typical male character roles

Coronation street

Tony Gordan

The typical business man

Tony is 38 years old, originally from Scotland. He is a co-owner of Underworld, which is a lingerie factory. He also is a property investor. Tony has very stereotypical characteristics of a business man. He is a good looking, middle aged man who is married to a gorgeous lady. He always wears a suit and always looks very presentable. He is also hated a lot by many people in the soap. The producers of Corrie would have used these characteristics to represent whats known as a 'typical business man'.

Ken Barlow

'wise old man

Ken is the longest remaining character within Corrie, he is a very kind man. He has been married four times and had three children. He follows the stereotypical 'wise old man' as has been a teacher, a newspaper editor, a community activist and a trolley-pusher at a supermarket, before returning to teaching and writing. He is also always trying to help everybody out as well as being the first to criticise everyone for their wrong doings.

Dev Alahan

'Player'

Dev owns seven corner shops around Manchester. Dev has a history of getting together with unsuitable women. He has had many relationships with different people within the street. He has a daughter and has previously been married. He has also had relationships within familys, for example he was with Deirdre and then moved onto his daughter Tracey.

Norris Cole

'Geek'

Norris has a very camp pasona and is known for his gossiping. His theories are usually true, for example he was suspicious about Richard Hillman being a killer. He has a very big ego and has innacurate views of his own abilities.

When analysing soap operas we can identify the typical male character roles because they are stereotyped to represent their role. For example a typical business man will be middle aged, good looking, have a lot of money and have some hatered by other characters. We can apply the theory of typical male character roles to help break down the program and analyse each character more thoroughly.

Preliminary task questions

Magazine Cover

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

I worked with Olivia as a pair. Olivia took the picture of our model and i directed how to shoot it. We then worked together to edit it and put our ideas together.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What element did you use for your inspiration?

We planned our magazine on paper first using insperation from popular magazines e.g. Vogue. We then changed our ideas when editing it as some things we didnt like. For example we originally was going to use a full image of Rachel, But realised having a close up of her smilin was more effective. We used a dark colour scheme so it would match her hair. We knew then that it all would all blend in, and look effective.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

We used a camera to take the picture and we then edited it on photoshop. We used photoshop to edit it and lighting effects etc.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

We had to consider what colours we were going to use so that they didnt clash with what the model was wearing. When we were editing it we also had to decide what age group were aiming it at so it was suitable.

5. How successful was your magazine cover? Identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I was pleased with our magazine cover however i feel we could have made it have a better effect. I would change the style of the picture so we could cut her head out and change the background as i think the colours were dull. However i like the position Rachel is standing in as it is an appealing side shot. The lighting highlights her facial features and she is posing that 'super-smiler' look that Ferguson identified. Her pose is also very invitational so readers will want to pick it up.

6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?

I have learnt how to use photoshop and what effects work best on different pictures. This will help me in the future as when i come to edit my photo's and covers etc i will have more confidence and will become more effective.

Preliminary task questions

Short Film

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

I worked with Olivia, Alex and Reece. We all worked together to figure out how we wanted to stage each shot. Alex and Reece filmed the Shots as me and Olivia acted. After doing each shot we would get together to work out how the next shot would fit, and how to stage it.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What element did you use for your inspiration?

We Followed the instructions of having a conversation between two people. We chose a simple scenery as we knew it was our first video so we should keep it basic. We saw a video from another film somebody else had done, and we used insperation from that.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

We used a camera to video our shots and then we uploaded it to Imovie and edited it. We cut shots out and shortened the length of some shots so that they blended into the next.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

We considered the fact that we were knew to videoing and staging shots so we tried to keep it basic. When editing we did basic edits so that it all flowed and looked presentable, we didnt try to do to much with it. When shooting we knew that being in a school it would be busy so we chose a quiet area so we could control the noise.

5. How successful was your sequence? Identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I thought it was a good effort, however it could have been more creative. The match on action worked well as we did the opening of a door which looked effective. To improve it i would make it more creative with a different range of shots.

6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?

