Stereo Types- Rachel Green ( Friends), Machonne (The Walking Dead), Jack Bauer (24), Tom Branson (Downton Abbey)

Rachel Green

Rachel Green is a protagonist in the world famous tv drama “Friends,” known for her stunning looks, vanity and ‘work ethic,’ she is probably one of tv’s most typical female stereotyped characters. Her personality evolves and transforms during the series from a spoiled narcissist, who relies on her father’s wealth to get her through life, to a less self-centred and more likeable character. She grows from a suburban girl-

-who dreams of being the wife of a doctor and spending her time shopping, to that of a single mother with a career. This is very stereotypical as she is a character who has life very easy and ‘everything is going her way,’ she doesn’t have to work she has fantastic looks and she is married within the first episode. Rachel's focus on vanity comes at the expense of domestic skills or common knowledge. After she had worked at Central Perk for two and a half years Gunther forces Rachel to retrain, because she does not know the essentials of work, such as where to stack trays. On the other hand the stereotype is broken as she turns into a working class, independent woman who has to start a whole new life in the real world. This is much closer and more relatable to the people who view the show.

Over the course of the series Rachel is more and more sexualised as she has approximately fifteen sexual partners by the end of the series. The viewers don’t see her as a sexual object but merely a woman in need of a man presence, she falls for men very easily which could be clichéd however she only really has one true love “Ross” who she marries twice. This is the largest cliché of the series as Rachel and Ross are either together or “On a break,” despite all their fights they still end up together, this is a lot like a romcom, but personal to them, it is a side plot for the whole series. We know that Rachel thinks highly about her own personal looks as she received plastic surgery on her nose, which she claims was due to a deviated septum. Monica is a great part of Rachel’s life and character, during the time they lived together, the pair live in relative harmony, despite their conflicting personality types, most notably when concerning household chores. Monica is portrayed to be extremely uptight and demanding, whereas Rachel is shown to rarely do chores and be unaware of where items such as the vacuum cleaner are kept.

Michonne

Michonne is a fictional character in the famous series “The Walking Dead” She has a predominant role in season 3 and becomes a major force within the group and as a character, becoming the main female protagonist and Rick's right-hand woman. She breaks the stereotype of weak and needy women in this action drama, tv thriller. Michonne is one stereotypical lead as she is a woman and black. She exceeds her potential and in my opinion one of the best tacticians in the series. She is uncharacteristically physically and mentally strong as spent the first two series on her own defending and surviving. She is seen as an outsider of the strong links of camaraderie already between the groups.

Michonne tends to work alone and quietly and keeps much of her past secret, even towards Andrea who is her closest companion, but still fights for the survivors defence. said that she "trusts her gut" when it comes to other survivors. After the loss of her boyfriend, she suffered from hallucinations in which she would talk to him, this shows that she is not the strong woman she shows on the outside she does have glimpses of the stereotypical emotional side of women. It was revealed that she likes art and/or sculptures as she looted a cat sculpture and claimed that was "too damn gorgeous" to leave behind. This could display a bit about her background, the fact that she looted could lead characters to think she did have a criminal history, which would link in with the harsh stereotype of ‘African American people as criminals,’ which of course is a horrendous accusation. Her dress sense is almost military like as she wears combat pants with boots suggesting she could have some military training moreover this would link in with her impressive display of strength and here ability to wield a katana. She doesn’t have much dialogue as her facial expressions speaks for her, this is commonly a close up or even an extreme close up used.  The emotion and love she used to have was lost but as time goes on she regains her emotions as she interacts more mostly with Rick and Carl and becomes more caring and now is accepted as a member by the whole group. Michonne appeared to have an aversion to babies, as she refuses to hold Judith (Lories baby) until Beth forced her to, she shed tears; this could be displaying how her unstereotypical hard front has been weakened by the commemoration of a babies touch. She is always found thick within the action, this displays that she never shies away, she works for the group to gain their respect and actually attains a higher rank in the metaphoric hierarchy than any of the other women and most men.

Jack Bauer 

Jack Bauer is a fictional character and the lead protagonist of the Fox series 24. 

Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is a typical male action hero. He is dedicated as a agent for the Counter Terrorist Unit which in turn causes the loss of things he holds most dear. In striving for a normal life with his family, like most government agents do, Jack is finding it difficult to keep his personal life out of the work place. He is a stereotypical relatable rogue secret agent that is frequently seen in TV dramas and spy thrillers. He is a patriot and would do anything for his country but only one thing comes before the country his family.  He works a unforgiving merciless government agency which sees Jack as their elite agent. Bauer tends to take matters in to his own hands usually going against strict orders and taboo laws. Bauer's job usually involves preventing major terrorist attacks on the United States, saving civilian lives and key politicians; to do this Bauer has to have ease of movement in his clothing, he typically wears combat and lightweight materials sometimes accompanied by a bullet proof vest. Bauer wears these clothes as it means he can move and chase antagonists without the added weight of heavy clothing. Jack never wears colorful clothing, which may display his character, as he is a very serious man however it could just be a camouflage. “24” is set in California; one of the highest criminal areas in the USA, Jack it is fitting that all of the terrorist action occurs there where Bauer is nearby. Jack being the main protagonist opens the TV drama with a repeated phrase “I’m Jack Bauer and this is the longest day of my life!” The show uses a voiceover, which of course is taken from jack’s point of view. This is non-diegetic sound, which usually is impersonal, is spoken in first person it gives the viewers and insight to Jacks thoughts and tactics. Jack as the protagonist always addresses people with respect and this can sometimes affect his judgment on people. He is a calm man however when he wants something done he will not hesitate to shout (diegetic) and strike fear into his victims. Jack is extremely devoted to both family and country we see his determination in numerous close-ups and sometimes extreme-close-ups; jack is heavily involved in most tracking shots and action montages where Bauer prevails as a stereotypical action protagonist would.

Tom Branson

Once an Irish republican, Tom Branson became a chauffeur at the Uppercases Mansion Downton Abbey, he escaped from Ireland as a rebel. Tom Branson arrived at Downton and immediately becomes curious about Lord Grantham’s youngest daughter, Lady Sybil. Branson come from a middle class family and did not fit the stereotype of a rich Lord living in ‘old’ England such as Lord Grantham. Luckily he manages to persuade Carlson and Lord Grantham that he can work as a chauffeur where he thought he belonged. Tom takes up the stereotypical occupation of a working class man looked down on by the upper class. He would never have dreamed that he would be transformed and almost converted into a ‘Lord.’ He used to despise the people he know calls family as he once believed in the ideology of change and futurism. As a porter he wore a uniform displaying his class and occupation and most of all outlining the difference between him and the owners of the Abbey. Tom falls in-love with Lady Sybil much to lord Grantham’s disagreement that his daughter would not marry pre rich man. Tom wears a uniform for most of the first and second series, which again shows the difference from the people upstairs and downstairs. By the third series where his love for Sybil is true and proved he gains the right to come upstairs after forming great bonds with Lady Grantham and Mary.                                                  

We see a large transformation in

the stereotype of Branson as he adjusts from a small town Irish republican to an English Aristocrat. This is now where the clothing, language and dialect and location are all changed as he now wears tuxedos on suits to conform with the dress code and sine he has been approved of he now sleeps in lady Sybil’s room instead of his own. Tom is also allowed to eat upstairs and have proper food unlike the monotonous amounts of stew he was served downstairs. Despite his upgrading tom still manages to have a strong link with the downstairs group especially with Mrs Patmore and Mrs Hughes. This large breakdown of his stereotype of a working class man and the transformation into a new stereotype effects the whole scheme of the show as he now gains more and more dialogue and screen time which include some intimate scenes; the viewers now see him as part of the family and not an outcast. Once a small part and in some opinions a part time character is now a leading protagonist and my favourite character in Downton Abbey.

Preliminary Task Video: The Disappearance of Tabitha

This video is the final version of our preliminary task, this en-tales all the footage that me and my group were involved in filming, acting in and editing in. I edited most of the clips with suggestions and advice from my group. We thought it would be a disadvantage to the final product to put any effects onto the clips as this would give an unrealistic feel to the gritty realism, the theme we were going for would be destroyed. I have heightened bits of speech that were quiet so that the viewers can hear everything the actors say. As a group we spent a lot of time analysing and choosing between the different angles and shots we had. I believe that we have kept to the theme we began our task with; if you look at the story board and original script there are a few differentiations and adaptions however we believe that the final piece looks fantastic. We know that it can obviously be improved if we had a longer time period to finalise and spend time on the smaller details by adding in effects and more transitions. We have managed to embed sound into the background, this adds to the intensity of the scene. We have used some sound effects but only a few because we didn't want to overcrowd the tense and serious scene with uncharacteristic sounds. There was a last minute change at the end, before the upload, which we thought would leave the viewers guessing, you will just have to wait and see...

