Representation Research

Representation is the way that something is presented. Most of the time this is done though stereotyping, but there is sometimes new representations are made. There are different representations for the different genres but the ones that come up in all are gender and colour. Gender is usually a stereotyped one because it is easier for the audience to get what is going on if the characters in the piece of media are stereotyped.  

Todorvo's Theory of the equilibrium with in characters is that at the start of the film there is an equilibrium and then an even happens in the film that disturbs that equilibrium and then towards the end of the film a new equilibrium will be there and this can sometimes be the same as the start but most of the time it is different to what it was at the start of the film.

In films these are some of the stereotypes that are used for gender;

Protagonist – The protagonist is the hero in the film. They are usually male in most film genres and they are represented as strong, smart and brave. They will most of the type always come out on top in fights because stereotypically good always triumphs over evil. In the film Iron man, Tony Stark is the protagonist because he is the hero from the film.

Antagonist – The antagonist is the evil character and plots against the Protagonist to try and win but ultimately ends up losing or being killed. The Antagonist is always a male as well because they have to be strong and evil, but sometimes it can be female. In the film Transformers, Megatron is the Antagonist because he wants to take over the universe.

Femme Fatal – The femme fatal or otherwise known as the fatal woman is usually the female that gets the protagonist either injured or captured by the antagonist. This is a key role because it give the protagonist the opportunity to show that he can be strong and get out of a sticky situation. 

Damsel in distress – The damsel in distress is usually the character that needs saving. This is usually played by a female because stereotypically females are portrayed as the weaker character and the always get captured. This also gives the protagonist the chance to show that he is a strong and smart character by saving her. In most Disney films there is a Damsel in distress that the prince or the protagonist will save and they will live happily ever after. 

The Sexy Female – This character is only used for the male gaze aspect of the film, this character doesn’t have a significant role in the film they are just there to look sexy and to attract the attention of the male audience watching the film. In the film Drive Angry, Amber Heard's role in the film is to look good for the male gaze aspect of the film.

In the film the Hunger Games, Katniss is represented as a strong but mother like character because she has the strength to go through the Hunger games and win it but she also cares for her sister and at the beginning of the film you think she is her mother. She is the protagonist in the film because she is the hero and wins the hunger games. This is not the stereotypical hero because she is female but in this film it works and she plays the role of the protagonist really well.

In my film opening you are introduced to the protagonist called Rosanne and her grandmother. In our film the protagonist is a female and this isn’t stereotypically the case in the genre Neo Nior but in our film, we wanted to have the protagonist a female because we thought that it would be good to have her as the hero of the film. Her grandmother does have a specific role in the opening scene but if we made the whole film she would become a much more important character. There are some positives and negatives to having the character a female and that is that it might be confusing to have a female protagonist but it might be a unique selling point to the film.