Evaluation Task - Representations in our Trailer

Written by Emma Taylor

Claude Levi- Strauss

Claude Levi-Strauss stated that 'some paradigms are encoded into texts and others are left out in order to give a preferred representation', meaning that the producers of media texts purposefully choose and make decisions on all aspects of production depending upon the desired effect on the audience. In our trailer we have done precisely this in order to convey meaning. For example, our protagonist Grace frequently wears a floral headband in her hair and a pure white top, which connotes a happy and bright girl which is an ideology which we expect the audience to understand, so that they both like, and relate to Grace as a character, making her being kidnapped all the more dramatic. In the case of Mr Eastwood (our kidnapper) we have chosen to design his costume when he's teaching his class to the expectations of a 'regular' teacher including a white shirt, tie ect in order to denote his position of authority. This changes dramatically when he captures Grace and is wearing dark clothing including a hoodie which is concealing his face, in order to symbolise criminal intent and 'thuggish' behaviour. In our audience feedback these representations have shown to be successful, as our audience realises that Mr Eastwood is the same character, but now has a more dark and sinister motive when wearing a hoodie and capturing Grace. 

David Chandler stated that 'representation always involves the construction of reality' and we have tried our best to replicate this in our trailer in order to make our characters more relatable to our target audience of teenagers. For example, Charlie (Grace's partner) is seen to have clothing typical of a seventeen year old boy (converse shoes, jeans, white t-shirt). However, modern representations of youth in the media frequently display young people as being badly behaved, drunk and a burden on modern society, but we have used Claude Levi-Strauss' theory of binary oppositions (age and good vs. evil) to challenge this youth representation and have a teacher (who are regularly is seen to be a fine upstanding member of society) to be the 'bad' character in our story. This may not be what the audience are expecting and therefore adds dramatic effect into our trailer.

We have used the representations of officially recognised bodies such as the Fire Service to aid our trailer. The fire service are recognised globally and are recognised with helping serious incidents, and so having them involved with our production (coming out of the forestation with the sirens and lights on, and cutting open cars) meant that the audience recognised the seriousness of Grace's troubles and were able to effectively understand her position.