Gender and Age Representation in 'Lovely Bones' - Olivia Farren

The Lovely Bones (2009)



In the opening scene of The Lovely Bones, age and gender is represented through aspects of mise en scene, camerawork, sound and editing.

Straight away we see a little girl playing on the floor, the girl about 2/3 years old, and this is presented to us in a number of ways:

- The fact that she is on the floor tells us that she is young as she clearly doesn't have head of family status, and that she obviously doesn't mind being on the floor as she is too busy playing, like young children do, to care.

- Surrounding her in the shot are various toys, such as a teddy bear and a picture book, and these items are universally associated with very young children, which tells the audience of her age.

- Along with the composition of the shot communicating her age to the audience, her costume tells us of her young age. The bright red dungarees with the bright red shoes is stereotypically associated with young children.

- The camera in the opening sequence is filming from a high angle, this shows that she is being looked down upon by the audience, as she is younger and very little, also showing that because of her being so young she doesn't have any authority to be looked up to.


-  Blonde curly hair is stereotypically associated with little girls, the blonde also representing the innocence of her because of her age.

- The key lighting in the opening sequence is highlighting the little girls face. The bright white light reflects off of her pale skin, rosy cheeks and light hair which gives an angelic affect, therefore presenting her innocence and age to the audience.

In the opening sequence, it then forwards to '12 years later', when the little girl is now fourteen:

- To present her as now being a teenage girl, the girls appearance has clearly changed.

Gender and Age Representation in 'Lovely Bones' - Natalie Sergeant

Lovely Bones - Representation of gender and age of the young girl

2 Years old

At the beginning of Lovely Bones we first see the girl at a young age of 2. We can tell this information from her size being small like a child when compared to an adult. Also many of the shots our high angle or eye level that emphases this idea of her being small but also weak and needing to be protected due to her size.

We see innocents in her due to her fascination with the penguin snow glob. As most older people would not be interested in the item, she has a strong attraction and curiosity towards the item as she doesn't know what it is and due to her lack of knowledge we she her as innocent to the world.

 

As we can see she surrounded by toys that not only emphases her young age but also her gender. Her age is represented by the tops as they are soft, easy to play with and also safe. Her gender is shown in them due to them being all sweet and nothing gendered towards boys, such as the cuddle bear. She is also interested in the penguin, this can seen as cute and small so would be an interest to more of a girl as boys might want more stereotypical toys such as cars and solders.

We also see as a girl due to her clothing and hair. She has blond curly hair that is not seen towards boys as the will have very short hair and most boys wont have curly hair. Her clothing is a red dungarees and white slightly frilly shirt, this is seen as girl clothing as most boys would have more dirty and have more lazy clothing where she looks more feminine due to the frills. We also see sweetness of the characters and a child like innocents from this.

14 Year old

 

We then see the girl 12 years later where she is taking the equal vent of "Selfies", this is seen as a girly activate for girls to take photos of themselves. We also see her holding a cut out of a boys face showing that she is in her young teenage stages due to this being a stereotypical activate for girls to fantasy over dream boys from bands or actors. 

 

Even with the girl being 12 years old we still see a child like innocents of her as she is still exploring and running around without a care. She is wearing light pink cardigan with matching trousers and a white shirt. These clothing shows she's a girl as girls are more likely to wear so much pink and that styles of clothing where boys would wear less things with paten but more for comfit. 

Comparison
With in our thriller opening, we also use a young actor to emphases the feeling of innocents. We also have our character wearing white to show this innocents of not understanding the world around them fully yet.

Gender and Age Representation in 'The Lovely Bones' - Ettie Greenwood

Here I will analyise the ways in which the little girl in the ' The Lovely Bones' opening is denoted though gender and age representation:

•  The little girl is young -about 2/3- which connotes her innocence and youthfulness. This is easy to tell due to her height, and obvious looks. 
• Her clothing also conveys her age as she is dressed in the stereotypical clothing of the child. She wears red dungarees and a white t-shirt, as these are everyday infant clothes, this may connote a sense of realism which is unusual in a thriller. It also enforces her innocence as she seems to be behaving like a stereotypical young girl -at home playing with her toys-

•   Also surrounded by the girl are toys, eg. a teddy bear, colouring books and a mini fair ground. These again are seen as everyday, normal toys for an infant, therefore adding to the realist feel.

• However after the flash forward, her femininity starts to shine through. She buys a new camera and starts taking 'selfies' with it. This is very typical of a young female (aged 14) and again connotes her innocence and suggests realism in the plot. 

