How is regional identity represented in "The Rotters Club"

The clip begins with the camera panning across a table of food and drink, and then a close up of a character’s head. The characters eating are bosses and employees of a company; we can see that the food is stereotypical to their occupation. The men in the clip are "Northern" and the food they eat is filling and “easy to eat” northern food, chips, beer which is bitter and a big steak. We see individual specific shots of each character, effectively introducing them into the scene. The bosses are situated next to each other. The shots let us inspect their faces and it looks like the bosses are wary and the workers angry. One boss in particular, he looks frightened and cowardly while the other could be described as “one of the lads”. The cowardly boss keeps on getting “digs” at being gay, even when his son is the topic of conversation the boy gets also called homosexual. Stereotypical again of northern people as they are represented as being very homophobic. The camera moves to a shot which shows all of them sitting on the table. Giving us an insight into where they are eating. It would seem to be in a pub, implying that the north doesn't have restaurants or if it has they are pretty much pubs.
The sound plays a vital role in this clip. Mainly because there is no soundtrack making the music seem to becoming from the pub and the clink of knives and forks diegetic and natural within the scene. This has been used because it is highly effective at making social realism inside a scene. The cutlery is also an action code that suggests eating is taking place.
Most of the clip centres on the characters and it is intriguing to see how they are portrayed. The two manual employees are situated opposite their bosses, becoming an obvious example of their lower roles; we can also see this as the workers drink beer meanwhile their bosses sip on wine. There is tension in the scene with clear mistrust between the two sides. The northern trade unions seem to be on the agenda and are a point of humour to the bosses. The only time the group rallies together is when stereotypically the Northern sexists watch the waitress walk away, with the character we learn to be Roy, joking with a rather "suggestive" comment, which even the bosses laugh at. The scene is edited to clearly express the mistrust between the employee Roy, a man who looks most out of place in his oversized suit and the grey old man, his boss. The tension between the two is shown by the how stubborn Roy is; his character is being portrayed in a way that lets us understand the friction between the workers and the bosses.
Later when the cowardly boss’s son gets thrown into the conversation everyone is involved in a discussion about education. Using terms such as "poncy toffs academy" we can imply how the workers are sitting below the bosses. One of the employee’s sons happens to go to the same school but the worker gets a free grant. Suggesting that without it, it would be near impossible for his son to attend.
Regional identity is presented in the clip through the use of stereotypes, this being the easiest way to present a society as stereotypical and infamous as the "North." Obviously these stereotypes are highly unfair but they increase regional awareness in the clip, and therefore making viewing easier.

Regional Identity Notes

Northern Stereotype
- Flat cap wearing
- Pigeon racers
- Friendly but 'bloody minded'
- Stubborn and argumentative
- Whippet owning
- Manual jobs
- Very little education
- Sexist
- Thick accent
- Bitter drinkers
- Hot pot
- Miserable weather
- Cobbled streets

Country Stereotype
- Scrumpy addeled yokels
- Inbred
- Happy
- Stupid
- Livestock bothering
- Farm hand yokel
- Hunting toff
- Lord of the manor
- Slow pace of life
- Owners of animals
- Landrover/Tractor owners

How editing is used in Memento

In Memento editing is very important to our understanding of how the film works and what stories are being shown. In the first few seconds the credits are projected over a hand and a close up of the picture. We can see in the picture there is a gory image. First a character that was holding the picture was guilty of a crime because the picture contains what looks like a blooded corpse; we can infer that the character was a serial killer. The first noticeable bit of editing is the picture and how it fades out and disappears. The scene is in fact reversing back time we can see how the picture is being shaken back. Everything is placed back into its starting position, gun returning to killer and glasses flying back onto the face of victim. This is done to help us understand what has happened and establishes a path for us to be able to see how this murdered man was finished.
The whole of the next scene is edited. It begins with a close up of the characters eye and then to a close up of the keys. This is a sequence of shots because instead of panning down from eyes to keys the decision has been made to edit and jump the shot down. This is done with a commentary from who we assume to be the man the scene is focused on. He talks of his "amnesia" and the editing is done to mirror his mind. Editing is used in this film to help us understand the complex base to it.
The following scene starts on a close up of a totally different picture on the same Polaroid film as before, the shots are then edited to help us understand the conservation that starts between the first character and a new one who has entered. A close up of a pair of glasses in the first scene help us understand that the new character was the dead one beforehand. Throughout the following scene we begin to learn the first character seems to be a detective. In the scene there are wide angle shots, firstly of a city and then of a lone house in the middle of no-where it give us an idea of the environment our characters are operating in. One hugely important area to this scene is the close up of the man’s gun. This infers there is going to be killing and murdering soon to come. There is a close up of a picture with "Kill him" written on it. During the next sequential shots a fight arises and I can take notes of editing called "invisible cuts" this is where each edited moment runs so smoothly it appears that it hasn't changed. This has been done so as not to distract the audience so they don't think "This isn’t realistic at all." We see this in the sequence we saw at the beginning, but this time not in the eyes of an “amnesia” ridden detective. Close ups are essential in a film, especially one as confusing as Memento. But they are important parts of editing because without individual close ups. For instance when our character is conversing with a man behind a counter, who we assume to be the hotel owner, we see a close up of the Polaroid picture. Edited shots are put into films to help us understand them. We learn in this scene, through editing that our character from the start is guilty of the murder we saw at the beginning.
Each new monochrome scene links on from the last monochrome scene. Whereas the colours ones don't connect with each other until points overlap. The black and white scenes move forward throughout the film and the colour scenes move backwards until they meet somewhere in the middle of the plot. Editing in Memento is used to let people understand what is happening and is continued to be used like that throughout the rest of the film. Memento is a very confusing film so therefore editing is vital to enjoyment of an audience, without editing in the film the audience would struggle to understand the plot.

Sexuality in Skins - Episode 1 Season 1

During the 10 second clip, the only character is represented as being bisexual. There are many different items and positioning that point us to this evaluation. To start off with the camera is only on his eyes, they snap open as soon as some church bells ring close by. The curtains are open and as the camera zooms out you can see that the character hasn’t had a very good night sleep, if any sleep at all. When the camera is fully zoomed out you can see that he is just lying in the middle of his bed.  His bed sheets consist of a naked man and woman sleeping but without a head, this is so a person sleeping will have their head on a body. The character though is lying in-between these pictures, this shows that he is confused about his sexuality and that he is single. One reason for him not getting a lot of sleep is that he has been troubled by something, and it has kept him awake. This maybe that he is troubled by his sexuality, his curtains are open so he might not have wanted to get any sleep. The day is Sunday as church bells are ringing; he must have woken up early. The church bells are a ‘cultural code’ for people in England, the church bells ringing automatically gives the idea that it is Sunday to an Englishman. The stereotypical teenager lays in on the weekend because they have been out the night before. This character is up early, this shows that he is not tired and hasn’t been up to much on the Saturday night. This gives out an ‘enigma code’ where questions have been asked but there have been no answers. This encourages the audience to keep on watching as they want to get the answers to these questions. When the camera is fully zoomed out you can see most of his bedroom from the ceiling. There is a white wooden floor, expensive rug, an office chair and a trolley found in most supermarkets. This infers that he most likely have stolen this, stealing such a big object would be impossible for normal teenagers as it would be impossible to carry upstairs and sneak it past parents. You still would have to stop them noticing it as well.