DANI AS NOELLE & BEHIND THE SCENES OF CONCRETE

FINAL OPENING SEQUENCE : CONCRETE

EVALUATION QUESTION 7

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product & Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

  Concrete is a coming of age drama, which attempts to explore and challenge the dominant ideologies concerning with age, gender and ethnicity. This can be implied through Gramsci’s hegemony theory stating that the young are unintelligent, naïve and reckless, also the patriarchal beliefs that men are somehow above women, physically and mentally, and finally the hegemonic invert racism that is seen within the media.

  Through our media product, we managed to challenge some dominant ideologies through the use of key mise-en-scene elements which include costume, body positioning, props and camera language. Firstly, the costume of the protagonist is androgynous, and could be seen as gender-less, as she wears simple black jeans, a lose jumper and a light jacket. This is used in order to challenge the idea that female’s must always dress up in order to be observed by males. This notion can be implied within Laura Mulvey’s theory of ‘the male gaze’ which suggests that females in media texts are always viewed from a heterosexual male’s perspective, therefore are there to be looked at. Therefore, the costume used indicated that Noelle, who is the main protagonist isn’t shallow and materialistic, and also is aware of the capitalistic state that is the beauty industry who increasingly advertise beauty products that would make females ‘look better’ therefore increasing their insecurities of being without the product. This creates the hegemonic idea that women must at all times look presentable and ‘attractive’ which contrasts to the protagonist’s opinions conveying Noelle’s self-awareness. This is reinforced by the fact that she doesn’t wear much makeup within the film, only eyeliner which is barely noticeable. This shows the power of the beauty industry as even someone who is aware of it – still ends up with some indication of it. Another micro-element would be the body positioning of the protagonist and how it links to the camera language. Throughout the scenes Noelle positions herself as somewhat awkward yet casual, and she doesn’t seem to try to convey herself as overly feminine or masculine. Due to this positioning, the audience is able to observe the entire scene without distractions as her facial expressions and emotions aren’t overly dramatic or distracting. Instead, they are in some ways, mundane, which allows her to fit in with the context of the scene, in every location. However, this is backed up with many close up’s and extreme close ups which validate Noelle as being important within the opening sequence. These close up’s inferring importance challenge dominant ideologies of young people and teenagers being a waste of space due to capitalism which can be perceived within the Marxist theory of capitalism which implies that young people aren’t valuable or important as they do not have an income in the society. Therefore, teenagers are usually represented as trouble makers and altogether negatively within society. There were several props used within the opening sequence such as a wooden manikin, a desk lamp, a vintage camera and posters. These are all representative of the protagonist’s personality, as she is artistic – wooden manikin, used for art classes concerning proportion. She is ambitious and hopeful – the desk lamp, as light represents hope therefore she is hopeful for the future and the society. She can be seen as nostalgic – owning a vintage camera whilst there are modern technologies. This can be seen in the perks of being a wallflower as Charlie has a typewriter and a record player etc. The posters indicate her political awareness.

During the editing process, we decided to keep the opening sequence completely socially realistic by not affecting the lighting or the contrast through post production therefore throughout the film the footage is raw – intentionally. This creates the effect of grittiness and adolescence as a whole, this can be supported by the hand-held filming during the scene at the beach of her feet on the rocks. Keeping the contrast raw also ensures maximum quality of the film stock. This realism within editing was reinforced due to the amount of ambient non-diegetic sound used throughout, and the juxtaposition of the serenity of the sea-side and the busy city. Ambient sounds are used even during the voice – over which reinforces the reality of what Noelle goes through during her adolescence whilst being socially, self-aware whilst so many aren’t, especially due to her ethnicity. This can be implied through Stuart Hall’s theory of invert racism within the media therefore within society. As being an ethnic minority in itself presents many challenges that the protagonist must overcome. There are stereotypes set within society which imply that ethnic minorities, especially black people are somehow involved in the rap, and R’n’B culture by default. Which we also challenge, through the use of non-diegetic sound of an alternative band.  

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, challenge or develop forms and conventions of real media products?

Our choice of genre for the film is a coming of age drama, some of the real media products of this genre include: submarine, perks of being a wallflower, Palo alto and Respire (French film). There are many set conventions for this genre such as the use of both diegetic such as accents and ambient noises that represent reality, (Extreme) close ups throughout, in order to display emotions of the characters as it’s a drama which can be seen within all of the films that I previously stated. These extreme close ups can be seen within submarine when Oliver expresses how he feels about Jordana – these scenes usually also contains two shots and conversational shots using the 180 degree rule. Other conventions include the use of establishing shots in order to introduce the character’s to convey their social status, and social class status, which we have used in abundance, by exploring the scenery surrounding the protagonist such as the Brutalist Barbican, Seven Sisters Country park and a bedroom. These establishing shots also correlate to the mental stability and situation of the protagonist. Another convention of a coming of age film is to present the characters within a school setting usually using low and high angles when representing the different social groups making some seem inferior and other superior such as in the Perks of being a wallflower, whereupon Charlie was seen to be sitting alone in the canteen – using a low angel upon Charlie whilst panning to show other tables at the canteen with characters socialising and having fun; therefore excluding Charlie making him an outsider from the beginning. However, this seemed as too generic therefore we decided to not include a scene in the school and focus on teenagers when they are not in the school environment. We also followed the convention of containing voice overs in order to imply what is going on in the protagonists head/their thoughts which conveys their mental stability. This can also be seen in Submarine whereupon Oliver is established in a serene scene featuring long shots and his voice over of how he is feeling inside. During our opening sequence we also used a voice over, which was quite physiological and existential. Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. Therefore the voice over will link to the overall theme of the opening sequence and is supported by the establishing shots used. However we developed upon the conventions by using an ethnic female within our opening sequence. Whereupon most coming of age films are centred around a male protagonist we chose to challenge this by using two female protagonists. Some of the dominant ideologies surrounding ethnic women are that they are less intelligent, less aware, and more aggressive and loud than other races – those are all negative stereotypes, other media products involving black females usually sexualise and objectify them, as seen in the feminist theory of the Male gaze by Laura Mulvey in 1975 which states that all media texts are viewed from a patriarchal male’s point of view, usually showing off women’s bodies and making them something to look at rather than being a significant character. However in our opening sequence this idea will be completely eliminated by not seeing the protagonists as sexual objects, rather androgynous teenage girls from the costume choices to their body positioning - therefore allowing the audience to focus on the cinematography and the deeper meaning within the film. This can be seen in Palo Alto as the female protagonist is seen in baggy and indie clothing which isn’t sexualised – and she isn’t constantly done up with makeup and hair. Therefore, in many ways our product has succeeded in both sticking to conventions but also developing them. 

TYPOGRAPHY