Regional Identity

Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone isfrom. It could refer to a general areasuch a “north” or “south”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”

How is regional identity identified? 

1. Setting
2. Accents
3. Dialogue
4. Props
5. Make up
6. Class of characters
7. Costumes

Regions that represent the UK

·      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STIvNjWobzA

Stereotypes of Liverpudlians: 

1. Drunks
2. Limited Vocabulary
3. Agressive
4. Permed Hair
5. Funny Accents
6. Easy Going
7. Scouser

Various TV shows with their region

Shameless - 

1. accent
2. "daft bugger"
3. hiccuping (drunk)
4. urban grimy counsel house area (working/lower class) manchester
5.  foul language
6. no self respect

The only way is essex -

1. makeup
2. accent
3. "like"
4.  "bun"
5.  trouble pronouncing words
6. house music
7. fake tan
8. vein
9. well off in terms of money
10. wealthy lifestyle compared to Shameless

Made in Chelsea -

1. Camping in France
2. Well spoken
3. Suits
4. Dresses
5. Look after themselves

Regional Stereotypes:

Scottish - often shows as being money obsessed, won't pay for anything, drinks a lot of alcohol loves the outdoors, wears kilts, eats haggis, quite aggressive and violent

Welsh - often shown as living in the middle of the countywide, with people making jokes about them "shagging sheep"

Irish - often shown as living in the countryside, working in rural areas such as farms, being very religious, being good at dancing and singing, very friendly but less intelligent

English - often shown as being recast, obsessed with beer and football living in London. Sometimes the stereotype goes in the opposite direction of showing English people as very rich posh, happy, living in castles and being very "royal"

London – There are 2 main stereotypes of Londoners. One is that they are often shown as being rich, posh, snobby, upper class, Hugh Grant types from Central or West London. The other is that they often shown as being from north, east or south London, poor, common, lower class, criminalistic, violent “Kidulthood” style.

Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Often shown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals

Essex – often shown as being glamourous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid

Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned

Cornwall/Somerset – Often shown as being “backwards”, living in rural areas, working on farms

During the clip viewed, people from Devonshire or Cornwall are portrayed as socially insignificant. For example, the character from Devon was pranked into phoning his boss and complimenting him in a homosexual manner.

South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers, etc.

During the clip, people from the south of England were represented as wealthy since they were well dressed and work at a high class role

North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders, etc.

If regional identity is in the exam, think about the following things when watching the clip:  

A Touch of Frost, Representation of Disability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C6thBrPD6g

I will be analysing this extract from the television series 'A touch of Frost' and demonstrate how it represents disability. This will be demonstrated through the means of cinematography, sound, editing and mise-en-scene.

The high angle panning shot of Billy in the woods demonstrated him as a small figure. This represents someone that has a disability as vulnerable person and could potentially be taken advantage of. This then reflects to the public that disabled people could be viewed as insignificant due to the small figure presented.
The two person mid shot of Billy and his father during the discussion with Frost demonstrates Billy as helpless. This is because his father is constantly there to accompany him during the conversation. The viewers could view this as disabled people to be a burden to family members and other people since Billy always needs help with regular tasks.

The conversation between Frost and Billy's dad before the interview mentioned Billy as "Handicapped". This is a patronizing conversation towards Billy since they nullify his significance with their dialogue used. The viewers would also view this as disabled people are insignificant, null individuals.
During the conversation between Billy and Frost, Billy's dad interprets and explains Billy's slurred speech to Frost when Frost does not understand Billy. This represents Billy as an individual that constantly needs aid and cannot perform normal tasks individually. The viewers would understand this as disabled people to be a burden on society.

The shot reverse shot from Billy and Frost during their conversation shows Frost to have a much longer screen time than Billy. This is because Billy is portrayed as a character not worth viewing since he has a disability. This again patronizes Billy as well as other disabled people in the general public which would view this as unfair.
The slow phase camera shot changes between Frost and Billy also highlights Billy's slow understanding of the current situation. This is because Billy is a disabled person and is demonstrated as a slow understanding individual. This is also an unfair portrayal of disabled people.

Billy's clothing during the extract does not show anything of high value such as branded clothing. This implies that Billy is not worth any clothing due to his disability. This could impact the viewers since they would view the general amount of disabled people not worthy of high costing goods and clothing.

Representation of Disability

What dramas can you think of that have disables people in them?

Game of Thrones

Glee

What do you think of when you think of disability?

Disability makes me think of an individual that does not physically or mentally match up to what is considered to be a norman human being.

Key Statistics of the disabled

 

There are over 6.9 million disabled people of working age which represents 19% of the working population. There are over 10 million disabled people in Britain, of whom 5 million are over state pension age.

