Paralympic Games

The Paralympics is a major international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities which are able to compete in events which are beneficial to their disabilities. I have chosen to do this advertisement for the Paralympic games which was televised on Channel 4 with the catchphrase ‘Meet the superhumans’. Immediately, the mise en scene of this advert is dark and dingy but the athletes are lit up by a bright light being cast on them from above. This lighting choice could be inferred positively that they are seen as angelic or better than normal people, like the advert is referring to them as ‘superhumans’ the adjective ‘super’ is positively representing the athletes instead of describing them as having disabilities- suggesting it would disable their ability to be able to compete in the events.

All of the athletes are looking directly at the camera which shows their power and strength. Also, the camera is a low level shot makes the athletes look larger than they might be, which appears to make the athletes to have leadership qualities. By the range of athletes (8 to be precise) it’s able to show a range of disabilities within the advert, such as people being in wheelchairs but also people who may come across appearance wise as ‘normal’ which shines light on the fact that not all disabilities are visual to the human eye. It also shows how versatile the events are in the Paralympics are to anyone with a disability. Although this could be viewed as a way of excluding people with disabilities instead of just including them in the ‘regular’ Olympic games- I think it gives a slightly taboo topic of disability the attention that it deserves.