlier scenes that their lives have become repetitive. It could also suggest that Carolyn too looks back on the past with regret or longing, as does the character of Lester.

American Beauty Opening Scene Analysis

Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey)

• Submissive: seen by the way his character is dominated and put down by his wife and child
• Dissapointed with his life: seen by his opening statement of "In some ways I already am [dead]", and the hateful way he describes his wife - "She wasn't always like this"
• Sexually frustrated: "jerks off" in the shower, and calls it the highlight of his day
• Regrets marrying his wife, seen by his unloving descriptions of her and the line "she wasn't always like this"
• Loves, or at least doesn't hate, his daughter: he wants to help her, but doesn't see how he can - "I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass - but I don't want to lie to her"

"How does the film portray Lester as being 'trapped'?"

His character is portrayed as trapped in almost all of the elements in the scene, from visual hints, to sounds and more obviously in his dialogue. For instance, one of his opening lines is "In a way, I'm dead already", showing how he thinks of his life as insignificant yet unchanging (and the whole "dead" simile is again shown in the position his body changes to when he turns off the alarm clock - it looks like the classic "dead body" position, arms at opposite angles, etcetera.).

He's also shown to be trapped physically by physical objects and visual elements: when he's looking out of the window at his wife, the window's frame looks very similar to a prison cell's bars; when in the shower, he's physically trapped by the shower door; in the first image when he's at work, the columns on the computer monitor have him behind them, representing (again) cell bars.

"How does the music add to the atmosphere and the character of Lester Burnham?"

One of the more noticeable aspects of the music is how repetitive it is, which adds to both the atmosphere and to Lester as a character: it represents Lester as a character, in that he's found his life to be repetitive, possibly to the point where it's become an annoyance to him; the atmosphere is made to feel out-of-place, or uncomfortable, with the pacing of the music not really matching the speed of the scenes - Lester doesn't move all that much, and the other characters don't walk fast either, so a repeatedly fast beat is very out place.

"How has the Mother been portrayed in the classic Father role?"

It's easy to see how the mother has been placed into Lester's rightful role - the stereotypical family hierarchy goes in the order of Father, Mother, Children, in descending order of control, whereas in the film it seems to have shifted the Father's control to the end, so that the other roles of the family have more control than he does. The film furthers this idea through several ways: having both the wife and daughter talk down to him when he's walking to the car, and portraying him as pathetic when he accidentally opens his briefcase; when he's forced to sit in the back seat of the car like a child, whilst the actual child sits in the front with the mother (the car scene also has him being "held down" by his briefcase, again showing how he's being portrayed as trapped). The wife is also up before the man, even though (stereotypically) it's meant to be the other way around - women take longer to get ready, etcetera.

Representation The Man

This picture was taken from The Sartorialist, and was shot in Lexington Avenue, New York City

Outside of a Ralph Laurent shop

First Glance:

"Poor" - patchy clothes, smoking habit

"Working Class" - seems comfortable wearing them, can't afford new trousers and would rather patch them up

"Unclean" - again, patchy clothes, but also an untamed beard

Second Glance:

"Fashionable" - checkered shirt, scarf, rolled up trousers

"Clean" - very neat patches, tidy shoes, fingers aren't stained by nicotine

"Confident" - the pose and how comfortable he seems wearing those clothes