Representation of gender-Luther

Camera shots/movement:
Both clips start with close-ups of the character's faces showing different emotions. In the first clip the shot is of Alice who looks smug and is obviously in control asking Luther questions about her dog which is irrelevant but he answers anyway doing as she asks making Luther the weak character here; in comparison to Ian who is answering the questions from Luther and is not in control. In the first clip point of view is used to frequently to show that Luther is studying Alice and is trying to work out whether or not she will have committed the crime, this is seen first when Alice is placing her dog's ashes in the room and then again at 1.46 to close in on her face and again at 2.37 when she is stood silently and he moves around her which is shot using a pan movement. Similarly the shots at the start of the second clip are used to show how Luther is studying Ian and how he is trying to get him to conform. At 0.46 Luther moves the gun up to Ian's forehead which makes Ian panic and shows the audience how he is scared, this shows Luther's control over him, also at 1.08 Luther moves Ian to show his power over him and how he doesn't need a gun to kill him as he could do it with his bare hands if he wanted to. From both of these occurrences Luther is seen to be dominant over the others as he is the one studying them and how he moves around them to create different emotions for the others. In both clips over the shoulder shots are used to show the conversation and how it quickly moves as it becomes balanced as the power changes between them. During the first clip Alice draws Luther in firstly by mentioning the black hole and the power it has to reduce anything to nothing, metaphorically linking herself to the black hole. This shows her gaining power and is portrayed firstly by the zoom on the picture and then a zoom into her as she closes her hands together. After this she continues to gain power by bringing up Luther's wife, this appears to draw him in and is shown, once again, through the zoom of Alice's face at 1.47. At 1.56 Alice is shown to almost have complete power over Luther as she seduces him until there is a sudden long shot which shows how quickly the tension was broken after he said "no". The tension is also quickly broken in the second clip where it changes form the fast pace action of the fight between Luther and Ian to Alice entering and with one word stopping Ian from attacking Luther. When Alice enters at this point, 1.56, she is shown to have power over both of the men (not traditionally seen within gender representation), Luther because he is injured and cannot stop her from using the gun, and Ian as she knows what he has done and she gets to decide his fate. At the end of the first clip it ends on Luther's face as he realises that Alice is threatening him and although the shot shows him at an equal height to Alice the audience knows she had more power from his facial expression. However, at the end of the second clip the power is shown more directly as after the shooting there is an extreme long shot where it shows Alice stood tall, Mark stood covering his ears, Luther holding his wound bent over and Ian laying on the ground. This distribution of height shows clearly that Alice is the dominant one as she caused this and she was the one to decide what happened to Ian and clearly shows both Ian, who lost his life, and Luther, who was injured and could not convince Alice to not shoot Ian, as weak characters.
Sound:
From the word "black hole" in the first clip there is background music that is introduced to build tension and to make her seem more daunting. Also when she is describing the black hole she claps her hands together; this sound is magnified to make it more noticeable to the audience and therefore highlights the word "nothing" which foreshadows what Luther will become. The background music plays out and gets significantly louder at "It is because you shine so bright?" which seems to be the key point of this scene and shows how their relationship changed through the scene.
In the second clip non-diegetic music is also used over the natural action to create tension and to produce emotive feelings in the audience. At first there is similar tension building music that gets louder, especially when Luther almost kills Ian which stops as Ian pulls out a knife to stab Luther, but then more peaceful music is played when Alice appears and talks to Ian which at first appears to calm him down. However then it becomes more sinister as the audience realises she is debating to kill Ian and therefore it ends at "do I pull the trigger or not?". The gun shot is greatly amplified to signify the dramatics of what has just happened and it is partnered with an overlay of a song that only the audience can hear to show something of great significance has just happened. The song is also related to what has happened as the lyric is "no one alive can always be an angel" which signifies all the bad things the characters around have done and as the song is about being misunderstood it could represent how Alice was wrong to kill him as she only saw the things he had done from one perspective.
