Week 9 Response
This week I chose clips from the hit TV show, Orange is the New Black, which is the main TV show I will be analyzing for my final project. I used a quote from Gray that discusses the idea of branding functions. This idea really manifests itself in OITNB, as it takes place in a prison, where race is very prevalent in determining the social groups. The identities of the characters are really defined by their race, and they play on a lot of the common stereotypes that are in the media today about race. This also has to do with the key word of the week, affect. Rentschler says that “Affect theory offers new ways of conceptualizing and studying social collectivities and their structures of affective transmission.” What are the repercussions of having this new, hit TV show reinforce a lot of these stereotypes? These character roles are clearly defined by their race, so what does that portray to the media? These are some of the questions I might explore in my final project. I used iMovie and spliced different clips of Orange is the New Black, mainly the season 4 trailer and the theme song video clip, which shows a lot of different close up faces. I used the opacity effect to have the faces be mostly over the clips of the trailer, because race is integral to the story, so the close up of the faces really embody that for me. I used some voiceover of the cast and the director discussing the different racial groups that are discussed in the show, and how they really make up the individual communities within prison. I think the theme song video really drives the audio voiceover home, and then I used took the song in the background of the season 4 trailer to finish out the clip.