Representations &&+ Signifiers;;

Today we looked at how representations in TV drama clips such as 'Shameless' are created. A representation is a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image. A Signifier is something that builds up to represent a cerain thing, e.g. a 'chav' could be represented by signifiers such as wearing trackies, hoodies, burberry hats etc. Representations can be created through signifiers such as:

• Gendre


• Age


• Region


• Disability


• Race


• Crime


• Law


• Sexualtiy

The TV Drama 'Shameless' use many signifiers to create representations of...

• Life style


• Gender


• Region


• Crime


• Family

The signifiers they use for creating the representation of the...

region is portrayed it to be:

• poor


• run down


• typical council estate


• dodgey dealings

Crime is portrayed to be:

• a good thing


• not taken seriously


• normal and fun

Family is portrayed to be:

• odd


• working class


• unstable


• likeable

We then watched a clip of the opening sequence to the first episode of the Shameless series to see how the family is portrayed through signifiers. The voice over its self is the main character (Frank) talking, he sounds very common as he uses phrases like "me children" instead of "my children" which could also represent him as being Northern. We then cut to a shot of the main character himself, the camera is unsteady which represents the character as being unsteady himself, he looks drunk or even drugs. There is a lot of unsteady camera movements when Frank introduces his children, this makes the Drama seem more real in orde for the audience to relate to what is happening. It may also represent that the family its self is unstable like the main character Frank. We see a use of the 'fish eye lense' shot when Frank introduces his daughter, this makes the audience focus more on the character and not what is going on around her. There is a lot of irony used between the voice over and the camera technique, the voice over is portraying the family in a positive way where as the camera techniques are presenting the family in a negative way, which creates humour. However, as the audience, we still sympathise with the characters and automaticaly look at them in a positive way.