Representation in Modern Family

 The TV show Modern Family follows the lives of three related families, focusing on relationships like Cameron Tucker and Mitchell Pritchett with their adopted daughter Lily, Phil and Claire Dunphy with their three kids, and Jay Pritchett with his wife Gloria and their children. In this post, I’ll be discussing the representation of Gloria and the portrayal of Cameron and Mitchell’s relationship.  

The character of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, portrayed by Sofia Vergara in Modern Family, is often exoticized throughout the series. The show uses various stereotypes to develop her culture. Gloria is portrayed as a short-tempered woman, with a thick Colombian accent, and a curvaceous figure, and she is always shown to have a strong effect on men. One of the things highlighted the most is her physical appearance. Her fashion choices (tight dresses, high heels, and bold makeup) emphasize her physical appearance, which is often exoticized by other characters. In one of the episodes, Claire openly comments on Gloria's sex appeal, highlighting how her appearance makes her seem intimidating. This constant focus on her looks feeds into the broader stereotype of Latinas being valued for their physical attractiveness rather than their intellect or personal depth.  

Gloria’s Colombian background is often exaggerated in Modern Family, making her seem more "exotic" and different from the other characters. Her thick accent and the way she often mixes up English sayings are used as jokes throughout the series, which makes her stand out as foreign. While these moments can be funny, they also emphasize how she’s not like the others because of where she’s from. In Season 3, Episode 12, “Egg Drop”, Gloria is portrayed as overly emotional and dramatic, which plays into the stereotype that Latina women are always fiery and passionate. This makes her seem more like a mockery than a fully developed character. 

On the other hand, the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in Modern Family regarding Cameron and Mitchel’s relationship is very positive. Unlike older shows that often show gay characters in a stereotypical way, Cam and Mitch are portrayed as a regular, loving couple. They go through everyday situations, like raising their adopted daughter, Lily, and dealing with the same challenges any couple faces.  What makes their portrayal important is that they aren't just shown as "the gay couple", they are shown just as a regular family even showing their wedding, the process of adopting their daughter, and their everyday challenges. By showing them as a regular family instead of funny side characters, Modern Family helped audiences see LGBTQ+ couples in a more positive and relatable way. This show made a big step forward for historically underrepresented groups in the media. 

Overall, Modern Family has good and bad representation. Gloria’s character and value were somewhat accurate coming from a Latina myself but some of her characteristics were exotified to create a greater appeal to the audience. Regarding the LGBTQ+ representation in this show, I think that it is one of the best out there since it really delves into the family life of a gay couple and helps normalize this.

Clip From the Show

I couldn’t find the exact Egg Drop clip but this scene from season two illustrates the on-running jokes about her accent and the outfits she is mostly seen in. Modern Family - Gloria´s accent (youtube.com) 

Mitch and Cam Get Married - Modern Family (youtube.com)   

Unexpectedly Human: A TD Bank Story – Commercial (youtube.com)

Sound Project

 During class, I learned several types of sound techniques, examples of each, and why each of them is used. We learned terms like diegetic sound, asynchronous sound, sound motif, voiceover, etc. These sounds are created using sound effects and sometimes sound effects are created using foley. Foley is a technique used in filmmaking and sound design to create or enhance sounds that are added in post-production. These are recorded on a foley stage, which is a special recording space designed to create sound effects and is equipped with a variety of surfaces and props. They are made by a foley artist.  

After learning the basics we were assigned a sound project. The project had to develop a scene using only sound. This scene had to be 1-2 minutes long and must contain four sounds created on a ‘foley stage’. Once we are done, we must submit three files, our final soundscape, a video of our ‘foley stage,’ and pictures of our editing timeline. 

My teammate and I started by brainstorming a possible scene we could create for our soundscape. At first, we thought of doing a tour through the safari, but we remembered that our scene had to happen in the span of 1-2 minutes. So, we decided on a basketball game in the park. Next, we started working on our outline where we listed each moment of the scene and what sounds we would include. We included sounds for the atmosphere like birds chirping, kids playing, bicycle bells, cars in the distance, and the wind swaying the trees. This outline helped us envision how our final product would be and to list each sound we would need to download and create. 

Since my teammate and I wanted to do most of the editing at home, we decided to use the editing program DaVinci Resolve. I had experience with this software, but it took me some time to figure out how to use it. The program allowed us to import all our sound files and place them on a timeline where I changed the volumes and layered a lot of sounds. 

Regarding our final product, I am very content with the layering of sounds we created. We included things like the player's breathing, the jerseys rubbing as players push each other, the bike bells, the distant cars, etc. One thing I would like to improve is the blending of our foley sounds with the digital sounds, especially the basketball dribbling. I think that messing with more of the audio settings could have fixed that, but I would have needed more knowledge of DaVinci Resolve. Overall, this project was quite different from anything that I have done before, and I am immensely proud of our final product. 

 

If you want to watch our project, click here

If you want to watch our Foley video, click here

And if you want to see our outline, click here

 

One Word Film Project

    

    For my One Word Film project we were randomly assigned a word which was the feeling that needed to be conveyed in our film. Our film could not include dialogue or music with lyrics, and it had to be at least one minute long. The goal was to create a piece of media that communicated the assigned feeling without stating it.  

    We started by brainstorming what possible scene we could create that would transmit the feeling of remorse. We first wrote down each shot including what would happen in it and what type of shot it was, we also identified some editing techniques we wanted to include in our final product. After developing the basic outline, we created our storyboard to see the visual portrayal of the narrative and break down the action into panels. This step essentially allowed us to have clearer visual representations of each scene so that when it was time to film, we would not waste our time figuring out where to stand or how to act. Up to this point, all the work was done in a group but when it was time to edit it was done individually. I chose to edit it on iMovie after not being able to support Adobe Premiere Pro on my home laptop. This was hard for me since I was more familiar with Adobe due to my past classes, but I managed to do a decent job. 

    In my opinion, my group and I developed a good story and managed to represent our words clearly. One of my favorite things we did was the focus pull when the girl looked over at her friend. I do wish we could have improved some things like the editing and story pacing. As I stated before, it was my first time using iMovie and I had already thought of how to do all the editing in Adobe Premiere Pro so when I had to edit at home, I was lost. I would have also liked to improve our story pacing; part of the requirements was to develop a scene that could realistically take place over the span of one minute. Our story wasn’t as true to this requirement and could have been developed differently.  

Click here to look at our storyboard

Click here to watch our project