Memento - How the editing creates the narrative and represents the character

The editing and order of the film has a different take on it than what you see in other films and it has an open narrative. The film begins with an extreme close up of a peice of film with a bloody picture developing which is then 'rewound' and put in the camera again. We then catch a glimpse of the 'scene of the crime'. Straight away we get the impression that a main part of the film is based around photography (in which, soon after we realise it is). This links with the main character as he has to rely on photography and written notes because of his memory condition. His condition is a big part in the whole film so its vital that they portray things that link with his condition. This is to help us understand the character AND how a character, who seems to be alone mangages with noone else's help. It also makes us question the character and type of film because stereotypically we assume that someone with an ability needs help and always has a helper. Again this portrays and represents the character as a strong, independant individual.
The bloody scene that we see on the film isn't clear however we can clearly see blood. The red connatates violence, death, blood etc, which sets and creates the narrative to the film.
The shaking of the picture links with how a person's body language is when they try to remember something. When a person is confuzed or can't seem to think (remember) they tend to move/shake their hands or head slightly just as a reaction to the frustration of not being able to remember something. The picture fading links with the chracters memory and how it comes back to him very slowly.
After he puts the film back in the camera the next scene you notice that the screen flips, and we have a side view of the blood on the floor. This could link with his confused expression and his disability. It could also link with the idea of him flipping from different personalities. For example in the mornings hes completely lost and confused and this links with stereotypical representaion of disability and the person being vulnerable. However throughout the day as he's remebering things, you see a different and violent side to him. You learn this on the opening scene when you see him shoot 'Teddy'. The camera shots go onto quick short shots of a bullet, glasses, and then a man on the floor. Not only is the rewinding linking with his memory condition. But we can see how he has to put two and two together to remember. It's clearly telling us in the easiest and simplest way possible about what's just happened and it links with how the character has to look and judge what has happened so we see get to see it through his eyes. This gives us a better understanding of the character.
An unusual structure in this film is the colour narrative and the black/white narrative. The colour narrative represents the present time period and is working its way backwards which links with his personality. The black and white part is working forward. As this is fairly confusing and hard to keep up on we (audience) learn from the notes and  pictures just like the character does.
An effect that we get from the 'two films' (black and white) is that it gives the effect of 'going around in a circle' because his daily life is like a circle (same cycle everyday). He wakes up, forgets everything, and slowly uncovers things. Then he goes to sleep and wakes up and so on. So we learn alot more about the characters way of living and what he has to deal with.
The non diagetic music in the very beginning is very emotive and this makes us feel for the character. The black and white scenes also has non diagetic sounds which create emotion too. This causes us to feel sorry for him which links with the stereotypical representation of people with disabilities. The sounds in the hotel scene sounds is like a ticking sound. This could represent time ticking, or his heart beat. It could link with him trying to remember creating a tense effect as he tries to figure out about his wife's murder as quickly as possible. Also it could link with him having limited time until he forgets again...

In the colour scenes it's more action, fast paced and heroic. The same emotional music from the opening comes back in again which tells us that we're revisiting the first scene. The non diagetic music then gets more tense which links the the character Teddy and it creates the effect that we get a bad vibe from him.
From an audience's initial perspective, the opening scene of the film is giving an overview of what's already happened. However what we later realise is that it links with the characters disability. Also a line spoken during the opening scene is 'everything fades' which ties in with the beginning where the film fades. It links again with him trying to remember.
The film is in a non chronological order and uses the enigma code. The idea we get is that the two parts will meet up. It causes us to ask questions that films don't tend to usually make us ask. Because of the different structure and layout of the film we get the idea and ask if the the beginning it at the end.

Sexuality in Skins

How is sexuality represented in the first 10 seconds of skins.

The first camera shot at the beginning of the clip is a close up of his face with his eyes closed. His groomed hair suggests he is a neat person, although it could represent that he hasn't been asleep which could link with the stereotypical representation of a teenager being 'out all night' and not sleeping. The pale/yellowy skin colour of his face could support this as it could connotate illness or hung-over etc. He then opens his eyes in sync with the church bells in the background. The close up of the opening of the eyes brings you in and makes you more involved as you get an effect as though your looking through his eyes and his daily life etc. The character also looks confused and as though he has something on his mind.

