Stuart Hall: Representation Theory

This post shows what I have learnt about Stuart Hall's representation theory during this week's lesson

Making this has made me remember Stuart Hall's theory along with his name as well because I had to remake it multiple times, with that, I also have a better understanding on how I can portray different cultures or subjects in my work. For example I could portray the car community with a welcoming and positive light, however I will use what I have learnt in this lesson to try and portray them in a good light but as realistic, truthful and neutral as possible as to not mislead my readers but while also possibly welcoming them as well.

1. Representation Theory

Representation Theory was a theory presented by Stuart Hall, where he proposed that in the real world nothing has any fixed meaning. This implies that nothing is directly good or bad, better or worse, instead Hall argued that media is the one that makes the meaning & creates the ideas that come from the media's portrayal of the thing, as his quote states "Media does not reflect meaning. Media creates meaning." 

A part of the representation theory are stereotypes, a stereotype is an oversimplification and generalization of a portrayed group or individual of a certain age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, disability and sexuality, these oversimplifications can create a negative or positive portrayal however stereotypes are always bad as they portray a specific demographic as only a non complex generalization of what they are in reality.  

A countertype is the opposite of a stereotype, whereas stereotypes display conformities to an overgeneralized public picture and opinion, countertype does the opposite and subverts most of the oversimplifications. Countertypes are not always negative as they can bring more nuance to a character as the character is not limited to what the public thinks they should be based on their characteristics.

2. Stereotypes in Indonesian media

Positively Portrayed: Koreans

source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxsBoqcRHjU/  (27/09/23)

How they're represented: 

Sound            : non diegetic soft emotional music, softer tone of voice, no loud sounds

Edit                : not a lot of quick cuts, slower paced

Mise en scene: worried facial expression cleaner shaven, properly worn glasses 

Camera angle: high angle shots, medium shot composition

What are the reasons for how they used:

Sound             : To show how the Koreans are soft and kind as the song sets the tone of how the scene                             should feel, which is filled with compassion and worry.

Edit                 : The edit makes the scene feel more flowed and emphasizes the character's emotions

Mise en scene : Worried face further shows compassion of the Koreans, the glasses and facial hair are                              also relatively cleaner to show more neater and civilized people.

Camera angle : The low angle is generally used in order to make the characters look better.

Final Storyboard

 

This is my final storyboard for the Storyboard Project

Critical Self Reflection

 

Link to docs

a quiet place analysis

 A practice analysis on a quiet place 

0:00-2:30


From the extract we can gather that the director wants to convey how the town is an abandoned town that was left vacant within a short period of time, this was expressed by showing cars parked in spots that seemed normal, indicating that the population was gone in a short period of time, so much so that they couldn’t take their cars. The director also wanted to exaggerate the eeriness of how quiet it was by purposefully not using any non-diegetic sounds like a music track, they’ve also made it more unsettling by not including too many human made sounds that would sound familiar to a person, adding a further disconnect that would make the audience uneasy and tense. Other methods the director used to make the setting seem more deserted is by using the sounds of leaves rustling as they tumble through the streets, that would contrast with a regular well maintained street where leaves wouldn’t usually be as present as they were in the scene lastly the camera usage throughout the extract further shows how the town was either very silent or abandoned if not both, firstly the usage of many establishing shots showing an empty place where people would usually be makes the audience think about why it’s so abandoned and quiet or where the people have gone and it sets the tone of the next scenes, additionally the director uses medium angle shots to emphasize on the acting as the actors wouldn’t be able to emote audibly, this also gives the audience a better understanding of what the characters are like.

1st Attempt Storyboard

This is my 1st attempts at the storyboard for the commercial.

 

The image above is a photo of the original first draft, after I got feedback the teacher advised some parts that I could've expanded on, for example the part where time moves backwards could be played forward during the first section as some kind of establishment of the setting, and that I could add reaction shots of the other competitors to give them more personality.

