I am going to write about how the 4 technical areas of film
(Mise en scene, camera, editing and sound) and how these areas connect to
gender in the programme ‘The Street’.
The clip from ‘The Street’ shows a man and women arguing.
The man is a stereotypical man as he is very loud and aggressive towards the
female. The man’s aggression is shown through sound as he is much louder than
the women and he has a much deeper tone of voice. The male character swears and
the female character tells him not to as the children are about. This shows that
the mother has more of a maternal instinct. On the other hand the female
character is much more quiet and defensive. She does not attempt to shout over
the male character and she does not swear. In the scene where the man is
working there is a very loud banging sound. This emphasises the aggression and
the anger of the male character. This is also a very working class sound as a
builder is a stereotypical working class job. The banging sound ties in with
the quickness of the edit. The fast edits and the loud banging sound shows the
viewer that the male is angry and aggressive.
The mise en scene in this scene shows a clear gender divide
between characters. The female character is doing the washing up during the
argument which is a stereotypical house wife chore. The male character throws a
towel onto the floor which shows he was helping with the washing up as well. The
scene then switches to the man’s job which is working on a building site (a
stereotypically male job) and he is hammering things to get his anger out. He
is also wearing a hard hat and has a big hammer. This shows the man’s
aggression. The male character is the bread winner and the alpha male whereas
the female character is a stay at home mother and house wife. The female
character is wearing a pink top symbolising feminism and a more positive
colour. The male character has a dark green and purple polo, these are dark a
dreary colours and are more negative.
This also ties in
with the camera as when the man is working the camera is using a close up shot
which shows aggression. On the other hand when the female character is trying
to fix the water pipe the camera has a slightly raised angle showing that the
female character has no power and is incapable of fixing/doing anything. This
again is another stereotypical female trait. The camera during the argument is
at eye line. This shows that even though the male seems more aggressive that
the camera does not indicate one character having power over the other. The two
characters during the argument are far apart from each other symbolising that
they aren’t very close and they are un-happy with each other. The two
characters are facing each other but at times the female character turns her
back to the male. This shows disrespect between the two characters. The
characters movement is very sharp and precise and their gestures are very
clear. This also helps the audience understand what the two characters are
angry about. The camera view is through a cracked doorway so not all of the
room is visible. Also you never see the male and female character together in
the same shot. This exaggerates that they are angry and don’t want to be seen
together. Some of the time the camera pans out so you can see the children.
There is one shot where the female character is out of focus and you can see
the female child’s face showing the argument is about them.
The argument is edited equally between the male and female
character as when the male speaks the camera is on him and when the female
speaks the camera is on her. This shows that the argument is equal and not one
sided and also shares the power between male and female characters. Most of the
editing is quick showing the fast passed nature of the conversation. Quick
editing also shows anger and adrenaline. This is proved when the man is on the
building site and is angrily hammering. The quick edit makes the man’s emotions
clearer to the viewer. During the argument both characters have equal time on
the screen. This again shows that the argument is equal. On the other hand when
the female character is trying to fix the pipe she has more time on the screen.
The edits are very quick and decisive; this ties in with the fast passed nature
of the scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment