Notes for each of Question 2’s slides

Gender

My media product’s main character is a female, who is presented as an anti-stereotypical femme-fatale (please refer to stereotype and anti-stereotype slide) This role would usually make the female appear powerful, manipulative and confident, but by being dead and the high angle camera shot (making her seem smaller; less intimidating) She is represented as vulnerable and slightly naïve, or unintelligent.The male character is a detective, who is an off-screen voice over. The use of a non-diegetic voice over makes the character appear confident and superior because you cant see him, but its almost as if he has the power in this situation because he doesn’t need to be seen. Although his low tone of voice and his slow, slightly angered speech gives the impression that he is sympathetic to the female.

Location

My media product was located in a New York bedroom in the 1950s. You know it’s a bedroom because everything the mise-en-scene shows is typically found in that setting, for example;

• The thick curtains• The dressing table, cluttered with make-up – suggests it’s a woman’s room• The wall painting• The coat, scarf and briefcase – suggests a man could live there too

These items convey a bedroom because they would not typically be found in another room, i.e. an office, or kitchen.I tried to make t as obvious as possible that we were in 50s New York by finding an actor for my voice over that could do an authentic American accent, as well as inserting the diegetic ‘busy city’ sounds at the end throughout the sequence. The location/setting also suggests that the female is middle-to-upper class, as she is able to afford cigarettes as well as her own apartment in New York (please refer to my ‘class & status’ slide)

Age

My female was playing a mid 20’s character, which she portrayed very well considering she is 16. Making my character mid 20’s represented that age range as attractive, inexperienced and vulnerable. She also conveys the age as wealthy, suggested by her being able to afford to smoke and have an apartment in New York.My male character was in his early 30’s and represented the age as mature and confident by his tone of voice and being reasonably well spoken.

Class & Status

Both characters were represented as higher class; the female through her upper class outfit – a velvet dress and high heels. The fact that she’s smoking suggests that she is

wealthy as cigarettes were considered a luxury item in the 50’s. Living in her own apartment conveys wealth also, however she is considered middle status because nothing in the scene suggests that she is working or has a job, creating the assumption that she got her wealth through other means; i.e. marriage or inheritance.The male is somewhere between higher and middle class; it is hard to determine which as you never actually get to meet him, so in this case all you have to base it on is his voice and the fact that he is a detective. His public service role tells us that he’s above working class, and his tone of voice/speech suggests that he is well spoken. However, his job also suggests that he is of low status, as it’s not an extremely important role.

Ethnicity

Both my male and female actors were of a white ethnic background. I intentionally did this because not only is it very conventional of a film noir to have white actors, but also in the 1950s racism was very prominent and it would have been difficult for a person of any other ethnicity to get a job as an actor as it was and is still seen as a higher end job. Also, due to the racism it would have been very difficult for a black person to get a job as a detective because detectives are considered authority figures, and in the 1950s any non-white was not considered ‘good’ enough for an authority role. This represents whites as important and intelligent in comparison to other ethnicities, however equality is a lot stronger in today’s age and this assumption is not considered as true as it was years ago.

People

My media product represents the generalisation of American people in numerous ways.

Firstly, mysterious. This is portrayed by both the female (why is she there? Why is she dead? What had she done to get herself killed?) and the male (why does he care? How is he connected to the situation, and how does he know her?)Secondly, the female shows vulnerability through her body language (slumped over a make-up desk) and her death. Also, she is alone, making her seem vulnerable and an ‘easy target’. She also portrays peoples murderous and aggressive nature, i.e. someone had the incentive and capability to not just hurt her for whatever reason, but also kill her. This also suggests that she was naïve, because she got herself into a situation that resulted in her death.The detective is portrayed to be curious of the situation, although her already appears to understand what's happened his tone of voice suggests that he, much like the audience, is looking for answers.