Question 2

The ways in which gender is represented in our film are portrayed in two different ways. One of which is a homosexual character who wears skinny jeans and a denim jacket, we chose this costume because it is part of the current fashion trends worn by teenagers today, this enables our target audience of 16-25 year olds to relate with the character. The old denim look was also chosen because in Shane Meadow's 'This Is England' the costume is used to show the time the film was set and also for the audience to engage with the old vintage style. This use of costume is an intertextual reference helping highlight the issues of homophobia and racism also brought up in 'This Is England'.













"Recent controversies over Hollywood’s negative depiction of homosexuality have focused on how such portrayals marginalize and silence gays and lesbians. Organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) argue that films such as Basic Instinct and The Silence of the Lambs demonize gays and lesbians by portraying them as psychopaths.

In his book The Celluloid Closet, Vito Russo analyzes the representation of gays and lesbians in Hollywood films from the 1890s to the 1980s, and demonstrates a history of homophobia. He argues that Hollywood’s portrayal of lesbians and gay men has often been cruel and homophobic. Gay and lesbian characters have been defined by their sexual orientation, and lacked any complex character development"

It seems as if we didn't challenge the idea of male dominance which is prominent in such films as Essex Boys and Taxi Driver where woman are seen as an object by males. Yet we twist the idea, this is done by showing a conflict between two males, one gay and the other straight. So in a weird manner we are still conforming to the idea of 'Male dominance'. Our film also suggests that the area in which it is filmed is filled with corruption and crime, therefore representing Norwich as a hostile place.

The villain wears large baggy hoodies which help shadow his face creating a sense of enigma, this technique was taken from the extreme use of  Chiaroscuro lighting in 'A Third Man'. This was used to create a sense of split personality's where the villain is torn between good and evil. Also the hoodie was used to represent the 'Chav' social group. In 2010 there was a huge scandal claiming teenagers wearing hoodies are anti-social and commit crimes from looting a store to stabbing a rival gang member. We used hoodies to follow the common negative stereotyping of teenagers by the older generation which seem to paint all teenagers with the same brush as those small few who actually commit crimes within there estates. Hoodies are also seen as very intimidating so we decided to use extremely low angled shots to reinforce the negative stereotype of teens.


 I wanted the characters to look as normal as possible, as a group we were trying to achieve a gritty British thriller and achieved this by using realistic locations. The normal costume was done because characters like Harry Lime, Pope in Animal Kingdom and Travis from Taxi Driven all appear to be normal yet all have hidden secrets. 

Studying fashion trends I saw that Hoodies were greatly fashionable in the 2000's and that the denim look is highly fashionable now. What I have tried to do is use costume to represent different attitudes towards homosexuality, in the 2000-03 there was no such thing as civil partnerships until in 2004 all that changed. It seems that at the current time homosexuality is widely accepted, whereas ten years ago it was highly frowned upon, so in our production we are showing the difference in old and new views. This technique was highly used in Shane Meadow's 'This Is England' with the use of costume representing the racist views of the time. Our production targets homosexuals and the negative views against them, our main goal was to shock people, we may offend some people, but I think the only way to get a message through is by shock. This technique is also used in This Is England, the uncomfortable scenes help change people views on issues being addressed because they get to see it in a different light. This Is England was originally made to stop the youth from joining racist cults and organisations like BNP. In the same way our intentions was to make a production which highlighted the was homosexuals are being subjectified and stop it. 


To conclude I think that the representation of gay people sympathetic, audiences will engage with the character because he controls the first two minutes, with a range of high and low angled shots following him. The gay controls the shoot and this allows audiences to engage with his character thus feeling sympathetic when he is confronted by the hooded villain.