I have chosen to focus on the representation of woman in Britain, using contemporary British film as a case study. I will examine wasp and fish tank by Andrea Arnold. I will also consider feminist theories of gender and Althusser's theory of Interpellation in my answer.
Historically female characters have been represented as the curtailing wives, prospective wives or married lovers for the central male characters ambitions perhaps most notably in 'A kind of Loving' and 'Saturday Night, Sunday Morning'. Of course there were exceptions of course. New Realism is a contemporary movement in British film directors, such as Andrea Arnold aim to produce "a more truthful cinema" We may assume that a more truthful representation of women is a particular goal. Arnold has used the rules of Dogme 95 ("The vows of Chasity") - developed with Danish Director Lars von Trier - to achieve this; Her representations are shaped by all Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in, Only Diegetic sound to be used The camera must be hand-held; filming must take place where the action takes place,The film must be in colour. No special lighting, Optical work and filters are forbidden, No superficial action (No murders, weapons, etc.), No temporal or geographical alienation, No genre movies, the aspect ratio must be 4:3, not widescreen and the director must not be credited.
Andrea Arnold uses the ‘Vows of Chastity in Wasp to present British women as trapped by their domestic lives. Andrea has carefully chosen locations of shots, of high run down blocks of flats, stair cases cramped and doomy, a shot of a locked gate, all suggest to the audience that Zoe is trapped, with the majority of the shots, with the children close by. That she always has to look after them, not allowing her to have a life outside of them, any freedom away from them. The audience is made to feel both sorry and annoyed at Zoe. They feel sorry that shes in this situation and we can associate with her, that she lacks personal freedom, But The audience also feels that if she wants to have children then she has a responsibility to look after them to put them first.
In Fish Tank and Wasp, the mothers are both single mothers bringing up children with very little Money and will often be considered as being neglectful to their children. They do not feel that they themselves have given the children a bad upbringing, but will blame everything else including their own children on the situation. In FT in the closing scenes, the audience see Mia farewell to the family, the mother is portrayed as uncaring “Haven’t you gone yet” and just dances while drinking and smoking as Mia says Goodbye, She doesn’t even see her off to the car” while in Fish tank the Mother chooses to attend a date with a Man, than too look after the children who are left outside. In earlier scenes we saw that the children were hungry, but were fed with a bag of sugar between them, but during the date we see the Mum using all of her money to buy a round of drinks than to use the money to pay for the children to have a meal. Also During a sequence in Fish Tank, Mias family are driven to the family by Connor, where it could be considered that sexual rivalry is present between mother and daughter. Sigmund Freud Oedipal triangle, which states that The daughter is jealous of the Mum and wants to be loved by the Mums lover, while the Mum is Jealous of the daughter, as she is ‘the younger version’ of her and feels threatened by her own daughter. In a dramatic twist in Fish Tank, at the discovery of Conors hidden life, Mia takes the extreme unthinkable measure of kidnapping Conors daughter, this in turn, transforms Mia into a Mother figure to the girl, A mother is meant to take care of the child, to look after and to protect, but Mia transforms to her own harmful mother role. In a turn of events Mia does in anger throw the daughter into the water, however this brought out the caring mother of Mia, to save her and to hug her after and takes her home.
Although the portrayal of the failing mothers is not shown through out the film and it can be argued that they are caring mothers, especially in wasp. When the mother brings food to the children outside the pub, with the pubs music playing. She dances with the children, to try and keep them entertained, and to show that she is still thinking of them, as she tells them that she told the DJ to play that song for them. Although left out, the mother feels the children will be more secure at the pub, so that they can come and get her if needed, rather than just leaving them at home alone. This is also emphasised during the scene with the Wasp. The caring mother in her even though not revealing the real reason persuades the date to not drive anywhere from the pub and when the Children scream, she runs out to them, to help them and look after them. The audience feels sympathy for Zoe at this point, that she really does care, but she doesn’t have the help she needs to provide her children with the best care, but the love for them is clear.
