'The Street' Analysis

Mise-En-Scene

The opening scene of the clip of 'The Street' involves the woman being located and stable in the house and even more stereotypically in the kitchen as that is where women are perceived to belong. The location of this suggests that she could be a housewife. The man in the clip firstly appears to be in the kitchen, then shortly after a short scene involves a switch of location where he is at work being a builder on a building site. This is also a very stereotypical job for a man because it portrays masculinity, strength and boldness.
Whilst the building clip is playing, the male character is wearing a hard hat and rather casual clothes which suggests that he is in fact the working class as if he was the middle class, he would be involved with an employment that wears business clothes such as suit and tie. The female character in the clip remains wearing the same casual clothes throughout the whole clip, she wears a plain t-shirt and jeans. Due to both of them wearing casual clothes, this suggests they are not a very rich family as they are just average within the working class. The three children all wear the same school uniform, this shows that they are all have education within primary school.
The lighting within the clip is rather relaxed as no bright lighting is used, however more dark is used than light. Due to the light being rather dark, this can relate to the negative atmosphere within the household between the male and the female and also the children's reactions due to the constant arguing and bickering.
In my opinion, I think that the three children and the man are considered to have normal behaviour, however not necessarily the woman's behaviour. Often children within homes just sit back and watch their parents argue and stay silent because they don't want to get involved with the arguing. Adding to this, men are always stereotypically viewed to be 'earning the money' by being employed in masculine jobs such as building, this is how the man's behaviour is socially normal as he is also aggressive and rude at home towards his wife. He also uses a high amount of swearing and portrays a short-tempered figure. In this clip the woman was a housewife which is stereotypically normal, however she was the character having an affair; and in media it is usually the men stereotypically being unfaithful and sleeping round.
In this clip of 'The Street' the man is the more dominating which therefore means he has the most narrative power due to having a louder tone of voice, more hand actions, more verbal abuse and also closer camera angles. The male has the most power within the household over his wife and three children, and also within conversations. The female character is much more passive in comparison to her husband which is stereotypical for a working class woman. Towards the end of the short clip, the woman expresses more emotion as she is struggling to fix the tap, because she cannot complete the task of fixing the water leak from the sink, she has to run and ask someone else for help which portrays that she is incapable of being able to fix something herself which decreases the amount of power she withholds.
Props are essential to signify gender and age, in this clip even though the woman is having an argument she is still carrying on collecting plates, glasses and cutlery. This shows she feels that the work still has to be completed as women are often located in the kitchen in media productions to convey a stereotype. Adding to this, the woman is eating cake which is a feminine object as it relates to baking and being in the kitchen. This relates to gender stereotyping with props. The male character uses tools such as a hammer to show his masculinity and to take his anger out on it. The daughter has a book in front of her which shows her parents are encouraging her with school work, this represents gender as boys are most likely to be sitting in front of a TV screen or a gadget. Adding to this, the school uniform and also the school bags portray that they are young children still being educated in primary school.

Camera

At the beginning of the clip, the camera is inter-cutting between the woman's point of view and the man's point of view about the arguing and strong language. Due to the fact that they are rarely in the shot together, this could suggest that daily life consists of arguing which is weakening their relationship and making themselves more distant from each other overall. The fact that the children are just sitting next door watching with black expressionless faces suggests that the arguing happens quite frequently and that they are used to hearing arguments and bickering between their parents. Because women are often stereotyped to be more feminine and compassionate, it could mean that the daughter whom is the youngest child is sitting nearer to the argument because she is more concerned about what events are taking place between her mum and dad. Oppositely, boy are stereotyped to be more laid back and less concerned which is why the boys are sitting further away from the argument in the other room. The camera is mainly focused on the woman later on in the clip when she is checking the pipe, this is because she is the only character in the shot and the camera is trying to show and focus on that she is unable from fixing the water leak herself.
The male children are smaller within the clip because they do not have a say and also do not say anything, this also means they have less power. The daughter has a little more power than the sons because the camera shows her point of view instead of the boys which shows she is more significantly important in the clip. She also becomes the character in the foreground. Next, the man dominates the whole family as he is the most domineering and has the bigger say out of the family. This shows that he is bigger and the centre of attention due to his speech and controlling personality towards his family.
In the opening scene, the man and woman are facing each other even though they never appear in the same shot together. This is a masculine shot because when they face each other, it is not for the purpose of love and affection - instead it contrasts as they are arguing and the male character is verbally abusing the female character. The two sons are sitting side by side on the sofa because they are both sharing the same equal opinion about not being concerned about what is going on between their parents. The girl is on a 'team' on her own as she is the only character noticing the arguments and conveying a sense of concern towards the strong argument.
The majority of the clip involves shots at eye level in order to make the characters expressions and emotions clear as it is masculinity battling femininity. Towards the end when the pipe bursts and water is spraying everywhere, high shots are used to show the woman's frustration and to convey her weak power in comparison to her husbands as she is unable to fix the broken pipe. This also makes her seem like the smaller character in the clip due to the camera being held at a high angle to minimise her height and personality.
At the beginning of the clip of the male and female characters arguing, the camera is filming between the slight open doors to show they are trying to block out their children from hearing even though the volume and language is extreme. The shots are focused around mid-body and above to focus on the expressions within the characters faces. This also expresses the tension within the room as everything is cropped out except for the chest and above to show that nothing else is as important as their aggressive conversation which gets out of hand. The first complete close up used is when the man is using a hammer to take his anger out and to also show he is hard working. The close-up is focused on his hands to represent his strength and masculinity. Afterwards a close up shot is used for the woman when she is eating a cake which suggests she has a much easier working life than the male character as she is just sitting down and enjoying herself.
The movement in the beginning of the clip is very fast when it first zooms into the street and then into the house to introduce the scene, the fast movements could suggest that things are bumpy and rough at home - especially between the parents. To continue this atmosphere, fast movements are still used to show the alternation between the different views of the male and female character to represent the constant bickering. However afterwards when she slows down her speech and the husband leaves the scene, she speaks to her children in a much calmer tone and also the movements are slowed right down to show she is calmer and more passive.

Sound

The man is portrayed to be a very aggressive, verbally abusive, rude and loud person which is the stereotypical view of a man, However, in contrast the woman is much calmer, relaxed and passive which is the stereotypical view of a woman. The woman is located in a much calmer and quieter location (the house) in comparison to the man's switch of location at the building site where he aggressively takes his anger out using the hammer on a hard surface to create a louder volume to prove his masculinity and to show he's got no competition.