Gender Essay

Throughout the ‘Luther’ clip it features a man and a woman having a conversation. During their conversation, there are several different shots presented. For example a reverse shot is used whilst they are taking. When in the apartment the shot starts off at the man to show his facial expressions. He looks intelligent and supreme as he has his head slightly tilted to the right and we can see that he is insignificantly looking down to the woman. This emphasizes his authority because it shows that he is higher than the woman meaning he has more power. He also looks masculine as his clothing isn’t baggy on him, making him look relatively big, maybe hiding his muscles underneath his coat. Onwards from that, it moves onto the woman next, and slowly moves forwards towards her face. This shows the audience her facial expressions and close up her make up. She has red lipstick on, that stands out evidently to make her look seductive. Also, her eyebrows are coloured in and her eyes stand out darkly, to ensure her features look elegant. Shortly after this, is a close up, two shot. It shows the two characters very close together, almost touching. The man is looking down on the woman and the woman is looking back up at him, from this we can see who the powerful character is and who the empowered character is. Stereotypically, the female is the weak, petite one and the male is the dominant, masculine one. Soon after, comes a mid shot. It is of the female character in front of the window with the big buildings in the city behind her. This shot is used to present how petite and feminine the woman is because she looks small and weak in the shot. The big tower blocks behind her emphasize how small she is as a person compared to how big and outstanding they are. Although, it could be argued that due to the amount of times she appears individually in a shot, that she has more power than the man because it emphasizes that she is more of an important character. This gives her authority and capability over the male character, even though she looks petite and impuissant.

During the clip, there are a number of times we see a full sight of the clothing that the characters are wearing. We are able to see that the female character is wearing smart apparel, suggesting office. She looks ingenious and sophisticated. Along with her outfit, we are able to see her hair and makeup. Her hair is at a relatively average length, just below her shoulders. Her wavy or lightly curled locks appear to be a shade of ginger, possibly dyed. With no streaks or bad roots, it can be suggesting that if her hair was dyed, that she makes sure the job is done efficiently and takes good care in her appearance. Her makeup is also very neat and sleek; again emphasizing she is rigorous about her looks. Her lips are painted red and her eyes are presented as black to make herself stand out more, and possibly deduce the male character, considering their position and conversation. She wears long, flared trousers and a long sleeved frilled top, tucked into her trousers for extra emphasis of her authority within work. The male characters wears and shirt and a tie also indicating he is particularly important within his work too. He is made to look like a stereotypical man as he wears a suit, which is a part of the female gaze of how women see masculine men. The audience are also able to see the apartment in which the female lives in. The rooms within the apartment are painted dull colours such as browns, greys and white. From the clip we can suggest that the colours could represent the female characters personality as she doesn’t show to be a cheery, happy person. This example goes against stereotypical women as they should be happy and caring, suggesting bright, happy colours. The proximity between the two characters shows the power present. For example during most of the clip they don’t really stand near each other, mostly quite distant. When in the apartment the characters stand far from each other, at different ends of the room, suggesting why the reverse shot was used to show the power inequality between the two characters. Also, even when the characters are close, they still show o be far away as they aren’t touching. This again shows the power between them.

The clip is edited to make the female character appear more than the male. Throughout the clip there are more shots of the female character individually or with the male, than of him on his own. Again, this shows she is more powerful in some aspects because it indicates that she is possibly more important or a key character in the programme. A jump cut is used in the clip, from when the characters are outside which then jumps to the characters in the apartment. The action between the two scenes is cut to show how the time has changed along with the situation. It also enables the audience to become aware that the action in the scene is over. The jump cut aims to give the appearance of continuous space and time within the clip. Shot reverse shot cut is used to show the characters having a conversation. The camera switches repeatedly between the two characters showing the distance between each other and their body language in general and associated with their replies to the other character.

At the start of the clip, the characters are outside in the street and the diegetic sound in the background of the setting can be heard. For example the cars in the background are made so the audience can distinctively hear them. This is done to make the scene seem as realistic as possible. Also, due to the diegetic sound of the cars, the audience can identify where the characters are and analyse what type of situation they are in. During the dialogue between the characters, we can suggest that their conversation is quite serious and resolute. The woman’s voice acquires good language and clear speech. It can be implied that she is wealthy or upper class, evidently her apartment is rather big and she has possessions that possibly cost a lot, such as the telescope perching on her table. Although, as she is living in an apartment and not a big house, it could suggest she is only wealthy to a certain extent. When the two characters are close together during a close up, two shot, an intense tune is played as non-diegetic sound. As the characters get closer together and their dialogue ends, the music becomes quieter, almost becoming silent, affecting the atmosphere and creating an intense scene. The music sounds like the blowing of an instrument, much like the wind. The intense pauses between their dialogue, catches the characters staring at each other mystified. When the characters are talking we recognised that when replying the man is blunt with short answers, but the woman replies with detail and longer answers. Theoretically, they are following the stereotypes of male and females because the woman feels the need to fill the blank but the man doesn’t.