• The non-diegetic sound in the opening is a voice over narration of the girl talking about her memories. Her voice is soft, but maybe too soft which slightly connotes an eery and foreshadowing effect. However it also highlights that she will be the main protagonist in the film as the focus is only on her in the opening, and she narrates her memories to the audience. 

 Link to our thriller opening:
By analysing how the female character in 'The Lovely Bones' is denoted, this will help us to chose similar characteristics to give to our female protagonist -a sense of realism at first and to create innocence-.

Equipment List

Here's the equipment that we will need to hire for next wednesday:

• Video Camera
• Tripod
• Reflector
• LED Light (x2)
• Coloured gels (Blue and Orange)
• Diffuser

 Here is our booking form to reserve the equipment for the 5th March:

Shooting Order - Olivia and Ettie

We decided that we would shoot the opening in a different order that it appears in the story board. This is to make filming easier and quicker, but also more convenient for us.

For example, we plan to film both the start of the opening (shots 1 and 2) and the end (shots 29 and 30) together. This is because these shots are all filmed in the same location (inside):

 Then, the shots will be filmed in chronological order as the this is most convenient: we will be taking the same route down to the woods, as the route we will be filming so we can easily film whilst we make our way to the destination.

However depending on the weather we may film the indoor or outdoor shots first. For example if it isn't raining, we should film the outdoor shots first, as the unpredictable English weather could mean that it could rain at any point! Also the indoor lighting may take some time to set up so we could do this whilst we wait for the weather to improve.

Filming Date - Natalie Sergeant

We where all discussing  a date and time for use to do our filming. Factors that we need to take into consideration was that both Ettie and Olivia have a job and they might have to ask to take time of work. We had original discussed that we would start filming after half term. After returning the discussion started again to where we all felt that the first week back was not convenient for all of us due to jobs. We then discussed  some time between the 3rd to the 8th due to being able to get time of work and able to get the actor at the timing needed without bothering their scheduled of still being in school. The selected date being:

5th Wednesday March

Though due to unavoidable circumstance I will be unable to go to the filming date as will be in Liverpool form the 1st to the 8th due to having university interviews and will be unable to come back for the filming date. Thought to even the work and make it fair we have decided that Olivia and Ettie will do the filming but I will do the editing so that the work is evenly distributed to all members of the group.

Lighting Ideas - All of us

Silence of the Lambs - Natalie Sergeant

Due to our research into other thrillers we noticed a comparison between the filming locations of our thriller opening and Silence of the Lambs. By using a reflector we wanted to create the same effect as above of natural lighting but also keeping a dim felling. Thought with our shot we wont have as much as a foggy atmosphere due to us filming at a later time.

Tell No One- Ettie Greenwood
This scene is contrasting to the other, where there is a warm tone to the frame and hey key lighting. We will use this scene as an example of how not to create our lighting as this scene does not give a thriller style feel.

These two frames show effectively how the time of day whilst filming,  and the lighting can change the atmosphere of the shot dramatically. However if we are unable to change the time of day/ weather whilst filming we may be able to use post-production editing (low brightness, filters etc.) to make the shot achieve the desired serious tone.

Sound and Music Research - Olivia Farren

Although our thriller opening will only last two minutes, there are still many many different sounds included in this time. Both diegetic (sounds that are part of the story, what the character would hear) and non-diegetic (sounds that aren't part of the story, the character can't hear these) sounds will be part of our film.

Here's a list of diegetic sounds that will be part of our thriller opening:

• Footsteps of the girl and dog up to the front door
• Dog lead rattling
• Dog panting/sniffling
• Shuffling
• Door handle
• Door opening and closing
• Footsteps of the girl and dog on the drive/pavement
• The background noise of wind/birds/leave rustling/cars in distance
• Footsteps of the girl and dog walking down the different parts of the twitten
• Gate opening
• Footsteps of girl and dog down path
• Second gate opening
• The lead being unclipped
• Dog panting/barking and running around in field
• Footsteps of girl in field
• Footsteps of girl and dog in the woods
• The noise of the stream
• Splashing water
• Dog sniffing/digging at object
• Dialogue of girl shouting dog's name; "Dylan!"
• The girl gasping
• Door slamming
• Sobbing
• Shuffling as girl falls to her knees
• Heavy breathing

All of these diegetic sounds can be filmed on location and on camera, however if they aren't clear when recorded on camera, we will record the sounds separately on location as they will match what is happening and then add them onto our thriller through post-production editing on GarageBand or Final Cut Pro. 

