Analysis of past product - representation

For our AS production we created a opening sequence of a thriller film. the synopsis of the opening being that a man is being kidnapped and interrogated by a un-clear person with the only recollection of his past being him attempting to grab out and touch a artifact of some sort.
the opeinign starts off with the protagonist on the ground, this starting off a stereotypical thriller with how it instantly makes the viewers confused and make them ask questions about the situation.

with the scene fading and the credits starting you hear the booming voice of *wake up! tell me, now!" this adding once again to the enigma of the scene and relating this to levi-strausses theory of opposition being visual with the sunlight in the first scene against the darkness of the credit background in the next.
The voice in the credit scene once again suiting typical thriller films by there use of enigma by us still not being able to see who is saying it and due to its deem and sinister sounding nature it adds to the fear factor for the audience.
cutting to an un-clear eyesight you can tell that the man is still dazed and confused with only sunlight being seen thought the gaps in his eyes, afterwards in which they close again to cut to more credits, here another less sinister voice saying 'im sorry I don't know what you want' and then for the booming voice to reply ;just try and remember'. Here showing how the two are connected in some way with the deeper voice clearly being represented as the person with more power.

As the protagonist wakes up he is shown to be tied up in a room with only a table with strange images on it and the antagonists feet being the only view possible, this representing him as a man with less power and due to needing to conceal his face we decided to let the antagonists feet be shown this way we can show him as a superior person without using a low angle camera shot.

With the antagonist slamming his fists down on the table it clearly shows him represented as the dominant character and being given the typical male gaze as a dominant overpowering person.
this relating with 'propps's' theory of narrative finctions and relating to '7) the victim is fooled by the villian, unwittingly helps the enemy'.

with the scenen fading with the antagonist stating' tell me everything you know' it then fades to the credits and the stating 'the last thing i can remember; before cutting to the protagonists hand reaching out for an artifact of some sort before cutting again. this showing the typical object that the extract revolves around.

with more credits and then the first proper view of the protagonist you can see him as a tied up beaten mean in a chair, the blood signifying pain and this representing the violent way in which thrillers are usally shown.
with the protagonist being slapped by the antagonist and then cutting to the title screen it hints that there will be more violence to watch making the viewers captivated.

Within our extract it is fairly difficult to show different ways of representation, this being for one that we did not have the time scale in the sense of movie time to add more scenes into the clip and secondly due to the fact that this is a extremely low budget film we did not have the needs to show more representation, it could be suggested however that if say we were a large Hollywood conglomerate then the chances of being able to represent more within the clip could be heightened.

Nathan and Sachin - theorist cards

 DAVID GAUNTLETT

“Identity is complicated, everyone think they’ve got one”

This means that identity is complex as our identities are mediated by many factors

Case Studies:

Music artists – Rihanna, Lady Gaga

Rap – glorifying violence and sexualisation

Ever-changing fashion + trends of celebrities (Richard Dyer Star Theory)

David Buckingham:

Quote: “a focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups”.

Meaning: “this means with the constant rise in technology it can keep influencing youth’s lives in more ways”

Case study: related to London riots and how with increased technology made it easier for them to rebel in relation to the Brixton riots.

STUART HALL

“The media as a principle of ideological dissemination produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals.

This explains how the media reflects social ideas that are relevant to how society is regulated

Encoding/Decoding Theory

This explains that the media encode messages within their texts for audiences to decode in ways which apply to their situation and personal lives.

Case Studies:

Tabloids vs. Broadsheets

London 2011 Riots

Music videos – Rihanna, Lil’ Wayne

Henry Jenkins:

Quote: “teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos and posting on each other’s virtual walls.”

Meaning: this means that teens are constantly updating their life and constructing there identity.

Case study:  web 2.0

Brixton riots vs London riots 

Merlau Ponty

We have an embodied experience and anything  in which we use our bodies to create new things with builds our identity.

This relates to youths creating online profiles on the Internet such as Facebook and Twitter and how we feel a sense of belonging because of this

Case Studies:

Web 2.0

London 2011 Riots vs. Brixton Riots

Expressing views and opinions and creating a sense of belonging online.

Do kidulthood and fish tank create a realistic representation of youth?

The theorist, Stuart Hall, once proposed the idea that the media itself "produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals". This leading to the point that ideological things within the world have become neutralized and due to this it can be seen that with the way youths have been portrayed in the media it can be seen that 80% of the time this is shown in a negative light.

This can be seen by looking at the two well known films of  'kidulthood' and 'fishtank' and how both films try to represent the different struggles that youths face themselves in today's society. They can also however both be compared to the 1950's film of  'rebel without a cause' and how in 1955 it was proposed that the representation of youth was accurate from the film, with the only rebel like actions in the film being that James dean is seen seeking out of his house at night, having illegal car races and drinking and smoking. However now comparing it to the films  'kidulthood' and 'fishtank, and with how they represent youths as going off to wherever they feel, taking drugs, getting involved in crime, getting pregnant at an early age and having knife and gun fights. well then you can see that if they are both true representations of modern youth then the media has every right to portray youth in the way that they do when looking at how there negativity has escalated since 1955. 

Another theory would be from David Buckingham and how he stated "A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups". This here showing how now in today's society of youth there are more problems that can be seen to relate back to the use of modern technology, such as within the film 'kidulthood' and how through out the film the use of mobiles to gather people for the part near the end of the film (consequently where trouble happens) and this also highlighting David Buckingham's theory that modern technology is used to cause more problems in today's society.

this view can also be backed up by the actions of youth during the London riots and how with the use of mobile phones and similar technology such as blackberry messenger and twitter (web 2.0) it made the chaos of the riots more difficult to control as opposed to the Brixton riots and how with less technology to spread the news it was handled easier. 

Another theory that can relate to the films and how they are a good representation of youth would be by Henri Tajfel and how his theory that "we strive to improve ourselves through improving our self esteem and this is done by believing that your social group is considered to be the in-group and not the out-group".

this theory relating to the film 'fish tank' and how the main character tries to improve herself by submitting a dance video later on in the film due to her feeling that she is not in the in-group after confronting her old friends who were dancing and seemingly fitting into the in-group instead of the main character. 

From looking at the two films and seeing how the media gives off the representation of youth it can be seen that from the medias point of view the films 'fish tank' and 'kidulthood' are indeed creating a realistic representation of youth.

however bearing in mind that due to the widespread popularity of these films it can be seen that although the films are only representing a small portion of youth it will be believed through the viewers that this is how all youths are portrayed and this is not the case even thought with the use of the media which seem to heighten the view that all youth should be represented in this way. This being done mainly by the tabloid media and how with newspapers such as 'daily mail' and 'the sun' referring to youths as slobs, hoodlums, scum and dysfunctional, the view of the common youth is focused even more.

Due to this it should be seen that in conclusion, yes the films give a realistic representation of the medias portrayal of youth, however due to them only representing a small portion of actual youth it is not realistic in representing 'youth' as a whole but is more successful at representing the 'media youth' and the 'correct' portrayal that the media has created.