The church bells are a cultural code and we know that it represents church. As the camera slowly zooms out to reveal to us the setting you can see a non stereotypical view on this character. The idea of him being awake early on a Sunday when you usually assume teenagers to have lie ins (as Saturday is the night to go out) it doesn't suit the typical teenage representation. Again, this links with the suggestion that he could have something on his mind.
As the camera zooms out more we get a birds eye view of the character in his bed. The way he seems to have 'slept' (if he has or not) is not normally how you sleep. It could link with not haven't slept or it could link with his neat personality that you can infer from his image.
His bed covers could portray a big part of his personality. They are not your typical covers so you can infer that he is a very confident and daring character however this contrasts with what we are shown from his character so far (Him looking worried etc.). The confidence could link with his care about his image and 'looking good' for girls. However his care about his image could also suggest he's quite sensitive, and may have a low self esteem as he seems to feel like he has to make the effort.
So far we question whether he has something on his mind and is worried and whether he is either a very confident proud person, or an insecure, nervous character.
Another point we notice is that he is on his own in the centre of his bed which is a symbolism code of him being neat. From this we can infer he's single and maybe bisexual which could be what he is worried/unsure about. His neat personality and care about his image could also support this. We often stereotype gay men to care greatly about their appearance.
The church bells we hear in the background are a cultural code so we all know that they represent church. You can link this with the sexuality of the character as church oppose this. Also he could be a religious character so he could also be worried about being judged by his church. This is also a typical storyline you see in soaps.
The camera shot centres the character in the middle. Everything around the character is symmetrical which also links with what his personality may be. The sounds you hear in the background are all diegetic sounds such as the birds and bells which set the scene. We get the impression that this character is an important and main character. Also we can infer that everything evolves around him and he may be 'popular' causing him to feel a lot of pressure which may be why he cares about his image. He could be the centre of all attention which means he has no room for any faults and if people see his sexuality as being unacceptable because of the church, then he would be very worried. You can also link this with his room being neutral. Its almost as if he's 'playing it safe' so that people don't judge him. However the bed sheets and the trolley oppose this.

As the camera continues to zoom out it reveals more of his room. As we can see the room is very neutral which doesn't say much about his personality as they're not bold, personality reflecting colours. You could suggest from the neutralness that he is a boring character however the fact that we're introduced to him first and the attention is brought upon him out ways the 'boring personality' suggestion.
The trolley in his room is obviously out of place. Once again this hints personality traits. He comes across very confident as you infer that he stole this trolley. This also suggests his family don't care much so we get an incite of what his family are also like. The acting out could be caused by his worry over his sexuality.
There are also enigma codes in this. The clip questions the audience and leaves them asking questions, drawing them in more. One question may be the 'being awake before the alarm'. The sound of the alarm is an action code, as he gets out of bed as a response to the alarm going off.
Another thing we notice about his room is the open curtains. This links with the suggestion that he hasn't been asleep. The light shining in from the window causes a shadow over one side of the character and creates the illusion of the character having two personalities. This links with my two suggestions of his personality either being insecure or, the complete opposite, confident. Also it could links with light/dark - truth/lies. So we get the impression that he has two sides of him. One being his image and the other being his secretive side where he could, indeed be hiding the truth about his sexuality.

How does Calvin Klein represent females in the advert?

From looking at this advert and how you would view it you question
How men look at women.
How women look at themselves.
How women look at other women.
The picture appeals and comes across to people in different ways depending on how they look at it. The picture isn’t giving a clear image of how women are represented because you can judge it in different ways.

The impression we get from a first glance of this advert is that it appeals to men and women and is aimed at both for different reasons. Even though the advert only has a picture of a woman on it and is selling women underwear, it also is selling the underwear to men. Men might see this woman as the ideal women and after capturing the ‘star struck’ men’s attention, the initial idea they from this is ‘I’ll buy that for my wife/partner/girlfriend’ etc.
From a women’s perspective they can look at this advert and could get two opposite impressions. One being that the advert is intimidating and no women could possibly look like that. Secondly, opposing this would be the idea that a women would aspire to look like her so they decide to buy the underwear.
The advert could be portrayed as showing that women are vulnerable OR have the more dominant role (completely opposite). The advert supports both these points. Firstly the woman is very revealing which gives a huge sense of vulnerability and also gives an effect as though she’s selling herself. Her head it turned and tilted slightly back and her eyes are closed. This can come across as sexy or as though she’s pulling back avoiding the camera and closing her eyes slightly to block it out. The advert also has a luring effect to it attracting the opposite sex which supports that women have more control. The turning away from the camera also tells us that she isn’t the focus of the advert so it brings more attention onto the actual product and not the model; which also portrays her as being a strong person and suggests that she is focused on doing her job which is to sell the underwear and does so by bringing the focus onto it. It also gives off mixed signals such as she's 'available' because there's not ring however you get the idea that she's saying 'you want but you can't have'.
The way the woman is positioned could represent how some women look at themselves. It’s a powerful stance so it could be representing that women are strong individuals. However another way to look at this is because she’s pulling away BUT she seems higher than everyone else (low angle shot) it could represent that she doesn’t like being in the lime light. This could represent how women look at themselves as many seem to feel insecure and are ALWAYS able to find a fault in the way they look.
The low angle shot could represent two things. One being that this is the perfect women and other women look up to this picture whilst the perfect woman looks down on them.  This links with the powerful stance of the women, with her legs apart and her hands on her hips. The other being the woman looking down at everyone else because she’s attractive, gets attention so this could suggest that Calvin Klein believe women should look like this. This picture could cause women to ask each other is this how they are meant to look causing women to feel insecure. Another purpose of the low angle shot adds the whole ‘luring’ effect, which sells the underwear to women who want to be/look like her.

