Representation essay

'Locked up' is a documentary all about a young boy who has been locked away in a shed for a number of years and this documentary reveals his time in there and when he escaped.
This documentary follows Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites in the terms of the young boy who's been locked away revealing a huge underclass due to the fact him living in a shed with no food or drink, where the other characters are shown as regular working class people. Mid shots are used in the film when revealing the young boy named Josiah's living conditions, the shots shown a dirty, untidy shed with a small mattress where he would sleep. This would leave the audience thinking how the boy got there and how he survived this many years without any food or water which was used to follow Bartes 'Enigma' code. The difference in class and living conditions is shown clearly in the film from the long shot shown of the mans house who found the boy and the boy's shed.
When the boy is found in this shed the audience get an insight into his living conditions revealing the boy wearing ripped and dirty clothing showing no real sense of cleanliness. We used a tracking shot from the moment the door was opened on him which then follows into the boy crawling away from the light of outside due to him being trapped away for such a long period. This scene shows a strong trait from Todorov's theory as the boy was getting on with his normal equilibrium which is then disrupted when the door was opened on him exposing him to the real world outside of the shed. This scene also highlights the Binary opposites between the young boy and his finder, this is shown as the young boy is wearing ripped dirty clothing with no real healthy living conditions and the man is wearing a warm, clean coat showing a suitable habitat. The man is represented using regionalism through the use of his accent showing he is from a different area.
In this documentary the audience is opened up to the boy's real home through an interview with his mother shot in a normal house. This will then make the audience question why the boy ran away from these living conditions or had he been kidnapped? Someone would wonder why the boy gave up a large clean home for life in a dirty shed.
Another interview is later shown in the opening of the boy speaking to his sister for the first time. Through the boy's experience of living 'Locked up' for so many years we reveal how the boy is represented with a disability in his speech due to lack of communication with others. The boy isn't making any eye contact with his sister who is asking the questions, this really shows how traumatic his experience was as he can't even look his own sister in the eye.