Representation Theorists

Richard Dyer
- Argues stereotypes are a way of reinforcing differences between people, and representing these differences as natural.

- For example, stereotypes about man and women reinforce the idea that they are very different.

- Applied to a youth film, in the film 'Kidulthood', the urban society represents youth as rude and mischievous. The stereotypical representation is the way they dress such as they wear hoodies, track suits, trainers and usually carry knifes. To society they are classified as 'Hoods'.


- In Kidulthod, they use all these attributes to reinforce the differences of how these youths are represented in the film and this gives the film an impact on they are represented. This makes the differences feel as it's natural. This representation in the film, according to Dyer is now presumed to be natural, meaning thats how society believes how urban youth are represented. Such as if someone on streets is wearing a hoodie or track suits, they will threatened as they could believe they could be a gang member that may be carrying a knife.

Laura Mulvey

- Developed the theory of the Male Gaze which is the idea that a film is made to be watched through the eyes of a heterosexual male viewer which objectifies women making them an object in the film.

- She argued that female characters were represented as passive objects of male sexual desire.

- In the film, Ill Manors, the female character is represented as a "Escort". And in a scene, you see her in her underwear, showing her body in a sexual manor. But also, later on she was put against her will to perform sexual acts. And according to her this is one of her three different ways of looking in cinema, this one being the look of the audience that views the film using different camera shots. This objectifies her and limits her a sexual object.

Jean Baudrillard

Antonio Gramsci

Charles Acland

Postmodernism

The 'basics' of postmodernism

- It is essentially the breakdown of barriers of what is perceived as real and what is real.

- It could be between: 

• High art and low art
• Organic and artificial
• Male and female
• Between texts themselves
• And between what is real and what is not
• Old and new
• Past and present

- The Desert of the Real (The Matrix)
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- Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)

- He argues our society has become so reliant on representations that we have  lost contact with the real.

- There is no distinction between reality and representation, only the simulacrum

- Simulacrum - a copy that now has more reality than the object it is a copy of.

Creating the simulacrum

- You start with a real object

- The object then becomes a representation

- The representation then becomes more important and 'real' to us than the original, it is hyperreal

- This fundamentally destroys the original eventually meaning everything is a copy

- Future representations are the copies of a copy and so on

Therefore…

- Baudrillard has a problem with the idea of representation

- Representation implies there was something there originally to represent

- But in his view, how can one represent something that does not exist?
______________

Is it possible to create a generic construction of a pop video that is also original?

In what ways is youth culture in 'Teenager from Outer Space' represented as a simulacrum?

If we accept Little Mix as a girl group rather than 4 individuals that sing, are they post-modernist?

Is something a simulacrum when we know it's a simulacrum?

Semiotics

Semiotics

- Developed by Ferdinand de Saussure who studied how language created meaning.
- Language does nit reflect reality - meaning is constructed through language.
- We make meaning through the creation and interpretation of signs.
- Signs can be words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts, objects.

- Signifier + Signified = Sign.
- The signifier is the form which the sign takes.
- The signified is the concept it represents.
- The sign is the total meaning that results from associating the signified from the signifier.

Little Mix - Cannonball




They are represented as determined through their attitude. Their emotions is key as when they win, they scream and jump in celebration which is stereotypical. They are also represented as passionate subjects and not objects. The element of success is being signified. It can be seen as stereotypes in the way he video is made, it is the same video for all of the previous winners, it looks like a promo for the song. Signifies young people doing good things, such as winning. They are not harming or being sexual. It shows the lack of representation as it shows them as they are being seen.

Little Mix - Wings



They have gone all out to make it a professional video. They style is carefully planned such as each character has their own look for themselves. They have used props, costumes and makeup to signify they're professional artists and belong within the music industry. They are not represented as overtly sexualised. No fragmented body shots makes it slightly unconventional music video for a female group pop video. They're bright and colourful which is a convention. 

Little Mix - Move 




They're attitude is more amplified and a more sexualised. It develops in meeting the expectations of the pop industry. The women show dominance of the men in the video.

Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and the Male Gaze

Visual Pleasure and the Male Gaze

Intro to Mulvey:

- She is a feminist film scholar 
- Wrote 'visual pleasure and narrative cinema' (1975)
- Analysed Hollywood cinema and argued that female characters were represented as passive objects of male sexual desire.
- This is encapsulated in the term 'the Male Gaze'
- A film is watched through the eyes of the male characters

- Scopophilia is the pleasure one can gain from looking
- Cinema offers these pleasures voyeuristically
- Thereby satisfying the male scopophilic desires
- A women connotes something to be looked at
- Simply, men look and women are looked at
- Subject and object

- Her theory specifically related to classical Hollywood cinema
- She wanted more feminist avant-garde filmmaking to battle the patriarchal Hollywood system
- Her theory can still be seen in many other forms of cinema through

The Look:
3 different ways of looking in cinema:

- The look of the camera that records the film (Phallic Camera)
- The look of the audience that views the film
- The look of the characters (male, dominant, subjects) within the film

Criticisms:

- The theory focuses on heterosexual male spectators
- It assumes audiences respond to the text in a uniform way
- Ignores the possibility of males providing visual pleasure
- Kathleen Rowe argues that being the object of the gaze is a position of power
- Richard Dyer questions the association of looking as active ad being looked at as passive

The Gaze in Action

What the male characters looking at?
What is the camera looking at?
What is the audiences expected to be looking at?
What are the purposes of the shots of the male and female characters?
What is the presumed spectator?
Which characters are dominant and which are submissive?

