Representation of Gender in Cutting It

Representation of Gender in Cutting It

Within the clip from the TV Drama Cutting It, gender representations are shown through the man and woman in a romantic relationship. These representations of gender are shown displayed to the audience through the uses of editing, camera, Mise en Scen and sound.

Through the use of editing, women and men’s relationships are represented as fast pace, moving swiftly through modern day life. This perception is created with the use fast and multiple cuts in the first scene of the couple in the taxi. In the second third of this scene, there are 21 cuts between the couple during their conversation. Therefore, this demonstrates modern day relationships between male and females as being fast pace and hectic – due to their own stereotypical gender roles.
Secondly, the editing in this clip shows men as sensitive and emotional. This demonstration is shown after the man’s fiancé is hit by the bus subsequent to her hospital consultation of her health. The male’s facial expression is shown through a close-up shot of his face which has been slowed down after the filming process through editing. The slow-motion effect creates extra screen time for the man, emphasising his emotions during this scene. His facial expression is predominantly concerned and upset – showing that men are as emotional and sensitive as women, defying most representations of men in the media.

Thirdly, this clip represents women as being in command and taking the superior role in society. This representation is created through the use of pace, seen in the contrast of slow pace in the taxi scene, switching to fast pace once the couple get out the taxi and the woman takes charge of the conversation and narrative. The editing presents the woman as therefore being in charge through this power switch from being shared, to being held completely by the woman alone.

Lastly, the editing in this clip of Cutting It presents women as most important in the hierarchical scale of men and women. This representation is evident throughout the whole clip - the woman has the most screen time out of anything else in the clip, including her husband. This disobeys most media conventions - mostly showing the woman role as the weakest and least important.

The use of camera in this clip of Cutting It presents women’s problems as insignificant. This is seen in the obscured shot of cars passing in front of the woman upon leaving her hospital consultation and walking towards her fiancé. The cars obscuring the shot of the woman whilst she shouts the long-awaited news across the road makes her problems and important events of her life seem not worth paying attention to. Reflected onto society, this representation creates a perception of women as being less important than other events and people in the world.

Secondly, this clip provides the representations of men having the higher employment than women – being higher in the social hierarchy. This is shown in through the camera’s birds eye view shot of the doctor’s consultation room in the consultation scene. This shot shows the contrast of the male and female roles in the confined room – the male is the doctor, dressed in a suit and tie and has the knowledge. The woman’s role is seen as vulnerable – she is sat alone opposite the doctor in a different environment in every day clothes, not showing any skill.

Furthermore, the camera presents women as being capable of taking charge over a male in a relationship. This is shown in the close up shot of the woman moving her hand on top of the male’s in the taxi scene – asserting her authority above the male gender. The woman’s hand could represent which gender has the most control – in this instance, the female has the most control over the male.

Lastly, camera shows a representation of men having the most authority and importance. This is seen by the camera keeping the man’s head/ body centre shot throughout the whole clip. This use of camera makes reflects the societal norms of men being the top of the hierarchy in society – creating the audience to subliminally agree that the male figure is the most important in this clip, despite the narrative.

The use of Mise en Scen in this clip from the TV Drama, Cutting It, presents woman as innocent and angelic. This perception is created through the use of lighting upon departure from the taxi – the sunlight is directly on the woman’s face, whilst the man’s face is in the shadows. The light effect gives the woman a likable quality which additionally allows the audience to see the woman’s facial expressions with higher clarity – making her seem the more genuine and believable gender out both of male and female characters.

Secondly, the clothing use of Mise en Scen shows clear societal gender roles through the use of costume This is notable throughout the whole clip, the woman is dressed in a light-coloured dress and jacket, whilst the man is dressed in a suit of dark colours. Both of these outfits assigned to the characters allocate stereotypes of modern genders: women being feminine and men being authoritative and intelligent.

Furthermore, Mise en Scen in this clip shows women as having the most authority in a relationship. This is evident when the couple leave the taxi, the woman leaves the taxi before the man does – she is seen to be asserting her authority over her partner. This simple departure from the vehicle leads the audience to see the woman as having the most control over the audience. As the woman is taking charge, she is ‘reversing roles’ – roles which society has set.

