A2: Lovefield Genre Theory Application - Ettie Greenwood

Summary synopsis:
Lovefield is a short film by Mathieu Ratthe. The film leads the audience to believe that a women has been raped and mudered (through all parts of mise en scene) and restricted narration. However in fact a women is having a baby and this is dentoed at the end when a new born babies cry is heard. This obviously shocks the viewer and is a good example of how a film can promote different thoughts and feelings through spectator positioning.

Rick Altmann - Semantic and syntatic codes

As Rick Altmann suggests, a 'semantic code' is a visual code that communicates meaning for the spectator, and sees them as building blocks for any genre. Therefore in 'Lovefield', the semantic codes are:

The blood on what seems like knickers: This may lead the audience to believe that rape has happened because it seems synchronous to the non-diagetic soundtrack -a gloomy style piece which connotes negative events-

The knife: This also hints to the audience that murder has happened and leads the audience to believe that the short film is more from a thriller genre. Also as the knife is shoved into the ground forcefully, this connotes anger to audience impying a negative event.

A crow is usually seen in horror and thriller movies therefore this may persuade the audience to think that the film belongs to one of these genres. Its dark colour also hints negativley.

The bin bag: This almost confirms to the audience that the women is dead as in conventional murder enriched films, a bin bag is usally a significant prop to hide a dead body in. This continues to lead the audience to believe that negative events have happened and that the man denoted is an antagonist.


The baby: The denotation of the new born baby is the turning point in the film as this is where the audience's guess on the plot get changed dramatically. The audiences views on the previous semantic codes become positive instead of negative and this my incline shock as they werent expecting it.


These semantic codes manipulate the audience to have certain views on what is happening. This connotes how by using restricted narration, certain perspectives on a film can be created, whether they are actually true or not.

Rick Altmann also said that specific 'syntatic codes' helped to reveal genre in a piece: Syntatic codes are typical conventions that fit into a certain genre. Therefore syntatic codes for any genre include

• typical themes
• typical character relations
• typical binary oppositions
• typical narrative endings
• typical narrative narrative disruptions

So, in the short film Lovefield, the syntatic codes include death, newborn baby, male antagonist - female protagonist, and a narritive disruption from the revealing of the baby. These codes all fit into the thriller genre at first due to all conveying typical themes, character relations etc. at first, then these codes switch through a narrative disruption to change the genre to drama with love elements (a hybrid film)

Steve Neale - Repetition and Variation

 Neale (1990) studied a range of film genres in depth and found that each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula whilst also making new variations.

For example, the first part of the short film fits into a thriller genre: it denotes, dark lighting, crescending music, a male antagonist/ female protagonist, and props to suits the genre like a knife and the presence of blood. These aspects fit into Neale's theory where he says that 'each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula'. However in the case of Lovefield, the 'new variations' part of his theory is where there is a plot twist to reveal a new born baby. Because of this event the short film changes genre to more of a drama/romantic style. By using this variation, Neale suggests that this helps films to become more unique and makes sure that the film 'will succeed in a competitive media world'.

A2: Evaluating Skills Development in AS - Ettie Greenwood

A2: 'About a Girl' Analysis of representation (Class and Age) - Ettie Greenwood

• The first scene denotes a young girl singing and dancing in a field. Here she is represented as young and possibly lonely because she is alone, and she is doing an activities which as usually associated with children. She is also thought as innocent as she is in no danger, and because the audience can not yet see what she looks like (costume/hair/makeup) she seems as if she is the stereotypical child. However a binary opposition is created when she sings and the lyrics that she sings denote: "I've had enough, I'm not that innocent" and "I'm lonely". This may foreshadow a negative experience in her life and how that she wants to feel more grown up.

• When the girls costume is revealed, the audience may hold assumptions about her personality. The girl wears a white oversized puffer coat, tracksuit bottoms and large hoop earrings. This is the stereotypical of what some people think that a 'CHAV' would wear. As this type of person usually has negative assumptions, it may lead the audience to believe that she has had a troubled upbringing; especially as this personality is associated with the working class.

• The setting also connoted the working class environment: As the girl walks through the neighbour hood, a lot of run down neighbourhoods are denoted along with frequent graffiti and rubbish littered. This highlights the poverty influenced area and with the post-production effect: destaturated colour, the setting seems to be a negative place to be.

• Cuts are used throughout the piece to reinforce realism: It also allows continuity to be achieved as the sequence can flow without any obvious changes.

• The lighting in the sequence is dull and realist. This makes the setting seem real but unpleasant and adds to the working class environment. It may also foreshadow negative events later (getting rid of the baby).

• Throughout the piece, the camera is kept mostly at eye-level. This is so the audience can feel like the girl is talking to them as if they were her friend, and it also allows the audience to sympathize with her. However after the girl drops the bag in the river (the audience do not yet know what is in it), the camera moves away from the girl and raises up to a birds-eye view shot. This creates a sense of the relationship between the audience and the girl ending. This may foreshadow the audiences' reaction in the next shot whereby the dead baby is denoted to sink to the bottom of the reader, therefore the audiences reaction -whether sympathy or anger- may connote a change in the relationship/view that they had on the girl before.

• The girls accent: Slang and northern may also indicate to the audience about her background. These accents are stereotypically joined with those who are poverty stricken so  the audience may assume that she comes from a similar class.

• The girls' age is connoted throughout the whole piece. At one point she says: "I'm not 5...I'm 13" which may connote her desire to grow up quickly. She also talks about her future and how when shes older she will be rich. famous and "drink Bacardi breezers". This highlights her youth as most children have unrealistic dreams. It is also therefore a binary opposition from realism and her dreams, but also from poverty and wealth.

