Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas
and events are presented to an audience. What appears on screens, in print etc,
does not appear by accident, but through a process of decision making from
within the media industries. A media text then needs to be viewed in this
light-as a series of representations, a vehicle for beliefs, values and
attitudes which can be reinforced or challenged by the audience.
‘Joke’s on you’ is a clown horror film, so we initially
expect the clown to be presented in a terrifying and creepy way. We
followed these conventions in our trailer through the camera work. The camera
work meant that the audience were able to obtain the mise en scene of the
clown’s appearance. For example, close up shots were used to show details and
facial expressions that the clowns makes, such as grinning and moving its head
to the side. This creates a paranormal presence, as if the clown had been
possessed. The clown is presented in dark clothes, symbolically suggesting
evil, darkness and power-all concepts that are associated with horror films.
The mask that the clown is wearing is conventional, it has a bright red nose,
large eyes and a overextended smile. The contextual and historical links behind
a clown, is that they were used as an object of entertainment for young
children and circus and events. To a more modern day approach, huge films such
as Stephen King’s ‘IT’ and Tobe Hooper’s ‘The Poltergeist’ have made clowns to
have a stigma attached to them, so that they are represented as sinister,
threatening and disturbing. George Gerbener stated that television become
responsible for cultivating or shaping viewers conceptions of social reality.
In this case, clowns used to be seen in a positive way as a laughable and funny
figure, nowadays due to the media and social platforms, clowns are depicted in
a negative light.
Stuart Hall’s reception theory can also be applied to our trailer. There are
three main components to this theory: Dominant, Negotiated and
Oppositional. This reading is affected by many contextual and personal
factors such as, age, social class, gender and personal experiences. In
our production, the audience would initially see the clown through a preferred
reading, of the clown being represented in a positive way. The contextual
background behind a clown is that they are seen to be an object of
entertainment for young children and funfairs and circus’s. At the
beginning of our trailer, the clown is only shown in long shots, so the
audience are left confused to what the antagonist actually is. The
negotiated reading can also be applied. As the film progresses, the use of the
eerie and chimey soundtrack helps to emphasize the antagonist in a
negative light. When the clown is presented on the screen, ‘thud’ sound
effects are used to emphasize the
fact that the clown is depicted negatively. Due to the encoded meanings of a
clown being happy, jolly and telling jokes, the use of the technical elements
of sound and camera, make the audience partly share the text code, but also be
able to resist and reflect their own opinion on the clown.
The representation of the girls can be recognised and adhered
to regarding the conventional expectations of them in horror films. The
construction of girls in the world is that they are stereotypically seen to be
the weaker sex, and we wanted to play on this idea when creating a horror film.
We showed a long shot of three teenage girls walking home from school. The long
shot was effective in representing the girls as normal teenagers, as the
audience are able to obtain what they are wearing (jeans, t-shirts and
trainers) which are conventional items of clothing that teenage girls
wear. We the used match on action, to display the girls laughing, which
helps to display them as innocent and ordinary. After this, the camera cuts to
a close up picture of the clown, which directly juxtaposes with the vulnerable
girls laughing on the way home from school. Levi Strauss’s theory of Binary
Oppositions can be applied here through the concept of ‘good and evil’ the
girls are presented as innocent and relatable, and the clown to be ominous and
creepy.
The sound used in the trailer is also represented and adhered
to. We used high pitched violin sounds with the presence of the clown on the
screen along with the sound of heart beating when the girls are shown to be
running away. The heart beating connotes to the idea that the girls are scared
and fearful. The heart beat is rapid and fast suggesting that they are alarmed
by something. The sound helps to represent what is on the screen, so we used a
mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound to create a creepy atmosphere.
When the clown is presented on the screen, we used an eerie violin sound
that was very high pitched that it made the screen hard and uncomfortable to
listen to. This suggests to the audience that the clown is a negative aspect in
the trailer. It indicates a particular atmosphere to the audience that is not
depicted as a positive one. This is also a conventional sound effect that is
used in horror films to create a tense and uneasy atmosphere. We combined this
sound effect with a non additive dissolve sound effect, which made the clown
appear twice on the same screen, emphasizing the paranormal atmosphere created
by the clown. The sound in our trailer can be adhered to the first part of
Todorov’s theory. The beginning of our trailer starts with a loud thud sound to
immediately make the audience think that something bad is about to happen. This
links to the idea of an equilibrium where the trailer is beginning to set the
scene and adhere to the conventional expectations.
The representation of the location is also an important
factor to consider. We some of our trailer in a park, which in some ways
subverts to the representation of a horror film. Parks connote aspects such as
children having fun and enjoying themselves, so why film a horror film there?
Questions are raised instantly in the audiences minds In relation to Dyer’s
typography- where is this? And why is it in this place? As clowns were
connected to children, and children play at a park we decided to put the clown
in a location where it can pray and find young children, and a park seemed like
the perfect location. We used melodramatic ideas of pathetic fallacy to create
mystery with it stereotypically being filmed at night time. When it’s dark
little can be seen, which creates fear as something can essentially come out of
nowhere.
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