(Note: the resolution isn't that brilliant, your best viewing will be on small screen)

What Went Well?

• The pre planning: Storyboard, camera angles and directions and the action and dialogue.
• The direction and decision making when filming the video was brilliant as we gained all the clips we needed to make a successful film, using numerous camera angles.
• The editing on Final Cut Pro was successful as the clips run quite smoothly.
• The Script and dialogue was successful as there were no barriers or confusion for the viewers.
• The plot was effective as it wasn't difficult to follow and therefore gave ease of viewing the public.

What Failed

• The lighting in the room we filmed in caused a few problems with reflections on the camera and in some place there were clips where it was to light or too dim.
• The resolution of the final clip.

What Could Be Improved

• The resolution of the final product could be clearer which in time will be fixed and therefore in the final task this will be a key point to improve on.
• The lighting could have been controlled, which in the final task will also be a concern and therefore more care and consideration will be taken.
• The speech of myself could be improved luckily I was able to heighten the speech in the editing process, next time I will make sure to pronounce my words louder.
• The credits could be improved as Ben and Luke's Credits don't have enough screen time ( due to the lack of knowledge on Final Cut Pro) we were unsure how to prolong this.



Movie Genres: Action, War, Romantic Comedy

Action

An action movie is a movie in which the plot moves quickly from one dramatic event to another and which typically involves a protagonist combating antagonist. Typically in action movies one or more protagonist are thrown into a series of challenges that typically include physical feats and challenges, extended fight scenes, violence, frantic chases and most typical of all the montage. Action films tend to feature a character who in the past tends to have had some sort of military or combat training which he manages to use to "save the day" against incredible odds. Most action heroes for example: Bruce Willis in  Die Hard, Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando and Sean Connery in Bond all face life-threatening situations, a villain, or a pursuit which generally concludes in victory for the protagonist.



Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) 

There is a strong stereotype in action heroes, they are generally male as dominance and strength is expected from and action hero, usually they have special army or combat training which helps them prevail in thew many fight scenes they endure. A common stereotype is of race, this isn't usually picked up however most action protagonists used to be white American or British eg Connery or Eastwood. This description is only recent, before we had the extensive use of CGI that we use monotonously now action was in the popular sub genre of Westerns. If you close your eyes and imagine a stereotypical Western movie. Do you see: the guns? The horses? The sheriff? The whisky? The hero? Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry, a nostalgic  and unique eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier (the borderline between civilisation and the wilderness). They are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres. Western heroes are often local lawmen or enforcement officers, ranchers, army officers, cowboys, or a fast-draw gunfighter. They are normally masculine persons of integrity and honour, - courageous, moral, tough, solid and self-sufficient, maverick characters (often with sidekicks) Western protagonists are usually depicted as slow  talking or untactful to say the least however most could usually stand alone and face danger on his own, against the forces of outlaws or other antagonists. They tend to show expert displays of his physical skills (roping, gun-play, horse-handling, pioneering abilities, etc.).The 'first real movie' of the classical Western genre was Edwin S. Porter's pioneering western The Great Train Robbery (1903). It was responsible for the one-reel, 10-minute long film.

Action was met with a huge deposition in the 1980s as Asian influenced martial-arts-themed action movies, such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973) and Way of (or Return of) the Dragon (1972), exploded onto western cinema screens. This took the western viewers by surprise, the cliches of white male actors soon would be destroyed as Asian actors such as Jackie Chan hit the stage.

The 1980s would see the action film take over Hollywood to become a dominant form of summer blockbuster. "The action era" was popularised by actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Chuck Norris. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas even paid their homage to the Bond-inspired style with the mega-hit Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). In 1982, veteran actor Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy smashed box office records with the action-comedy 48 Hrs, credited as the first "buddy-cop" movie. That same year, Sylvester Stallone starred in First Blood, the first instalment in the popular Rambo film series. The film proved to be successful and was followed with a sequel in 1985, Rambo: First Blood Part II, which became the most successful film in the series and made the character John Rambo a pop culture icon. This was the era where hard hitting action protagonists became the stars they still are today. Typically this was where there was one main protagonists typically muscular and always saves the day. Characters such as John McClain, John Rambo, John Matrix. You may have picked up that all these famous action starts are given he same name, this displays the idea that all characters are universal, it makes the viewers think that they are just the same as the protagonists. A typical action hero in this time tended to wear vests or tank tops which displayed their muscles, therefore showing their strenght and dominance. Usually action heroes have a catch line or famous line in the movie which depicts the whole movie.

