Hustle Genders

How is gender portrayed in the extract of Hustle through:

Camera work

Mise-en-scene

Sound

& Editing?

In the extract of Hustle the theories of Mulvey (1975), Mackillon (2002) and Gauntlett (2002) are both supported and distrupted through the media language present in the clip. I will now explore this in more detail with reference to how; camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and editing contributes to constructions of gender representation.

The opening shot is a low angle medium close up of middle aged male wearing an expensive suit. The camera angle gives him masculine status as it makes him powerful which could fit Gauntlet’s 2002 theory however, the way he is standing is not a masculine pose which means his character also fits Mackillon’s theory as he is looking more feminine. In the background there is a younger female character shown coming up the stairs to the clothing shop, the positioning seems to support traditonal gender roles as she appears lower down, and therefore less important, than the lead male character. The opening scene is accompanied by non-diegetic music that changes when the women comes into shot, it is quite feminine and it contributes to sexaulising the female character in a way that fits Mulvey’s 1975 theory. Furthermore, it contributes to de-masculinising the male character to a point where he almost appears camp which also fits with the dress shop setting and his job. The shots are linked together with a sound bridge and continuity editing is used to not distract the viewer.

The next shot is a high angle over the shoulder when the not so wealthy lady walks off and the male character notice there is another lady in shop browsing around, but it shows that he spots the expensive engagement ring first which she is clearly trying to show off.  Straight away he is interested in what she wants, and quickly jogs off to get the dress he told her about. This shows me that people who doesn’t have quite a lot of money gets treated disrespectfully like the middle aged women in the shop unlike the young lady who was approved more when she is shown with quite a lot of money. The middle aged women is shown as a house wife who stays at home who cooks and cleans for her children. When she says “I’ll come back later”, it shows us that she is not very affluent and doesn’t want to show the man that she cant afford it, so she says that so it takes his mind off how much money she has. The screen fades to black and shows the scene of the wealthy women with the dress on. This shot is called a tilt, with the camera moving up the women’s body of how gorgeous she looks in it. When the camera travels up the young women’s body, it is shown as a sexualised action. This supports Mulvey’s theory about women be sexualised. The sound bridge from the previous scene carries on but has diegetic sound of them discussing what the dress is like. When the male character tells the lady about how much money the dress is, there is some kind of drum role towards her deciding if she will buy it for that much.