Thursday, 18 September 2014

EXTRAS

Textual analysis of the opening scene of Ricky Gervais' Extras episode featuring Orlando Bloom. (Season 2, Episode 1 Orlando Bloom, 14 Sep. 2006). Tackle your analysis in the order of the scenes, starting with the opening scene and working your way through.

Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract
only.

1   Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of gender using the following:
  • Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
  Editing
  Sound 
  • Mise-en-scene [50 marks] 



To answer the examination question, you will do well if you use the structure PEE (point, evidence, explanation). For example:
P "A two-person mid shot of Orlando Bloom and Maggie shows Orlando leaning on the jury box rail. " (this names two technical codes, in this case, camerawork)
E "Mid shots let the audience see the expressions on the actors' faces; here, we see Orlando Bloom looking very smug and self-satisfied, whereas Maggie looks unimpressed as she is not smiling and trying to please, unlike the crowd of adoring autograph hunters of the previous frame who clustered around the superstar Orlando Bloom. The two-person composition draws attention to the contrasting body language of Bloom and Maggie; he is assertive and confident, intruding into her personal space, whereas she has slumped shoulders and is not trying to impress him."
E "The effect is to create comedy as Maggie does not conform to the stereotype of the female fan whilst Bloom vainly tries to impress her. She seems annoyed by his vanity and the way that the other women fawn over him. Bloom is constructed as a typical film superstar who is arrogant and over-confident, used to having the world at his feet."
 

BARTHES: RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE

THE RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE

The French semiotician Roland Barthes (1913 - 1980) termed the straightforward description of a text denotation and the added layers of associated meaning and values that society (people interpreting it) gives that text connotation.

  • A word has a literal meaning (denotation) e.g. rose
  • Beyond this, it may have a symbolic or cultural meaning (connotation) e.g. romance, true love
  • Meaning includes both denotation and connotation

Barthes gives us the example of the advertisement for Panzani tinned and dried products as an example of how imagery can create a barrage of persuasive meanings through connotation. How does this text persuade the consumer that Panzani products are an essential ingredient in natural, wholesome, fresh and home-made Italian cooking?