Sunday 16 September 2012

Gender Representation through Sound



How the Roles of Different Genders are Represented in the Media via the use of Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound

WIP

Music and sound have a massive impact on the media, and the use of different instruments in accompaniment can change the emotions of a scene/clip:

Piano- Romantic, love, sadness, melancholy.
Trumpets- Heroic, triumph, when slow can be associated with remembrance.
Saxophone(Blues)- Lonely, solitary, soulful.
Drums- Danger, drama, excitement, purpose, creates pace, can sometimes represent a heartbeat.
Violin (Slow/Legato)- Calm, serenity, peace, love, sadness, melancholy.
Violin (Fast/Staccato)- Fear, drama, panic, tension.
Bells- Celebratory associations.

Leitmotif- A musical motif or phrase that is often repeated to represent/symbolise a character and/or their role, mostly distinguishable via the use of instruments.

eg.

In 'Batman', we recognise the deep drums and trumpets to signify the presence of the protagonist, Batman. The music is powerful and heroic, as well as grungey and dark, much like the main character:




Contrastingly, when Selina Kyle, also referred to as 'Catwoman' is on screen, a delicate piano and dramatic and deep violin can be heard, a gentle feminine tune, but with a dark and cunning edge, again reflecting her character. This is first heard in her personal 'theme song', however it appears repeatedly throughout 'The Dark Knight Rises' due to her presence:




 On the third watch of the clip, we took notes on and discussed diegetic and non-diegetic sound:



 Again, we had ten minutes to write a paragraph based on some of the ideas from our mind map:

 "During the last section of the clip...

My feedback: 
Explanation and Argument- 3/5
Examples- 4/5
Terminology- 5/5

"Very good examples of how each sound creates emotion. Focus more on the masculinity and femininity."

Overall feedback:
Explanation and Argument- 12/15
Examples- 11/15
Terminology- 13/15

My strength seems to lie in my use of terminology. To make my writing better, I will focus more using more and better examples whilst simultaneously linking these with the overall argument.

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