Character Profiles (Representation)
Female protagonist character –
This is the main character in our narrative that experiences a change in persona as the narrative progresses. She will be shown as a stereotypical female character who is portrayed as vulnerable at the beginning of the narrative, but as the plot develops she will become more dominant and reverse the roles of dominant ideology.
We will encode this female character within the text as a character who challenges dominant ideology in terms of gender, in order to make our audience active, as it is not a text that is a pastiche of a typical dance genre, music video. We will represent this female character and the characterisation of the character through semiotics and technical codes. She will be framed using high angle shots at the beginning, whilst wearing ordinary, non-glamorous clothing, representing her as a vulnerable, innocent character, whom the audience will pity and empathise in.
Our protagonist character is of a female gender, which is a sudden challenging within the dance genre, as many dance music videos involve a male character who possesses the chief role within the narrative; Kid Cudi for example, in a variety of his dance music videos. However, if a dance music video decides to place a female in the protagonist role they are usually constructed stereotypically as provocative, due to their costume and they way they are technically framed from scene to scene. As a group we have decided to initially challenge this type of dominant ideology that is usually constructed within the dance genre. Our female protagonist will be originally constructed as a vulnerable teenager, who shouldn’t really fit within the ‘powerful’ and provocative dance scene.
Her original costume will challenge the dominant ideology of the costumes usually found within the dance genre. She will dress in average, dull clothing, and will be framed as an unimportant character at the beginning of the narrative to highlight her lack of dominance. This is a conformation towards gender’s dominant ideology as she will be constructed as weak in comparison to the male characters in the opening of the narrative, who possess dominance over her. Also, our character is a white female; we believe this conforms to ethnic dominant ideology that is presentable in the dance genre, as almost all females seen in dance music videos are of a white ethnicity. In addition, our female protagonist will be represented as a late teenager, possibly eighteen or nineteen, which also conforms to the genre of dance, as the genre usually incorporates younger females dressed in provocative clothing in an attempt to sell itself to a wider male audience. We believe that integrating this ideology of youth, whilst challenging dominant ideology concerning gender, we will create a product that can attract a mass audience of a male and female gender. We expect that both genders of the audience receive the preferred meaning of the text, the hegemony of anti-bullying and how the female gender can overlook the male gender and break patriarchal society. On the other hand, we may expect some of our male audience to attain an oppositional reading of the text, as we assume they will not be used to the breaking of patriarchal society within the media; meaning they will decode the text in a different way in which the preferred reading is constructed. However, we have attempted to counter balance this in the way we have conformed to other technical codes found in the dance genre; setting, camera shots, editing and costume, for example.
However, as the narrative progresses, and the protagonist is characterised due to her success in her DJ occupation, this original conformation of dominant gender ideology is broken. The dominance shifts towards the female as she is framed as the DJ and therefore her confidence grows as a character. This challenges dominant representation of gender as the chief DJ's in the world are in most cases male. We hope to break the norms of patriarchy in our product, and thwart the dominant ideology of the male gender, and this scene is the start of that attempt. The camera shots we will use will alter as the narrative progresses. At the start of the video, she will be framed behind extra characters, and in medium long shots, with little emphasis on her facial features and her attire; however, as she succeeds in her occupation as a DJ, the camera shots become more intense, as we will use close up shots of her provocative costume (including red high heels which are stereotypically seen in the dance genre due to their connotations of passion and danger, which link highly to the type of music found contained by the genre) and her gestures, which we believe will conform to how gender is represented in the dance genre as well as reinforcing realism. The same idea will occur when concerning camera angles. She will be framed via high angle shots at the foundation of the text so it seems as though the audience is looking down upon her lowly stature. However, as she is characterised, these high angle shots become low angle shots, where we look up towards her new instated dominance. We hope to use artificial lighting to a maximum in order to create a realistic setting that conforms to the dance genre, so that our artist character looks as though she ‘belongs’ there. Finally, when mastering our product, an excessive amount of jump cuts will be used to create a product with editing that is a pastiche of others within the genre of dance.
At the End of our video the woman is shown as the dominant and powerful character therefore challenging dominant ideology of man being dominant over women. This also conforms to Levi Strauss' binary opposites of man versus woman. We also believe that we will challenge the dominant ideology of youth, as our protagonist is succeeding in a profession, and taking life seriously, unlike the stereotype of youth suggests. Challenging the stock characters involved in the dance genre will hopefully make the plot development and narrative more engaging, as the female audience may also be able to personally identify with the protagonist, which should expectantly make the audience active.
A feminist view of this character after she experiences a change could include Laura Mulvey’s theory that the female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to create voyeurism for a male audience. However, as this female character becomes dominant, this will also engage a female audience, as it is not conventional and challenges what the female gender see as societies gender norms.
Male character –
This is the main male character in our narrative. He is classed as a stereotypical ‘action/hero’ male character who is portrayed as dominant from the beginning of the text, but in a negative manner. His attempts to bully and undermine the female protagonist reinforce gender dominance, but as his actions are unethical his relationship with the audience will be a negative one. However, this ‘powerful’ male character will experience a downfall in dominance, as he will see the female character succeed in her occupation of DJing, which makes him turn away and leave the setting, with a facial expression suggesting defeat.
We will encode this male character in an attempt to conform to dominant ideology when speaking of gender. His rash thinking and actions throughout the narrative reinforce the male stereotype. He will dominate the frame when he is shown as the ‘bully’ but as gender dominance roles reverse he will be captured in low angle point of view shots that express his sudden lack of dominance in comparison to the female character.
This male character will stand in the crowd and will show clear signs of envy towards the female character. This character will wear black clothing to reinforce his dominance as a male character, and will be a stereotypical ‘cocky’ character. Youth will be represented for this male character as stereotypical, as he is shown as having lack of intelligence due to his bullying of the female character. But his targeting of the female character and his confrontational behaviour stereotypically allow him to gain friends of the same type, who laugh at his ‘achievements’ and destroy the confidence of the female character.