Linking the advert with age, you can notice that the way the woman is portrayed in this is the stereotypical representation of mostly all young women. So this advert can’t be greatly criticized for objectifying women as it’s shown throughout a mass amount of media.  So Calvin Klein isn’t representing women in a completely different way at all as this kind of representation is common. 

Explain how Ethnicity is represented in the clip

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The clip begins with the black man serving the white man. This is an old stereotypical representation linking with different classes. The white person was once stereotyped to be the higher class and this is shown again here with the black man serving him. The lighting is dim, with a relaxed feel to it as its by the pool. The camera then goes onto the man walking along side of the pool until another black person comes out of the pool and it turns out they are 'old friends'. The sharp, edgy and quirky music adds a tense feel to the scene which is similiar to how the smart black man appears to feel. The 'old friend' comes out of the pool and rises up to the smart black man. When we see the two characters next to each other there is an obvious difference between then. You can see this through their appearance and how they speak. E.G 'Bled' and 'Partying'. Another thing you can pick out to show how their now different is how the less smart one comes out of the pool UP to the smart black man. This could be a representation in class and how their different. Its as though the less smart one looks up to the smart man, and the smart man looks down onto the less smart man. They are binary opposites.
The tense, uneven music makes a wind sound as it zooms into a close up of the mans face and gives a scary feel to it. This gives us the impression something bad will happen involving these two men. Then the music follows through onto the next scene where we see a French maid come round the corner with another French maid following her. Straight away we can notice that one maid is quite strong, whereas the other one seems more vulnerable. One says 'c'mon' whilst the other looks around helplessly and unsure. We notice further on how different they both are when one walks out whilst they start to 'dance' for the chinese guy. Stereotypically we aren't shocked with the maid's being French and it's also not shocking when we realise their willing to offer 'double' for more money. The lights and props tie in well with the scene, with the hotel lighting and the cleaning trolleys. The camera shot shows the two maid's entering the room and the shot then moves onto a Japanese  man sat on his bed looking very proud of himself and smug. Here we see a stereotypical representation of Japanese men as they seem very rich and 'pervy' making the vulnerable French maid's do 'extra'. The camera shot is off the Japanese man sat on his bed with his dressing gown on. You can notice that the room is very tidy and clean which is also a stereotypical representation of Japanese men. Once again the lighting is just the natural lighting of the room. The camera then goes to a close up of the money and then a close up of the confident maid's face where she seems more than happy to do anything for extra money. It then goes onto a close up of the French maid's face, the closing/locking of the door and then a close up of the remote and the CD player. The music stays tense like before but gradually gets louder until the CD player is turned on and plays a completely contrasting song. The atmosphere seems very edgy and anxious as the camera shots switch from the maid's and the Japanese man, until one maid walks out. The music then changes as the new scene of a member of staff opens a door and starts calling a British man's name. She's giving the man toilet role. The stereotypical representation seen here is of the British man speaking posh and being mad. This suggests that all British people speak posh. The music in this scene has a more 'bouncy' side to it. The camera shows the women entering the room and then we get a mid shot of her talking to the British man.
The next scene is of two people walking through and the camera shot is them walking towards the camera. The music is similar as before but has an electro bit to it and the camera goes onto the next scene of the kitchen. In the kitchen we see two cooks, and Italian and a British cook. The Italian cook whereas black clothes which connotates dark, bad, untrustworthy, whereas the British cook is wearing white clothes which connotates a more nicer person, honest and trustworthy. Another stereotype is that the British man is fat and angry and the Italian guy sleeps around which links with him being untrustworthy. Finally we see the maid come out of the room whilst another staff spies on her. The camera then goes onto the maid walking down the corridor.