Gender portrayed in Hustle

Gender portrayed in Hustle

In this episode of the TV drama Hustle, gender is presented in many different ways with stereotypes being conveyed throughout. In TV dramas stereotypically we expect females to be rather over dramatic, likes shopping, perfect, make-up, clean and classy. The males tend to act like the alpha male, strong, have high paid jobs, and into football and rugby and usually. There are six characters that I am going to look at and analyse including their behaviour and appearance and whether I think it fits in with the general stereotype type of male and females.
In the first scene we see as shop which is clearly designer we can tell this due to the fact that there are very few items of clothing and the layout seems very orderly. Also the very few items that they do have all look very expensive in different kind of ways. Therefore we expect the type of customer to be a rich, classy female/male who knows what they want in life. Whereas when it cuts to the men’s club we expect to see the men laughing, drinking, smoking and joking and just generally having a laugh, with often taboo language being used regularly.
The first scene is in the designer clothing store, with back lighting, cream shades and chic dresses, then the camera pans onto an older lady who seems to look out of place with grey hair, piled up messily. She pulls out a dress which is out of her price range. The shop assistant is extremely condescending towards her, and only gets on with rich people, therefore wants this lady out of his shop as soon as possible.
Once the elder lady who is looked down upon by the shop assistant scurries out, the camera immediately goes to the other lady in the shop, called Sarah, who is part of the scandal which is about to take place. The camera starts on her ring, a huge diamond wedding ring. This portrays wealth, and the shop assistant skips over to her almost as if he is excited. This displays a very feminine side to the shop assistant and goes completely against the stereotype of the alpha male.
The next scene is presented with a ‘wipe’ editing technique, and the sound effects to go with it. This links to the idea that she is in a changing room. The shot is over the shoulder and mirrored so that the audience can see the back of the dress with the crystals and the reaction that the dress provides. I noticed that there was a slight drum roll after the shop assistant reveals the price, as to whether she was going to buy the dress or not. This is very clever from the editor as from an audiences position we are more than likely to nice this technique subconsciously without us really taking note of it.
On the other hand we are introduced to some more characters, which are in a different setting, of a men’s club with no female company. The surroundings are darker in terms of the colours in the mise en scene also in contrast to the very clean and sharp setting of the shop the men’s club comes across to be significantly more dirty and congested this may be due to the fact that there is often smoking and drinking occurring. Also it isn’t hard to notice the poor lighting. it isn’t very well lit. We see an older American man who would be stereotypically be classed as ‘posh’ as he was dressed well, with a silk handkerchief in his pocket. We later on realise that the well-dressed man is trying to con the other man, who is dressed in all black, and looks too scruffy to be in the men’s club. The American man is getting the scruffy man drunk in order for the con to take place smoothly.
The scene is swiftly changed by another ‘wipe’ edit, this time with a non-diegetic sound of a zip, which goes back to the designer store. The camera then focusing on the woman’s bag. The camera quality seems to have changed to a hand held camera, as it seems shifty and jerky, which portrays panic in the scene, and moves around with Sarah round the shop. The lady is screaming and is hysterical which matches the stereotype of a ‘typical female’. ‘My husband will kill me’, this implies that the ring is incredibility expensive and is the prize possession for the woman. She is playing the role as a typical ditzy, female blonde. Within this scene Sarah breaks the 4th wall, by quickly giving eye contact to the audience (camera). This then engages and involves the audience to be part of the chaos that is occurring.
IN the next scene we cut to the shop assistant frantically searching for this ring that Sarah has ordered him to find in turn for a cash reward, suddenly a man with blonde hair walks into the shop. There is then a slow pan up his body, with a low angle shot making him look higher in authority and the shop assistant looking vulnerable whilst scrambling to find the ring. Although the conman is dressed well, his accent is cockney which brings his status down, he is not a typical ‘business man’, as he is chewing gum, scratches his nose, and uses the term ‘bird’, for his wife. Although he is extremely streetwise and knows what he is doing and wants. He too breaks the 4th wall, by giving eye contact to the audience. The appearance of this man matches the stereotypes of the male gender in terms of his deep voice cockney voice and the fact he is chewing gum also the slang he uses matches up nicely with the stereotype. This man contrasts heavily with the feminine shop assistant which complements the scene nicely.