Inbetweeners The Movie

Representations in the Inbetweeners

 

Ben Palmer 2011:Contemporary Media Representations

 

The representations of:

 

 

1. Age

 

Deemed as older doesnt invite younger son to the wedding.
Older dads appear to be wiser, yet also have the same level of intelligence as there sons
Parents are deemed to be more responsible yet we see an insight into the past of one of the main characters dads who drives them to the airport.
Realistic age representations of teenage boys: Themes education: whereas Harry Brown has a lack of education: reflect social class that the boys in inbetweeners are.
2. Ethnicity
white older male-living in posh flat
All are deemed as white males, living in a stereotypical surberban area
This is not a realistic representation of london today.: Posh class

 

Consider the target audience for this: Use of white people:shows a possible demograpic ben palmer is trying to appeal to. Trys to appeal to the middle class.

 

3. Gender

 

Males are deemed to be the dominant characters, with a disregard for the values of women judging my the constant talk of sexual intercourse and the lack of respect for them, even commenting on their body parts in a derogatory manner. The woman also seemed to all have partners and therefore could be controlled by men, however one example of how a woman wanted control is simon. The girl broke up with him, and he appears to be emotionally distraught, which connotates that these boys also have an emotional side. Surface trying to be stereotypicallly, actually much more emotional. Themes: Sexual objects less power: Laura Maulvys Male Gaze theory: How audience is being postioned to look at the woman through the males point of view.

 

 

4. Social Class and Status

 

The families featured in the opening sequence appear to be wealthy, in established homes. The fact that they speak "Things go on behind closed doors" also connotates that even this type of demographic has something to hide.

 

Parents pay for holiday: They also have jobs< lack of independence< whereas working class might pay for it, dont really stand on too feet.

 

Parents saying goodbye outside the house: safe and secure: a complete binary opposition to the representations in harry brown. Cars: more money

 

Middle class parenting: more traditional
whereas lower class: lack of parenting, lack of education: dont control youths in harry brown.

 

 

Theories:

 

Social Class: Reinforcing Cultural Hegemony/Dominant Idealogies

 

• Working Class British Youths are generally represented as being violent,brutal,unapologetic,criminals,addictive personalites-Harry Brown, Kidulthood, Quadrophenia,Eden Lake
• VS
• Middle Class British: British Youths are generally represented as being more law abiding,conscience citizens-The inbetweeners
• On top of this the antagonists are always the working class youths and middle class adults are positioned to be the protagonists.

They are both: A and P feelings and emotions are there villian:fight with their conscience

 

 

FISH Tank

 

How are the main characters introduced in this film?

 

Mother violent: lack of parenting:Automatically stereotypical representation of lower class: Clothing location status, lower class, mode of address also reflects working class
Lack of parenting again like in Harry Brown< differences: its a girl:challenges dominant male representations
See her as the victim: postioned as someone we are needed to identify with: could be an antangonists but positioned to identify with her.

 

Style of cinematograghy is diffferent, much more handi cam and realisitc through use jolty movements, which gives it social realist edge to help us identify with characters and identify with situations whereas inbetweens static.

 

Mia is a victim of society and the lifestyle: cultivation: own environment has caused her to behaved by this. Environment has impacted on her own identity: less exaggerated than Harry Brown

 

Social realist film: Teenagers: working and middle class: Middle class may want to escape from own life whereas working class may wont to identify with own characters: reinforces dominant idealogies: if middle class want to stay middle class

 

All teenage representations show far are working class apart from inbetweeners

 

Representations may be said to reflect middle class anxietys at threat of working class to their hegemonic dominance: empty categorys: threating cultural hegenemy: reasons of films to maintain cultural hegemeony: acelands idealogy of protection.

 

Is one the the functions these representations to maintain hegemony?

 

Who produces this representations? Why?

Media effects Theorys

Do media representations of young people effect how they are perceived?

1. Hypodermic Model: Media injecting theories into consumers: Really subjective as we consumers have no power-we are passive consumers that will respond and believe everything we hear.

2. Cultvation Theory: If you see enough violence and criminal behaviour amoungst youth, the more you see it happening in the media, the more likely you are to believe that it is realistic and occurs in society at that level.

3. Copy Cat Theory:So influenced by what you see, copy what you seeing. Jamie Buldger killing due to copy cat.

4. Moral Panic: Actually creates a panic within society: creating newspaper articles in turn creates panic in society creates effect teens going to be devasting and overturning society as we know it. British Youths antangonists: Police and Government are protagonists .

Charlie Broker: tv desined to form our behaviour.

Analysis:

Whose perspective is dominant in each text?

What do the representations have in common

How are the representations different

How are parental figures represented

How important is social class

Contemporary British Social Realism

What do you understand by contemporary social realism?

