Thursday, 14 February 2013

Evaluating Representations in our Piece

Representation of Men

  • In heist films the actors look quite organised and prepared to undertake the task of robbing the bank, therefore it forces the audience to visualise them as mature and in control. The way they’re also dressed represents them as a well-structured group as they are in suits. This is both positive and negative in terms of male representations as this business-like approach is being put towards criminal activity. However, a key aspect of the heist film is that we want the main characters to succeed in their con because they will defeat a bigger villain. This kind of antihero is a popular male stereotype.
Suited antiheroes

Popular antihero Jack Sparrow
 
  • Our representation of males could be seen as stereotypical as in our film, they are made to look powerful and smart and willing to take the risk to get something they want as to rob a bank you will need all this things in order to complete the mission without getting caught.


  • In our film they are planning robbing a bank. All this fits into the organised or controlled and power category. This is stereotypical of men who are known to be the powerful and always in control type.


  • The use of all male in a group coming together is stereotyped as being trouble. They are almost in a way, a gang, and gangs are stereotyped as groups of individuals who come together to cause havoc. This in a way allows the audience to predict what these group of young men are coming together to do. Furthermore their different roles make it clear what function they will play in the narrative. 
Stereotypical press representation of male gangs
 
  • However, the heist film completely subverts this representation of gangs as all of the characters are likeable villians and we are not threatened by them but will them to succeed. This is despite the young age of our characters as younger males are often associated with the more negative gang culture depicted above. The wearing of suits helps distance our 'gang' from the aggressive stereotype - it suggests their crime will be more mental than physical. The locations also help as they are not run down urban locations.

Our more likeable gang
 
  • Male groups are also seen in this sympathetic way when presented in film such as ‘Fast & Furious’ or ‘Takers’, the audience are expected to feel sorry for them and like them even if they commit these crimes.
 
  • As our cast is all male, we see some of them having to take on more stereotypically feminine roles. For example ‘Caleb’, who is the person that’s trying to deceive his group so he gets to keep all the money, could symbolise the stereotyping media encourages which is that women are mostly used as 'seducers' in a film. And in our film, Caleb is the 'seducer'. Our other roles are classic heist roles as seen below:


Jordan with the gun represents power
The Leader's last to leave. This is to
show the audience the leader figure in the
 group





 

Caleb singled out from the group. this
is a way to give a hint to the audience
that he doesn't fully fit in this group

Hero shot. The audience see them
more as hero's then villains.








 


'Fast and furious 5' Hero shot
 
According to Ros Coward, the representations of men across all media tend to focus on the following:

-Strength- physical and intellectual

-Power

-Sexual attractiveness

-Physique
 
-Independence

  • You coujld argue that our representations have a similar focus so in some ways we have reinforced the stereotyping of masculine social groups. For example we have the genius of the group, who would be expected to hack top secrete computers. In Ros Coward’s theory, this character would fall into the ‘intellectual strength' category.
 
  • Additionally we have the leader who has all the ‘Power’ as whatever he says goes. Without him everything is likely to fall apart. This is made obvious to the audience as we have given him the most screen time, he wears a hat and is positioned centrally in the group shots.
 
  • Furthermore, in our film we have the 'driven' character that is clearly driven by more as in his dialogue he quotes “how much are we talking”. He is also the person nobody messes with; the audience is notified about this as he is the one holding the gun at the ending of the 2 minutes in our film.
 
  • When planning to undertake a job, you will need to beat the competition. This supports the stereotyping of masculine as being competitive with other men and attempt to avoid defeat. The con group in our film will be looking to defeat the government in order to steal the money from the bank.

  • Over all, the stereotyping of men has fit into Coward's theory, and therefore is potentially rather limited, but according to  Dyer, as long as people tell the difference between media and reality, stereotypes “do not harm”. Our use of the hero shot at the end scene creates empathy which makes the characters seem more heroic rather than villain. This encourages the audience to tell the difference between media and reality as in reality we would hate people like this because we know what they’re doing is wrong.  On the other hand, in media, since the audience are given a chance to almost bond with the characters they will feel more sympathy if they don’t manage to rob the bank or if one of them gets killed by the police and this could make them more sympathetic to petty crime in real life.


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