The image above shows the second iteration of the storyboard where I listened to the teachers feedback and added some character to the competitors and used the forward playing shots before the race to conform with a stereotypical time reverse scene.

My inspirations for this scene was a scene from a movie titled "X-Men: Apocalypse" where it shows a character running in regular speed while everything seems slowed down, the ideas I used from it was an idea of a shot where it shows the time manipulation to something that is affected by it, in the scene it was the bee touching the flower, in my commercial it was the first 3 scenes that was somewhat unrelated to the main subject, the second idea I used was the time manipulation idea but I put a spin on it to match the name of the product.

X-Men: Apocalypse scene:

Self-reflection:

    I found it hard to search for inspirations as it was hard for me to find content that my target audience would enjoy so I instead turned to looking for movies that my target audience would enjoy as I think that movies and references to them would be something to interest my audience.

Practice Storyboard

 

Proposal

This is my proposal for my advertisement storyboard

Name : Jlab rewind

Brand : Jlab

What is it: modern version of the walkman headphones

USP : high tech insides but vintage looks

Demographic & Psychographic

(I target younger learners as I think they should be exposed to vintage products, but with the convince of a modern product)

Age : 15-21

Gender : Any

Location : English speaking countries 

Job : studying

Interests : vintage items

Hobbies : studying, athletic or just listening to music

Lifestyles : healthy

How the ad will look

Location : a school or a campus

• Enclosed clean Cafeteria (afternoon) 

• Oval Running track (evening) 

• Library (anytime) 

• Home (night) 

Duration : 30 seconds

What the ad might look like

  An old man and a younger man run in a track, the older man wins running with his old walkman but as the younger guy crosses the line looking tired, he holds the rewind button on the headphones and as the song restarts the race also restarts and the younger man wins this time looking more energized, next scenes show the practicality and other selling points

My Target Audience

 1. Product/Company Description:

• Company/Product Name: JLab Rewind Wireless

• Product Overview: Its a retro styled bluetooth headphone

2. Target Audience Demographics:

• Age: 15-21

• Gender: Both

• Income Level: Still studying

• Education: High School

• Occupation: Learner

• Geographical Location: Europe and English speaking countries

3. Target Audience Psychographics:

• Interests: Music, 80s, 90s era look

• Lifestyle Choices: likes running, walking or listening to music

• Values and Attitudes: Music enjoyer

• Opinions: Wants to experience the good parts of the 80-90s because they never got to

4. Understanding Consumer Behavior:

• Needs: A product with vintage looks but offers modern quality and features

• Motivations: The audience might want a walkman but do not want to have to go through the hassle of untangling tapes and having to buy a tape deck to listen to their favorite songs

• Pain Points: modern technology with vintage looks, can pair up with any phone or laptop with bluetooth access

5. Competitor Analysis:

• Competitor Name: Koss Porta Pro

• Competitor's Target Audience: people in their mid to late 20s in fashion

6. Target Audience Persona:

• Persona Name: High school to uni Students

• Age: 18

• Gender: a man

• Occupation: studying

• Interests: Going for runs (shows how well the headphones stay on)

• Lifestyle: average student (study, talk to friends & doing hw)

• Values and Attitudes: Expression through music

• Needs and Motivations: They don't want to use their expensive gifted walkman headphones but want that walkman headphone feel

• Pain Points: the durability of other headphones and the lack of bluetooth

7. Aligning Advertisement with Target Audience:

• Message: The rewind will connect to anything, can be used anywhere

• Visuals: Denim jeans, retro puffy jacket

• Tone: Enjoy the moment

Camera angles & Movements

Here is a video I made experimenting with different camera angles and movements 

Close up shot: Used to show Nathan's facial expressions and to focus the audience on a specific object

Stable movement: Used to show how boring and a scene is

Trucking movement: Used to follow nathan's movment through the gym

Medium shot:  Used to show Nathan's actions, like using his headphones while still clearly showing his face