Socail realist films attempt to portray issues facing ordinay people in their social situations

Social realist films try to show that society and the capitalist system leads to the exploitation of the poor or dispossessed.

These groups are shown as victims of the systen rather than being totally responsible for their own bad behaviour

These places represent an everywhere of Britain, where relationships are broken down and where people have become isolated and disconnected. Their Britishnesses is their culturally specific adddress audiences at home (Murray 2008)

They are products of our society, not there own.

Audience

Social realist films which address social problems in this country offer a very differemt version of collective identity than British films which are also aimed at an american audience. Films like notting hill and love actually reach a much bigger audience than the lower budget social realist films.

Social realist films are aimed at predominantly British Audience

If many more people see the more commerical films, consider which version of our collective identity is the more powerful or has the most impact.

Analysing Representations of collective identity

When comparuing how britishness and our collective identity is represented in films consider the following questions:

• Who is being represented?
• Who is representing them?
• How are they represented?
• What seems to be the intentions of the representations?
• What is the domininant discourse(Would view offered by the film)?
• What range of readings are there?
• Look for alternative discourses?

Collective Identity

The Media contributes to our sense of collective identity but there are many different versions that change over time

Representations can cause problems for the groups being represented because marginalized groups have little control over their representation/stereotyping

The social context in which the film/tv programme is made influiences the messages/values/dominant discourse of the film.

British Social Realism

Made on a lower budget

Ordinary issues of ordinary people

America is successful-Huge budgets british cant compete e.g. harry brown

Society, the individual and representation

Theory: Stuart Hall: Encoding-Decoding Active Audience theory

Encoding-decoding is an active audience theory develped by Stuart Hall which examines the relationship between a text and its audience

Encoding is the process by which a text is contructed by its producers

Decoding is the process by which the audience reads understands and interprets a text

Hall states that texts are polysemic meaning they may be read differently by different people, depending on their identity,cultural knowledge and opinions.

Institution>>>Book<<<<<We decode the text

Everyone is different< different cultures, representations you understand might not be same to others texts have multiply meanings.

3 different Ways to read a text:

1. Preffered Reading/Dominant Hegemonic: The representations are created to forfill hegemonic representations and conform to dominant idealogies.

We understand the media text exactly as the way it was meant to be understand it, no problems with reading of text/representations< Follow what the institution created:Agree with the narrative and what is being giving to you on the screen (get from zoeys blog)

2. Negotiated Reading

Not all audiences understand what media producers take for grantings. Decoding within a negotiated: may not agree with everything in texts< film etc but acknowledge dominant ideolgies that are embedded in the film but there are other elements in the film that you dont necessarily agree with. Acknowlege but struggle to understand those dominant idealogies positioned in the film.

3. Oppositional Reading or the Counter Hegemonic

You disagree with the text entirely e.g guardian readers will not buy the sun for everything it stands for because of the way it presents the articles in the news.

The de totalization of that text enables them to rework it to their preferred meaning. May understand dominant idealogies but  will refuse them.

Any representation is a mixture of:

1. The thing itself

2. The opinions of the people doing the representation

3. The reaction of the individual to the representation

4. The context of the society in which the representation is taking place.

Stereotyping:

Why do we stereotype? Puts people into categories/boxes so we canr recognise them easily. The fact that we naturally see the world in this kind of shorthand way, with connections between different character traits, allows the media to create simplisitic representations which we find believable. Implicit personality theory explains this process. Identify with them really quickly and produces rely on that.

Personality Theory: As humans we use a store house -already made a judgement about them whether right or wrong. What wveve experienced in the past we tend to rely on rather than current. We have a system of rules that tells us whcih characteristiscs go with other characteristics.

Once we have in our minds a set of linked traits which seem to us to go together, they form a pattern of connections called a prototype. In other words the mix of traits that we may consider typical of feminists are a protype of what a feminist is like to us.

We have particular character types in our head that fit into certain categories as it makes us feel comfortable and secure.  We make assumptions about people: only four character traits of a particular type:but put them in anyway.

If we do n ot find people who fit into a stereotype: we find it shocking and suprised: and make us think. Suprising and disconcerting.

If it is at all possible however we try to twist the truth to fit in with the prototype often ignoring other traits whcih do not fit into our neatly imagined traits.

Its almost as if we conspire with the media to misunderstand the world: we mediate to ourselves: not just media. surely we are to blame for mediated youth of british culture> was it our views or the media views that formed it. Chicken or the egg?

Identity

Is this when what helps us to create our own identity?

Do we judge people in the same was as we categorize films into genres>

Half term: all theoreis learnt on A4 document or stuart hall> hyperdermic/copycat