Evaluation of Distribution Institution for Our Film

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From left to right: Jack, Amelia, Wise, Ellen

Evaluation of Representation of Social Groups

Representations and the Heist Genre

• Our representations are of young people as the whole cast are teenagers. This is not what you might expect in a heist film where the characters tend to be middle-aged.  This is seen through several heist films such as Ocean’s Eleven and Reservoir Dogs.

 

• Therefore I think it is useful to look at our representations in connection with the heist genre as this is why many media film representations arise - not because the film producers are consciously thinking about them but because they fit the demands of the plot / genre.
• Having a young cast does change their representation - they are not as able to be menacing or to pull off big business-related cons. Therefore they are smaller-scale and more likeable.
• Therefore the representation can become more humorous.
• There are movies for example ‘Gone in 60 seconds’ and ‘The Italian Job’ that shows men and women can work together as a team. However, heist films are often seen as 'male' films with women in very minor roles. We have made our male and female con artists equal - the way the credits appear helps to show this equality. They take full part in the heist and are seen as a full part of the team.

More traditional female 'love interest' role in heist film

 

 Strong female role in our film

• In classic heist films, the main characters often live a luxurious life and seem to aspire to become even wealthier.

 

Ocean's Thirteen

• We also have a gambling scene and have tried to make it look wealthy and luxurious. Our characters are wearing suits and are playing in a large house.
• Of course, as they are teenagers, the classic casino venue of a hesit film would not work so we have had to adjust to a private card game. Again, this softens the representation and adds to a comic feel, such as when all the characters look round at the same time.

 

•  The hackers always stand out from any other con-artists because they dress differently and their style is different. They don’t dress as formally as the rest and go for the almost casual look. This is what we have done in our film as well. Representing young people as hackers is easier than trying to suggest they can pull off a big business deal or con a rich person or rob a bank. This is because young people are commonly represented as being comfortable with technology, often more so than adults.

 

In Summary

• Representations for us are dictated by the age of the cast and the genre (heist)
• Because of the genre we have to represent our characters as likeable villains.
• Because of their age they are even more sympathetic, pull off small-scale crimes and are more comic in their representation.
• Men and women are represented as equals because of the need to appeal to a generation that is used to this.



Evaluation of Our Representations

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Stereotype of teenagers in press

Use of smart clothes within our films

Smart clothes in 'Oceans Eleven'

• In our film we try to avoid teenage stereotypes of hoodies and baggie trousers for our main characters, and we tried to aim for a mature look, this comes across in the misè-en-scène of the characters costumes, with all the main characters wearing Smart clothes, such as a suit. This is similar to the heist film ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ where every main character wears smart clothes such as suits throughout the majority of the film.
•  This was to keep the characters equal but still seem different from one another. It also means they seem more believable as con-artists than the age of the actors might suggest.
• Although our characters are 'villains' because they carry out scams, as is typical in heist films, they are represented as being less 'bad' than many of the other characters, therefore the audience wants them to succeed. So in some ways, this is a more positive representation of young people as they are showing initiative and beating adults at their own game.

James Singh as our hacker

Hackers in the background wear more casual clothes

• Adorno argues that in art forms and therefore by extension heist films (which tend to have many characters) that having stereotypes offers directors a short hand, when representing characters, and it allows a person viewing the film to understand and predict certain characters more easily.

• This is fairly common in heist films, which tend to have a leader and ideas man, a technical expert, a charmer, a pickpocket and a love interest (a good film example of this would be ‘Ocean’s Eleven’). Within our film we have used these stereotypes because they are very distinct from one another, and this helps to define the roles each character plays.

• An example of a character stereotype would be James Singh’s as the hacker/ technical expert. This character tends to stand out from the others. These characters tend to be dressed in casual clothes but we tried to maintain some element of smartness to his costume.  This is a believable teen representation as young people are often stereotyped as being addicted to technology.

