Essay

Dicuss the ways in which gender is represented in this clip with reference to camera shots, editing, mis-en-scene and sound.

Gender is represented in this TV drama in very clear ways. There are quite a few key moments when you see that a man dominates the woman and is in charge of her. For example when he uses her as a hat stand and when the women are making him tea and rushing around looking after him which is also stereotypes of women. Gender is also reprsented in the way the women look and dress comapred to the men and a lot of the gender that is represented in this clip of the TV drama are sterotypes of men and women.

Mis-en-scene is used to represent gender by the way the props and costumes are used. The costumes used have most women in very tight and curvy dresses to show off their figure which is a sterotype of women that they should do this as it is nicer on the eye, although there is one women who is wearing trousers and shows that she may be of more importance as she is not dressed like that and therefore may not be looked at like that and is of a higher status because she doesnt have to dress in tight and revealing clothes. The men are all dressed in sharp suits and office wear as well. The woman at the beginning of the clip is also smoking and drinking and puts her hands on her head as to say she is stressed. This represents gender as it shows the woman doing all the important, hard and stressful work as well as not being able to deal with it all sterotyping that they are the weaker of the two sexes but the one who is meant to do the most work. When the man uses the woman as a hat stand it shows that he has greater power. This represents gender as its saying the man has more power and is more dominant over the woman and can treater her how he likes and use her for whatever he likes wtithout her having a say in it or being able to do anything about it.

Sound is used to represent gender as the first sound you hear is of the type writter and then as the camera tilts up you see it is a woman sitting on the desk doing the office job of writing things up. This represents gender as it is a sterotype that women do the more boring jobs of sitting in an office and writing up things as men do the more important and hands on jobs. There is music in the background that gets louder or quiter at certain points in the clip, the characters walk to the beat of the music and especially the woman as she seems like she is strutting. This represents gender as she is rushing and trying to do everything and be in charge of everything and everyone trying to get the show ready in time. Digestic and non digestic sound are both used. There is dialogue the whole way through the clip which represents gender from what they are saying and from how you hear the male characters talking to the female characters.

Editing is used to represent gender as cuts to pan is used to follow her movement, this gives the audience a sense that she is rushing and trying to get everything done and also shows the audience how she acts by the way shes walking, looks at other people and talks to other people. For example when she talks to the other man about stepping in and she is higher then him and talks down to him with her boobs quite near her face which is representing gender as a sterotype of a woman thinking that because part of her body is out of near him she can get whatever she wants without there being a problem and he has to do it although this does not fit in with the rest of the clips representation of gender as throughout the rest of the clip it is shown as the man being dominant and having control of the woman but in this scene the woman has control over the man.

Camera shots are used to represent gender because the first shot you see is a tilt up over the news papers. You then see the woman and hear the type writing. This automatically tells the audience that she works in some sort of office. There is also over the shoulder shots used which represents gender as you see the character from eachothers point of view. There is an extreme close up of a man lighting a ciggerette which is mysterious as you cannot see his face and you dont know who he is. This represents gender as its showing men are more in control of whats happening as the audience are not being told anything about this man apart from that he smokes, which could also represent gender as a sterotype of being quite a rich and relaxed man.  Wide shots are used quite a lot because this represents gender as a whole because you can see everything that is going on in the scene, then the other shots are used to represent gender more specifically when they director wants the audience to focus more oncertain things. Establishing shots are also used to show the audience more about where they are working for them to be able to work out more about each character and what each characters doing and that represents gender as the audience can know more.