Representation Essay: Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad Essay: Crime Drama

"Explain how the meaning is created using the four technical areas, in the following clip."

The combination of the four technical elements of representation - camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene - has been incorporated carefully to result in a cinematic framework that provides and creates meaning to the scene illustrated in the video provided.

Walter White, a chemistry teacher who has incurable cancer, has started a meth-making business to repay his medical debts. During the scene shown we see him trying to teach an inexperienced meth cook how to properly purchase supplies, as he was buying his supplies from the same store, which would undoubtedly be suspicious in the eyes of other customers. 

The use of camera work and mise-en-scene shows the difference between the two characters first shown in the beginning of the video. This is likely to have been done in a way to illustrate the contrast of age couple with professionality. White, is clearly an older man, as shown by his more sophisticated facial hair and clothing. Extreme close ups provide us with the references that allude to his age, since the close ups clearly show the wrinkles on his face that come with age. The younger man is wearing more street style clothes (for example a beanie and how his jeans are very low compared to Walter White who has more appropriate clothing), is buying all of his supplies in one store to make meth, and has hints of a 5 o'clock shadowed facial hair. This along with his red rimmed eyes show a youth and desperation that hints that he is both new to the business but wants to make his way up to the higher ranks fairly quickly in order to make money. When White first appears at the shopping cart and notices the supplies which make it fairly obvious as to what he might plan to do with those, the panning of the camera matches his eye movements raking from the supplies to meet the young man. This almost gives us as the audience a sense that the older man is judging him for his youth and clear lack of subtlety. 

The only sound in the first half of the video is diegetic. There is the sound of other customers shopping in the background, evident by the squeaking of the trolleys, the dialogue is the main focus of this scene and the lack of non-diegetic sound emphasises this. This specific scene is proving his higher knowledge and experience in the business, and being a chemistry teacher certainly helps fuel his knowledge of the mistakes of the potential purchases he points out to the younger man: "You're buying the wrong matches." This can almost be seen as setting up the scene for his last line in this specific scene. "Stay out of my territory". This line indicates that he almost has the upper hand due to his knowledge as he is an analytical thinker, and has just been proven to the younger man in the store.

The editing in the scene is all quick morph cuts, but what is most likely the most important part of the scene in terms of editing is when White is standing at the check out line. As the cashier scans customers' items, there is a resounding beep which is, once again, diegetic sound. But, the camera shots quickly cut to a close cut of a close up of his face. These cuts are in time with the beeping and his stoic face makes him seem almost in a menacing way. Furthermore, when he leaves his cans of paint in the store and leaves, this is when the non-diegetic sound is heard. The song 'DLZ' by TV on the Radio begins playing, and as he walks out to give a brief but stern talking to the man from earlier and another man who was clearly relying on him to purchase the supplies, he exudes this sort of calm but menacing aura that makes the other two characters in frame seem threatened just by the one line he tells them. The lyrics of the song also have similarities in the theme with the first and last lines of the song: 'Congratulations on the mess you made of things' which could be likened to the younger man's inexperience that could lead to him being caught in illegally making and selling meth, and 'This is beginning to feel like the dawn of a loser forever', being how the older man could've viewed the other men since they don't seem to have much hope if they keep making rookie mistakes that could lead to potential danger in the future for them and their business.

There is a stark contrast to the inside of the store in comparison to the outside setting. First, the lighting inside the store is bright, a clean white LED light which makes the characters seem a bit more tame. However, outside in the low key lighting, it is almost as if the intensity of their characters increases. The larger man next to the young man from earlier seems like he is trying to appear threatening with the sleeves of his shirt either ripped or torn off, exposing his slightly muscular arms which is a usual indicator of strength. Unfortunately, despite his tough look he appears to be going for, he is still threatened by the presence of White who is clearly coming across as someone who you would not want to anger.

Stuart Hall's reception theory emphasizes that media texts are encoded and decoded. The producer encodes messages with different ideas based off their own ideologies which are then decoded by the audience. However, audiences with different ideologies will interpret media differently, and perhaps in a way that producers did not intend for. There are three main readings that audiences can interpret media text: the dominant, oppositional, and negotiated reading. This specific scene in 'Breaking Bad' can be interpreted by all three, depending on the ideology of the audience watching.

The dominant or preferred reading is how the producers want the audience to view and interpret the media text. Audience members will take this position of the message is clear or the narrative is easy to follow. The scene we are provided with mainly follows this reading. It is clear that the producers want to set up the contrast between the older and younger men. The audience is being showed that often with age comes professionalism, as is evident by the younger man's lack of experience, knowledge, and even down to the way he dresses. The combination of the threatening stature and demeanour makes the audience understand who is in control of the situation.

The oppositional reading, however, is when the audience rejects the preferenced reading, and creates their own meaning for the text. This usually happens if the media contains controversial themes that the audience disagrees with or when the media has a complex narrative. 'Breaking Bad' may appear as though the producers are advocating or encouraging the illegal use of recreational drugs. This will obviously be against some of the audience's ideologies and is why producers have to be careful about what media they are producing and distributing.

All these things create meaning within the scenes of a movie or TV show and have their own ways of being interpreted by consumers. This is why many film studios have to be careful with how their narratives are portrayed as audience responses can either be the studios' success or downfall.