Famous Action Protagonists

In recent times from the 1990's- to now there have been huge advancements in CGI it has been  have made cheaper and easier to create action sequences and other visual effects that required the efforts of professional stunt crews in the past. However, reactions to action films containing significant amounts of CGI have been mixed as films that use computer animations to create unrealistic, highly unbelievable events are often met with criticism. Typically CGI is used in large explosions and superhero films such as the "The Avengers Assemble."

 In superhero has: Extraordinary powers or abilities, a strong moral code, A secret identity, A distinctive costume, A headquarters or base of operations and a back story. The superhero Stereotype has been played on in many different ways throughout the time of films, each hero tends to have slightly different traits and is unique however they all share the same morals. It is very cliche that all the superheros throughout time have always wanted to help humans even though they are seen as outcasts at first. It is usual in all superhero films that the protagonist has to gain the respect and trust of the humans. There are different takes on how these films end, there tends to be a theme that the hero goes back into hiding forever ( well until they are needed again AKA next film) or they become almost famous of celebrity status, "Iron Man."

Women in Action

Ursula Andress 1962

The male stereotype overcasts the women in action, it is unusual for women to be seen as the main protagonist in an action movie. They are usually seen as desirable but weak as they tend to be caught and are taken hostage and used as bait to attract the male protagonist. This is a common feature in James Bond Films, the best example would be  in Casino Royale when the woman is captured in Venice. Women are stereotyped tremendously in the media and in this instance action films; it is typical to find a woman who is intensely sexualised this is generally done using the male gaze, there are two types of gaze in this era, voyeuristic and fetishistic.Women usually where revealing and scantily clad clothing; Halle Berry is a victim of the male fetishistic gaze as she is very sexual in "Die another Day" this was a repetition of Ursula Andress, the first ever bond girl.

 This topic is subject to debate as the characteristics that most women have are as follows:

Frightened easily;

in need of protection and direction;

offering support for male characters;

no independence or self belief;

not self driven and weak;

still objectified sexually.

The last point is emphasised as the two images opposite display how women have been stereotyped and sexualised for over 40 years as Die another day was released in 2002 and Dr No was released in 1962.

Kill Bill is a brilliant example of breaking the mould in stereotypes, Uma Thurman is the main protagonist, she is dominant and independent; even though she wears a tight latex costume the idea is that she isn't meant to be thought of a a sexual item.

War

War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air, or land battles, they sometimes focus on prisoners of war and the fight, battle tactics and strength it takes to retrieve them, covert operations, military training, or other related subjects. Sometimes war films focus on daily military life and the drills and camaraderie in wartime without depicting battles. Their stories may be fiction, based on history, docudrama, biographical, or even alternate history fiction. Themes explored in war films include combat, survivor and escape stories, tales of sacrifice, studies of the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and explorations of the moral and ethical issues raised by war.

Anti-war film is sometimes used to describe films which bring to the viewer the pain and horror of war, often from a political or ideological perspective, in order to express opposition to a specific war (such as the Vietnam War) or to the concept of war in general.This gives the movie a hard hitting and gritty realism theme.

Generally in war films the protagonists are males, it is uncharacteristic to have a woman at war due to the moral reasons which we seem to continue to this day. There is usually a group of comrades weather they are a platoon or just a group of soldiers who have met due to chance or they are specially picked and trained by their leader. The soldiers tend to have some connection to each other whilst their characteristics are quite diverse. The characters in the group are all protagonists however a selected two or three tend to have the most screen time as they are either the leader or sub-leader in the platoon.

The stereotypical patriotic universal symbol of the khaki in battle and uniform at camp follows the prototypical idea of war times, it is an essential part of the mise en scene in war movies. Any military operative is inclined to be neat and dressed smartly on inspection. There is a strong stereotype about each member of the platoon usually one character takes up the characteristics of: sarcasm, leadership and inspirational, strength, weakness, brains and

hatred for war.

