How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?
The way in which a character is represented affects the interpretation that the audience have of them. Factors such as costumes, facial expressions and dialogue are imperative in showing what social group that the character may belong to. There is only one character that has a prominent appearance in our opening sequence. The key character is Cornelius, and the way in which he is represented is determined by various aspects such as camera, sound and mise en scene.
A main factor of mise en scene is the character's costume. In order to give the impression that Cornelius was a smart and educated man, however helpless to his mental condition, we dressed him in a baggy formal shirt and thick black rimmed glasses. The formal shirt and glasses give the idea that someone is educated and refined, however the fact that his costume is unkempt and messy contradicts that and confuses the audience, letting them unknowingly gain an insight into his character as his schizophrenia would cause him to act in a contradictory manner. This representation is similar to that of the character William Foster's in the movie "Falling Down". From the initial research, we saw that William also wore glasses and smart clothes, which gave the audience the impression that he was a civilised person. The behaviour of his character then contradicts that impression, as his abrupt change in character by leaving the car spontaneously shows that his personality was volatile and unpredictable. Similarly, we didn't want our audience to be able to predict what Cornelius would do. Another costume that is featured in the cutaways to the asylum scenes is the straitjacket that Cornelius is wearing. This clearly depicts him as being a crazed manic, as that is the most common connotation associated to that garment.
Camera shots that are used to portray him include extreme close ups, such as when his eyes open suddenly. This abrupt movement represents him as being quite an unpredictable character, as it was a sudden, unexpected movement. The extreme close ups also only allow the audience to see selected parts of him, which also could be representative of the fact that he has a very fragmented mentality and people are subjected to seeing only parts of his personality at any time because of his mental disorder. This is seen in the close up where his eyes roll back, which represents him as being a peculiar person as it signifies that something extraordinary is happening to him which is not a usual action. Over the shoulder shots and high angle shots that are featured in the opening sequence never real much of his face, which once again emphasises that the audience will not be able to understand him as a whole immediately from the opening sequence and represents him as being mysterious. The high angle shots also portray him as being quite vulnerable, as the audience are looking down on him, and can see that he is helpless to the hallucination he is experiencing.
The props that surround Cornelius include papers, notebooks and stationary, all of which reinforce his representation of being an educated and smart person. However, the fact that they are all littered messily around him also allow the audience to deduce that he is a disorganised person, which could symbolise the greater issue of his mental instability. Other props also include various pills across his desk, which also portrays him as needing to maintain his mental illness medically.
The facial expressions of Cornelius are predominantly stoic and apathetic, apart from the slight surprise that is present on his face when first entering the hallucination. This represents him as being largely unemotional, however when he is drawing, his expression is that of concentration so he could also be seen as being quite serious. His posture supports this representation as he is sitting upright, signifying that he is a confident person. His body language when searching for paper is quite frantic and alarmed, illustrating how he is in a trance as well as representing him as an impulsive person.
The lack of dialogue in the opening sequence means that the audience will struggle to have a perception of Cornelius' whole character, as speech can also heavily influence the representation of a social group. For example, a character that is meant to have a wealthy background and is of a high class is stereotyped as speaking in an eloquent and well articulated manner. However, in order to keep to the connotations of a psychological thriller, we wanted to build as much suspense and mystery as possible. Having Cornelius not speak and to allow the audience to compensate for that by having their own individual perspective on the character meant there would be a greater element of mystery. The dialogue that is used is the voiceover of a news story. To make the opening sequence more interesting as well as representing how the story was broadcast worldwide, the voice over consisted of voices of different accents to represent various nationalities which consisted of British, Indian, Australian and American accents.
The way in which a character is represented affects the interpretation that the audience have of them. Factors such as costumes, facial expressions and dialogue are imperative in showing what social group that the character may belong to. There is only one character that has a prominent appearance in our opening sequence. The key character is Cornelius, and the way in which he is represented is determined by various aspects such as camera, sound and mise en scene.
A main factor of mise en scene is the character's costume. In order to give the impression that Cornelius was a smart and educated man, however helpless to his mental condition, we dressed him in a baggy formal shirt and thick black rimmed glasses. The formal shirt and glasses give the idea that someone is educated and refined, however the fact that his costume is unkempt and messy contradicts that and confuses the audience, letting them unknowingly gain an insight into his character as his schizophrenia would cause him to act in a contradictory manner. This representation is similar to that of the character William Foster's in the movie "Falling Down". From the initial research, we saw that William also wore glasses and smart clothes, which gave the audience the impression that he was a civilised person. The behaviour of his character then contradicts that impression, as his abrupt change in character by leaving the car spontaneously shows that his personality was volatile and unpredictable. Similarly, we didn't want our audience to be able to predict what Cornelius would do. Another costume that is featured in the cutaways to the asylum scenes is the straitjacket that Cornelius is wearing. This clearly depicts him as being a crazed manic, as that is the most common connotation associated to that garment.
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| Extreme close up of his eyes |
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| Props - A vast amount of books, folders and papers |
The facial expressions of Cornelius are predominantly stoic and apathetic, apart from the slight surprise that is present on his face when first entering the hallucination. This represents him as being largely unemotional, however when he is drawing, his expression is that of concentration so he could also be seen as being quite serious. His posture supports this representation as he is sitting upright, signifying that he is a confident person. His body language when searching for paper is quite frantic and alarmed, illustrating how he is in a trance as well as representing him as an impulsive person.
The lack of dialogue in the opening sequence means that the audience will struggle to have a perception of Cornelius' whole character, as speech can also heavily influence the representation of a social group. For example, a character that is meant to have a wealthy background and is of a high class is stereotyped as speaking in an eloquent and well articulated manner. However, in order to keep to the connotations of a psychological thriller, we wanted to build as much suspense and mystery as possible. Having Cornelius not speak and to allow the audience to compensate for that by having their own individual perspective on the character meant there would be a greater element of mystery. The dialogue that is used is the voiceover of a news story. To make the opening sequence more interesting as well as representing how the story was broadcast worldwide, the voice over consisted of voices of different accents to represent various nationalities which consisted of British, Indian, Australian and American accents.
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