Medical model of disability: Shakespeare (1999)

The media throughout history has depicted disability through the use of impairment, Shakespear points out in his article about disability in film.

'impairment is made the most important thing' and disabled characters are 'objectified and distanced from the audience'

The media has focused on portraying impairment through the influence of the medical model of disability.

- disabled peoples inability to interact in normal daily life is a direct result of their physical and/or medical impairment

- Eg. Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carole'  'Cripples' child of Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, is defined by his disability and will only survive through medical intervention.

Disabled Bond Characters:

Raoil Silva

Blow-feldt

Dr No

How does this affect the way the disabled are presented?

Annotate within this an analysis of the following clips

Inbetweeners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvTgvEzpSzQ

The clip is funny since it has various methods of humour such as 'Juggasaurous rex' and the accusation of stealing from the disabled girl.

The disabled in this clip are represented as having the inability to interact in normal daily life due to their impairment which matches up to Shakespeare's medical model (1999).

Morally, we are not meant to laugh at the disabled person. However the disabled person is not directly laughed at since it involves one of the main characters during the clip.

I think that disabled people would respond to this in a negative manner since it portrays disabled people as nullified objects that are used for humour.

Lifes too short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jtTjfEW7iQ

The clip in funny since there was a huge misunderstanding with which washing machine to dump and that resulted in him being left in anger.

Warwick is represented as a disabled individual that needs other peoples help to get by in life.

Again, we are morally not meant to be laughing at Warwick because of his disability. However the clip is directed in a way that humour is bombarded to the audience which does bring about laughter to Warwick.

I think Warwick is the butt of the joke since the majority of the focus is on him and all of the humour is generated by him also.

This clip relates to Paul Hunts stereotypes such as the stereotype of being laughable and being unable to participate in daily life.

This also complies with Shakespeare's' stereotype since since it depicts Warwick as his own worse enemy.

Paul Hunt (1991) identified 10 stereotypes that the media use to portray the disabled

- The disabled person is pitiable of pathetic

- An object of curiosity or violence

- Sinister of evil

- The super cripple (1 legged runners)

- As atmosphere

- Laughable

- His/her own worst enemy

- As a burden

- As Non-sexual

- Being unable to participate in daily life

Luther: Theory and Codes Analysis

www.dailymotion.com/video/x3j1k7m

www.dailymotion.com/video/x3jafb1

In episode 1 and 2, season 4 there can be narrative theories that can be applied such as Barthes, Todorov, Propp and Levi Strauss’ theory. I will identify these theories and explain how they are present.

There are characters that are used to give the media text structure and understand according to Propps theory. Luther is easily identified as the role of the hero since he is seeking out Chloe and Archie Morley’s murderer. Steven Rose and George Cornelius are both villains since they obstruct the hero, Luther, in what he is searching for. Steven is the murderer of Chloe and Archie and escaped from Luther to avoid being arrested. After being handcuffed to a radiator for a day by Luther in the first episode, George placed a price on Luther’s head having hit men look for him. This also obstructs Luther from achieving what he is seeking for. Chloe and Archie and identified as the victims since they were murdered in the opening sequences in the first episode. Emma and Theo, who are also detectives, play the roles as helpers for Luther since they both aid the hero in finding Steven Rose through their detective work.

The hermetic, proairetic and semantic codes can also be applied to the two episodes from Barthes theory. For example, the proairetic code is applied when Theo approaches the refrigerator in the first episode with a point of view camera shot. This built tension and indicated something else is going to happen, leaving the viewer guessing what will happen next.

Semantic codes are also identified in the first episode. For example, in the opening sequences Chloe finds a black crow after tension was built for the audience, thinking that there may be another person in the house upstairs. The colour black connotes to death and suffering. This shortly happens after this scene of finding the bird because Chloe was murdered by Steven at this time.

The hermeneutic enigma code is also used to generate mystery in these episodes. For example, in the first episode the murderer, Steven Rose, was hidden from the audience which kept the audience asking who the murderer is.

Toderov’s theory can also be identified in these episodes in multiple ways. For example, there was an equilibrium in the first section in the opening episode when Luther was in his place. Then the disequilibrium was presented when Luther was informed of Alice’s death. This was shortly acknowledged by Luther and was in the process of solving in the second episode, believing that Alice is not dead. Another version of disequilibrium would be the numerous murders by Steven Rose. This was acknowledged by Theo, Emma and Luther to solve the murder mystery. This then moved onto the process of solving when Luther entered the abandoned building where Steven had the family trapped. The solving of this disequilibrium was then Steven was shot by Emma who also entered the abandoned building. The equilibrium was again established when the family trapped were released from Steven Rose.

