His Dark Materials-Language and Representation

 LANGUAGE 

See above for what this means (reminder- it is not WORDS but instead it is every way in which the media text communicates its messages to the audience). Remember our acronym CLAMPS to know what to comment on. 

Questions

1.Costume - what is Lyra wearing in the photo below? What does this costume suggest she is doing / she is like as a character? 

Lyra is wearing dungarees this suggest she is masculine and brave and she's carrying her sleeping bag this means she 's travelling trying to survive. This is subversive because she is a child and children are looked after by adults.

2.Costume: Mrs Coulter is always very smart and formal with red lips and styled hair. What does this suggest about the type of villain she is / her character?

Mrs Coulter is wearing red lip and styled hair and her character is very smart and formal this suggest that she is feminine. This is conventional because woman are portrayed to be  more feminine than men.

 

3.Lighting- What do you notice about the setting for where Mrs Coulter is torturing the witch? Why has the director chosen this lighting? (Hint: High key lighting is bright and low key lighting is dark).

The director chosen low key lighting for Mrs Coulter is torturing the witch this suggest that the scene is very violent and gruesome.

4.Actor’s position and movement- Look at the picture of Lyra (below). What does her facial expression tell us about the kind of character she is? What about her actions?

Her facial expression suggest that her character is worried this is because she is running away from someone or somewhere.

5.Makeup- Look at the make-up (and clothing and hair) of the tortured witch. What does the make-up tell us about the character of the witches? (Hint- think about how it makes her look unusual) 

The tortured witch's makeup suggest that she is tortured to death because she has bruises and she looks odd because Christians and priests viewed witches as evil and strange.

 

6.Props- Look at the props in these two screen shots (below). Why have the props been chosen? What do they connote to the audience? For bonus points, what is the shot type and why has this been used? 

The props suggests that the people from the shots are the children are abandoned and from a different universe because the children don't look like typical children.  

7.Setting- Look at the three different settings below. Choose one or more. What do you notice about the setting? How are the settings connected to the characters? What shot has been chosen and why? 

I noticed that screen shot 1 is very different to our world by the building and it is deserted. This shot suggest that Will and Lyra are seemed lost because they ran away

 

Representation

Females are subversive in this extract.

1.How is Lyra not a typical female character?

Conventional female characters are usually weaker than male character. However, Lyra looks- like a typical male character. Lyra’s behaviour and actions are subversive because she doesn't act like a conventional female character because she bosses Will and be rude to Will sometimes .Lyra: how she speaks is subversive because she speaks like a young boy. Lyra: her relationship with other characters is not conventional for women because she act like a typical boy when she is around other characters

2.The witches and Mrs Coulter are also seen as powerful women. How are they represented as powerful? Are they seen as good or evil or both?

Mrs Coulter is seen as good because he is more feminine than the witches but she is evil. The witches is presented as evil because witches were described as bad people but she is good or both

3. How is Will represented? Is he a typical male character or more unexpected? How?

(Hints: think of him cooking and preparing the food, giving Lyra the bed she wants and allowing her to make the decisions)

Will is represented as a sidekick for Lyra than her hero because Will doesn't acted like a hero by letting Lyra sleep on any bed she wants. This suggest that Will as conventional and unconventional male at the same time because he is protecting Lyra but acts like a sidekick.

4. Look at the casting (people acting in this series). Is the cast diverse? How? Think CAGE (Class / Age / Gender / Ethnicity - race)

The cast is diverse because they have subversive characters such as Will who is a young mixed raced boy and Lyra who is a young white girls this suggest that the cast is diverse.

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