In class we looked at the clip above from the British TV show Torchwood and was asked to analyse the clip. Just from look at the first clip there is allot you can deconstruct, without thinking about sound or editing.
Starting off there is intertextuality to "Silence of the Lambs" with the glass wall, which for movie fans is a sort of Easter egg in the fact that if you don't watch movies it will seem as a coincidence.
This shot is a medium close up which is unusual for the opening because in movies they use extreme long shots to clearly identify the location and sometimes the time period. This medium close up creates a narrative enigma because the audience don't know where she is. They slightly follow the stereotype of a woman in the facts that she has long hair, and some make up. If this was a full stereotype she would be blond with red lip stick and have heavy make-up, but it doesn't challenge any conventions so it's not counter hegemonic, instead its normative because we assume that this is what a girl should look like (with long hair and make-up) because that's what the media has told us.
As the clip continuous you see that she is the central protagonist, this is anchored by the shot reverse shot flowing the 180 degree rule. Even though the action is happening in the cell the camera focuses on the protagonist so the audience can see what the protagonist is feeling. As the shot goes on it uses continuity editing to have a smooth feel to it.
When the victim is on the floor they use a countertype because it's a female that helps her in need to a handsome man. A "male gaze" is connoted as the girls start kissing, when this happens the non-diegetic music starts playing this clearly signifies a relationship. Then it cuts to a typical male stereotype in a chair watching. The stereotype is anchored by his body language.They also use a false scare when she leans in to one of the cells, the non-diegetic and diegetic sound goes quite so when the monster screams it startles the audience, the editing pace also increases slightly to get more action and engage the audience.
Several spelling issues - it would be a good idea to let me check over your terminology log to correct any on there
ReplyDelete"There is a male gaze as the girls start kissing," - this is not how you would write on this. Consider: By cutting away from the cell itself to upstairs, where a male protagonist is viewing the CCTV footage on a small screen, and invites the two others to share the visual spectacle, we get a very literal example of the 'male gaze', feminist critic Laura Mulvey's concept that argues media producers privilege a heterosexual male viewer when creating texts. The male character, however, is denoted as sleazy, with the central protagonist (who the audience have been positioned to empathise with) angrily attacking him, so this scene can be 'read' (Stuart Hall) as sympathetic to Mulvey's position.
Overall, your analysis is generally fine, but you're lacking detail in the denotation: the examples which back up (evidence) your analysis.
APPLY to YOUR work! Any editing ideas, or impact on representation?
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