Over The Shoulder shot: Used to show nathan's usage of his phone

Research

This is my research for the SB

Title of the Advertisement: That's How I Roll

Brand/Product: Insurance

Duration of the Advertisement: 61 Seconds

Brief Overview/Summary: A very average man wants to be as cool as the black people




1. Target Audience

• People in their 20s to 40s who listen to American rap music of a middle to lower class. 
• Uninsured people who are uncomfortable with using moneysupermarket 

2. Message and Purpose

• It tries to sell the point that using insurance by MoneySuperMarket is cool and hip to do, most likely because there might be a shameful stigma against using MoneySuperMarket.
• MoneySuperMarket tries to market towards relatively younger people who think negatively towards the Insurance and try to convince them its not uncool to use

3. Meaning and Interpretation

• The advert attempts to make the audience seem cool by using MoneySuperMarket by using people who are portrayed as cool by most people who aren't elderly to sell the point that using insurance is something to be proud of 

4. Effectiveness

• I Believe the advertisement works to sell their main points as the choice for actors was spot on to portray a "cooler" people in contrast to the main subject who is often seem as average outside the advertisement

5. Personal Response

• The advertisement was funny and very memorable due to the absurdity in some scenes such as the invisible car and the contrast between the main person and the rest of the cast

Weekly progress

 This is my Weekly progress for the advert project 

 Week 2

• We learnt the basics of camera angles and movements, most of them were pretty self explanatory and I think in the future I can still recite them completely  
• Started work on a miniproject where we have to create a short video using camera angles and movements to convey a meaning that we have to decide, me and my partner (louis) decided to use camera angles and movements t o convey isolation and loneliness 

 Week 3

• We learnt more about the camera angles and what it is often used to convey.
• We learnt that Camera movements can also be used to give meaning to a scene.
• How to analyze advertisements, we used a template/structure to more easily analyze advertisements, firstly we have to find the target audience, message and purpose, the meaning and how to interpret the ad, how effective it was at selling me the product and lastly, my personal response to the advertisement.
• I have to continue the advertisement research, I need to add 2 more research pieces to it, 1 big and 1 small.

    Week 4

• Start brainstorming for ideas for a tv commercial
• Made a rough draft on the target audience 
• learnt about the effects and usages of mise-en-scene along with some types of it, for example blocking and the color of the scene

  Week 5

• Sound, learnt about diegetic and non diegetic, diegetic being sounds that can be heard by the people within the universe of the media and non diegetic being something only the audience can hear. We also learnt what it can be used to convey within a scene.
• We learnt the basics of storyboarding, its importance and also how to make a storyboard; what to include, how to create the scenes, what sounds are in the scenes.
• The teacher assigned us to create a storyboard as a practice to test what we've learnt this week.

  Week 6

• We learnt about some editing techniques; their uses and what they can convey, for example pacing can make the audience feel either nervous with its quick pacing or can convey a scene to be very boring and dull if its slow
• We did a practice that mimics an exam styled question; we watched an extract from films and were told to do use the methods that can help form an answer; split the page into 4 and write notes each times the video was replayed.
• finished proposal and rough practice storyboard This week I finished the proposal that was assigned and I completed the rough practice storyboard, I struggled a little bit with it as it was hard to pace the scenes because we had to put the durations of the scene on the story board and i think I struggled with it due to this being my first attempt but by the end I think I now know how to pace the scenes a little better.

Week 7

• Finished the 1st attempt storyboard & got feedback for it I finished the first attempt storyboard which assigned for the tv commercial and got feedback for it, I changed a few things such as the 
• Did a unit test on camera angles and movements 
• An analysis on an exert used in a past exam (agent carter series)

Week 8

• I started to do the Critical self reflection during this week as it is when it was assigned. I struggled on looking for words and I still think that I need to increase my vocabulary. It was hard to also try and dig into my work & put my meanings from visual into words.
• Along with the Critical Self reflection, I also started work on the Project Storyboard, I had no problem copying the shots of the first attempt storyboard into the main project storyboard however I did struggle to put and describe my proper implications into the parts of the scene that would represent it.