The setting of a war film can be one of two either on the battlefield where mortar shells and gunfire are controlling all sound in the scene. The battle field scene tends to cause the rating of the film to be higher than usual. There tends to be a lot of graphical and gore ridden scenes where imagery which could be left to the imagination is shown in full detail. For example: intestines spilling out of a mans body whilst his whole body is going into shock. There is a brilliant display of camaraderie and gore in "platoon" one of the greatest war films ever made following the storyline of a platoon making their way through the Vietnamese occupied territory, where the tactics of gorilla warfare where heavily displayed.

Romantic Comedy

Romantic comedy, also known as a Rom Com is a genre which combines romance with comedy. The general plot tends to focus on two or more individual protagonists as they discover and attempt to deal with their romantic love, attractions to each other. They began as individuals but end together as a couple, despite any difficulties and previous commitments.The stereotypical plot line follows the "boy-gets-girl", "boy-loses-girl", "boy gets girl back again" sequence. Naturally, there are countless varieties to this plot some may include twists, such as reversing the gender roles in the story. For example: 'Brekafast at Tiffanies.' Most of the comedy is generally lighthearted, the comedy stereotypically entails social interactions and sexual tension between the characters, who more often than not either refuse to admit they are attracted to one another, or must deal with others' meddling in their affairs.

In a typical romantic comedy the two lovers tend to be young, business minded, busy and of course attractive.

The directors tend to pick a perfect what is thought to be a girlfriend ie- beautiful, slim, long blonde, black or brown hair, good dress sense, humorous and they tend to be sexualised. On the other hand men are usually depicted as strong, very fit (typical six pack) handsome, perfectly placed hair, suave; looks good in a suit and very flirty and sexually attractive. There tends to be a universal majority of writers that believe that the two characters are apparently meant for each other, yet they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance such as class differences, parental interference; a previous girlfriend or boyfriend or friends until, surmounting all obstacles, they are finally wed. The couple in a romantic comedy will have different viewpoints on ethical or moral arguments,  or a cultural conflict. They are characters who would not ordinarily meet. One character may be more sympathetic, usually an underdog figure from a humble background, while the other character may have a privileged life. A few of these movies include "Maid in Manhattan" and "The Proposal." Regardless of the differences, the rules of the romantic comedy require they find some reason to stay in each other's lives breaking all barriers to be with their true love.  

The setting of Rom Com's are typically set in a busy city for example: New York, London or Paris. Depending on the type of Rom com and characters the setting could be a lot different, ie if the two protagonists are very business minded then the exterior will be a city. Where as if the characters have a small town business or a relative who is ill living away from the city the exterior will be a cute and cosy, set in a romantic small town. 

Males are almost emasculated in Rom Com's, as they typically make the mistake to break up or walk out on the girl. They then are seen as week and emotional as they have to crawl back to the woman who now has gained all the power. This is a huge juxtaposition to most male characters in any other genre.

Mathew Mcconaughey told digital spy: "A lot of times the male is somewhat emasculated, meaning he has to crawl back and say, 'I'm nothing without you. If you don't take me back, I'm nothing.' And I was always like, 'What girl wants that guy?' McConaughey was best known for his role in Rom-Com's like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Fool's Gold and The Wedding Planner before his reinvention in projects such as Magic Mike, Mud and True Detective.

Where many believe Rom Com's are for the youth and younger generation in recent times remakes of Romantic Comedies explore more adult themes such as marriage, responsibility or even disability. Two films by Judd Apatow for example This is 40 and Knocked Up deal with these adult issues. This is 40 portrays the mid life crisis of a couple entering their 40's and Knocked Up addresses unexpected pregnancy and the blame on who's part? While Silver Linings Playbook deals with mental illness and unrequited love that is never resolved. All of these go against the Stereotype of what Romantic Comedy has become as a genre.


A meet cute is a classic stereotype of
Rom-Com's, they define the whole meaning of a "Hollywood romance," certain movies are entirely driven by the meet-cute situation, this is typically where the two main protagonists, by chance, meet for the first time. This may be at rush hour in the middle of New York city where both protagonists are in a hurry and they  bump into each other throwing all their documents all over the street, or spilling coffee on a tie. This classic bit of movie magic has been in romcoms since the 1930's. It is used to distinguish the ordinary characters to the main protagonists. This gives the rom com a feeling of real life situations while also displaying the fairytale love at first sight everyone dreams of.

Rom-Coms give a false reality to the viewers by blinding them with love and perfect situations and mainly perfect endings. Usually Rom-Coms always call for church bells and marriage ceremonies in the last scene, however this does not depict real life in any way, shape or form.