Teen hackers in Underground

• In other films the stereotypical hackers/ technical experts are presented as being physically weak characters but make up for it with their mental skills. There costumes appear more casual to the rest of the group, this is to make them stand out. An example of this would be in ‘Die Hard 4’ which has a large amount of hacker/ technical expert characters.

A predominately male cast in 'Reservoir Dogs' 

The mysterious man showing power against the boss

James as the 'damsel in distresses'

• When looking at male roles, the representation of men in media tends to focus on strength, power, sexual attractiveness, physique and independence. Ros Coward argues that the concept of ‘masculinity’ is stereotyped very rigidly in media, she also believes that too many critics focus on the stereotyping of women within media and, that male representations are limited as well and that they fall into four basic categories in film in particular:

The rookie – Seeks approval from father figure

The victor – defeats completion physically, mentally, romantically

The bonder – Male friend ship is vital

Overcoming fear of losing their masculinity – often romantic

 

• This applies to our film because although our film is not entirely male it is still primarily male dominated and because of this some of the characters are stereotyped. As Adorno said heist films tend to have many stereotypes because it allows many characters to be defined in a short space of time and this can help drive the plot. This is similar to films such as ‘Reservoir Dogs’ which is has a primarily male cast.

• The boss is stereotyped as being the victor and fears losing his masculinity to those more powerful than him.

• The mysterious man is stereotyped as being the victor and is also represented as being strong and powerful.

• Not all male characters are represented as powerful; James Carrey’s character is represented as the ‘damsel in distress’ this is unusual because this is seen as a female stereotype. This shows how roles are created firstly because of the needs of the narrative. While genders may traditionally take certain roles, if they are not available, the role is not cut, but is given to the more unexpected gender.

• These stereotypes are useful because both of these characters have the least amount of screen time and these stereotypes allow them to be defined very quickly.

Evaluation of Representations

                How our media product represents particular social groups

• Our male gambling characters could be seen as stereotyped as in scenes they are seen doing what they are always portrayed as doing, typical round table used and chips etc as we can see in a scene in Ocean’s Eleven and Rounders.

• Poker is commonly stereotyped as a male game and in our piece we have inadvertently ensured that this stereotype has been continued. In this scene we follow their expressions and their focus on the game and in many films we see the same camera angles of their expressions and then their ‘hand’ or their view of the table. We have female characters who are part of the 'gang' but did not include them in this scene so maybe we are guilty of the kind of "biased and limited" stereotyping Pickering disapproves of here.

• In our scene the use of bright light has not followed the norm of surroundings that gamblers are normally situated in, they tend to be in low lit rooms basements / casinos. This obviously reflects the age of our characters and softens the representation, making it seem less worldly and intimidating. This is something we were conscious of so we added humour to our piece to make the softened representation a deliberate feature.

Everyone looks round in synch

    

 

•  In this scene we represent computer geeks stereotypically as they know what they are doing are able to hack through any inscription. They are also never dressed the same as the other characters always either scruffier or smarter and do not seem in keeping with the other part of the team. Our ‘hacker’ fits this as he doesn’t seem to wear the same things as the others do, plus he is represented in a more laid back fashion in his mannerisms and his walk. Here the age of our characters works well as teenage hackers is a common media stereotype and is believable.

• In ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ the hacker is represented positively as he is very much in control of the situation and knows the ins and outs of what needs to be done, he has done his research, much like our character as he manages to crack a code quickly and efficiently.
• They also are all shown using computer technology which is typical of how they are portrayed, knowing how to use technology expertly.  So this is almost a positive representation of teenagers here - because there is secret admiration for their ability and fear about what they could achieve.

• In our piece men are represented positively and negatively as they are playing traditionally male and female roles as there is a large cast of characters, even though we have female characters in the cast too. We are following along the same lines of representation as ‘Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels’ and other heist films and therefore bringing stereotypical characters into play archetypal roles that are needed for the heist plot.  

•  As in 'Reservoir Dogs' the strongest characters are male. This could be seen as outdated but in a genre film, people are less concerned with breaking new ground but the same mix as usual, which is what we were trying to achieve.