Lastly Mise en Scen shows women as being associated with femininity at all times. This is evident in the last scene of the clip, showing the woman laying lifelessly on the floor, post being hit by the bus with a bird’s eye view shot. This shot shows the woman lying next to light pink tulips sprawled on the floor next to her own sprawled body. Even when almost dead, women are associated with femininity. The audience makes an association and connection between the woman and the flowers from this shot and use of Mise en Scen.

Representations of gender in this clip from Cutting it are shown through the use of sound. Sound create a perception of men being more emotionally attached to women than most media shows. This is evident in the clip of the woman being hit by the bus, upon the husband’s realisation, a dramatic, slow piano plays (non-diegetic). This music makes the audience empathize with the man – he is represented as emotional and attached.

Furthermore, both men and women’s lives are represented as unimportant and insignificant in comparison to modern day life. This is shown through sound in the taxi and all outdoor clips, the street sound and background noise level is seemed to be exaggerated through foley, instead of editing it out completely to focus on the dialogue (most TV Dramas and Films do this). This sound does not allow the audience to completely focus on the man and woman’s relationship, forcing them to believe that they are not the main focus – they are unimportant.

 Thirdly, woman’s lives are presented as highly important. This is evident in the scene of the crash where foley is used to emphasize the sound of the crash against the woman’s body. This emphasis causes the audience to pay their full attention to the woman and have concern of her life. She is presented as precious, reflecting all other women’s lives, through this use of sound.

Lastly, women are represented to have independence over men. This is evident in the dialogue after the couple leave the taxi, before the Doctor’s consultation where the woman says to the man “No, no, no, don’t come with me.” At this point, she is asserting her authority over the man and additionally proving her independence of assuring him she desires and can indeed go alone. This makes the audience believe that women’s traditional roles are changing and almost swapping with men’s as the most independent and authority.

Task 7 - Audience and cinema going statistics

• What days to audiences go to the cinema?

December (15,216,370) and July (16,590,400) and August (18,088,513) are the most popular months to go to the cinema worldwide, whilst June (10,707,878) and September (11,664,455) are the least popular - according to the UK Cinema Association 2015 survey.

• What are the most popular genres? 

Adventure with $45.5 billion in total box office from 1995-2017
Comedy with 42.5 billion      "
Action with $36.7billion       "

• What was the top film in each of these genres?

Top Adventure film of all time: Raiders of the Lost Ark with $248,159,971 total domestic gross
Top Comedy film of all time: Airplane! Domestic Total Gross: $83,453,539
Top Action film of all time: The Dark Knight - total domestic gross $534,858,444

• How do audiences hear about films?

Advertisement online and on mobile phones, print (newspapers, magazines, brochures, direct mail), guerrilla (interactive), broadcast (television, radio), outdoor (billboards, bus shelter, posters, times square), product placement.

• Do audiences prefer US, UK or other nationality films?

Biggest film industries in the world:

• Hollywood.
• Cinema of China.
• Bollywood.
• Yeşilçam or Turkish Cinema.
• Nigerian Cinema or Nollywood.
• Hong Kong Cinema.

• Do audiences like 3D films?

1. “Generally speaking, and aside from the fact that I’ll have to pay $20, I like 3D movies. It adds a neat effect to films.” -Kristin LeMunyon
2. “I like the idea of 3D movies, but they always give me a migraine.” - Andi Ware
3. “It’s just really uncomfortable for some people (me) to watch 3D movies especially people with glasses (me) who can’t wear contacts (me) and thus have to wear two sets of glasses to see the film.” - Sarah Maloy

Despite being expensive, film consumers enjoy the novelty of 3D films and most will pay the extra money just for the 3D effect.

• What other ways to audiences watch film aside from the cinema?

1. Online movie streaming sites: Amazon prime, netflix, etc
2. Online rental/ buying
3. DVD

• Who do audiences go to the cinema with?

Friends, significant others, family members, alone.

• When and where are most audiences likely to go to the cinema?

Most likely to their local cinema, sometimes to a more luxury cinema as a treat or for a special occasion. On a weekend or an evening time.

