Types of Types

There are three main types of types. These are:

ARCHETYPES
These are cultural character types handed down from generation to generation: the knight in shining armour, the damsel in distress, villain, the hero etc. Remember, though, these are not just fictional types: media texts can cast real people as archetypes too!

GENERIC TYPES
These are media generated character types that belong to particular genres. For example, you always get the same types of characters in Romantic Comedies: the ditzy girl who's never going to get a good boyfriend, but then ends up with the misunderstood hunk who is more than meets the eyes. In action movies there's the retired cop/soldier dragged out of retirement for one last case, the rookie officer whose enthusiasm and optimism gets him or her into trouble...and in horror there's the crazed killer who will stop at nothing to commit elaborate and gruesome murders, opposed by the Final Girl, often an isolated female who fights back with ferocity and cunning and usually escapes...
Remember here that, in this postmodern age of genre hybridity, generic types from one genre can all too easily appear in different genres. Voldemort, for example, fits a generic type from the horror genre, but appears in a children's action film.

STEREOTYPES
These are socially generated types that media texts use to enable audiences easily to identify certain features and behaviours in stock characters. For example, when a stereotyped teenager appears, audiences are comfortable with the hoodie-wearing, anti-social behaviour and defiance that this entails, even though this may not reflect the reality of what teenagers are actually like. Media texts can also play with this, however - after establishing a character as a stereotype, it is often interesting to develop them away from this idea. A good example of this is found in Misfits.

Representing Reality: The Five Modes

Transparent Representation of Reality

• This is the dominant Hollywood style
• The representation of reality does not draw attention to itself
• The camera, sound and editing allow the audience easy access to the story which unfolds in a logical order
• The world is recognisable, though people and events may be “larger than life” (more beautiful, more talented, more spectacular)
• Audiences must suspend disbelief and believe in the reality of the world if they are to enjoy the text

Social Realist Representation of Reality

• This style presents events drawn from “everyday” life – e.g. not “larger than life”
• Camera, sound and editing draw attention to the “authenticity” of the events – i.e. we would experience them like this in the real world
• Often called a naturalist or cinéma vérité documentary style

Fantasist Representation of Reality

• This is where the events depicted could not realistically be expected to take place in “real” life
• Camera work, sound and editing may be “expressionistic”
• Despite the fantasy, these representations will still have something to say about the real world

Anti-Realist Representation of Reality

• In this representation, attention is drawn to the process of making a film or constructing a story
• The actors may talk to camera, the camera may be in shot, events are out of sequence etc.
• These representations can also comment on the real world, even though they deny the possibility of a realist representation

Postmodern Representation of Reality

• Post-modern texts comment on other media texts rather than directly on the real world
• A central feature of “postmodernity” is that audiences make sense of the text, and derive pleasure from it, through their knowledge of other texts, rather than their knowledge of the real world
• Postmodernism is present in almost all contemporary media; we live in a post-modern world
• It is possible for a text’s representation of reality to be fantasist and post-modern, for example. Post-modern representation does not need to exist on its own.

Representation - Key Questions

When analysing representation, try to answer these five questions:

1.What sense of the world is this text making?
What kind of world does this text construct?
2.What does this text claim is typical of this world?
How are familiar types used as a form of shorthand to represent people?
3.Who is really speaking?
Who is in control of the representations in the text – whose values and ideologies are
expressed?
4.For whom?
Will different audiences make different readings?
5.What does it represent for us and why?
To what extent are the representations part of the struggle in the “real world” to either
maintain or change the power relationships between groups of people or sets of values
and ideologies?

Four Definitions of Representation

1.As re-presentation; i.e. presenting reality over again; reality is mediated through forms of representation available in culture.
2.As “being representative of” in the sense of being “typical”. This raises the question of what is “typical”.
3.In the sense of speaking for and on behalf of somebody or a group, i.e. representing them.
4.In recognising the existence of different audience responses to different kinds of representation

Richard Dyer (1985)

Children of Men

This week's lesson will begin to refine the focus of our textual analysis onto Representation. We will be looking at the ways Alfonso Cuaron establishes character, setting and location in the opening sequence of his suberb film Children of Men.

In addition we will be looking at his distinctive use of long, single take shots in the film as documented in the DVD extras, and exploring the contrast between the fast-cutting sequences in The Ring and the long single takes in Children of Men. You can watch the featurette on the making of Children of Men here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjNk-nxHjfM

Don't forget your analysis of the opening sequence of The Ring which is due in on Friday.

Good Blogs to follow

This looks like a really interesting blog - weekly posts on interesting media stories, linked to the excellent Media Magazine. Take a look!
http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/

The Ring analysis is due on Friday 17th September.
You can get the sequence on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYkw8PMyGAc

The key names are:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Katie: Amber Tamblyn
Becca: Rachael Bella

Any questions, come and find me!

Textual Analysis and J Horror

We began our exploration of textual analysis by looking at Simon Hynd's classic short Virus and exploring the use of the camera to create fear, tension and suspense. We couldn't, unfortunately, watch the equally chilling animation The Sandman although I will try and work around this for a future lesson.

Next time, we are looking at Gore Verbinski's remake of The Ring, exploring the following key areas:

• Use of the camera
• Soundtrack – diegetic and non-diegetic sound
• Representation and character
• Mise-en-scene and framing
• Special Effects
• Narrative structure

in order to answer the question: How does the director create fear and tension in The Ring?