In both of the clips there are certain phrases that are used to make Alice appear mentally unstable, for example when she is describing the black hole. "When I first heard that I thought that was evil in its purest form" makes the audience believe that she has changed her mind about the black hole being evil foreshadowing how she may have done something bad but she does not believe she is evil for doing it; also she asks Luther if he was referring to her as someone he has seen madness within. Luther also uses other phrases such as "You will never be able to understand love", "it was a compulsion, you did it 'cus you needed to do it" which make Alice appear inhuman and as though she has something wrong with her. Furthermore she appears unstable by the way she tells Luther that she would "be hurt and angry" if he threatens her, the way she asks if his wife left him because he "shines so bright" and she says Luther will not come for her if "I come for you first".
Luther appears to have changed dramatically through these clips as he goes from acting rational in the first clip with Alice to acting as unstable as Alice is to him in the second clip with Ian. He states that Ian "can't choose" his own fate as it is all down to him and he also says "you can't play me" and "you cant' make me shoot you" to remind Ian that he has the power and there is nothing he can say or do that will make him change his mind.
Editing:
The editing used within both of these clips is continuity as it is set out in a logical order that describes the story to the user in an order that would occur in the real life of the story.
Throughout both of these clips shot/reverse shot is used to show the conversations between the characters and to show how the power is distributed and there fight for the dominance.
Moreover, short takes are used to keep the pace of the action quick and keep the audience up to date with the drama that is going on; it is especially used in the second clip when the audience does not know whether, at first, Luther will hurt Ian and then whether Alice will shoot him or not.
Mise en scene:
When the couple first enter Alice's house she asks if they are being listened to and then whether Luther is there to interrogate her. When he says no she calls him a liar which shows the user she either has previous reasons not to trust him and therefore knows his reasons for being there or she does not trust him straight away showing that she is a private person that does not easily let anyone in to her secrets.
When Alice describes seeing Luther with a ring to show he was married she uses hand actions which make her appear like she is enforcing it more, making sure that he knows exactly what she is talking about and to make him feel uncomfortable. Also it may have been to suggest that she did not have a ring there showing the sexual tension between the two of them which is shown more clearly later in the scene where the two pause close together after Alice says "Did you come here for sex?".
Luther's reply to the comment about his wife is "I'm not here to discuss that" but when she asks if he's handsome he replies "if you like that kind of thing" which shows he did want to talk about it at first but it may have been a relief to have someone ask about it especially when she says "are you in pain?". It also shows her power over him where by not giving up asking questions Alice got an answer out of him that he did not want her to know. During this part of the conversation, 1.37, Luther takes his coat off which suggests he was going to stay for a while to talk with Alice however, only two minutes later at 3.34 he picks up his coat and leaves which suggests to the audience that the conversation did not go as planned for Luther. It shows how her power made him feel uncomfortable and how he did not want to stay and be manipulated by her anymore as it unsettled him.
Luther suggests that Alice kept the gun as a compulsory decision, something she could not control. He suggests how she would have kept it as a trophy, as something to be proud of for what she had done which shows the audience what kind of person Alice is and shows how she needs material things to prove that she has power.
Throughout the first clip Alice refers to Luther's wife which gives her power as he is clearly unsettled by this conversation and Alice quickly learns that this is his weak point. She uses this topic of conversation to win power over him when she feels threatened for example when he threatens her at 3.11 she brings up why his wife left and from this Luther turns and leaves.
In the second scene Ian does not seem phased by Luther and provokes him in a way similar to how Alice did in the first clip, by mentioning his wife. But, when Alice enters he is immediately under her control. This could either be because he knows what kind of person Alice is and he does not wish to mess with her like Luther because he knows he cannot win or because she has the gun. The gun automatically gives Alice a lot of power and is shown by the fact that none of the men try to take control over her to make the decision even though Luther shows clearly he feels she is making the wrong choice. The gun gives Alice power that she may not have had before being a women as the men are normally dominant over her but this gives her the edge.
The first clip is filmed in a private apartment which shows the conversation to be more discreet and something they want to keep between the two of them whereas the second scene appears to be shot in a train station or something similar which is more open and public. It shows how the death of Ian needed to be a statement and something to be feared giving Alice the power, as she kills him, but also Luther as he set out to scare and then arrest Ian in the beginning.