Preliminary task - group project

 Story Board

As a group we produced a story board (below) we wanted to plan what would happen in the scene; we knew we wanted to produce something unique but classic to Hollywood movies. What better than an interrogation? There have been many memorable interrogation scenes throughout movie history and we believed that we should challenge ourselves to create something that had a strong connection to this. As you can see from the storyboard, each section (8 all together) displays the view from the camera of the scene. First the footsteps of the interrogator walking in to the room etc. The red lines on the story board represent the movements of the characters moreover the blue represents the camera movements and direction of shot. We worked well as a group to produce a good story board. There may be a few changes in the actual final piece but this will be expected. The story board helped us alot while filming as we already knew which shots we were going to take and therefore the process was quick.
 

Storyboard

Script

This is the script for our group project, an interrogation scene. In the scene, a grizzled detective named Frank McCready is interrogating a paedophile named Alan who has kidnapped a young girl, Tabitha. We wanted the main tension to come from Frank's desperation to find out where this girl is. The audience is led to believe it is because of his passion for upholding the law, but the twist ending reveals it is because Tabitha is infact his daughter. We chose this subject matter as a group, and we handled it this way because we thought the action and the intensity would present more opportunities to use interesting camera angles, and it did. Also, I thought some gritty realism would add to the scene's cinematic integrity.

When we filmed it, the dialogue differed from the script, as when it was in the process of filming it didn't sound as natural as we hoped it would when it was written. This was slightly off putting as we wanted the film to be as realistic as possible. This shows our trial and error and our knowlede that somthing wasnt right; as a group we can improve things even more. We also had to tone down some of the torture and violence, due to a lack of resources, but I am glad it has worked out this way because i believe the character Frank is more likeable, and as the main protagonist, he's someone the audience should root for. I think these changes raised our film to the next level it improved the scene and gave it a sensible improvisational quality.

 

Script

Direction

This is a diagram of the Camera Movements; the camera positions around the room and the movements of the characters. If you refer to the key in the upper right hand corner, the red line displays the movements of the characters etc. As you can tell the diagram is from a bird’s eye view, as a group we wanted to gain some sort of idea of the movements in the preliminary task.

 

Effective opening sequences in: Four Weddings and A Funeral, City Of God, Goodfellas

Four Weddings and A Funeral

This is an effective opening scene because it is fast-paced and comical. This gets the audience interested for the rest of the film. the main characters are introduced very quickly Most of the comedy comes from the juxtaposition of the organised characters opposed to the disorganised characters on the morning of a wedding. The characters curse a lot, which is very conventional in Britian this demonstrates that this as a British film. There is a further juxtaposition as British people are seen to be punctual however in this film they are not. This scene also tells us Hugh Grant is the main protagonist, despite it not being his wedding, as it focuses primarily on him.

City of God

This opening scene works because it jumps straight into the action. It is a very emotionalIt sequence which makes the audience question why the two youths are running away and stealing a car. The scene establishes the setting as a gritty town in an exotic country with a high crime rate and malicious living conditions. Shaggy is set up as the main protagonist, so we initially root for him, which makes his sudden death more dramatic and emotional.
The clever use of the high angle almost overhead shot displays Shaggy as weak and foolish for thinking he could escape but it could be a metaphor for shaggy viewing himself on the floor after death.

Goodfellas

This scene introduces the world of gangsters, but not at the start of the story. It is midway through the story, and sets up how the first part of the film will show how Henry Hill has transformed from a normal kid to reaching this point in his life "A gangster". We can tell the characters of Tommy DeVito and Jimmy Conway are violent and volatile as they kill the man in the trunk of the car without a second thought, from the look on Henry's face we figure he has certain  issues with this, but doesn't speak up out of fear and respect as he knows he could be the next dead! Fear, respect and gangsterism are all themes that get explored throughout the film. The fact that the film begins in the middle of the story is unorthadox and unique to Goodfellas 

