Deindividuation

Deindividuation is a concept in social psychological theories and describes the state of an individual in a crowd and how their behaviour changes. 'The loosening of social norms in groups'. This is usually because individuals feel anonymous or protected when in a crowd, this leads to a decrease in responsibility and loss of inhibitions. Studies show that behaviour of crowds does not reflect the characters of individuals with in that crowd. This was explored in a recent experiment by Derren Brown, 'The Gameshow'.


The London riots are a recent example of this and this kind of research can help us to develop ideas for our film opening to convey the transition of an individual from good background to taking part in the riots. It is important that we use editing techniques, camera angles, mise en scene and sound to show a transition and give the impression that the character will be taking part in the riots as it is an opening so the main character carrying out actual rioting actions will not be shown. To convey this we will use some of the following techniques:


High/Low Camera Angles: commonly used to show who is more superior or who has authority. We will use different angles on our main character as her behaviour changes when she becomes part of a crowd. This will be effective of showing how highly or lowly moral her actions are and how she moves away from her upper class life style.


Urban Genre of Music: Urban music would fit in with our genre and also juxtaposition the surroundings in the opening scenes. Non diegetic music of this genre will be effective because it will represent how the main character is rebelling, listening to popular music that she may not be expected to listen to.


Costume: A large part of acting differently in part of a crowd is feeling anonymous. We can show this through costumes of minor characters e.g. all dark clothing, hoodies, scarves, balaclavas. This will also be effective for conforming to the 'hoody culture' and stereotypes associated with an urban drama.


Over the Shoulder Shots: These could be used to give a visual representation of how somebody in the middle of a crowd feels protected by those around them and how they may be influenced to behave differently.


Amy C