Paper 2

Question 1

Media Language in Luther : Setting and Location

Answer 1

• Alice’s home (originally was in a rural setting which connotes innocence and she is presented as a victim. Now in a urban location in an apartment surveying London suggest Omniscience and control)
• Urban Location (creates intertextual links between genre texts. This creates expectations from the audience to do with certain narrative fractures.
• Zoe’s Workplace (it is modern and spacious which suggests success)
• Luther’s Workplace (cluttered old and claustrophobic which illustrates the problems in his and Zoe’s relationship)

Question 2

Media Language in Luther : What are the two visual codes?

Answer 2

• Clothing
• Gesture and Expression

Question 3

Media Language in Luther : How does clothing create meaning?

Answer 3

• Luther (dishevelled, reveals rank in police, presents him as a maverick who doesn’t conform)
• Alice (long red hair and red lipstick and tighter clothes, for the male gaze, implies that once we know her villainous status ~ she becomes a femme fatal in the eyes of the audience)

Question 4

Media Language in Luther : how does gesture and expression create meaning?

Answer 4

• Alice (she is more calm but psychotic behaviour, arm around Alice’s neck, gently touches Luther’s face)
• Luther (shows his inability to control emotions, visits Zoe and punches door, Zoe tells him about Alice and he wrecks his office)

Question 5

Media Language in Luther : technical codes

Answer 5

• close up (shows relationships and establishes tension)
• enigma created : (why showing of the dog so much but it becomes an important part of the narrative)
• high production value and cinematic style (tells information without dialogue.)

Question 6

Media Language in Luther : genre creates meaning

Answer 6

• setting and locations (on another slide)
• iconography (crime scene tape, weapons and uniforms)
• recognisable character types
• binary oppositions
• linear ( Todorov ) or non linear

Question 7

Media Language in Luther : Narrative creates meaning

Answer 7

• linear structure
• pre-title sequence (explores events that occurred earlier which establishes tension and sheds light on Luther’s character so that the audience expect him to act in a certain way. It also gives audience a privileged Spector position)
• Action Codes (set in motion the elements of the narrative like Alice Finding Zoe, it is also typical of the genre)