'womb' - Charlotte Hudson

'womb' by Bryanmferguson
This film represents gender and disability

Representation with media language- Gender

For instance at the beginning there is an ECU shot of her finger nails, which are painted black- this helps to highlight that she is female. The shot also highlights the chipped nail varnish (MES) (which suggests worry, anger and isolation as she has clearly been picking her nail varnish and not well looked after).

Another camera shot used to show her gender is a LS shot of the girl from behind, this helps to highlight her gender as it shows her body structure. You see her long hair (MES), another feature which highlights her gender. The very small body structure suggests illness as she is so thin. She also has her hand pressed up against the window which suggests she has been locked away therefor highlighting isolation and she is not well looked after. 

The shot of her lying down on the bed again helps to highlight her gender as her body features are again accentuated, and the camera tracks from her feet up to her face. A low angled shot is used when focused on her face and this is used to highlight the outline of her chest (highlighting her breasts) this shows her gender.  

There is also a female voice over used throughout, the non-diegetic sound is of a girl talking and speaks of being trapped and inside of her, this therefore highlights the actors gender as it speaks of the ‘womb’ only females have wombs and the voice can be either the child in the womb or the female on camera state of mind. So the female voice over also helps to express the gender.

 
Representation with media language- Disability:

The film shows a sense of disability through the idea of her being isolated and alone. The highlight of isolation helps to portray an illness/disability of some kind as she is locked away in a white building.

MES is very effective of creating this idea as all the walls are white, this suggests a sense of mental illness as white hospital walls are associated with illness.

The sense of the girl being trapped away suggests that she is ill (disabled) and the ECU of her finger nails you see a faint silhouette of a person outside the window, walking away, this therefore suggests she is lonely and no one bothers with her, isolation and therefore there is something wrong with her.  

When the camera also focuses on particular body parts (her spine) you see the very prominent bones and this helps to suggest illness, as she is so thin and brittle.

Again the non-diegetic sound helps to highlight her disability as it says ‘the moments it pains her to move, I’m every pain, in every bone, in every joint’- this therefore suggest illness and pain and highlights her disability.

 

The MES of the gown she is wearing helps to highlight disability as it is like a hospital gown so it highlights she is in a hospital and she is a patient, it helps to express that there is a problem.

Narrative

• The audience are only seeing the plot of the narrative, not the story. Therefore the audience don't know why the female is there etc.
• There is no linear story, or chronology as the film is based in one room. However the film is circular as it begins and ends with her in the same room. 
• Todorov's idea can't be used as there is no disruption etc, we just stay in one place
• It uses enigma codes as questions are raised and the audience why she is there and who's talking really, is something wrong or is it in her head
• There may be a sense of binary oppositions between good and evil, as the 'voice' can be seen as bad as it is sucking the life out of her and she's been locked away. But the good may be the female character but she can't escape the evil that is inside her

Genre

• The film has been categorised as a 'drama' as it doesn't really fit into a genre.
• However there may be elements of thriller as the audience want to know what is going on inside the female and why she is there, but again like 'two laps' there isn't a specific genre it can fit into. 
• In both 'two laps' and 'womb' there seems to be a narrative voice over the top and both these films don't fit into genre's?