In these 2 case studies, it is often evident that the Children are the main carers for the family. In Fish tank, we have this idea that Mia and her sister don’t have a good relationship, that they don’t care for each other. However in the goodbye scene the audience witnesses a change in attitude to each other, the love and the cheekyness, that Mia sister really looks up to her and that Mia really cares for her. This is also evident in Wasp with Kelly, the eldest sister caring for the other children, sharing the food between them equally, while the Mother is inside. She wants to fix the hunger the siblings are feeling, so acts herself in order to look after them.
Winship (2008) states that the predominant view of women in the media is constructed by a male prospectus. This is known as the male gaze, so dominant is the male gaze that women are complicit, defining themselves according to what Men want, so are often portrayed as sex objects, that feel pressured to look like how Men want to view them . E.g. Sexually. When for casting for the lead actress in “MorvernCallar” the director purposely chose someone she thought looked like they could work in a supermarket and who looked bit bored in their picture. This allows us as the audience to focus more on the plot of the film and also allows us to connect their lives with ones similar in real life. Though in the films I watched the women selected are purposely chosen not to look as though they were fashion models, instead they were meant to look like the sorts of people you would expect to see living in council blocks. This allows us as the audience to focus more on the plot of the film and also allows us to connect their lives with ones similar in real life. We do see in “Fish Tank” the male gaze when Mia dances for Conor, which then ends up in the pair having sex, this was also shown earlier in the film with Mias mother and Conor at the flat party, again this similarity is seen in ‘Wasp’ with Zoe comparing herself to Victoria Beckham and Dave – David Beckham. In preparation for the date, Mia dresses up in clothes than a Man would like to see a woman wear.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
Chase idea
Patrick and I also discussed the possibility of a bomb and an explosion and how we could have a timer throughout the film, to build up tension. For this I need to practice with after effects on explosions..
Green screening
That is all.
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
General views of film posters before...
Romance:
An image of a couple together, comfortable looking
colours: Bright colours
white - purity, innocence
red- love
Horror:
unclear blurred image, tense moment
blood, monsters
colours: Dark
Black - Danger, death
Red - Blood
Action:
An action shot, of an explosion, flames, exciting, transport (helicopters)
busy, dark colours
Crime:
Guns, gangs, hidden identities, worn down environment, police, dark colours
Comedy:
A funny image, bright colours.
An image of a couple together, comfortable looking
colours: Bright colours
white - purity, innocence
red- love
Horror:
unclear blurred image, tense moment
blood, monsters
colours: Dark
Black - Danger, death
Red - Blood
Action:
An action shot, of an explosion, flames, exciting, transport (helicopters)
busy, dark colours
Crime:
Guns, gangs, hidden identities, worn down environment, police, dark colours
Comedy:
A funny image, bright colours.
Posters
Today I have been going through www.themovieinsider.com and going through the recent, current and upcoming film posters. I have been putting them all to a big powerpoint, trying to sort them out in to separate genres to make it easier for me to compare the similarities and differences in layout and styles of posters between genres. I'm going to try and make notes on as many posters as I can in the powerpoint so I get a better idea of what posters should involve.
Evidence of me doing a poster presentation
Evidence of me doing a poster presentation
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Start of the A2 course
This week we have been informed of what the course involves over the next year, I will continue to use this blog to display my work. My first posts will be all to do with researching recent and current film projects ( trailers, posters, magazines and websites)
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Friday, 7 May 2010
Main task evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?
