White Girl Sequence Analysis

White Girl Sequence Analysis                                                                                                     

Religion is represented in this sequence is seen from a young girls point of view. The religion that this sequence is based on is Muslim. The religion is represented fairly positive as Muslims seem to be quite accepting of this young girl. The young girl (Leanne) is nicely taken into the Mosque even though she isn’t Muslim. The religion is ritualistic as they take part of doing the same thing every time they enter the Mosque. For example walking into the cleaning room to wash, and taking their shoes of as a sign as respect. The whole sequence is basically considering Leanne’s feelings and how she is fascinated by another religion. The religion seems to be reasonably strict with equality of men and women. Men seem to be downstairs and the women upstairs so that genders are separated.

Throughout the sequence there are many close up shots of Leanne and also point of view shots from her eyes. The opening of the sequence starts with a non-diegetic sound, which is Indian music to reveal the religion of Muslim. This part shows Leanne’s vulnerability to the religion. A close up shot on her as her friend (Yasmin) puts the headscarf on her as Leanne is not able of doing so. Both headscarves are different colours to show both girl contrasting lifestyles. Yasmin wearing a red headscarf which can suggest her passion towards her religion whereas Leanne wears a blue one which could symbol confusion or something new. The way that a headscarf is worn is their way of respecting Allah. This is showing that the sequence will obviously be a naive perspective of a child’s point of view. The room that the two girls put their headscarves on belongs to Yasmin. The props in the room make this obvious, many Indian ornaments and also the Indian compass, which is seen from Leanne’s point of view (close up). There is then a long shot in the mirror to show how Leanne sees herself. She shouts out ‘Ninja’ and kicks her leg up high, which shows her own views on the way Muslims dress and look.

The next section of the sequence is taken place in the mosque. There are diegetic sounds of birds and wind outside the Mosque to create a happy atmosphere around the area. As the characters take their shoes of there is a focus pull. A deep focus to reveal the shoes which shows Muslims way of respect, which switches to a shallow focus to expose the gate in the mosque. The men are wearing skull caps which are their sign of respect similar to women wearing headscarves.  As the two characters walk into the cleaning area Leanne’s facial expression looks quite confused. The cleaning shows hygiene and respect towards themselves. This is her way of taking in what she has to learn about to become a Muslim. There is a slow motion close up of the dripping water. This is after the point that Leanne copies every move that Yasmin does with the cleaning water. The slow motion is to show the audience the water in a clearer way, to express Muslims respect more gradually.

As they enter the ceremony in the Mosque it creates an unequal atmosphere to men and women. The men and women are detached from each other, sitting and bowing in different areas of the Mosque. Leanne has a point of view shot which is a deep focus on the Men’s mass. She seems to be more interested in what they are doing than what she should be doing. There is a synchronous/parallel sound as the Muslims sing in a humming tune. This sound is diegetic. There are drones and sitars in the background to build an Indian impression. There is a tilt up to an establishing shot of the ceiling. Showing the decoration of the Mosque from the girl’s point of view, which she appears to look very fascinated by the colours as the camera is panning across the room. A massive chandelier hanging in the middle shows the expense of their religion (quite wealthy). The lighting is quite bright in the Mosque. The Mosque is covered in patterned colours on the ceiling which produces a beauty in the area, which builds a good representation to their religion.

All the Muslims are sitting around in a circle, perfectly framed in the camera while the teacher speaks. The man welcomes Leanne kindly (good representation) and speaks to her. She replies, and then there is a close up of her happiness as she speaks the right words. The teacher speaks about Ramadan (diegetic sounds), which this religion take part of to see what it’s like to be poor, with no food etc. This is a great representation as they are caring about others needs, to see how it feels from a poor persons view on life to have hardly anything. There is then an extreme close up shot of teacher’s eyes as he speaking, from Leanne’s point of view. This is to show Leanne’s interest in the religion. A diegetic sound of her changing her name to Leila other than Leanne to get closer to the Muslim religion, and blend in with Muslim names.

There is then a sounds bridge of the man talking when the setting changes to a two shot of both young girls. This is showing their close friendship. The man narrates over the top “Today I want you to think of what you want most in life, is it food? Is it love? Is it family?”. While this is being said there is a close up revealing Leanne’s mother, to show the reason why Leanne is taking on becoming a Muslim. Reason being she hasn’t got a close relationship with her mother (camera focus’ on mother while dialogue is read). The mother shouts and swears towards Leanne wearing a headscarf, to show she has no respect towards the Muslim religion. Low key lighting placed around the mother, as the camera tilts up to reveal high key lighting on the Mosque. Overall the religion has a positive representation.

        

Shameless Sequence Analysis

Shameless: How is class represented?

The scene from Shameless is set in an ordinary place that doesn’t look very attractive. The houses around the area look like there will be working class people living around there. Working class citizens are represented throughout the scene in many different ways, especially through their poorness. Camera shots, sound, Mise en scene and the editing help the audience understand what type of people this family on Shameless are.

