Sadia's Media blog

According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, texts convey their meanings through a system of binary oppositions. Evaluate this structuralist theory. Refer to the set episodes of Humans and The Returned in your response. [30 marks]  In this scene the representation of gender is encoded through the mise-en-scene and the performance of the characters. We see women being represented as the 'damsel in distress' and in need of saving. Whilst Men being shown as dominant and almost the 'knight in shinning armour'. This meaning is created through the binary oppositions of a Man and a 'Machine'. We see the Niska character being objectified through the male gaze. For example, the scene of her in revealing costumes in front of a glass. And the scene in where Leo is selecting a syth through a catalogue, this degrades her value and really empahaises that she is a machine. Niska isn't the only person being objectified, from the establishing shoot we can see other syths doing the same...

The song I will be using is 'Rockin' by The Weeknd. The group I want to represent in this music video are teenagers. However, I will go against the 'stereotypical' representation of teenagers being violent and aggressive. This will also challenge Liesbet van Zoonen's theory of representations of genders. As both genders will be shown as equal, this will be done through the mise-en-scene of their costumes as they will be casual costumes. The music video will contain various types of camera shots and angles which will create variety. The colour scheme will be not vibrant but washed/faded colours. Although the group represented are teenagers. The music video will be focusing on a small friendship group who are teenagers. The mise-en-scene of the costumes will construct this representation. As they will be wearing casual clothing, this will also reflect the youthfulness of the 'characters'. The representation can also be constructed through the activities that t...