Girls "You're the wound" Gender Analysis

The décor in the apartment is very feminine with colours such as: light blue, pink and cream. These colours have been carefully chosen by the director to make the apartment seem tasteful; immediately you could tell it was a woman’s apartment from the decoration. The prints on the walls and art on the walls combined with the ironing board and feminine choice of furniture clearly displays that the television show has a strong representation of a female gender genre. The exterior establishing shot, of the New York streets at night displays some sort of insecurity as New York is known for its crime; it is a dangerous place for two women living alone, this is a juxtaposing representation of gender in a female perspective as two women living alone in New York is not such a safe plan. The props used in the scene for example the toothbrush represents hygiene, which is more commonly connected to women who usually have a great sense of hygiene. The toothbrush also represents the fact that the second speaker is preparing to go to bed. Marnie (speaker 2) has been sexualized as she is wearing revealing pyjamas, this is probably to gain a stronger male audience as the show is mainly targeted at women. This is a representation of gender as Marnie is more of a typical “girly girl,” whereas Hannah (speaker 1) has tattoos which is strongly linked with manliness and tends to be less revealing. The book is a brilliant representation of gender as women are closely linked to intelligence and reading for enjoyment and entertainment; the fact that Hannah dislikes the book links her more to the manly side of things. Mainly the fact that both actors are women this represents the target audience and the type of context most of the shows will take place in, by choosing two women as main characters gender is represented predominantly as female.

The Sound in the scene is generally diegetic however for the first 20 seconds the sound is all non-diegetic; it tends to be background music from the establishing shot with no lyrics. It is made up of minimal amounts of flute or woodwind instruments and a main acoustic guitar. This gives a gentle and calm feel to the begging in of the scene. Some of the features of women are the gentle calm touch as well as the rationality; this is visible in the music. The first diegetic sound is of the door slamming this displays how Hannah might be annoyed or not in control which is not a feature we connect with women. Hannah makes many loud noises for example throwing the keys on the table, slamming the door, loudness and banging has connotations of aggression, which is closely linked to manliness. Hannah seems to be very closely linked to male attributes but this is juxtaposed, as she seems to be the most emotional out of the two women. It seems that she has no self-confident and seems to think that she is incomparable to Marnie who seems to be confident and in control of her life. Their speech starts off in conversational volume but when the comments gain in cruelty they begin to shout; this is clever as the writers are building up to a climax which both characters storm out of the room slamming their doors displaying emotion and that they are both offended.

The lighting in this scene is very differential. We see the gloomy sombre lighting In the establishing shot of the straight which could represent the mood of one of the characters. In a similar way when Hannah walks into the apartment the gloom and darkness from the hallway is almost expelled from the apartment; it is as if once you get home all the misery and problems you have had in your day are gone. Unfortunately for Hannah this doesn’t happen she comes home and is represented with further problems. This could be a representation that for women there is always some problem, this may be due to the fact that women are always very bus. The scene is shot in high key lighting that juxtaposes the theme of the scene as high key lighting is meant to have a happy and joyful theme to it however in this scene there is a lot of spite and hatefulness.
The scene begins with an establishing shot which pans and focuses on to an apartment building supposedly where the scene will take place. We see a mid-shot then of Hannah opening the door

The scene begins with a panning establishing shot which sets the time mood and area of where the scene is shot. Then the tracking panning shot which displays the interior of the apartment. The tracking shot follows the action as Hannah walks in from the door, stops and puts her keys down and then walks into the Marnie’s bedroom, this act almost like an interior shot which establishes the surroundings inside. We then see an over the shoulder shot which shows Marnie’s room, the shot reverse shot is effective as it displays a conversational mood. The over the shoulder shot gives a sense of reality and it is as if the viewer is stood directly behind Hannah. We see a change in camera shot from the match on action; a mid-shot is used when Marnie is leaving the room this shows her whole body language, she seems to be annoyed here. There is use of sound where Marnie puts her washing down the chute. This is clever editing as the sound is enhanced so the viewers can grasp the full action. There is use of a low angle shot on Hannah (low angle usually shows dominance when it used) this is juxtaposed in this scene as Hannah seems he most afraid and upset. Even though Hannah seems to have more male attributes in the scene, in this short section she seems to be more female. There scene is predominantly shot reverse shot and match on action. There is little use of editing except for the length of the shots. They are short and snappy which usually symbolises action however there is little action and more heated conversation. There is editing in the enhanced sound of the tooth brush falling down and the light switches but that seems to be it in visual editing. On the other hand the clips are arranged in the correct way, there is nowhere in the scene where the readers don’t understand what is happening. There is no use of transitions but there are only two characters in the scene which means that their screen time will be greater to minor characters.

The scene is very well put together and is acted out very well, it is: comical, interesting and exciting