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Representations Essay

Throughout the first episode of Stranger Things a number of key representations are shown of the characters creating ideas and concepts of whats to come, along with stereotypes of specific characters.

In the sequence, I looked at a series of scenes of; the woods, the boys house, Nancy's room and Benny's diner were shown where we meet a number of characters who fit into specific categories of being either typically stereotypical or going against our initial opinion of the characters.

In the scene in the woods the main characters that we are introduced to are Officer Hopper and the boy's teacher. The teacher is represented as being helpful and caring, meaning he is worried for Wills safety and wants to go the extra millet help find him. However, he is more of a minor character in this part of the show as he doesn't affect the narrative massively, but he helps to give context and change the representation of Hopper by querying him out his daughter. Our initial representation of him being a careless unorganised character is changed as soon as we find out that he had a daughter who died a few years ago. We are first fed the idea that Hopper has a family at the beginning of the episode when we see a tracking out shot of a drawing of what we find out is a mum, dad and child which was drawn by Hopper's daughter, this shot then leads round into a shot of Hoppers caravan which is a mess with beer bottles, cigarettes, clothing, etc all scattered around the place. This almost masks the drawing that we have just seen and creates the representation of Hopper being careless and unorganised. Then in the sequence I looked at our representation of him is flipped on its head as we instantly feel bad for him and look at him much more sympathetically as his daughter died.

The boy's are represented as being very mature for their age as they all act in a very grown up way as they want to help to find their friend showing them as loyal and compassionate characters. However, they are all using radios to communicate with one another creating the sense of youth and immaturity as we see sharp shots from each of the boys communicating with one another through them in their own "secret" speech which may not be understood by their parents and other adults. We see this prior to this when the boys get called into the head teachers office where they all use unstandardised specialised speech which only they understand because they play the game that the vocabulary has come from. This make the story a lot more realistic because it is something that would have been much more common to see in the 80s when this TV drama was set.

In the next scene we see Nancy get the chance to break the stereotypical studious girl representation when Steve climbs through her window. Even through she lets him in she is still very aware that she needs to prepare for her test and won't let him distract her. Steve is the stereotypical bad boy heart throb and is represented as being a bad influence on Nancy at this point. Nancy is still shown as being nervous and conscious of what she is doing as she is very doubtful of letting Steve in and at the end of this scene she slams the window shut creating a very abrupt, sudden effect which could be a reflection of how she is feeling.

Stranger Things Presentation Notes

Ownership-

• Owners- Duffer Brothers 
• They pitched stranger things 10 companies getting rejected until Netflix agreed to air the show and instantly loved it
• 21 laps run by Shawn Levy
• Netflix plan to make $2 billion dollars
• Netflix created their own social media accounts #JusticeForBarb
• Netflix paid for Stranger Things and distribution 
• Target audience varies 
• 15.8 million views in the first episode
• Netflix announced its entry into 130 new countries

Production-

• 21 Laps Entertainment produced Stranger Things
• Budget per episode $6 m to produce, $48 per episode
• 8 episodes in first season
• 2000 members cast and crew
• Above the line (budget for advertising) and below the line (memes)
• Pre-production, original from Netflix
• Fictional town
• Filmed in Atlanta, Georgia
• Took 7 months to film, filmed in 2016
• Took 11 days to film each episode
• Tested images to have soft and round tones similar to 80's
• Took into account  smart phone use, so Duffer Brothers composed filming to be effective to both big and small screen platforms
• Kevin Ross edited, along with Dean Zimmerman
• Edited in a week

Distribution-

• Can watch stranger things on iPad, smart phone, smart TVs, computers, and tablets
• Subscription only service
• Changed the language on the front covers to attract the different audiences
• DVD boxset
• Vertical intergration- Netflix produces it, distributes it and broadcasts it (owns all of the rights)
• Available in 20 different translations 
• Netflix is available in 190 countries
• Simultaneous release- whole season in one go

Marketing- 

• Netflix was responsible for the marketing 
• Used unique aspects scubas virtual reality- interactive experiences
• Announced a planned release for a planned release for July 15th 2016
• Cultural 80s nostalgia 
• Trailers were released which included the thriller theme of the drama
• Soundtrack
• Clothing and food
• Word of mouth
• Netflix had to use very little marketing 
• 360 degree virtual reality video on youtube
• Eggo Waffles recipes were released in pair with each episode of season 2 
• Eggos were an 80s food
• Merchandised and fandom made products
• Hidden vending machine in NewYork-competition (Stranger things TV Instagram)
• Topshop paired with Stranger Things 
• Google map
• 80s eggo advert- leggo my eggo

Stranger Things Representations

Rolan Barts-

• Signifier 
• Denotation 
• Connotation

Constructed Realism-

• Nothing can be real in TV drama
• The idea that all media products and what we see in them is made/ built using technical codes and media language such as camera work, editing, etc.

Dominant ideology-

• System or structure of beliefs, values and ideas about the way we should live, behave and think

Representations in the media-

• All media products are 'constructed'
• Producers use different elements/ conventions of media language to construct these representations 
• Producer of different LFTVD may use different elements of media language to:

- Offer different representations 

- Communicate different ideas and viewpoints about individuals/ social groups or identities, events and issues

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Stranger Things notes

Essay Plan-

Point

Example

Specific

Analysis

Theory/ terminology

Answer the question

Stranger Things Season 1 promo

• Mid shot
• Close up- showing expression
• Direct eye level
• Tracking long shots
• Tracking close up- tension 
• Leave cliff hangers- allowing the audience to create scenarios win their mind
• Enigma codes
• Star power- 80s heart throbs (Winola Rider)
• Specific dialogue- Hopper  
• Netflix logo- branding
• Low key lighting- enigma
• Investigative narratives and crime conventions

Stranger things walk through

80s film research

• The Duffer brothers created Stranger things as a homage to 1980s films
• ET-

Stranger Things pays homage to ET (1982) It uses images of kids on dirt bikes riding through suburbia and into the wilderness and shows the children on a quest. The series also has an extensive usage of flashlights - and flashlight beams - in the darkness. Many shots in the series mirror the lighting and framing found in E.T. the film.

• Ghost busters

Stranger Things makes connections to ghost busters during the halloween scene in season 2.

• Stand by me