1. REPRESENTATION

4. The purpose of ‘reality’ dramas is to convey the idea of the ‘real’ Police at work in the neighbourhoods with which we are more familiar. Does this make them more ‘real’ than a more obviously constructed product such as Life on Mars or The Bill ? Are the people who appear in this more real because they are actual Police rather than constructed characters – played by actors? Does the programme not create ‘characters’ by positive or negative reinforcement of personalities through the editing?

7. Representation Reality The real world Mediation The process of producing a film text. Representation The text itself. A ‘representation’ of the real world.

9. 1. What is represented? Consider denotation and connotation - what information does the text give you about subject matter, place and characters? Draw on all your knowledge of microelements such as framing and camera angles, costume, colour, etc. - consider all the technical areas: camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing, sound. 2. How is this representative of social groups? What does the text suggest is typical? Consider what it says about particular social groups (gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity, physical ability/disability, regional identity and class/status). Consider positives and negatives and use of stereotypes. Does your text reinforce or challenge stereotypes?

10. 3. Who is responsible for the representation? Consider the producers and the institutions responsible for production. What agenda do the producers have? Why would they want to represent things in a certain way? (Think about target audience, genre, commercial aspect or artistic expression, etc.) 4. What does the audience make of it? Taking all of the above into account what might the audience response be? However, as we know not everyone will respond to the text in the same way so there is not one answer to this!

11. Lily Allen Consider the 4 points on representation above for the 2 different images of Lily Allen.