REPRESENTATION
1.(b) "Media texts rely on stereotypical representations of groups or an audience to easily understand them". Explain how you represented groups of people in one of your productions.
In film noir characters follow conventions which are not necessarily applicable to real life. This is deemed as hyper-reality a theory designed by Baudrillard, this is when "stereotypes are acted out in the media which are untrue." This can be seen in the case for women. In our film noir piece we only had one women in it ans she was seductive, heartless, cruel-intentioned women. This is classic femme-fatale characteristics and this would be how audiences would receive them, this is called audience theory. Women in film noirs are seen as powerful and aspects other than their characteristics suggest this, from the way they dress, this is semiotic by Saussure and how mise-en-scene tells us about the character. In our film the costume was a red dress, high heels and curly blonde hair, this reveals a deadly, vicious side. We used other aspects sucuh as camera angles to suggest Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' when we have a low angle shot of the femme-fatals legs walking up the stairs. This was similar to a shot used in LA Confidential and this suggested a stereotype that women are objectified.
In our film noir we also represented the government in a negative light which is not a conventions of film noir usually. In our film we used corruption as a theme which challenges the stereotype as MP's are meant to do good and not be involved in many scandals. We challenged this stereotype by showing the Governor at the drug-deal. However the corruption theme/stereotype of law has been used in LA Confidential but based on the LA PD, so adapting this to the Law meant the audience familiar will be able to link the two media pieces and make the characters and their respective stereotypes easy and familiar. The camera angles we use on our Governor Reece Freeman were a close up of his tie to show his importance and a pan up on his whole body to show his dominance and power. From this the audience can tell he is in power by the way he acts. A good comparison would be the props we used, the Governor always smoked a big cigar while our sleazy journalist smoked a thin standard cigar. This shows he is richer and more powerful adding to the stereotype we wanted to convey of this big, power-driven individual.
In our film we used conventions to fulfil our stereotypes as the piece is only a short film so characters must be stereotyped/grouped instantly to make the film understandable. In the end our film the women's power is reduced which changed the audiences view of her and the stereotype of the powerful women who gets what she wants ending changing to her begging for her life. This initially stereotype is common in film noir because of the era it was created in: when women replaced men's jobs during/after the second world war. Therefore women stereotype are applicable to today's women and to a stereotypical film noir women. Stereotypes is vital to help audiences through the story however challenging them such as politicians added a different spin on a classic film noir and led to a more interesting plot