I think that this storyline has a vast open narrative since there could have been many results when tracking Steven. He could have gone dark and escaped the detectives, for example. However there was a closed narrative involved since it’s almost natural to have the hero achieving his role while the villain is stopped, thus the death of Steven Rose.

Barthes Enigma Code

Roland Barthes was a semiologist and described narratives as a ball of string.

An open narrative is the story can turn out in a lot of ways.

A closed narrative is the story can turn out in one way.

The Hermeneutic enigma code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader.

The purpose of the author in this is typically to the keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved.

Enigma Code

The proairetic action code also builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

Action code - applies to any action that implies a further narrative action. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be.

The Hermeneutic and Proaitetic Codes work as a pair to develop the story's tensions and keep the reader interested. Barthes described them as: 'dependant on, two sequential codes: the revelation of truth and the  coordination of the actions represented'

The Semantic code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.

Semantic code - any element of a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by the way of connotation.

The Symbolic code is very similar to the semantic code but acts at a wider level organising semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. This is typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas.

Binary opposites: Levi Straus believed that the world was split into a series of 'binary opposites.; Essentially one thing can only be defined in relation to something it isn't.

Representation of Class and Youth in Ill Manors

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1760967/

Ill Manors

In this essay I will demonstrate the class and youth of Ill Manors are represented through the means of editing, mise-en-scene, cinematography and sound. Ill manors is a BBC produced film directed by Plan B. It is a British drama highlighting the drug dealing and criminal attitudes and actions of the British society. The main characters that are focused on are four drug dealers, a drug user and two prostitutes to highlight these criminal attitudes.

In the opening sequences of the film, time lapse and montage editing is used to bombard the viewer with information. The information consists of drug use and drug taking. The bombardment of this information represents the youth as criminals with the stereotype of rebellious to the law. This relates to Ann Goulds theory of the representation of youth. Ann identified the stereotypes of the youth as rebellious, sexual, artificial tribe, self destructive, nihilistic and violent. Therefore this montage and time laps editing conveys this rebellious stereotype in the opening sequences of the film. 
The slow dissolve edit in between camera shots during the montage of Kirby organizing drugs for dealing represents his underclass since the dissolve edits are viewed as slow phase work, unlike benig in employment. This relates to Swale's theory from 2006 that identifies Kirby as NEET, not in employment, education and training. Therefore the dissolve edits represent the underclass of Kirby.

Mise-en-scene are used to represent the youth such as the hoodies that the younger characters wear. This represents the youth as thugs and criminals which intentionally cause crime. This also relates to Ann Goulds stereotypes as well as Greg Philo's theory of the 'Hoodie Cinema'. This means that anybody under the middle class in inserted into the 'Hoodie Cinema' meaning that the youth are a thug in a hoodie.
Mise-en-scene such as drugs also represent the working and underclass of the characters such as Kirby. This represents the characters as lawbreakers which are usually identified in these classes by the general media. This relates to Butch's thory from 1992 that the working class are flawed individuals. Therefore the drugs in the film represent the characters in a under and working class with flawed characteristics.

Cinematography is used to represent the youth such as the panning shot showing Kirby, the prostitute and her son in Kirbys drug room from a high angle camera shot. This demonstrates the characters as small figures and would be viewed as a little significance in the general society. This relates to Gramsci's theory of the lower youth class shown in a negative light since they have little significance to general society. This means that the high angle shots represent the youth in a negative light.
Cinematography is also used to represent the status of the characters such as the close up, high angle camera shots of Ed in prison which represents him as an underclass. This demonstrates Ed as also a small figure as well as the claustrophobic, grimy room which represents him as a criminal since he is in such conditions. This also relates to Swale's theory from 2006 which identifies him as NEET and Butches theory which represents him as a flawed individual. Therefore Ed is depicted as an underclass individual.

Sound is also used to represent the youth such as the soundtracks used that have lyrics narrating the story of a group of youths drug taking. The instrumental of sound the soundtrack also used is related to grime artists. The audience would therefore make the association as grime music with criminal youths as lawbreaking and rebellious. This relates with Ann Goulds theory with the youth being identified with the stereotype as rebellious. It also relates to Cohens theory as it restricts the youth to represent themselves otherwise it would cause 'moral panic' withing society.
Sound is also used to represent the underclass since the dialogue used by the characters include numerous swearing and incoherent sentences. This means that they were poorly educated and therefore speak in this manor as apart of the underclass. This also relates to Butches theory which shows the working and underclass as flawed individuals. Therefore the dialogue used represents the characters as underclass.