A2: 'Never Forget' Analysis of Representation (Gender) - Ettie Greenwood

• The first scene denotes parallel cuts of two people getting ready to go out. A non-diegetic soundtrack accompanies this (a piano instrumental piece) which gives a romantic feel to the piece. Both characters are stereotypical of their gender: the women is wearing a dress and heels, and the man is wearing a formal suit. The are then seen to be traveling, then when the man picks up his phone to call the women the audience can immediately tell that they are a couple. This is because the mans' 'lock screen' picture (shown through a CU) is an image of both of them together. This sets up the expectation for the reader that it will be a positive and loving night. 

• When the women gets questioned about what she did the previous night she seems uneasy and it is obvious to the audience that she is lying. This is confirmed when flashbacks are shown of the night before where she had gone out and the audience then assume that she slept with a guy even though she was married (she is shown taking off her ring discretely). As she talk on the phone about her night the camera tilts down slightly to form a low angle shot. This connotes that she has more power than the man at this time as she has lied to him and cheated on their relationship. This is shown with CU's of the man to emphasize his grief and emotions towards her actions (this is because he saw her going off with the new man).

• When the man ends the phone call after saying: "I want you to remember for the rest of your life, this is all your fault.." this could foreshadow bad events. This turns out to happen as moments later the man jumps of the building that he was in before and lands just in front of the women who was walking to the building. This part of the film is very shocking but could also be argued that it is a little over-exaggerated. However this may suggest that the man had very strong reactions and emotions towards the event as his reaction was fairly extreme. But it may also suggest that he is not your typical male character as the assumed reaction to this event would be anger with the women and not death. However the audience do not see the man cry, which means he holds with the stereotypical view that 'men don't cry'. 

• Femininity is shown in the clip when the girl screams: her scream is high pitched and long which denotes a stereotypical female scream. It is also very piercing and shocking which connotes that the event was unexpected for the women. In this shot, a low angle is also denoted which suggests power to the women (maybe unwanted power) as she has just caused the death, but it also allows the audience to see her facial expressions as she looks down at the dead man- it could also be argued as a slight POV shot- Also, be angling the camera up, this could foreshadow the event as the man jumps from the building.

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?

A2 - 'About a Girl' Representation of Class and Age - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene we see the girl alone in a field - this could portray her innocence to us as we see her singing/dancing, something that most young girls stereotypically love. Although in this scene we could tell her as being young due to her being alone and singing (having nothing to worry about), we could also say she's being portrayed as unimportant - due to her being in the shadows and not shown fully, which could be telling us that she's unimportant due to her social background/class, although at this point we are yet to find that out.
• Throughout the short film, we see the girl talking to the camera whilst walking along the canal - here, age could be presented to us through the use of eye line match with the camera, which could be because are being made to sympathise with her whilst she's talking (almost patriotic), therefore we see her as being young.
• Along with the camera angle in these shots along the canal, there is also a very dull/dingy lighting - which we could connote with unhappiness and uncleanliness (both of which we could also relate to poverty), therefore this lighting tells us of the low class she is a part of/ living amongst.
• Not only is this dull/ cloudy lighting used in the scenes walking along the canal but also in the other scenes that we cut to; for example; when she's sitting in a café with her dad; - telling us that she's always been in this unhappy situation (possibly due to her class).
• When she's talking to the camera, we can clearly notice that she has a strong accent - we could collectively recognise this accent and dialect that she uses as being North West - which is an area that is, sometimes stereotypically, known to be an area with a lot of poverty and a lot of families living below the breadline, and so therefore we relate this accent that she is using to a low class.
• When the short film cuts to a scene of the girl with her dad, we see a father and daughter together - we often think that this relationship is mostly about a dad caring for a daughter, and therefore we think of the daughter being young, therefore this presents her age to us.
• Another scene in which she is presented to us as being fairly young, is that when she is sitting outside the pub whilst her dad is inside - the fact that she is outside, and not inside shows us that she is too young to contribute to this social practise. 
• The parallel cutting between the shots of the girl walking along the canal and the narrative shots of the girl in a small scene, could reflect how she's constantly in the same position - due to always being brought back to the same shot of her walking by the canal, possibly meaning that she has limited opportunities and therefore is seen in the same place again and again to show to the audience that her wealth is little to none and therefore so are her opportunities - representing her class to us.
• When we see the young girl walking along the canal, we notice that the surrounding area is run down, full of rubbish and dull-looking - these houses along the canal look a lot like stereotypical council houses, and so the audience can recognise that and then make a link between these houses and lower class that she is a part of. This aspect of mise en scene is important as it's clear to the audience to make connections between the run-down area and the characters class.
• As well as aspects of mise en scene, editing and camera angles; the dialogue also gives us a clear representation of her age, as she says; "like I'm 5...but hello, I'm 13"; here this states her age, but also clearly shows us that she is 13 by the sarcastic tone she says this in and the way that she almost wants to be recognised as an adult (what many teenagers want). She also says "my mum says..." a number of times; the fact that she listens and repeats what her mum says shows us that she still lives under her mums rules, and therefore again reflects her age as being fairly young.
• When the film cuts to the scene of the girl and her friends singing on the bus, this gives us an easily recognisable representation of young girls - giggling and having fun together, as well as this, the fact that they are travelling on a bus shows that they have little money and are too young to drive themselves.
• In many shots, she is wearing the same silver puffa coat - the fact that she is persisitantly wearing the same coat shows us that she has little money to have more than one coat - therefore reflecting her class to us again.

A2: Evaluation of Skills Development in AS year - Olivia Farren