Tuesday 5 April 2011
Jim Eastenders
After Jim's stroke he is in a wheelchair, this enables the audience to immediately establish that he is disabled.
Disability
Persons with disabilities might best be described, in the media at least, as an invisible minority: though a large segment of the population has a physical or mental disability they have been almost entirely absent from the mass media until recent years. Moreover, when persons with disabilities appear they almost always do so in stereotyped roles. Scott Bremner, in the article “Changing Channels: Improving Media Portrayals of Disability” (Abilities, Spring 2008) writes that “Although 4.4 million Canadians – one in seven people – has a disability, we’re conspicuously absent from popular media. When we do appear, it’s often in roles that are stereotypical or degrading.”
Common Portrayals of Persons with Disabilities
“They’re all the same”
Part of stereotyping is the attitude that all members of a particular group are the same, or else fall into a very small number of types. This is particularly true in the few cases where persons with a disability appear in media. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found that disabled “individuals are viewed as the objects of pity and depicted as having the same attributes and characteristics no matter what the disability may be.” Similarly, the Web site Media and Disability, an organization advocating for broader representation of people with disabilities, points out that “disabled people, when they feature at all, continue to be all too often portrayed as either remarkable and heroic, or dependent victims.”
Not only are people with disabilities stereotyped, the full range of disabilities is not reflected in media portrayals. Lynne Roper of Stirling Media Research Institute, in her article “Disability in Media,” notes that “wheelchairs tend to predominate… since they are an iconic sign of disability. Most actors playing disabled characters are, however, not disabled. The wheelchair allows the character to be obviously disabled, whilst still looking ‘normal’, and does not therefore present any major challenges for audience identification.”
Victim
Perhaps the most common stereotype of persons with disabilities is the victim, a character who is presented as a helpless object of pity or sympathy. Jenny Morris, in her article “A Feminist Perspective” in the collection Framed: Interrogating Disability in the Media describes images of disability in the media as “...a metaphor...for the message that the non-disabled writer wishes to get across, in the same way that ‘beauty’ is used. In doing this, the writer draws on the prejudice, ignorance and fear that generally exist towards disabled people, knowing that to portray a character with a humped back, with a missing leg, with facial scars, will evoke certain feelings in the reader or audience.” Tiny Tim in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or John Merrick in The Elephant Man are examples of disabled characters whose disability is used by the author to earn sympathy from the audience.
The victim stereotype may also be used for comedy, using characters’ disabilities – such as Mister Magoo’s blindness or Forrest Gump’s intellectual disability – to place them in humorous situations.
Hero
The flip side of the victim stereotype is the hero, the character who proves her worth by overcoming her disability. Roper calls this type theSupercrip: “Supercrips are people who conform to the individual model by overcoming disability, and becoming more ‘normal’, in a heroic way… An example of a ‘Supercrip’ is the Irish writer Christy Brown, who described his book My Left Footas his ‘plucky little cripple story’.” The extreme end of this spectrum includes superheroes with disabilities such as Oracle (a wheelchair-bound heroine who uses her computer skills to fight crime), Silhouette (who fights villains using martial arts despite being partially paralyzed) and most famously Daredevil (whose blindness has enhanced his other senses to superhuman levels).
While at first glance this may seem like a better image than the victim, a positive stereotype is still a stereotype. Roper points out some of the problems that arise from this view of disability:
The third common stereotype is the villain. Throughout history physical disabilities have been used to suggest evil or depravity, such as the image of pirates as having missing hands, eyes and legs. More recently, characters have been portrayed as being driven to crime or revenge by resentment of their disability. In both the TV series and film Wild Wild West, for instance, the villainous Doctor Loveless has a disability (in the TV show he is a dwarf; in the movie he has lost everything below the waist). As Roper puts it, “popular cultural images of disability commonly perpetuate negative stereotypes, and often pander to the voyeuristic tendencies of non-disabled audiences.”
Mental illness is often presented as a motivation for villains: Media and Disability points out that “some disabilities receive particularly poor representation. Mental illness has all too frequently (and disproportionately) been linked in programmes with violent crime, even though there is no evidence to support this mis-portrayal.” Not only is mental illness not linked to violence but, as Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson point out in Grand Theft Childhood: the Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games, “Most people who suffer from a mental illness are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence.” (Italics in original.)
