Practice exam questions

In this essay i will be analysing the extract from Doctor Who and identifying how gender is represented. I will be demonstrating if, and how, the extract uses archetypes, generic types and stereotypes and applying Levi-Strauss' concept of binary oppositions. Finally, i will determine if the extract conforms to or challenges hegemony. I will be doing this with reference to camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene.

At the start of the scene we get a great shot of the lady in her position feeling vulnerable. The shot represents gender as we see that the man villain is in charge and so this creates a sense that male domination has occurred same way as it would in our society.

This clip is also a great example of binary opposition as we see the man standing as the villain, and the innocent girl as the hero. This means that the binary opposition here is is men vs women.

The sounds used in the clip is also effective as it helps to build up the tension, by using parallel sounds. There are both diegetic and non-diabetic sounds used in this clip. First diegetic sound produced was being by the man as he welcomed the girl. However after all the music played, the girl started laughing. This was also a diegetic sound, however this then caused the confusion, as the man did not know what was going on and therefore may have feel intimidated as was the girl when she first entered.

EastEnders

In this soap ethnicity and sexuality are both represented due to the masood family. Firstly ethnicity is encountered as they eat different types of food, giving people an insight about a different type of culture. Sexuality is also represented as there are a few people in the soap who struggle with sexuality problems. Not long ago Ben Mitchell was acting as a boy who was struggeling to tell his father about his sexuality, this gave the audience an insight as to of what people go through, if struggeling with sexuality problems.

Waterloo Road

In this Drama, Age is hugely represented, as we see different aged pupils entering and leaving the school. The drama shows the audience how students of different ages are treated differently compared to other. for example the students who are older and in collage are given the roles of head boy and head girl. this informs us that the older you are the more the chance is of getting a higher status, and being given more opportunities.

Top Boy

Top boy represented regional identity, this was done as the scenes were set in North London. The images produced by the Drama is very stereotypical as it represented most boys as being involved in gangs. It also made the region look very deprived, as it pointed out the more rural area's of the city. The men involved in gangs were portrayed as very patronising, which left a negative thought on the region as a whole.

Hustle

In the eposode of hustle that i had seen, i realised that gender, status and class was represented. Firstly we saw a middle-classed women enter the shop, we can tell she is midde classed due to her speech and the way she dressed. The words spoken by the second women who entered used very simple vocabulary, and so we as the audience would belive that she was from the working class. This is a great example of class as we get to see two people from different classes and can compare them both. Gender was represented in the hustle due to the way they were dressed, the man wearing a suit, whereas the lady was wearing a dress. Status was also encountered on this eposode of hustle as we saw that the man who owned the shop had treated the working-class lady with lower respect compared to the middle-class.