District B13 is a typical example of an Action | Crime genre Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb. The action is often fast paced and tense. In the chase scene, the camera durations are short and have a large variety this is conventional in film, as it adds pace to the running and urgency. Along with the Non diagteic music, which without the music it takes away the effect, the music actually makes the video work together. In our opening 2 minutes we wanted or even needed to incorporate for our film to look good. However the protagonist in District B13 an undercover cop goes against the convention of cops in films, conventionally we would normally be introduced to someone of such authority as in a suit, in a meeting etc where the audience would immediately made aware of his status. Whereas in District B13 we are introduced to him in a rundown block of flats, in tatty clothes, trying to dispose of drugs, which does not denote to the audience that he is an undercover police officer but actually the complete opposite. In our media product we keep mystery about the identities of the characters until midway through the film which builds up more suspense. The characters used were also carefully chosen, as the protagonist, the boy being chased was smaller and would be considered weaker than the chasers who are much larger. This keeps to conventions as changing this could possibly change the genre to a Comedy, if one person was chasing 2 or that the chasers are much more smaller than the person chasing, Being Male and involved in films is often the norm for crime films, women are considered innocent.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The institution which is mostly likely to distribute our preliminary task is 'Film4', which is part of channel 4 which has its only film production company, film4 productions. It is quoted on their website "The Company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the UK, whether new or established." This would fit our criteria they also fund Projects, which we would need. Another institution could be Universal pictures which produced such films as The Bourne Supremacy which incorporates a Foot Chase across the city of Berlin. It has several similarities to our film with the chase building up tension as it goes along, The protagonist also hides from the chasers and think he's escaped. Universal Pictures would be good as it is a well established production company what know what the audiences want and know how to produce good action films.
Bourne Supermacy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E586mYraTUs
who would be the audience for your media project?
The audience we originally decided our product was for was 16-27, predominantly males. The final product we would say it's still around the same. However our original plan was to incorporate tense, potentially horrifying flashbacks of someone head being held under water, a girl tied up with a piercing scream and someone being thrown into a boot. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to put these into our film, which without, our age range may of slightly gone down to about 15- 25. We chose this age range because we could associate with this group and have similar views. It also would most likely be enjoyed by lower-middle class people, as things what happen in the film they could relate to in their own experiences of life around them.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?..
In our opening 2 minutes our characters are young teens, the audience automatically associates them with young gang crime, which in recent years has become a common news headline. Films often represent male teenagers being associated with crime. In our opening 2 minutes we have backed up this representation. With the chase, clearly not just a game but in fact that the guy being chased is In trouble. With the end of the chase ending with the protagonist getting knocked out with a D-lock what shows teens as violent criminal yobs.
How did you attract address your audience?
The start of a film goes straight into the action of the chase scene and the characters identity are kept mysterious, this creates a series of enigmas for the audience to think about ‘whats going on? Whys this person being chased? What’s going to happen to him? Etc. There is also dramatic tense music over the action, which adds to the suspense and suggests something bad is going to happen, we also end with the protagonist getting knocked out by a D-lock and then has the eyes opening as the final scene, this way it makes the audience question even more, “If this was a dream? Is this the same person waking up who was being chased? ” etc it keeps the audience engaged and wants to watch more, they want to find out what caused the chase, who are the characters and whats going to happen.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The main thing which is obvious in the film is the effective use of titles we used, I used Adobe after effects to make these, I had to learn about how to use 3d fonts, camera layers, stabilising motion and masking frame by frame so that the writing was strategically placed and so that the action took place in front of the text. We also had to find a suitable text which would suit our action, Windows fonts although many, there is little variation between them, so we had to download a font from a free website , we used a font called Philly Sans what was downloaded from dafonts.com. Which is a graffiti text. Making the titles took a lot of time and a lot of patience to get it right.
see more of how I made the titles at: http://cherwellmediamspringett5232.blogspot.com/2010/04/making-titles.html
We also discovered the difficulties of finding suitable copyright free music, we searched a variations of sites for free copyright free but google suggestions generally directed us to copyright free music, but which you had to pay for. The music from the start throughout the chase was "Killer" (www.freeplaymusic.com) then the heartbeat noise when Rory thinks he has escaped is called "Threatening Behaviour" (www.audio.lgfl.org.uk) and finally the "boom" sound at the end when the person opens his eyes is from iMovie. Music is a hard object to decide before the filming is complete. You can decide the type of music which could work, but not the actual piece of music to be used until the last thing.