We are also including non-diegetic sound to our thriller opening, this will be the music backing track that will be continuously playing in the background of the whole of the opening of our thriller.
This music will getting louder as the opening goes on, this is to create tension, there will also be decrescendos in places to create a shocked feel for the audience whilst the character is feeling shocked, this will then mean the audience can relate to what the character is feeling through the build up of music.
We will get the music from a royalty free music site and add it into our thriller opening through Garageband, where we can also edit the volume and place the decrescendos where we wish them to be.

 Here is a link to an "intense" music search I did on Moby Gratis where none of the results are appropriate for us: www.mobygratis.com

Whilst looking through a few royalty free music sites, I came across a good track that we could use as the background music for our thriller: 'I Remember You' The voices sound almost angelic yet spooky, as the orphaned girl walks through the quiet twittens and into the woods to find the forgotten object that shocks her. The track can be edited onto our thriller opening on Garageband and we can change where the music builds up.

Script - Olivia Farren

In the opening of our thriller, there will be as little dialogue as possible so the viewers are focused on what is happening and what they are seeing. The less there is said in the opening of our thriller means that the viewers don't know what is going on or what is going to happen, creating a sense of mystery as the viewers don't entirely know what's going on.
However, we are including a tiny bit of dialogue when the girl calls her dog's name when she wants him to move away from something, we needed to include this as she is a dog owner she would want to call her dog away from something.
For our thriller opening, the dog's name will stay it's actual name, Dylan, this is so that there is no confusion for the dog therefore the dog is easier to control during filming.
As well as the calling of the dog's name will make the situation seem real, the tone of the girl's voice as she is doing so will mean that the audience will have a sense of her emotions through the way she is speaking.

In shot 22 there will be the first part of our dialogue.

Girl: "Dylan!"

(she will call the dog in a normal tone that is used to call dogs)

In shot 28, there will be our second and final bit of dialogue in our thriller opening.

Girl: "DYLAN!"

(here, the girl will be almost screaming at her dog to get away as she's in shock, there will be a slight tremble in her voice as well which tells the audience of her sudden fear)

Storyboard Animatic- All Of Us

Here our two storyboard animatics...

The first is the timed animatic where we have filmed each shot for however long it will be in the final piece.

And the second is our explained animatic, where we have explained in detail what will happen in each of the shots.

Thriller Title: 'Rediscovered' - Ettie Greenwood

 REDISCOVERED

We decided that our thriller title will be called 'Rediscovered'. We chose this name because it links with the synopsis of the film: the girl rediscovers an object that has many memories linked to it.

We think that this title name will be effective as it is simple, therefore making it easier for the audience to remember. It also slightly hints the plot of the film (something being found again) therefore making the audience feel more intrigued into what a character discovers. Finally, the title will help to add significance to the object found in the opening as it seems to be the 'rediscovered' object.

I feel that our title is interesting, and attracts an audience, whilst not giving too much of the plot line away to the audience -creating enigma-.

Fake Crying Experiment - Ettie Greenwood

At the end of our opening, we our including an extreme close up of our actor crying. Therefore we needed to experiment with fake crying in order to work out how to do this. The two techniques I tried were to try and fake cry on the spot, and to use water to imitate tears. I recorded this on video to document our findings.

Click the link to a youtube video that I created (as the videos on blogger are not high quality enough):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orN2SHSZmgY

Costume - Ettie Greenwood

Here I experimented with 3 different costume ideas for the actor to wear. I have also commented on the reasons why I dislike/like each one. However all the costumes are modern because this is the time that our thriller will be set in.

Here are the experiments:

The first outfit was a white t-shirt, a denim skit, a brown gilet and pink pumps. We decided this outfit to not be suitable for filming for several reasons:

The thriller would be filmed in winter so the outfit wouldn't be warm enough. 

The location could get muddy so small pumps wouldn't protect her feet.

Her skirt could get caught on branches/ the bridge in the woods.

The second outfit was a blue jumper, blue patterned leggings, wellies and a brown coat. This outfit was better than the last as we replaced the gilet with a warm coat, and the pumps with some wellies. However we felt that this was still not quite right as the colour of the jumper was quite bright (even though it doesn't look like it in the photograph) and the leggings were too patterned. We feared that this could attract the audiences attention away from what is happening in the film.

We felt that the last outfit was most suitable as it combined the practical elements needed for filming in the woods (warm coat and wellies) whilst also using neutral colours. Rosanna (the actor) wears a white woolly jumper, jeggings, wellies and a brown warm coat. I chose her to wear white as it is a neutral colour, but it also represents purity and innocence which is what we are trying to portray in our character.

