Context- Ideologies of the Elderly

In our film we also want to challenge the dominant ideologies around the elderly generations. Nowadays the stereotypical elderly woman is seen as 'a cute little old lady.' Obviously, with most stereotypes this isn't the case and we are going to put this across in our film from going from one extreme to another- from 'little old ladies' to 'gangsta grannies.'

We are hoping that the extreme, comedic way that we are portraying them will give a light hearted, funny feel to another ideology that we are challenging. All of the characters in our film are extremely based on stereotypical ideologies of what the person should be like. This will allow the audience to immediately recognise who they are and to make assumptions about them. This will then shock them after the big reveal at the end.

Stereotypical Characters:

• Grannies- old ladies, perms, floral dresses, tea and cake etc
• Young Adults- hoodies, rioting and looting, dangerous
• Newsreader- well learned, speaks in received pronunciation, suit and tie

I have been researching some examples of other media products that have used the idea of turning the ideologies to the other extreme when involving the elderly generation.

The Mighty Boosh- 'Nanageddon'

Black Adder- 'Hell's Grannies'

The films that I've found that use the concept of 'evil elderly' are both comedy sketch shows. They use the comedy to give the subject matter a light hearted, funny feel to it without seeming offensive and discriminatory.

By Colette