Ill Manors

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Theories of Mediation and Representation

What is Mediation?

Mediation is the processes by which messages and values are constructed and communicated to us.

Mediation is a process media companies such as newspaper companies go through to alter information that is within the Newspaper, News Report, Documentry etc. An example of mediation is the alteration of an album released by a popular band.

Single piece of media is medium.

Media is a collective noun.

What is Representation?

Representation is the reinforcement of these messages and values through continuous repetition in the mass media.
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We were asked to draw a 'Bank Manager' in 60 seconds and we all drew a man in a suit.

Micro Elements

Film Language:
- Editing
- Mise-en-Scene
- Lighting & Colour
- Sound
- Cinematography

Macro Elements

Film Language:
- Genre
- Representation
- Narrative

Denotations

What you see.

Connotations

What you associate with those things that you see or hear.

Stereotypes

Media representation often use stereotypes asa cultural shorthand.

The two dimensions of the stereotype are physical and behavioural.

Richard Dyer:

- Argues stereotypes are a way of reinforcing differences between people, and representing these differences as natural.
- For example, stereotypes about man and women reinforce the idea that they are very different.

WHO or WHAT is being represented?
HOW is the representation created?
WHO has created the representation?
WHY is the representation created in the way?
What is their intention?
WHAT is the effect of the representation?

WHO has created the representation?

Gatekeeping: A theorist called White (1961) spoke of the 'gatekeepers' - that is the people who are part of the decision making process in the construction of media texts.
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The Constructionist Approach

The representation is constructed with a set of ideas.

Time Line

Time Line of Stagnation

___________________________________________________________________________
Made In Britain                                      Kidulthood                                    Harry Brown
     (1982)                                                   (2006)                                            (2009)

Positive & Negative Representations

24 Hour Party People (2002) - Positive to some demographics as it shows taking risks and enjoying life & Negative towards the old generation due to the younger generations behaviour

Kidulthood (2006) - Negative because of the amount of things that happen including murder, drugs and fights. At the end it could be seen as positive from the way the main character wants to change his life and be a better person.

This is England (2006) - Positive of the way they accept a youth into the group and stand up for him, also the need for people to belong. 

Control (2007) - Negative in their behaviour and attitude towards the adults but Positive in the way to feel sorry for the character and make the audience feel sympathetic towards them

Adulthood (2008) - More Positive than Kidulthood in the way one of the main character is trying to be a better person and to ask for for forgiveness. Although some characters have bad intention, the audience are made to feel more sympathetic towards them. But the society is still represented as negative.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008) - Positive.

Eden Lake (2008) - Negative due to the way youths are represented as killers.

Harry Brown (2009) - Negative.

1950s, 60s, 70s & 80s Youth Films

Teenage Bad Girl (My Teenage Daughter) (1856)

- The youth is the British version of 'Rebel Without a Cause' due to the way the youth is rebellious against the adults.

- It represents the youth as bad and trouble making.


Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)

- Youth is represented as aliens who are killers of adults

- They are also violent which is another way of showing that they are rebellious.



Wild for Kicks [Beat Girl] (1961)

- Youth are represented as "Wild" and mischievous

- Compared to 'Rebel Without a Caused' because of the way the way the youth are acting rebellious against adults.

The Young ones trailer (1961)

- Youth is represented as rebellious against their parent (adults)

- They also shown as "hip" and "cool" due to their behaviour which is also seen to be mischievous

- It's a safe representation in the form of a media of the way youths act rebellious.



Clockwork Orange (1971)

- Youth is represented animalistic, aggressive.

- Aggressive references to the holocaust.

- Youth are dehumanised.

- Dark split between youth and adults.

- Slang references.

- Uses of violence.




Scum (1979)

- Youth is represented as dangerous and rebellious.

- Sum is a prison for youth who try to survive the hell hole.

- There is a lot of violence and have a lot of blood involved.

- Adults are portrayed as physical brutal but not psychologically violent.




Made in Britain (1982)

- Youth are represented as criminals and rebellious.

- They appear to be careless and out of control.

- Youth display a lot of anger and frustration which is shown through their language and in the actions they present.

- They are also violent, have no respect for the law and authority.

- Have a sarcasm behaviour towards the authority.

- Britain is represented is as a low class, rough and dangerous place to be.

- Tim Roth (main character) is a skin head and has a "Nazi" tattoo in the middle of his forehead.

- Upper class adults are quite demeaning towards the youth and are un-amused by their attitudes.