Revision Lesson - Super. Human.

Component One: Section A

• two questions: one on representation, one on media language
• the representation question will always be 30 marks, will always take an hour, and will always be a comparison
• the media language question will always be unseen, will always be 15 marks and will always take half an hour

Component 1: Section A is 2 minutes per mark

Component 1: Section B is 1 minute per mark

Compare how this music video extract and the advertisement for Super. Human. represent social groups (30 marks)

In your answer you must:

• consider the similarities and differences in how social groups are represented
• consider how stereotypes can be used positively or negatively
• make judgement and draw conclusions about how far the representations reflect social and cultural contexts

Knee jerk reaction: the Super. Human. advert represents disabled people in a positive and unconventional way. However, the advert also normalises representations of disabilities, in order to inspire target audiences

Key terms

• Rapid fire editing
• Low key lighting
• Mise-en-scene
• Costume
• Close up
• Long shot
• Action shot
• Stuart Hall
• Non-diegetic sound
• Montage
• Graphic mat shot
• Machine-gun editing
• Bricolage
• Archie footage
• Stuart Hall
• ECU
• Codes and conventions
• Sport narrative
• Rocky
• Binary oppositions
• Lexis
• Hyperreality
• Postmodernism
• Dark and dingy
• Gender performativity
• Gender fluidity
• Diegesis - in the world of the narrative
• Diegetic sound - grunts
• Non-diegetic sound - soundtrack
• othering - Paul Gilroy

Representation refers to the re-presentation of reality, encoded by the producer of a media product using media language to construct an ideology. Every producer has an ideology and uses this set of messages and values to sell a media product to a target audience. In order to make this especially effective, producers will often use stereotypes, commonly held beliefs and assumptions about a certain group of people. However, in this essay, I shall argue that the producers of Super. Human. contradict and subvert stereotypical representations of people with disabilities in order to maximise consumption of the Paralympic games, as well as to attract audiences and change perceptions. The Super. Human trailer advertises the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics which was actually held in 2021 due to COVID-19. The advertisement addresses these social and cultural implications, as well as presenting an exciting new mode of address to the target audience.

One way in which disabled people are represented in the Super. Human advert is through the MES of disabled bodies.

One way in which disabled people are represented in the Super. Human advert is through the use of montage editing.

One way in which disabled people are represented in the Super. Human advert is through the use of lexis.

One way in which disabled people are represented in the Super. Human advert is through the use of extreme close ups throughout the advert, which are used to create a grotesque and abject representation of training for elite sports. In one shocking shot, we literally enter through the mouth of an athlete and fly down their throat, being forced to confront the mise-en-scene of veiny fleshy tonsils and a discoloured tongue. Here the viewer takes the role of the doctor inserting an endoscopy which positions the audience in an empathetic and uncomfortable mode of address. This is further emphasised through the extreme close up of a brilliant purple bruise, that constructs a deeo hermeneutic code, and presents an almost abstract and abject set of images for the target audience. Finally, the close up of 'Mr Puke Bucket', a revolting blue bucket of sick is anchored through the use of low key lighting and the sickly blue colour scheme. The combination of all of these images construct a representation of people with disabilities as relatable, hard working, vulnerable and even mentally unstable.

The use of archive footage and slo-mo dreams shots are symbolic of PTSD

The binary opposition of the abject imagery of a bloody tooth hanging out of its socket in smiling mouth constructs a polysemic address of both resilience and mental instability

The use of othering constructs a confusing and even upsetting mode of address for the target audience which may instead reinforce stereotypes about people with disabilities

Lexis - "if you want to be a Paralympian, there must be something wrong with you" constructs a sense of othering which may potentially provoke oppositional readings in the target audience

The smashed glass over the word 'super' constructs a complex representation of disabled identities, where to be disabled is both a problem and something to be celebrated

The symbolic destruction of the word 'super' instead defines disabled people as people, and constructs a powerful representation and forces the audience whether we should define people by their disabilities at all