Textual Analysis of Wife Swap
| Production | Film Language | Sound |
| Camera Work | Mise en scene | Music |
| Lighting | Diagetic and non | |
| Editing / time – seamless place | Dialogue: what / how / volume / register / accent / audibility | |
| Sound fx |
Bonny and Derenda’s families
Derenda’s husband wearing the FCUK T shirt – later seen drinking lager
Much more time spent by the camera focusing on all their kids
In various stages of boredom
Bonny always seen in mid close up but Derrenda in close up as if she is more under the microscope
Jump cuts – juxtaposition of two women and two families
Ambient / natural lighting – outside
Women seen entering new house from rear Bonny in long shot, Derenda in close up on her rear!!
What kinds of messages do these women encode?
| * theme tune housewives choice for Bonny
‘mindful’ wife Upbeat voice over |
These two women represent binary oppositions |
| * raunchy aggressive rock music for Derenda
‘I wear t’pants’ shouts and swears -lots of f***s ‘d’ja know what I mean?’ and chews gum |
Set up to reinforce dominant views – the common sense view – and they both transform towards each other’s positions towards ‘normalisation’.
Set up as extremes, as stereotypes but they are made to appear to come closer together, probably by laying heavier emphasis on certain behaviour patterns in the first instance.
Virgin-Whore dichotomy
Engells ‘marriage is prostitution’
Wife Swap purports to be real life but it constructs the situations heavily!
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Credit cards
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