Meet the Superhumans homework

Meet The Superhumans

 

The opening of this advert shows an Olympic swimming pool, the lights begin turned off before being switched on. This could link to the idiom, “making light of a situation”, as this is exactly what the Paralympic contenders have done. They take their unfortunate situations that have caused their disability and not let these things prevent them from taking part in sporting events. This gives a positive representation of disabled people, as they are overcoming things that were seemingly impossible after a truly tragic event.

The following shots continue to back this representation of gender in the same way, the basket-ball, the race track (which is shown with a moving camera suggesting it is the movement of someone along it?), the bike track, the Olympic arena. Sports would not normally be associated with disabled people, however it is in this case, representing the contenders as being heroic and brave. This links to the name “Superhumans” that is given to the contenders, similar to the word Superheroes.

Low key lighting is used to highlight a medium shot of the first introduced contender, presumably a man. The lighting hides his facial features and only shows his silhouette, a powerful effect which clarifies that disabled people contending in the Paralympics are the main focus in this advert.

The tilted angle shots are used several time throughout the advert, perhaps shows the sight of a contender and representing how life for them is not straightforward due to their disability but they are still taking part in sporting events despite this. This again backs up my first point, of a heroic image being created of disabled people.

The medium shot of a man looking directly ahead, not at the camera, shows his determination and suggests he is trying to calm his nerves before taking part in an event. His serious expression shows that this is a very important thing to him and suggests he wants to be successful.

There are a few more low key lighting shots which contrast against the high key lighting shots. This creates an almost flashing effect which adds to the speeding up pace of the advert. The music is very sport appropriate as it has a slow intro which builds up, representing how a sports contender might feel in an event. The lead up from the beginning of the song could represent the growing tension and nerves that are felt by the sporting event contenders.

The extreme long shot of a man in a wheelchair on a racing track could link back to one of the earlier shots, where the camera is moving along the track from the point of view of someone racing around the track. This is an anaphoric reference, as the disabled competitors are beginning to be introduced by the advert.

A long shot of a girl in a shower shows that she is missing a limb, she is wearing a swimming costume. This tells us that she is taking part in a swimming event at the Paralympics, she has overcome her disability and is competing. This makes her a “Superhuman”, as despite her missing an arm, she is swimming. This is something unimaginable in terms of possibility for people who aren’t disabled, as they will use both arms and legs when swimming.

The shots begin to focus in on the disabilities of the competitors, before zooming out or moving the camera to show them engaging in a sport. This shows a contrast between their physical state and what they are capable of doing. This causes the audience to feel sympathy towards them, when shown their disabilities, before also feeling in awe towards their capabilities of overcoming the disability they face, when they are shown competing.

The close ups of their face shows that they are un-phased by their disability and are concentrating on their capabilities on their field rather than what they can’t do outside of their sport. This also represents disabled people as being very stoic, they get on with things.