Representation In My Trailer

 I have written a short essay about representation in my trailer. This is the essay that I wrote:

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Representation in my Trailer

Representation is when you change an item to make it look different; it is the way in which meaning is given to an item depicted. In the terms of representation I will study the basics of representation that we learnt in the AS course as well as the higher terminology from the A2 course. The basics of representation cover the camera (shots, angles, movement, and composition), sound (non-musical and musical), editing (cutting and other transition) and mise-en-scene (production design and lighting and colour design). The A2 course looks in much more in-depth at representation. An image is representation and to re-present something can be done by using different lighting such as low faint light on the evil person to make them look scary or it can be done by using the camera to focus on an aspect. 

  The theorist Stuart Hall has devised what he calls three readings which are the ways that a person may interpret a text. These readings are; preferred reading, negotiated reading and oppositional reading. Preferred reading is when the consumer of the media understands the point fully that you are trying to get across. Negotiated reading is when the consumer understands some of the points however disagree on some aspects. Oppositional reading is when the consumer apposes all the ideas that you have tried to get across. In my film I believe that the horror aspect will be understood pretty well by using the correct lighting and shots. The hand held camera work will help me achieve this understanding of being followed and that the viewer is watching from the eyes of the stalker. However it may not be very obvious from my trailer whose birthday it is as it is not specified, however this would be much more obvious in the film as you will be able to hear the group talking in the car as they travel to the forest. I believe that for the purpose of my trailer the viewer may be a negotiated reader as the whole idea is not obvious; however in the film I would make sure it was much more obvious so the viewer would be a preferred reader.

 Roland Barthes is another theorist who has theories on representation. Roland created two sections; denotation and connotation. The denotation is the literal meaning of an image whereas the connotation is used to refer to the socio-cultural and personal associations of an image. An example of this is if a person is wearing a Manchester United shirt, the denotation is that they are wearing a Manchester United shirt; however the connotation of this is that they support Manchester United. In my trailer there is a denotation that the older male and younger female are walking close together, the connotation is that they  are a couple which is correct and the point that was tried to get across but not really obviously by a kiss just subtly by their body language. Another denotation is that there is an older female in the group, and the connotation of this is that she is the mother and she is in charge by the fact that she is the first person to leave the house and that she is the one that goes to find help. A major denotation is when the car pulls over and they check under the bonnet of the car, the connotation is that they have broken down which is very important that this is understood by the viewer otherwise the complication is not identified and the film won’t be understood.

 My final theorist on representation is Ferdinand de Saussure who came up semiotics which is the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems. A sign could be made up of something which physically resembles the object in some way, or has a direct link between it and its object. I don’t believe there to be any signs in my trailer of film.

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