Social-realism posters

Social-realism posters are often very blunt and simple pictures, usually, of the main characters with plain expressions on their faces which can often represent suffering. The colours are often dull; mainly blue. This denotes coldness and hard times.

Binary oppositions

Binary oppositions

Binary oppositions are characters/things that go against each other through narratives.

For example

Good vs evil
White colours (showing purity) vs Black colours (showing darkness)
Cowboys vs indiands
Masculine male vs less masculine male
Law vs criminal

Example in film - Gandalf (good) Vs Saruman (bad)
If you have seen the film you will notice saruman is a bad reflection of Gandalf. This relates to my film as the two boys are brothers and the younger brother is the good sibling and the older brother is the bad sibling. We also have parents and the children as binary oppositions. Here, the parents are representing authority.

Ideology and stereotypes in our 3 main characters

Ideology and stereotypes in our 3 main characters

Girl - Teenage pregnancy, sex before marriage, cheating on boyfriend etc. All these characteristics Go against the traditional views we have on stereotypical teenage girls and even women.

Younger brother- Caring, timid, sensitive, however smokes cannibis - Not particularly masculine characteristics.

Older brother - Ladies man, thinks he's a hard man, likes to stand out and be ahead of other males. smokes cannibis, drinks alcohol most weekends. Aggressive, angry, strong - Very masculine properties.

Younger brother and older brother are binary oppositions.

Todorovs narrative theory in visual

Todorovs narrative theory in visual

Ideology

Ideology is the system of belief in our society  These beleifs dominate our media. This is called dominant ideology. Dominant ideology is ideology that is accepted and understood by most of our society as part of our expectations in our culture. For example getting married before children. These examples are not always realistic beliefs in our society due to development in our culture but our media still potrays these beliefs. Children before marriage beleif relates to our film as the main plot is about an underage girl becoming pregnant. Teenage pregnancy is looked down on majorly in a modern day british society, however it has been a popular thing over recent years. Here is a more detailed explaination of ideology by Stuart Hall discussing racist ideology. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ot-LpRVQog

Narrative theory

Narrative theory

In media terms, narrative is the organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.

Represenation

Representation in the media

Representation is the message something portrays. For example a picture of a woman in the kitchen could represent that stereotypically women are always in the kitchen. Sometimes representation of some things are questioned as different people would interpret things in a different way.

Here is a professor called stuart hall talking about representation and the media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY

Storyline

Story line

3 main characters.
Two brothers - one 15 one 18
one girl - 15 - Younger brothers girlfriend.
All working class.
Older brother goes behind younger brothers back by having sex with his girlfriend.
The younger brother has always been the favourite sibling out of the two, older brother was jealous, always put down by feeling not good enough, so he had it away with the younger brothers girlfriend to get revenge.
Girl finds out she is pregnant. tells the boyfriend.
Younger brother (boyrfiend) notices his older brothers jewllery at girlfriends house. finds out the girl has had sex with him.
Brothers have a huge fight at home about it, breaks family apart, brothers get kicked out of their house. living on the street, sometimes at their freinds. stealing food from shops.
Brothers meet in the street, have a second fight and grow apart.
TWIST - Girl has slept with another guy but hasnt admitted it.
None of the brothers turn out to be the dad. The other guy is, family squash their differences and are happy families.

Codes and conventions

Codes and conventions of social realism

Friendship groups

Urban estates/slums

Police & Law

      

Riots

Marriage

 

                                                         

Towns

    

Racism

Drugs

Protests

Pregnancy

Drugs

Violence (family and on the street)

  

Family

Government

Goverment and law