His Dark Materials: Language and Representation blog tasks

 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 ovaries in the picture which could connote is that she is getting ready to do something like fight or work. Lyra as an character is not feminine she is always ready for action, not soft hearted and courageous.

  1. 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 a cool calm collected type of villain who doesn't show emotions whenever she is in combat or torturing someone. Mrs Coulter as an character is very aggressive because of when she was torturing an witch. She is also as an character masculine in her thirst for more power. This is because she told the second in command not to save his boss so that he could take over the operation which would give her some more power to do whatever she likes too.

  1. 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 setting for when Mrs Coulter is torturing the witch is all low key which could connote that to make it more scarier and realistic to show the audience that it looks more better.


  1. 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? Lyra's facial expression while she is running is showing no emotions of fear which could connote that her character is fearless and doesn't show her fears. Her actions while she is running could show that she is running away from Will because she might not known him yet until later on.



  1. 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 make-up on the witch could connote that she has been tortured a lot around her body and arm which could suggest that that's the reason of why she is getting dark circles under her eyes.


  1. 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 reason why the stick has been chosen as a prop could connote to the audience that they are not nice people because of their aggressive way they are looking at the other people and also the way the girl on the left is holding the stick (self defensive way).

The stick held by a child


Lyra consults the alethiometer 



  1. 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? In the Cittigazze setting I can notice that in the long shot that there are two people standing outside around abandoned building's which could connote that something might've happened in the area and that the two characters that are there could be trying to figure out what's happened. The reason why the director could've chosen an long shot is because to show how deserted the place is.



Screen shot 1: Cittigazze


Screen shot 2: In the magisterium ship


Screen shot 3: the witches’ meeting place



Representation

Females are subversive in this extract. 

  1. How is Lyra not a typical female character? Lyra is not a stereotypical female because she is strong and fearless because she doesn't need help standing out for herself she can stand out herself.

Conventional female characters are usually all girly and always talking about boys and whenever a fight happens girls need to hide behind men's.

However, Lyra looks courageous and brave because she can fight her own battles and doesn't need to hide behind boy's or need help from them.

Lyra’s behaviour and actions are subversive because girls are not meant to be fearless and not meant to be bad.

Lyra: how she speaks is subversive because of the way she shows and presents herself towards people (body language).

Lyra: her relationship with other characters is not conventional for women because women's are meant to be courteous and not meant to be rude and impolite towards other people.


  1. 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 an evil powerful women because of how the way she dresses and act's towards other people. How she is represented as an powerful women is that when she was in a low key room with a witch and then she started to torture her with sinister weapons whereas the witches are not represented as evil people because of when they came to the rescue for the witch that Mrs Coulter was torturing.

  1. 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 an subversive kind of male because of the way he treats Lyra. How he is an subversive male is when he starts to look after Lyra instead of her looking after him. He does this by cooking and cleaning and saying he'll take the small bed instead of the big one which is unusual because males are meant to be represented as the dominant then females and the ones who don't do the household choirs.



  1. 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 it shows the genders of male and female whereas of it just being all males also the age's of the two characters are around 15-16 which could connote that younger people could watch this and enjoy consuming it because they could try to relate themselves to it.

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