Representation - Super.Human representational analysis

Revision sessions: introduction and rationale

• We cannot cover everything. In fact we will cover very little!
• Subjects we do not cover may be covered by the other group, and everything will be posted on the blog
• The focus of revision sessions is not new content: it is exam structure. 
• Therefore you can and must revise outside outside of lessons
• If you attend every one of these sessions, you will do better in the final exam!

Component one section A

• Two questions, one on representation, one on media language
• The representation question will always be 30 marks, will always take an hour, and will always be a comparison
• The media language question will always be unseen, will always be 15 marks and will always take half an hour

C1 section A: 2 minutes per mark

C1 section B: 1 minute per mark

Compare how this music video extract and the advertisement for Super.Human represent social groups. [30]

In your answer you must:

• consider the similarities and differences in how social groups are represented

• consider how stereotypes can be used positively and negatively

• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the representations reflect social and cultural contexts.

Knee jerk reaction: the Super.Human advert represents disabled people is a positive and unconventional way. However, the advert also normalises representations of disabilities, in order to inspire target audiences. 

Plan 

Stereotypes 

Graphics

Match on action

Montage

Editing

Rapid fire editing

Machine-gun editing

Bricolage - lots of combined styles

Archive footage

Stuart Hall

ECU

Codes and conventions

Sport narrative

Rocky

Binary oppositions

Lexis

Hyperreality

Postmodernism 

Dark and dingy

Gender performativity

Gender fluidity

Low key lighting

Diegesis - in the world of the narrative

Diegetic sound - grunts

Non-diegetic - Soundtrack

Intertextuality

Role models

Othering - Paul Gilroy

Beat matching - music video like???

Symbolic codes

Hegemony

DAC - definition, argument, context

Representation refers to the re-presentation of reality, encoded by the producer of a media product using media language to construct an ideology. Every producer has an ideology, and uses this set of messages and values to sell a media product to a target audience. In order to make this especially effective, producers will often use stereotypes, commonly held beliefs and assumptions about a certain group of people. However, in this essay, I shall argue that the producers of Super.Human contradict and subvert stereotypical representations of people with disabilities in order to maximise consumption of the Paralympic games, as well as to empower audiences and change perceptions. The Super.Human (SH) trailer advertises the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games, which actually occurred in 2021 due to fallout from the covid-19 pandemic. The advert addresses these social and cultural implications, as well as presenting an exciting new mode of address to the target audiences

PEA

Examples of points 

1. One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the MES of disabled bodies 
2. One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the use of montage editing
3. One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the use of lexis
4. One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the use of extreme close ups throughout the advert 
5. One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the combination of low key lighting and dull colour choices
6. One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the use of boring and relatable settings

One way in which disabled people are represented in the SH advert is through the use of extreme close ups throughout the advert, which are used to create a grotesque and abject representation of training for elite sports. In one shocking shot, we literally enter through the mouth of an athlete, and fly down their throat, being forced to confront the MES of veiny fleshy tonsils and a discoloured tongue. Here the viewer takes the role of the doctor inserting an endoscopy which positions the audience in an empathetic and uncomfortable mode of address. This is further emphasises through the ECU of a brilliant purple bruise, that constructs a deep hermeneutic code, and presents an almost abstract and abject set of images for the target audience. Finally, the CU of ‘Mr Puke Bucket’, a revolting blue bucket of sick is anchored through the use of low key lighting and the sickly blue colour scheme. The combination of all of these images construct a representation of people with disabilities as relatable, hard working, vulnerable and and even mentally unstable. 

 

Content

• The use of archive footage and slo-mo dreams shots are symbolic of PTSD
• The binary opposition of the abject imagery of a bloody tooth hanging out of it’s socket in a smiling mouth constructs a polysemic address of both resilience and mental instability
• The use of othering constructs a confusing and even upsetting mode of address for the target audience which may instead reinforce stereotypes about people with disabilities
• Lexis - “if you want to be a Paralympian there must be something wrong with you” constructs a sense of othering which may potentially provoke oppositional readings in the target audience
• The smashed glass over the word ‘super’ constructs a complex representation of disabled identities, where to be disabled is both a problem, and something to be celebrated 
• The symbolic destruction of the word ‘super’ instead defines disabled people as people, and constructs a powerful representation and forces the audience whether we should define people by their disabilities at all