Whilst taking these pictures, I also took photos of Rosanna's hair to decide whether to have it up or down (an aspect of mise en scene). Here are the photos...

I decided to have her hair down in the thriller because it looks better and it helps to make my sister look as young and innocent as possible.

Today's lesson (11/2/14)

Today we split up the tasks to do in order to get the most achieved in the lesson.

I (Ettie) Drew the storyboard as I had finished my the research tasks that i had been assigned. 

Natalie worked on her research tasks, and mostly on the lighting techniques post. 

And Olivia worked on the script post and other research tasks. 

Here are some photos of us at work: 

I think it is important to split up roles to assign to individuals because it keeps everyone busy and we are able to finish more stuff in a shorter space of time. Especially as the research deadline is 14th February! 

Next lesson we plan to all do the animatics of the storyboard together as we all need to film/ narrate in this. Meanwhile we plan to work at home on the research tasks that we ave been individually appointed so we do not fall behind time. 

Creation of Story Board - All of us

Before creating our animatic, we decided to create a draft story board so that we had a clear understanding of what type of shots we wanted to use and in which order. Here is our draft:

After finishing our draft and we used it as a guide line to create our final story board as seen below.

 

12/2/14

After we had sorted out the images for our story board, we then made notes on the details of each shot. These included the shot distance/angle, diegetic/non-diegetic sound, lighting, description of whats happening in each shot, and the shot length. We will use these notes in our explained storyboard animatic where we will have to describe each shot.

Lighting Decisions - Natalie Sergeant

Indoor Lighting

     

For the indoor lighting we will be sticking with the Three Point Lighting System. This is where tree lights are set around the actor in a triangular setting. These three lights are the key, fill an back lights, from them being in this position will allow for the actor to be fully visible on camera. As we will be filming the indoor space twice but want to have the affect of slightly different times, we will use gel filters that will cause the timing to look earlier in the day or later. For the earlier shots we will use a brighter fill light so to create a happy mood as no critical events have accrued yet. Then in the shot to represent later use harsher lighting such as using a brighter key light and dimmer fill light to create a shadow on actor to create a emotional mood as this is the feelings of the character.


As seen in our lighting experiment after trying many different combinations we looked through our results and felt that having the three point lighting system worked best with what we wanted to achieve of having a indoor feel but keeping the character clean to the audience. As seen in the image next by using the three point lighting system highlights the actors full face.

 

Outdoor Lighting

                                          

For most of our shots will be using long shots so will strongly depend of natural lighting. Thought we will be using reflector so as to reflect lighting to our actor on closer shots so as to keep them hidden and keep a more natural lighting effect. We can use the reflector to reflect light from the sun.

 

For our more close up shots where our actor finds the object we will use Key light. This will illuminate the actor and create a harsh shadow to show the fear in the character's face but to create a shadow over there back to give a tense feeling of not knowing if something could be behind her.

Health and Safety - Natalie Sergeant

We will be filming in two different areas so there will be different hazards for both. Both areas will also include the hazarsa for equipment.

Indoors
Shoes and bags - As we will be filming near the door hazards such as shoes and bags may be left on the floor and could cause us or the actor to trip. To avoid this becoming an incident befor filming make sure that all shoes and bags are places away in an area our actor will not walk through.
Door - Our actor will be opening a door within our sequence, if no one is aware that we are filmong this could result with some one being hurt from the door opening unexpectedly. To stop this happening we can inform all people that are likely to use the door that we are filming and request that they wait, we could also have someone out of sight outside stopping people who may open the door.
furniture - There are two pieces of funiture located at the front door, this is a cabinet and a mirror. We will need to work carefully so as not to bump into thesea objucts. A main concern is the mirror as if that falls and breaks it could cut someone. We will all need to be careful operating around these objects and not have are actor work too much around these items.

Outdoors
Vehicles - We will be filming near and maybe on roads, this will mean that cars and other vehicles will be drivin down these roads. We will need to have someone on look at to alert us for any vehixles that may be approching so not to be hit.
Sticks/stones/curd - While out doors other tripping hazards will appear. This is such as sticks and stones in the woods can be dangerous whem not noticed. Thia principle is the same for curds as we will having out actor walk of a curb they could fall. To ensure this not to happen we will all need to act carfully amd remove any objucts that maybe in the actors way.
Leaves/acorn -
Animals/People - When working in the woods owners will be walking their dogs as well there being wild animals such as bird. We will need to take care in not disturbing or upsetting them as some animals could become dangerous such as fox's. We will also need to be careful of other people so that they don't trip over the equipment we have set up.

