In the opening of Fresh Fallen Snow there are two social groups that are acutely represented throughout, these being gender and ability and disability. Many of the stereotypes are adhered to within the sequence but there are moments, some more subtle than others, where through the use of editing, sound, mise en scene and camera, they are subverted.
At the beginning of the opening, the shot duration on Molly is longer making her seem vulnerable and innocent allowing the audience to feel empathetic for her. However, as she becomes more agitated, the duration of the shots become longer on Detective Niland. This could have been used to retract attention from Molly or to present her as unpredictable and unstable however, I think this allows the detective to assert more authority over her presenting him as superior to the others. This variation in shot duration adheres to the stereotype that men are more superior by presenting the Detective as authoritative over Molly and overall, presenting men as tenacious and superior.
Through the use of mise en scene, it initially seems that Molly subverts a stereotype that people with disabilities are villainous and vengeful by instead appearing innocent and scared. Through the use of character positioning and facial expressions her anxious and skittish persona are depicted. By subverting the stereotypes, people with disabilities are portrayed as scared and vulnerable. This is contradicted later on by the use of a low angle shot showing her pointing the knife at the officers, portraying her as strong and violent character who will not given to the likes of the detective.
After Molly verbally attacks Detective Niland, he slowly brings his arms down surrendering to her. This partnered with the use of a handheld shot presents him as vulnerable which subverts not only the stereotype that men are stronger mentally and physically but also that people with no disability are always stable. Molly is not physically disabled but mentally, making her very perceptive of others and verbally invades Niland's mind. Subverting stereotypes, the Detective, a seemingly able character, gives in to Molly and is seen as unstable for the duration of the opening.
The use of the props allows certain characters to have power that you wouldn't typically expect. For example, Molly and the singular female officer both have lethal weapons, a knife and a gun allowing them to assert more authority than expected. Molly uses her knife to successfully ward off the detective and the other officers as she has the power to take a man's life. In contrast to that, Matt, Molly's victim has no weapon and hasn't the physical
ability to run from her. This is shown through the mise en scene and camera angles used. When Detective Niland points towards Matt, there is an eye line match which presents Matt in a slight high angel. Using practical effects, we see Matt's slashed neck with blood putting him in a very vulnerable but stereotypically unusual position.
In the earlier part of the thriller, the pace is slightly slow creating a somewhat calm and neutral atmosphere creating an enigma as to what will happen. However, as Molly becomes more distressed, the shots become much shorter heightening the pace of the action. This represents Molly as unstable, a stereotype often assumed with mentally disabled people. This contrasts to her out burst when she lashes out at the detective shouting her name. This juxtaposition presents her truly bipolar persona and can make the audience question which character they empathise with more, Molly or Detective Niland.
In terms of sound, there is no non diegetic sound nor any sound effects however, the ambient sound is emphasised. By setting the thriller on the top floor of a car park and especially due to the dull weather, ambient sound would be inevitable but the ambient
dietetic sound in the is opening was enhanced very specifically. Due to Molly's mental instability and as a consequence of her actions, the ambient sound could be used to reflect the stress and angst she has waiting for the police and debating whether to take her life rather than go on enduring life at the asylum she escaped from.
Another clear moment where a stereotype is adhered to is in the dietetic dialogue when Detective Niland says, 'Keep the knife pointed at me'. The detective is trying to victimise
himself to distract Molly from her dying partner. This scarifies presents the detective as brave and selfless, two characteristics that go hand in hand when representing men. Whilst Molly is subverting stereotypes by not depending on a man such as Matt, Detective Niland is adhering to stereotypes by putting his life in danger to save another's.
Overall, every character who was used to represent certain social groups were often never just adhering or subverting a stereotypes, there were moments where they did both giving a very contrapuntal performance. Through Mike, we adhered to gender stereotypes that men are stronger and usually have higher status than women. However, through Molly, Fran and Matt, we subvert gender stereotypes because Molly and Fran are have more power than we would necessarily expect to see. Matt on the other hand, is far more vulnerable than an audience would expect subverting to gender stereotypes because he's under Molly's control. When it comes to our second social group, ability and disability again we both adhere and subvert stereotypes. Through Molly's aggressive nature, she adheres to the stereotype that people with disabilities lash out on to seemingly able characters to try and gain power over them presenting her as a villain. Mike subverts to the stereotype that fully able people are mentally strong and stable however, in our thriller he's vulnerable to some of the things that Molly says presenting him as slightly unstable. From this our audience would be able to establish that our thriller is very unpredictable and that although we conform to many of the connotations of a thriller, to make it more interesting we don't conform to all stereotypes.