Part of stereotyping is the attitude that all members of a particular group are the same, or else fall into a very small number of types. This is particularly true in the few cases where persons with a disability appear in media. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found that disabled “individuals are viewed as the objects of pity and depicted as having the same attributes and characteristics no matter what the disability may be.” Similarly, the Web site Media and Disability, an organization advocating for broader representation of people with disabilities, points out that “disabled people, when they feature at all, continue to be all too often portrayed as either remarkable and heroic, or dependent victims.”
Not only are people with disabilities stereotyped, the full range of disabilities is not reflected in media portrayals. Lynne Roper of Stirling Media Research Institute, in her article “Disability in Media,” notes that “wheelchairs tend to predominate… since they are an iconic sign of disability. Most actors playing disabled characters are, however, not disabled. The wheelchair allows the character to be obviously disabled, whilst still looking ‘normal’, and does not therefore present any major challenges for audience identification.”Victim
Perhaps the most common stereotype of persons with disabilities is the victim, a character who is presented as a helpless object of pity or sympathy. Jenny Morris, in her article “A Feminist Perspective” in the collection Framed: Interrogating Disability in the Media describes images of disability in the media as “...a metaphor...for the message that the non-disabled writer wishes to get across, in the same way that ‘beauty’ is used. In doing this, the writer draws on the prejudice, ignorance and fear that generally exist towards disabled people, knowing that to portray a character with a humped back, with a missing leg, with facial scars, will evoke certain feelings in the reader or audience.” Tiny Tim in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or John Merrick in The Elephant Man are examples of disabled characters whose disability is used by the author to earn sympathy from the audience.
The victim stereotype may also be used for comedy, using characters’ disabilities – such as Mister Magoo’s blindness or Forrest Gump’s intellectual disability – to place them in humorous situations.Hero
The flip side of the victim stereotype is the hero, the character who proves her worth by overcoming her disability. Roper calls this type theSupercrip: “Supercrips are people who conform to the individual model by overcoming disability, and becoming more ‘normal’, in a heroic way… An example of a ‘Supercrip’ is the Irish writer Christy Brown, who described his book My Left Footas his ‘plucky little cripple story’.” The extreme end of this spectrum includes superheroes with disabilities such as Oracle (a wheelchair-bound heroine who uses her computer skills to fight crime), Silhouette (who fights villains using martial arts despite being partially paralyzed) and most famously Daredevil (whose blindness has enhanced his other senses to superhuman levels).While at first glance this may seem like a better image than the victim, a positive stereotype is still a stereotype. Roper points out some of the problems that arise from this view of disability:
- It focuses on the individual who “succeeded” in overcoming her disability, rather than the many others who must live with theirs.
- It presents disability as a challenge which the character must overcome in order to be “normal”
- It makes audiences feel better about the condition of persons with a disability without having to accommodate them, reinforcing the notion that disability can be overcome if only the person would “try hard enough”
- “Hero” roles are nearly always played by non-disabled actors, presenting a false picture of disability (compare Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Footto the real Christy Brown)
The third common stereotype is the villain. Throughout history physical disabilities have been used to suggest evil or depravity, such as the image of pirates as having missing hands, eyes and legs. More recently, characters have been portrayed as being driven to crime or revenge by resentment of their disability. In both the TV series and film Wild Wild West, for instance, the villainous Doctor Loveless has a disability (in the TV show he is a dwarf; in the movie he has lost everything below the waist). As Roper puts it, “popular cultural images of disability commonly perpetuate negative stereotypes, and often pander to the voyeuristic tendencies of non-disabled audiences.”Mental illness is often presented as a motivation for villains: Media and Disability points out that “some disabilities receive particularly poor representation. Mental illness has all too frequently (and disproportionately) been linked in programmes with violent crime, even though there is no evidence to support this mis-portrayal.” Not only is mental illness not linked to violence but, as Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson point out in Grand Theft Childhood: the Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games, “Most people who suffer from a mental illness are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence.” (Italics in original.)Concerns about Media Representation of Disability
Media Coverage of Disability Issues
Persons with disabilities receive treatment in the news. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found an “overall lack of coverage of disability issues by television news outlets,” and what coverage there is typically tends to fall into the “victim” or “supercrip” categories: either stories that ask for the viewer’s sympathy or “uplifting” stories of people who have “overcome” their disabilities. It’s significant that the most TV coverage given to persons with disabilities is the Paralympic Games, which – despite the International Paralympic Committee’s efforts to “emphasize… the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability” – are almost invariably presented in news coverage as triumph-over-adversity stories.