Weather - Filming in the woods and field is where potential raining and is muddy as such the weather has been, the grass could be wet and therefore when the actor runs or walking could slip or fall.

Equipment
Tripod - This could be tripping on the tripods legs and falling over. We will need to keep sand bags on the bottom of the tripod to keep it stabilised and also to keep it out of busy areas where other could trip.
Lighting - The same as the tripping hazard for the tripod this is the same for lighting. As well as the lighting being a tripping hazard we are going to need to be carful of the lighting becoming too hot and burn ourselves. To stop this we will need to bring gloves with us to protect our hands.
Flooring - As we will be filming on different grounds we will need to be careful of the surface. The surfaces such as concert will be stable ground and wont cause us to trip or make the tripod unstable but carpet and grass will cause the tripod to be unstable so sand bags will be need to keep the stable.

Target Audience (Written by Ettie, decided as a group)

Today as a group we decided on our target audience for our thriller. Here is what we decided:

• Our audience would be in social classes B, C1, C2 and D. We decided on this range because these groups would have some disposable income, even just a little as cinema tickets are not overly expensive (£5 av.). It would also appeal to these groups as the actors would appear to be of a similar class therefore the audience would be able to relate to them, therefore making them feel more engaged in the thriller. The costume also worn by the actor would also be typical of these middle classes too. 
• We decided that our target audience would be aged 15-24. This is because this age group is thought to be most interested in the thriller genre. It would also appeal to this age group as the actors would be of a similar age range, including the opening. 
• Therefore we decided that the certificate rating of our film would be 15 (bbfc) as this best fits in with our desired audience age range.  
• We think that we would have roughly a 50/50 split on the proportion of male/female viewers. We think this because even though thrillers typically appeal to male viewers more, the use of a female actor at the start may draw in some more female viewers. As the female character is represented as weak and innocent, this may make female viewers feel maternal, therefore attracting them to watch the film. 
• Finally we have referred the the 'uses and gratification theory' to denote what our film aims to do with the audience:

1) To entertain: This is because the thriller aims to entertain the audience, but also acts as a type of escapism where the audience could 'forget about their daily troubles' whilst watching.

2) To identify: We felt that this theory fitted with our thriller because the actors would be relateable to the audience (similar class/age). This gives a greater sense of realism and engages the audience.

3)Social interaction: This also fits our thriller film, as the opening creates enigma and suspense for the audience. This means that the audience will feel engaged in the movie, and may even talk about it to others.

Updated - Natalie Sergeant

On Pearl and Dean we where looking at other movies to see what would be the best target audience for our own movie. We felt that Magic Magic was the best comparison to our own movie as this is a thriller has elements of a girl losing her mental faculties, where in ours we have a girl who is discovering life changing information that can have strong effects on her mentally. As it has a female lead actor, same as ours, it has attracted more female viewers, we see this having the same effect as our own thriller, though it still being a 50/50 split as there is only a difference of 10% between each gender. Even though this movie is a R18 rated higher than us, we believe it will still attract the same amount of aged people as Magic Magic.

Prop Research- Ettie Greenwood

As our opening is mainly going to be set in the woods we will not require many props. However we will add a few to help make the sequence feel more realistic. Here are our prop ideas so far:

• Ettie's dog (Dylan)
• A dog lead (to be held by Rosanna- actor)
• Home interior furniture (only by the door for the scene of exiting the house)
• Dog biscuits (not to be shown on film but to guide the dog where to go and what to do)

We will not need an prop of the unknown object that the girl finds because this is not shown to the audience. However to make it easier to film, we may bring a random object, for example a cuddly toy to guide our filming and to help our actor know where to look. 

Here are some pictures of our props: 

The home interior.

Ettie's dog Dylan. 

The dog lead.

Actors - Ettie Greenwood

We have chosen my (Ettie's) little sister to act in our thriller opening. This is because she is good at acting -does drama outside school- and would be available and easy to get hold of. Also by using an actor who is not in our group, we will find it easier to concentrate on the filming/lighting.

I think the age of our actor (11 years old) would be suitable as the young age may connote youth to the audience and a sense of fragility. This would help towards an enigma code and add a greater sense of shock as the audience would not be anticipating the event.

Name: Rosanna

Age: 11 

Here is a photo of her: