A2 - 'Never Forget' Represenation of Gender - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene of this short film, we can hear the diegetic sound of music playing - the music is classical and could be described as 'swarve' - we also think this because whilst we hear the music playing, we see a males' hand unzipping the suit cover, therefore from the first scene the audience can link these two parts of the shots and make an assumption that the male character is being represented as smart and swarve (something that is often used to describe men, not women).
• The suit that we see the male character getting ready in; fixing his cufflinks and bow tie, the act of this clearly important as it's being shown to us in a CU shot; is an outfit that is stereotypically related to men - an item that only smart men wear - not women, and so can see that he is being represented as a stereotypical, smart male, therefore the audience can easily recognise the gender of the first character that appears in this short film.
• There is then a jump cut from the man getting ready, to a woman walking - straight away we notice differences as there is calming, classical music playing whilst the man gets ready, and then there is the noise of cars and the street when we then cut to see the women - the fact the jump cut shows us two completely different things can reflect how both characters are completely different (noticeably in gender).
• When we cut to first see the women, we straight away hear the diegetic sound of her footsteps - notably the sound of high heels clipping, a sound that we automatically relate to women.
• The fact that the female character is wearing heels, tights and a dress, shows us that she's being portrayed as very feminine - as this choice of costume is typically of what women are expected to wear and look like. So although we can see that she is being represented as feminine, it's also fairly stereotypically as this doesn't represent the female gender as a whole.
• Even though the female character isn't wearing much make up, the fact that the little make up she is wearing is emphasised by her checking it in the mirror tells us that the way she looks is very important to her - the assumption that look is very important and cared about it related to being feminine and female, which is contrasted to the fact that we don't see the male character checking himself in the mirror whilst he's getting ready at all.
• Along with the fact that we see the female character checking her hair and make up in the compact mirror, this CU shot gives us an view of what she's doing - checking her hair and make up, clearly showing us her feminine features and therefore also representing her as being feminine due to her actions.
• This CU shot also allows us to see that the compact mirror is in the shape of a heart - a shape that is very commonly associated with love, which is stereotypically what women are more obsessed and care about, as well as representing that women are the caring and nurturing gender, and so this heart-shaped compact mirror represents this character as being kind and loving - reflecting typical attributes of a women.
• In the short film, there is cross-cutting between the male and female characters as they're on the phone to each other, when the female answers the phone, she immediately says "I'm literally one minute away" in a stressed tone - the dialogue and the tone of voice that is used tells us that she is in a hurry as she's running late, and being late is a typical characteristic of females, usually to do with them taking time to get themselves ready, the fact she seems to be late suggests that she has taken too much time on worrying about her appearance - giving us the impression the impression that she's vein, yet another stereotypical aspect of the female gender, the idea that she is vein is again backed up in the previous shot of her looking in her compact mirror, maybe the reason she is running late?