1B- Representation Essay Question First Draft

Apply the concept of representation to one of your media productions.

Representation is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular manner. In AS within our coursework we produced a film opening called ‘Outlaw’ and it is what I will be analyzing throughout this essay. This was the genre of mystery/action and focused on the unknown objectives of an anonymous hunter, for which the hunted is also unclear. The film opening begins with the main protagonist walking through the wilderness, but the audience is able to perceive that he is searching for something, and it is this something that creates the entire mystery of our film opening; until the answer is revealed.

In relation to Todorov's narrative theory it states that most story's or plot lines follow the same pattern or path, and there are 5 steps to this. The first is the equilibrium in which the story is displayed as being happy at the very beginning, where the majority of the characters are content in their lives. Although, in Outlaw we contradict this norm and instead chose to introduce our main character in a state of considerable despair with no real reason as to why this is the case, as a result the audience is left with enigma and it allows them to comprehend this reason. The second part of the story will supposedly feature a problem to disrupt this happiness, so in this instance our film opening correlated with this but just in a different order then Todorov proposed, because we deliberately started with a problem and this instantaneously created the mystery that we so desired. Next comes the realization of the problem and the potential consequences it creates. Once again the protagonist in Outlaw seems to be already accustomed to this reality and the audience can see this also compliments to the mystery of this film opening. Restored order is the next part and it is literally the characters attempt to realign their life with the previous contentment and to solve the issue. Thus, near the end of the film opening the main character defeats the mysterious villain. Finally Todorov states that every story line should end with an equilibrium again, however, with our film opening this final equilibrium is not actually seen, only the demise of the enemy.