Lack of participation
Joanne Smith, host of CBC’s Moving On, said after researching a story on persons with disabilities in the media that “I was actually shocked when I spoke to some casting agents and some executive producers specifically about hiring people with disabilities, whether it be for broadcasting or for acting, and I had some people point-blank tell me they didn’t want to hire people with disabilities.”
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found that “there is a lack of participation, particularly with respect to employment, among persons with disabilities in television programming. This was found to be due in large part to a lack of communication and information accessible to persons with disabilities about employment opportunities in the broadcasting industry as a whole.” As noted above, characters with disabilities are most often portrayed by non-disabled actors; even Degrassi Junior High and its sequels, which featured several non-stereotyped characters with both physical and mental disabilities, cast a non-disabled actor to play Maya, a character with paraplegia.
Persons with disabilities receive treatment in the news. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found an “overall lack of coverage of disability issues by television news outlets,” and what coverage there is typically tends to fall into the “victim” or “supercrip” categories: either stories that ask for the viewer’s sympathy or “uplifting” stories of people who have “overcome” their disabilities. It’s significant that the most TV coverage given to persons with disabilities is the Paralympic Games, which – despite the International Paralympic Committee’s efforts to “emphasize… the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability” – are almost invariably presented in news coverage as triumph-over-adversity stories.Lack of participation
Joanne Smith, host of CBC’s Moving On, said after researching a story on persons with disabilities in the media that “I was actually shocked when I spoke to some casting agents and some executive producers specifically about hiring people with disabilities, whether it be for broadcasting or for acting, and I had some people point-blank tell me they didn’t want to hire people with disabilities.”
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found that “there is a lack of participation, particularly with respect to employment, among persons with disabilities in television programming. This was found to be due in large part to a lack of communication and information accessible to persons with disabilities about employment opportunities in the broadcasting industry as a whole.” As noted above, characters with disabilities are most often portrayed by non-disabled actors; even Degrassi Junior High and its sequels, which featured several non-stereotyped characters with both physical and mental disabilities, cast a non-disabled actor to play Maya, a character with paraplegia. Solutions
Media producers have recognized that they must make efforts to better represent persons with disabilities. For instance, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation provides a guide for producers to use in portraying persons with disabilities on-screen. It consists of three questions:
Media and Disability has these suggestions:
There is evidence that portrayals of persons with disabilities is improving. For instance, the character of Doctor Gregory House on House, M.D. could have been created with Media and Disability’s second suggestion in mind (though he – like most characters with disabilities, even other non-stereotyped ones such as Stevie on Malcolm in the Middle – is portrayed by a non-disabled actor).
To address the lack of participation of persons with disabilities in the media industry, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters report made this recommendation: “Broadcasters will develop scholarships, bursaries and/or internships, where appropriate, as means to focus students with disabilities on potential careers in broadcasting. Broadcasters will also offer, where appropriate, training for new employees with disabilities in the industry and/or develop other means for industry orientation such as mentoring and job shadowing.” One organization in Canada that is working towards increasing the presence of persons with disabilities is Lights, Camera, Access! Its founder, Leesa Levinson, describes herself as “an ambassador for talent with disabilities” (Levinson herself has multiple sclerosis).
- Does the portrayal patronise the disabled person?
- Does the portrayal victimise the disabled person?
- Does the portrayal demonise the disabled person?
Media and Disability has these suggestions:
- Consider disabled characters in scenarios that might be commonplace for a non-disabled person.
- Consider disabled characters as rounded individuals, with good and bad qualities. Showing a disabled person as being mean, or nasty might be a challenge, but how many non-disabled people are “nice” all the time?
There is evidence that portrayals of persons with disabilities is improving. For instance, the character of Doctor Gregory House on House, M.D. could have been created with Media and Disability’s second suggestion in mind (though he – like most characters with disabilities, even other non-stereotyped ones such as Stevie on Malcolm in the Middle – is portrayed by a non-disabled actor).To address the lack of participation of persons with disabilities in the media industry, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters report made this recommendation: “Broadcasters will develop scholarships, bursaries and/or internships, where appropriate, as means to focus students with disabilities on potential careers in broadcasting. Broadcasters will also offer, where appropriate, training for new employees with disabilities in the industry and/or develop other means for industry orientation such as mentoring and job shadowing.” One organization in Canada that is working towards increasing the presence of persons with disabilities is Lights, Camera, Access! Its founder, Leesa Levinson, describes herself as “an ambassador for talent with disabilities” (Levinson herself has multiple sclerosis).
Thursday 10 March 2011
Age Representation: BBC Bugs - Girl Power
Mise En Scene
The younger character is wearing a hoody, as opposed to the adults who are smartly dressed.
The younger girl is sitting on a chair whilst the woman is standing over her, this shows that the adult has authority over the young girl.
There is only a table and a chair in the room in which the young girl and older woman have a conversation, this ensure that the audience's attention is focused on them and what they are saying.
Sound
The sound is mostly digetic.
The younger girl uses slang such as 'gimme' whereas the older woman is well-spoken and does not abbreviate words.
Camera Angle
A low angle has been used when framing the older woman when she is talking to the girl to reflect her authority.
Editing
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Camera Movement
- reframing involves slight pans or tilts designed to maintain the balance of a composition during figure movement
- a camera operator will reframe when a sitting person stands up, so as to keep the person in the frame and allow for appropriate headroom
- reframing helps to fix the viewer's eye on the most important figures
- so common it is often unnoticed
- the camera itself accompanies the movement of an object during a following shot
- a track, crane, or hand-held shot can lead a moving figure into space, pursue a figure from behind, or float above, below, or alongside
- intricate following shots may be motivated by the movements of more than one figure
- not all camera movement responds to motion within the frame
- the filmmaker may direct the camera away from the dominant action for other purposes
- Such camera movement draws attention to itself and is typically used sparingly to emphasize significant narrative details
Thursday 16 December 2010
Mise en Scene Vocabulary
Mise en Scene
Mise en scene – a French term, which literally means ‘put into the frame’. When analysing a sequence the term refers to everything you see in the frame:
props, eg in a police drama this could mean a gun or a badge, also can mean iconography
costume, the colour and style of the actor/subject can have important connotations and denotations about their character, role within narrative, etc.
lighting, the harshness or softness of light has differing effects on representing the mood of a scene.
colour, if you've studied psychology then you'll understand what each colour signifies. The colours used in popular brandings are significant in determing their identifiability, ie 'the golden arches' but also says a lot about a person or company's ideology.
Makeup - we're not just talking about a bit of slap here, this can refer to masks, prosthetics and special effects.
Other important terms used in analysis of TV/Film:
Artificial Light – A source of light created by lighting equipment, rather than from natural sources.
Convention – a frequently used element which becomes standard.
Disequilibrium – the period of instability and insecurity in a film’s narrative.
Enigma – the question or mystery that is posed within a film’s narrative.
Equilibrium – a state of peace and calm, which often exists at the beginning of a film’s narrative.
Framing – the selection of elements such as characters, setting and iconography that appear within a shot.
Genre – a system of film identification, in which films that have the same elements are grouped together.
Iconography – the objects within a film that are used to evoke particular meanings
Intertextuality – reference within a film to another film, media product, work of literature or piece of artwork.
Mise en scene – a French term, which literally means ‘put into the frame’. When analysing a sequence the term refers to everything you see in the frame (props, costume, lighting, colour, makeup etc.)
Narrative – a story that is created in a constructed format (eg. A programme) that describes a series of fictional or non-fictional events.
Editing Vocabulary
Editing
Editing – the stage in the film-making process in which sound and images are organised into an overall narrative.
Continuity Editing – the most common type of editing, which aims to create a sense of reality and time moving forward. Also nick named invisible editing referring to how the technique does not draw attention to the editing process.
Jump Cut – An abrupt, disorientating transitional device in the middle of a continuos shot in which the action is noticeably advanced in time and/or cut between two similar shots, usually done to create discontinuity for artistic effect.
Credits – the information at the beginning and end of a film, which gives details of cast and crew etc.
Cross Cutting – the editing technique of alternating, interweaving, or interspersing one narrative action (scene, sequence or event) with another – usually in different locations or places, thus combining the two: this editing technique usually suggests Parallel action (that takes place simultaneously). Often used to dramatically build tension and/or suspense in chase scenes or to compare two different scenes. Also known as inter-cutting or parallel editing
Cutaways – A brief shot that momentarily interrupts continuous action by briefly inserting another related action. Object, or person (sometimes not part of the principle scene or main action), followed by a cutback to the original shot.
Freeze Frame – the effect of seemingly stopping a film in order to focus in on one event or element.
Eye-line Match – a type of edit which cuts from one character to what that character has been looking at.
Flashback – a scene or moment in a film in which the audience is shown an event that happened earlier in the film’s narrative.
Graphic Match – an edit effect in which two different objects of the same shape are dissolved from one into the other.
Juxtaposition – the placement of two (often opposed) images on either side of an edit to create an effect.
Linear Narrative – a style of storytelling in which events happen chronologically.
Montage Editing – the juxtaposition of seemingly unconnected images in order to create meaning.
Parallel Editing – a type of editing in which events in two locations are cut together, in order to imply a connection between the two sets of events.
Visual Effects - visual effects are usually used to alter previously-filmed elements by adding, removing or enhancing objects within the scene.
Match on Action - A shot that emphasises continuity of space and time by matching the action of the preceding shot with the continuation of the action. (For example a shot of a door opening after a shot of a close up of a character’s hand turning a door handle)
Jump Cut – An abrupt, disorientating transitional device in the middle of a continuos shot in which the action is noticeably advanced in time and/or cut between two similar shots, usually done to create discontinuity for artistic effect.
Credits – the information at the beginning and end of a film, which gives details of cast and crew etc.
Cross Cutting – the editing technique of alternating, interweaving, or interspersing one narrative action (scene, sequence or event) with another – usually in different locations or places, thus combining the two: this editing technique usually suggests Parallel action (that takes place simultaneously). Often used to dramatically build tension and/or suspense in chase scenes or to compare two different scenes. Also known as inter-cutting or parallel editing
Cutaways – A brief shot that momentarily interrupts continuous action by briefly inserting another related action. Object, or person (sometimes not part of the principle scene or main action), followed by a cutback to the original shot.
Freeze Frame – the effect of seemingly stopping a film in order to focus in on one event or element.
Eye-line Match – a type of edit which cuts from one character to what that character has been looking at.
Flashback – a scene or moment in a film in which the audience is shown an event that happened earlier in the film’s narrative.
Graphic Match – an edit effect in which two different objects of the same shape are dissolved from one into the other.
Juxtaposition – the placement of two (often opposed) images on either side of an edit to create an effect.
Linear Narrative – a style of storytelling in which events happen chronologically.
Montage Editing – the juxtaposition of seemingly unconnected images in order to create meaning.
Parallel Editing – a type of editing in which events in two locations are cut together, in order to imply a connection between the two sets of events.
Visual Effects - visual effects are usually used to alter previously-filmed elements by adding, removing or enhancing objects within the scene.
Match on Action - A shot that emphasises continuity of space and time by matching the action of the preceding shot with the continuation of the action. (For example a shot of a door opening after a shot of a close up of a character’s hand turning a door handle)
Sound Vocabulary
Sound
Diegetic Sound – sound that can be heard by the characters within a scene/ sound part of the imaginary world.
Non-diegetic Sound – sound that the characters cannot hear and is not part of the imaginary world of the story. This includes a musical soundtrack or a voiceover (however this excludes a narration by a character within the story – referred to as an internal monologue and is diegetic).
Score – The musical component of a programme’s soundtrack, usually composed specifically for the scene.
Sound Effects – sounds that are added to a film during the post-production stage.
Non-diegetic Sound – sound that the characters cannot hear and is not part of the imaginary world of the story. This includes a musical soundtrack or a voiceover (however this excludes a narration by a character within the story – referred to as an internal monologue and is diegetic).
Score – The musical component of a programme’s soundtrack, usually composed specifically for the scene.
Sound Effects – sounds that are added to a film during the post-production stage.
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