Task 6 - independent cinema

Independent cinema from Anneka Williamson

Task 5 - Independent film companies

Imagine entertainment from Anneka Williamson

Task 4- independent film

A street cat named bob from Anneka Williamson

Coming Down the Mountain PEEs

The representation of disability in Coming Down the Mountain is shown through the use of editing, sound, mise en scen, and the camera.
The camera makes Ben seem weak and insignificant in comparison to David (his able brother). The camera creates this through using constantly having David at the foreground of the scene and Ben behind him. Additionally the camera is always angled at a higher view, at the top of David creating David to look tall and Ben to look considerably smaller. This can be seen in both the holiday scene (In which David is high in the tree and Ben is on the floor behind him) and the party conversation scene - whilst David plans going out that evening with his friends, Ben stands behind David, seeming smaller than him due to the high camera angle.
These methods of camera work do make Ben seem weak and insignificant in comparison to his brother, David, due to Ben seeming considerably smaller and not at any use. This therefore creates a negative representation of disability.

Secondly, the camera work makes Ben and David seem separated and complete opposites from each other. This is seen in the first shot of the clip - a birds eye view of Ben and David's shared room which is split down the middle, clearly showing their differences and opposite personalities. This birds eye shot creates the perception that disabled people are mentally effectively opposites to able bodied people. This is shown through Ben's side of the room having child-like and colourful objects, toys and furniture which make him seem effectively younger than his actual age. On the other side of the room, David's half is decorated in a mature/ adult style with minimalistic furniture and neutral toned colours.
Therefore, this birds eye camera shot of the boys' bedroom creates a perception of disabled people complete opposites from able bodied people.

The editing in this clip creates the audience to feel sympathetic for people with disabilities. This is devised in the last shot of the clip of Ben seated alone on the bus. The editing in this clip forms the sympathetic feeling from the audience by slowing down the pace, making a shared focus on both Ben sitting alone and the group of friends behind him. This split focus creates a larger contrast between the social, and the alone. This makes Ben seem more lonely than he already was, creating the audience to feel sympathetic for people with disabilities.

The use editing also creates disabilities to be compared in likeliness to cavemen and less developed and evolved than able bodied people. Editing creates this conception by placing the black and white montage of evolution (which shows cavemen, fish, dinosaurs etc, but not modern humans) consecutively before a clip of a close up shot of Ben staring at his food for 4 seconds. This close comparison created by the editing makes Ben seem caveman-like and less developed
This conception created by editing makes a representation of disabled people being less evolved than usual.

The use of mise en scen creates disabilities to make people appear younger than able bodied people. This is shaped in the beginning birds eye view of Ben and David in their room. The effective use of mise en scen is this shot is seen where Ben is wearing child like pyjamas, in comparison to David who has slept topless, with just shorts, which is a significantly more mature form of sleepwear than Bens childish pyjamas. This makes people with disabilities seem less mature and developed, which is a negative representation.

The use of mise en scen additionally makes life seem miserable for a family with a disabled family member. This is created through the use of lighting/ colour correction throughout the whole clip. The lighting is dimmed and made to seem gloomy to reflect the family dynamic and make it seem miserable. It creates an added aspect to shape the whole clip, creating a pathetic fallacy throughout, emphasising the depressed feeling which David is expressing which he feels.
This makes the audience feel as if having a disabled family member is a burden to family life, making a negative representation.

The use of sound in this clip from Coming Down The Mountain creates Ben to seem unable and incapable of having fun with his able bodied peers. This representation of disability is created during the bus scene, where Ben is shown sitting alone in front of a group of people in his age group behind him experiencing fun. This is shaped through the use of sound by the kids behind Ben's speech being exaggerated by having the highest volume and being the focus of the clip. This is in comparison to Ben sitting alone in silence - the contrast creates the idea of disabled people being unable to have fun with able bodied people.

The use of sound in this clip from Coming Down The Mountain creates the conception that disabled people are an underlying burden to people who have them in their daily lives. This is created in the clip with sound in the first shot where David says, in narration "Last summer, I decided to kill my brother". The use of the verb "kill" provides the audience with an initial shock - especially due to this being the first speech heard in the clip. This use of sound enables the audience to shape their own implications regarding living with a disabled person, believing it must be an extremely agitating experience based on David's strong statement. Overall, this use of sound/ speech creates a representation of disabled people being a burden to live with.