I have learnt how to work the camera properly to remove cinema borders etc. I have also experienced using Imovie which will help me in future. When i come to videoing again i will be more confident using Imovie, so my films will be more presentable and edited a lot better.

Representation

A stereotype is a simplified or standardized image investing with a special meaning and held in common with members of groups. Stereotypes can be used in many different ways. In many instances stereotypes are used pejoratively by dominant groups to describe subordinate groups. They are also seen as delineating, basically overviewing the invidual, the place and groups. Qualitites are often exagerated. The media industry does this alot and this is known as mediation.

Tessa Perkins
She stated many different facts about stereotypes...

1. Stereotypes are not aloways negative (e.g. black people are good at sports)
2. They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful (e.g. the police)
3. They can be hed about ones own group (e.g. teenagers are rebelious)
4. They are not rigid or changing (e.g. racism has decreased)
5. They are not always false (e.g. teenagers are moody because of hormonal changes)

Stereotypes play a big part within media as we create films and soap operas on typical everyday stories including typical everyday characters. For example many soaps have typical 'teenage chavs' included. They are usually around the age of 17, short hair, tracksuits, trainers and a cap. These ideas have only been produced because of our society and the roll of stereotypes.

Mise en scene

Mise en scene is a french term used for the analysis of what you see on screen. This does not include sound and involves five different categories.

Setting

Characters (facial expression, body language etc)

Costume/Props

Camera angles

lighting

Learning the Mise en scene has now enabled me to analyse films at a better and more detailed level.

The 'male gaze'

Laura Mulvey coined the term 'male gaze' in 1975. She believed that film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a hetrosexual male.



She said that the features of the 'male gaze' included...

1. The camera lingers on the curves of a female body
2. Events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction of these events
3. The 'male gaze' relegates women to the status of objects
4. The female viewer must experience the secondarily, by identification with the male.

Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' had been criticised as others said some women enjoy being looked at , for example we have beauty pageants etc.

Another criticism towards Laura's theory was that the gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender, for several reasons, not all of which are sexual. Such as in comparison of their body or of their clothing.

I applied this theory of the Male Gaze to an essay i wrote. We had to analyse an advert for Calvin Klein. Eva Mendez a famous actress was modelling underwear and i had to create an essay on what effect her pose and and editing had on the audience.

Calvin Klein analysis

Narrative Codes

In our very first theory lesson we were taught the five narrative codes, and how they are used within films.

• 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

• Enigma code

Refers to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand an explanation.

• Semantic code

Any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by the way of connotation.

• Cultural code

Any element in a narrative that refers to a science or a body of knowledge. In other words, the cultural codes tend to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works.

• Symbolic code

We were taught that this is a very hard code to understand so we were taught Binary opposites to help us understand...

Binary Opposites

Levi Straus believed that the world was split into series of binary opposites. Essentially one thing can only be defined in a relation to something it isn't, e.g. a hero is only a hero if there is a cowardly option.

Director presentation

In one of our theory lessons we were set the task of creating a powerpoint on our given director. We were given Spike Jonze. We had to research different information about Spike, for example what films he has directed and information on how he likes to direct his productions. Below is my powerpoint

Spike Jonez

View more presentations from ledanson.

School magazine cover

In groups of two we were set the the task of designing and creating a school magazine cover and a contents page. Our criteria included a mid shot and 3 or 4 pieces of usefull text. We took a range of pictures of a girl in year 11 that we wanted to feature on our front cover. We chose to use Rachel as our model as she is very photogenic and would attract a lot of readers. Majororie Ferguson identifdied four different types of facial expression, Rachel is showing the 'siper-smiler' look. She has a wide smile, her head thrusted forward and her hair is very brushed back. This is very inviting for someone about to read the magazine. Trevor Millum also derived the same theory of what emotion they are trying to portray. Rachel looks very 'carefree' as she looks vibrant, very healthy and looks as if she is always smiling and grinning. We chose this picture as our final photo ...


We edited her picture in adobe photoshop, changing the brightness and contrast, so we could highlight her features to make her picture stand out more. This task took us a couple of lessons and was quite easy to complete. This task has helped to boost my skills on photoshop and i now have more experience using this program which i can apply to other tasks.