The scene opens with a editing of slow motion used to emphasize the girl ballet dancing around her room. There is a voice over this part of the scene as the young girl reads out a poem from a fairytale but this sound is non-diegetic to the characters. Also a music box in the girls room is played (a sound motif) which might give the idea of the girl being a ballerina, or that she is living a fairytale dream and wishes that her life was simple like the music. The music and the way she dances around foreshadows the incident that occurs next in the scene, mainly about the dad and the way he is. This part of the scene is set in her bedroom which is mainly pink. This gives out a girlie idea of what the girls personality is like

Elizabeth Analysis

Elizabeth – Analysis of Scene

The scene opens in a room with Elizabeth getting her haircut. The room seems fairly low-key throughout the opening. This is to create quite a depressing atmosphere to the fact that Elizabeth is throwing her free life away to become the Queen. The room has a blue colour palette for a wash out look, which is a sign of gloominess for the audience to feel sympathy towards Elizabeth’s character, also blue is a rather cold colour. This contrasts with her flashbacks of her life before she is about to turn into the Queen. The flashbacks use golden tones, which is a gold colour palette to bring warmth to the scene as she shows the audience her nostalgia. Also gold is a symbol of rich and expense to show her royalty. There is a two-shot during the flashback of Elizabeth with her lover; this is to show the audience her close relationship with him. In the beginning of the scene her face is awfully pale with red lipstick to stand out. Her facial expressions throughout having her hair cut off look quite vulnerable and upset. The girl cutting her hair seems emotional and frightened. There are many close-ups of facial expressions and the scissors cutting her hair. Their faces look tearful. Elizabeth’s posture when she is sitting on the chair (having her hair cut) looks quite strong and dominant but at the same time weak towards the scissors. The scissors represent her personality being thrown away easily; also her new hair cut is short to create equality with men, which gives the impression of strength.

The second part of the scene is Elizabeth about to become the Queen. The first camera shot of this section of the scene is a long/wide shot showing the courtroom, and Elizabeth’s dominance over the people bowing to her. As she walks into the courtroom there is very well high key lighting on the stage where Elizabeth stands. This is to crop out Elizabeth’s dark silhouette to the lower class people in the room. The light is to directly shine on Elizabeth so that she stands out, and so that the light gives her a guide down the pathway to the Throne. Elizabeth stands well postured on the stairs to show her costume and her powerful body language which is a long shot. Her costume she wears is to tell the audience what period of time this film is based on. Also the pale face, lipstick and dress was fashionable in Victorian times and by the Queen wearing this costumes makes her an icon to other women in England. The white dress symbolizes purity and innocence. Walking down the pathway is like walking down the aisle when getting married, and wearing a white dress is like Elizabeth is getting married to England (which she does say). This throne area is showing her importance to England. As she walks down the stairs towards the throne everybody looks quite anxious and frail against Elizabeth. There is a high angle from Elizabeth’s point of view on her ex-lover looking up at her, this is to show his weakness towards the Queen and that there will not be any future for Elizabeth and him.

The main shot is a close up shot at the end (when Elizabeth is sitting placed on the throne). This is to show her pale faced make-up and her facial expressions. Once again she is looking quite tearful but very powerful towards the audience but looks very serious about the control of her new job. The close up image looks like a portrait of the Queen. It is a bright image and there isn’t any colour scheme, just a plain brightness. The atmosphere seems intense and silenced, like the people in the court room are wondering what the Queen will do now. Also gets the audience a little confused to what happens to England next.      

Analysis Of Skins

Skins analysis      

The characters in the image one from 'Skins' are all teenagers. There is a girl in the centre which seems to be the main point of the image. Mainly because of the lighting. The light is shining through the window pane gleaming on the girls face and torso. This attracts the attention of the audience to this character. We notice that her facial expression looks very upset, as her make-up is wearing off and her mascara is running down her face. Also her hair is in a messy style which makes her look as if she’s quite unhygienic. She is wearing only her underwear to show a promiscuous side to her. Everyone in the room is half naked, which brings out a lot of flesh colour. It seems like a party had taken place the day before and now everyone seems to be hung-over and ill. The image is set in a bedroom, which looks like an adult’s bedroom (maybe the parents). The wallpaper is all ripped off and ragged which gives the impression of a dirty atmosphere in the house. There is a lamp in the background shinning on a young boys face. He seems to be the only character in the image that seems conscious about his body. He is lying under the covers to wrap him up, and also wears a hat inside. This gives the feeling that he is uncomfortable around these other teenagers and is intimidated by them.

In image two there is only one character. He is completely pale white which helps his hair and eyes stand out, which are black/brown. The character looks quite suicidal; he is laying in a bath drowning himself in the water staring at the camera with a direct mode of address looking fairly unhealthy. The image is in low key lighting, with a washed out green effect throughout. The walls are dark and torn apart. Showing a scruffy, unhygienic side to himself. There are hardly any props in the room (soap, toothbrush etc.) which makes the character seem quite low class (poor) and represented quite ordinary.

The teenagers are represented as quite naive and vulnerable to each other. They seem to be quite promiscuous. It isn’t a realistic portrayal as not all teenagers are the same as the characters in the image. Most teenagers are similar to the young boy in image one next to the lampshade. As most teenagers are intimidated by celebrities which make them feel insecure about themselves. This image can be believable as some teenagers are very naive, which build them up a sexual representation. All teenagers have parties that destroy their house (image 1), and some teenagers even think about committing suicide (image 2), so the images could be plausible. I consider these two images to be a negative presentation of teenagers. They are being looked at as loose humans, that have insanitary houses. The different responses that the audience might make of these representations of teenagers could be, that they could be scared of teenagers, and that they seem very gullible and immature. Which isn’t true, as some teenagers are quite mature. Some teenagers could find these images quite offensive (also some parents may find it unpleasant). This is because of the way that the teenagers are being represented, not in a nice way.