Representation in Red Five

Representation refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of reality therefore representation can be applied to our short film Red Five. At the time of producing the film we did not have much knowledge of representation theory so we did not plan for representation theory to appear in the film but it still can be applied due to common conventions in storytelling and filmmaking. We did understand the definitions of convention and stereotype and we tried to combat how these words are perceived in Red Five’s genre.

One of the first instances of representation that the audience can see is the representation of social groups. In Red Five the audience can detect representations of age, gender and nationality. The age of the main characters is the most noticeable as it is one of the first physical things that the audience can uncover, in Red Five the first character shown, Noah, is shown to be around the age of 16, this can be seen by how Noah dresses, how he speaks and by how he interacts with the technology around him. The convention of a young person using technology with ease can be applied to the entirety of this film as it portrays a reality we live in today. Noah dresses casually and his body language is relaxed and he lacks stress, this combined with his youthful features allows the audience to understand and construct an accurate age for the character. These constructions also apply to the rest of the main protagonists.

In Red Five, the main protagonists consist of two males and one female. It is a common social convention that males are more into technology but recently a lot more women are getting into technological jobs and this is reflected in the character Ava. The ideology of male superiority can be applied due to the fact that the security guard that tries to stop Red Five is a man. Also due to Ava being a new member of the group Ben and Noah could have a superiority complex because of desires to be leaders. This use of a dominant ideology can show that the film could be viewed as hegemonic.

The representation of how the main characters speak to each other can be another way that Red Five defies modern standard conventions. Instead of using the stereotype of how a boy and girl must get together in a romantic relationship with conflict from a rival, Red Five tries to show a modern triangular friendship and instead of showing romantic love it could imply a family’s love. The team speak to each other in a light hearted and snarky way, they listen to each other and can also make fun of each other without conflict, this works well for teamwork.

Another stereotype that Red Five does not represent would be, that computer savvy teens live in a basement and barely go out. When coming up with the idea for Red Five, we wanted to steer clear from this convention as we felt it was very predictable. We targeted an audience from age 16-25 and this meant we were could challenge these stereotypes as stereotypes are usually shown in media for younger audiences because of this choice Red Five can be seen as a very inoffensive film that tries to challenge representation.

There are many types of gaze that can be applied to Red Five. The first type of gaze that can be applied would be the spectator's gaze that the audience experiences when viewing the film. Intra-diegetic gaze can be seen when each character looks at each other, this is very common in most films so we did not plan to use the specific theory. There is a part in Red Five where the main characters watch a news broadcast, this can be identified as intra-intra-diegetic gaze, this can be used to add layers to the world that is being represented in the film. Also because the film represents a connected world which intertwines many different people, this type of gaze is appropriate.

Red Five is applicable to the ideology of capitalism as money is viewed as a powerful force and without it a person is almost useless. The team in Red Five use stealing money as a leverage to show the world what they are capable of, they use the power of money for good and like a modern Robin Hood they give it to people less fortunate such as a charity. Red Five use ideologies against the companies they are against, they do this because they operate without a country or ideology, they can be seen as modern mercenaries. Red Five operate with complete freedom and without restrictions.

Red Five, as a team, can be described as the opposite of patriots, as they do not follow the ideology of patriotism because they want to help the people of the world, not the people of their specific country. The ideology and representation of vigilantism can be applied to the team as they care about the safety of regular people and they want to bring criminals to justice and because of their lack of patriotism, Red Five don’t want to run their services legally. Capitalism is also represented in the character of the security guard, he represents the companies that Red Five are against and represents the lack of knowledge they have and this is shown in how he chases Ben instead of conversing with him.

Overall, the team that is Red Five could be representations of the greater good in the world, and the security guard represents the greed and irrationalism in the world. This is what Red Five could be representing to the audience, after studying and understanding representation theory I can now see how this theory can be applied to a film. When creating Red Five, our team had very little knowledge of the theory of representation but even without knowing we did apply some of this theory which shows how natural and integral representation is to us as we grow up surrounded by it.