MeDia LaNgUaGe...

• The mise en scene in the film is continually colourful which links to Bollywood films and the way in which they are portrayed as usually you would expect them to be bright and cheerful in this way - this sense of colour is also depicted through the clothing that the characters wear; which is usually traditional Indian clothing especially in scenes such as the wedding.
• The bright lighting within the film helps to portray the light hearted feeling and images expressed throughout. This is true for most scenes in the film - even if the mood of the particular scene is not really of a 'bright' & 'happy' nature the lighting still generally remains bright.
• There is a strong use of non diegetic music used through out the film in the form of song and dance routines which lives up to the conventions of most Bollywood films or Hollywood musicals.
• There is a strong significance of the use of the particular mise en scene and settings that have been utilised as they are important to symbolise the 'stereotypical' vision that the audience expects to have of a film which is in a sense a reproduction of a 'Bollywood' film. These sets usually look extravagent and grand as you would usually find them to be in typical Bollywood films. An example of this idea of a grand setting is, the scene roughly at the beginning of the film where there is a wedding taking place in an enormous and elaborate house.
• •There are two languages spoken within this film – predominantly English but also bits of Hindi. The use of both languages works to reach a wider range of audiences – British Asian & traditional Asian.
• There was a seperate soundtrack created for the film including tracks performed within the actual film. This is usually a characteristic of Bollywood films, where moviess are produced with their own soundtracks which, are released before the film in order to promote the film and its music.
  

InStiTuTiOn...

• This film was produced by a non Hollywood institution by the name of Miramax Films and was distributed as mainstream film in multiplex cinemas.
• 'Miramax Films' is a company bought out by The Walt Disney Company and was originally created in order to distribute the more independent type of films.
• 'Bride & Prejudice' was a heavily advertised and promoted film. It was hyped up due to director, Gurinder Chadha's previously successful release 'Bend it Like Beckham'. However, considering general ratings for both films 'Bride & Prejudice' was not as much of a success as Chadha's former film.

GeNrE...

• The genre is a hybrid between drama/musical/comedy & romance.
• Style and narrative in this case are a combination of both Hollywood/Bollywood, this blend has been constructed intentionally in order to give audiences a bit of both worlds.
• A way in which this has been particularly constructed is via the use of many song and dance routines linking to the general structure of Bollywood films, and then in turn showing a bridge between Bollywood and Hollywood. This could possibly be the aim and objective of the film in general.
• This text features a director which can be associated to a particular genre type - 'British Asian' and also a star (Aishwarya Rai) whom is associated with Bollywood - thereby also assocaited with the generic themes of drama, romance and musicals, which are seen to be the stereotypical genres of Bollywood films.
• Many of the characters are incredibly generically determined. As the genre is a hybrid of many different genres we come across characters which are generically determined in either one of these ways. For example, one of the genres and themes of this film is romance; therefore we see this romance depicted through the selection of couples we witness. There is also a particular ‘comical’ character whom we clearly state to be used as just comedy centralised.
• A major generic convention expressed throughout is the application of frequent song and dance routines which reinforce the genre of this film partly being a musical.
• The text generally conforms to the characteristics of the genre as the audience receives what it would expect to from such a text. Having been said however, considering the genre of romance, perhaps the text is not conforming to what the audience would typically expect from a Bollywood style film as the ‘heroine’ ends up with a white guy which is not typical of Bollywood endings.

RePreSeNtaTiOn...

I will need to think about representation in particular as this is what structures my study. I particularly need to consider factors such as:

• Whether this film allows negative or positive representations of Asians?
• Does it romanticise a particular image portrayed by the media?
• Is there a stereotypical image of Asians portrayed regarding issues such as marriage, family values, and the roles of women/men?
• Whether this film offers a fair reflection of society or not?
• Does it challenge or reinforce stereotypes?
• & Is there a sense of mediation?

AuDiEnCe...

• This film is primarily targeted at both Asian males and females.
• I would say that it is specifically aimed at the Asian community as Asians of most ages would find this film of some interest considering its hybrid of genres.
• Although, there is a secondary audience that this film may be targeted at within non Asian backgrounds, such as British people who may be interested by the nature and appeal of the film and may perhaps wanting to find a form of educational experience from the film.
• Also, as this film was rated a PG it is apparent that it was intended to be a film worthy of family viewing.

iDeoLoGieS & VaLuEs...

• The idea behind this film is to showcase traditional Asian values and the way that they are expressed and portrayed is vital to the beliefs and messages founding this film.
• Positive values could be to educate and inform secondary audience about Asian culture.

NaRraTiVe...

• ‘Bride & Prejudice’ offers a closed narrative structure
• There is a sense of closure at the end of the film as there is a resolution which lives up to the structure of Bollywood films.
• The narrative theories produced by both Propp and Todorov will be ones for me to consider during my study due to the nature of the narrative of this film.
• For example, Propp’s theory can be identified via the three main characters roles - there is a obvious Princess, a hero and a villain.