• The costume in our film is close to that of 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Ocean's Eleven' which could be portraying how rich/seeming rich men want to be portrayed and what role they play in the task at hand, the smarter dressed you are the more involved etc. Whereas women in our piece are dressed generally casually showing their status - they do not seem to have benefitted financially. This could be a negative representation of women; but a lot depends on the ending of the film as often it is grees that leads to the undoing of characters in heist films. if women are seen as not greedy, they are also harder to trap. So a lot depends on how the film resolves.

Representation of Gender in Our Piece

Representation of Gender

Our cast consists of male and female roles, however the majority of them are male although there are two significant female characters. This imbalance is what you normally find in a heist film. Because our film has both male and female roles we can use this to look at the representation of gender and age, of how both young men and women are represented in our piece.


Like our film, 'The Town' has a male and female cast.

In our film the age of the main characters is around 17 and 18 years old, however they are able to look older as their characters are quite mature, as they play poker and are able to hack into computers. In this extract they are represented to be intelligent, cunning and serious as they all seem to each have an important role to play and they act professional and calm. However, we have had to downplay any violence and limit the suggestion of scams to quite small-scale operations to make our piece believable.

We have created a representation of teenagers which is both positive and negative. On the one hand, they are clever and resourceful. On the other, they are taking part in what is basically criminal activity - although in a heist film, it is always in a good cause so we forgive them.

Teenagers work well in this context because they are often seen as secretive and working behind adults' backs.

Eastenders representation of secretive teenager

 

There are several more men in our piece than there are women and they also seem to have the bigger roles –like for example, like in our film the boss and the anonymous man, were both men, plus two out of the tree con-artists were men too. This could be a representation of their dominance, or a higher status over women and how the men are more able to pull off a heist better than if a woman was to do it. However, our female characters are at least part of the 'gang' and not just the romantic interest for the male lead.

This links in with what Ros Coward said about male stereotypes, she said that men and masculinity are stereotyped a lot more than what has been said as everyone believes women to be the most stereotyped, she on the other hand believes them to be evenly matched. Coward thinks that the male representation includes:

• To triumph and avoid from defeat. Men are normally the protagonist and are the strong heroic figure that succeeds in their challenge.

• Seeking approval from father figures. They have someone they look up to.

• To connect and interact with other men, forming a group to help overcome the issue, however it could also be to have independence.

• To be/ have a love interest and that they must pursue and achieve ‘victory’ over.

For women the representation in the media is normally;

• Damsel in distress/princess. They tend to be the ones that are in need of saving by the men as females are normally weaker.

• Seducer. In heist films the ones that tend to distract the opposing people are females on the majority.

• Attractive. Nowadays women who are casted to be on TV are young and attractive females as they seem to get more attention than if they were to have casted an unattractive person.

When looking at her list of male representations I am able to see that we have represented most of our men in this way; there is the boss who is the protagonist, who’s objective is to triumph with his plan that is yet to be revealed. He also brings an alliance (interaction with other men) of people to help out with his ‘challenge’, and also we possibly have a ‘Father figure’ as there is the man that storms into the bosses office as it seems to be that he has more power than the boss, and so it may be that he is afraid of him or look up to him, however there is not enough information to be able to tell if that is true.

Father Figure

Threat / Competition

Some of our characters deviate from these roles. It is seen as ‘feminine’ to be the ‘damsel in distress’, however we have a man to play the person as  having a mostly male cast can lead to having the men play the ‘feminine’ roles too like, the damsel in distress and the seducer. We have female characters to take these traditional roles but we chose to break the stereotype here.

Playing the role of  'damsel in distress'

Overall according to Coward’s view of male and female representation, we have stuck to quite a lot of onventional representations- especially the masculine representations (e.g. the protagonist and the group of people). However, our female characters are more equal than is often the case in heist films and the male characters can be vulnerable. Therefore we are not fully conforming to the gender stereotypes you might expect.

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