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8. REPRESENTATION IN MY FILM CONTINUED..

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8. REPRESENTATION IN MY FILM CONTINUED..

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Millicent is a young black female (the good twin and victim of Alessandra) who is also represented in many ways throughout the film. Being only 17, many of Millicent’s actions and decisions go against the stereotypes of young people. People often assume that age is affiliated with maturity, coming to a conclusion straightaway that the younger you’re the less informed and aware you are. However, upon the many obstacles Millicent faced in this film, she did not act immaturely, thinking carefully about her actions and how they would affect her and her family.

Millicent also follows and goes against, the female representations. She is a victim throughout this whole film, constantly in need of assistance and in trouble. However, she is not assisted by anyone, not even men. After realising that her actions could affect her family, she decided not to go to the police, working out everything for herself. This accentuates her independence as a women, as they are always seen as vulnerable, in need of a man’s help. Also, Millicent possesses characteristic such as calm, gentle and polite, which once again challenges the representation of black women in the media.

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Alessandra is a young black female, who is represented in various ways throughout the film – challenging and following certain representations. One representation that Alessandra challenges, is the gender representation, that females are less intelligent than men and weak. The characteristics of a villain are conniving, smart and alert. Someone who thinks outside the box and is able to outsmart people. Often, in films villains are played by men suggesting that women do not possess these qualities. Through the use of Alessandra, I aim to prove people wrong. In my title sequence, Alessandra outsmarts her twin sister by creating a fake profile on facebook and befriending her. By doing this is able to obtain information about her, in order to aid her motives. Through facebook, she gains knowledge of Millicent's (Alessandra’s twin sister) home address and work place and from there she stalks her.

Alessandra also challenges the representations of minorities, particularly black people, who happen to also be the victim in films, the ones to die or be murdered first. These representations imply that black people are weak, however by making Alessandra the villain, she portrays power and strength which is further emphasised by the fact that the mental asylum could not detain her. Alessandra is not a sidekick, nor does her have one. This fact accentuates her independence as a black person as well as a female, as both normally are portrayed to answer to a higher authority.

However, despite the fact that Alessandra challenges many stereotypes and ideologies, the position of her character also follows a negative representation. The representation that black women are angry and aggressive people.

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In the media, especially films, black people are always seen as the lesser, easily disposable of - more often through death or evil and monstrous.
It has become very noticeable in films, that it is always the black protagonist that dies first. This is also very clear in thriller and horror films. An example of this is the thriller Spider Baby, a film about three children with a genetic disability that causes them to have a mental age of a child.

In the first scene of this film, a black man is the first to die. Not to mention, the black man in this film is an innocent delivery man. His job connoting lack of wealth in contrast to the large mansion, owned by a white family, where he is delivering a package to.

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5. HOW IS ETHNICITY REPRESENTED IN FILMS?

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5. HOW IS ETHNICITY REPRESENTED IN FILMS?

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Racism is very predominant through the media. Often minorities are represented negatively, deemed poor, lacking education or criminals. This thus creates a lot of stereotypes, which heavily impacts the real lives of these unfortunate people. Just like females, minorities are often portrayed as sidekicks, in need of a higher authority (normally a Caucasian person) to guide them and make orders.

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When women are not being represented as below men, they are being represented as people who are constantly in need of men. It is very common in films to make women appear as weak to emphasise the strength and power of male protagonist. To further accentuate this, women somehow always find themselves in a situation where they are in trouble and consequently it is always a male who comes to the rescue. This is an example of negative representation, as it perceives women as unable to look after themselves, therefore not independent and also weak.
This type of representation is heavily portrayed in Thriller films, the genre that I used for my film. Most often it is women who find themselves getting murdered or in some sort of trouble first. An example of this is Scary Movie 1. In the title sequence of this film, the first victim is female. This character makes very oblivious and - what some would consider - un - intelligent decisions which lead her to being killed by the villain. During all of this, the female character wheres nothing but her bra, which highlights the fact that women are also very much sexualised in the media. This attire was not needed, only causing people to make more judgements and create more stereotypes. In conclusion, females play these roles in media. Either the understudy or sidekick, who answers to the higher male authority, the damsel in distress or the love interest, who is continuously sexualised.

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From the beginning of time, women have always been associated with the words submissive, vulnerable and weak in comparison to men, due to the mere fact that we live in a patriarchy society – where men hold a lot of power, which is constantly made clear in all aspects of our lives, from income to media. Male superiority is clearly predominant in films, just through the choice and position of female characters. In many films, women are sidekicks, understudies, staff and employees, forever answering to men. This point alone highlights women’s place in the hierarchy – right at the bottom, constantly having to take orders from men and seen a less important. An example of this is Hermione Granger, a female character from the film Harry Potter, who is perceived as a sidekick. Why is she perceived as a sidekick, despite the fact she is very intelligent, independent and possesses the same magical abilities as anyone else? Because she is constantly at Harry’s side. Answering to Harry. Requesting help from Harry. All these small tendencies are considered passive which accentuates men, or in this case Harry’s authoritive position and power over her.

In the picture below, just the mere fact that Harry is positioned in front of the female character, connotes dominance and power. Harry wears a determined and alert facial expression whereas Herminone, looks dazed and oblivious implying she is vulnerable   and unlike Harry, unable to look after herself.

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Representation is used in films to emphasise the differences between social groups and to also establish them. In order for this to be done “tendencies” of particular social groups are exaggerated or made clearer. These representations make films and characters easier to understand, basing reasons for their actions on elements such as age, gender, ethnicity etc.

Representation in films is intentional, from who they decide to cast to their mise en scene. For example if a film were to be made about the less fortunate, most likely a minority would be the chosen actor, as in the media they are constantly represented as people with low income jobs due to lack of education. And the setting would be in an area such as Hackney, as it has numerous cancel estates and is a place with a high crime rate. Film makers precisely choose these aspects of their film in order to create a clear image to the audience.

An example of this is the film Honey, a plot centred around crime and violence - set in New York's East Harlem and majority of the cast being minorities.

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Honey Official Trailer #1 - Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer Movie (2003) HD

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- AGE
- GENDER
- CLASS
-  RACE
So what is representation? Representation is simply how people are portrayed in a particular way and how they are seen. It is image created from the point of view of an individual or many people, however always has a deeper meaning that can sometimes create stereotypes, negative and positive. Representation can cause people to generalise, looking at a particular social group and immediately assuming that they behave a certain way, do certain things etc etc. An example of negative representation, is how women such as Michelle Obama and Nicki Minaj are represented as angry, aggressive black women; which thus creates the stereotype of the angry black girl narrative. However it can also be positive. People can be represented in ways that highlight their best qualities and allow people to see the best in them rather than simply assume the worst.