Another major point is the realisation of how much minutes of raw footage we need to cut it down to make films work and how many hours it takes to film just 1 scene of a film and retakes needed. We originally filmed all the shots with me as the guy being chased, when editing it down we realised we needed more shots to link the scenes together, we also noticed that when played on the computer the scenes had more in than what the screen on the camera showed, so we planned a day to re-film some shots and do some extra ones to make the clips work well together. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances the plans had to be radically changed when I was admitted into hospital, the group had to re-film all the shots we did with new characters. We had originally filmed most of the shots handheld which added to the effect, e.g tension, but they had to film with a tripod which made a steady shot. We could of maybe added a slight digital shake to add to the effect if we wanted to do so.
Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our prelim and final task were filmed and edited in different ways, in our prelim we filmed indoors, with only diagetic sound of the doors, footsteps and conversation with no music. We also didnt have to worry so much about lighting, sound (wind against the cameras mic) or continuity factors like people walking in the shot. However in our final task these all became a factor, the light had to be the same throughout, we has to bear in mind that the audio will be effected by the wind, traffic, planes etc. We also had to take into consideration that there will be people walking around, getting in the shot, driving by etc. To try and quash these to the minimum, we filmed very early in the morning so that it wasn't sunny which would go against the conventions of our genre and so that very minimal people and cars were about. This still didnt help the quality of the audio so even though the sound of the running, gates banging etc may have added to the effect, the wind noise would of ruined the effect and just be like a home movie. That the majority of it would have to be replaced by non diagetic music.
We wanted to carry aspects from our prelim into our main task, the sense of mystery, the enigmas created and we also liked how we ended our prelim by the action cutting to black with the opening of the brief case on to the camera because we all agreed these worked effectively and defiantly the going to black where we felt this would be an effective way to put the title of our film. We used the knock out of the protagonist with a D-lock to go to a black out, However when we first did this on our final task we had suggestions that it looked more like a short film than a start to a feature length film so we added the eyes opening at the end.
The titles in our prelim were also very basic and looked home movie style with them at the end on outtakes, made with a Imovie titles preset. This time we had to include them during the action as stated on the specification.
Being outside gave everyone more spaced this meant we could include more shots of the action from a variety of different angles, whereas in the prelim going up the stairs, which is an enclosed space so we only had a few options of shots to play around with. We also in our prelim didn't have a problem of going from scene to scene as it was laid out for us, whereas in the main task our scenes weren't altogether and were all over different places in oxford so we had the problem of linking them to each other.
District B13 is a typical example of an Action | Crime genre Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb. The action is often fast paced and tense. In the chase scene, the camera durations are short and have a large variety this is conventional in film, as it adds pace to the running and urgency. Along with the Non diagteic music, which without the music it takes away the effect, the music actually makes the video work together. In our opening 2 minutes we wanted or even needed to incorporate for our film to look good. However the protagonist in District B13 an undercover cop goes against the convention of cops in films, conventionally we would normally be introduced to someone of such authority as in a suit, in a meeting etc where the audience would immediately made aware of his status. Whereas in District B13 we are introduced to him in a rundown block of flats, in tatty clothes, trying to dispose of drugs, which does not denote to the audience that he is an undercover police officer but actually the complete opposite. In our media product we keep mystery about the identities of the characters until midway through the film which builds up more suspense. The characters used were also carefully chosen, as the protagonist, the boy being chased was smaller and would be considered weaker than the chasers who are much larger. This keeps to conventions as changing this could possibly change the genre to a Comedy, if one person was chasing 2 or that the chasers are much more smaller than the person chasing, Being Male and involved in films is often the norm for crime films, women are considered innocent.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The institution which is mostly likely to distribute our preliminary task is 'Film4', which is part of channel 4 which has its only film production company, film4 productions. It is quoted on their website "The Company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the UK, whether new or established." This would fit our criteria they also fund Projects, which we would need. Another institution could be Universal pictures which produced such films as The Bourne Supremacy which incorporates a Foot Chase across the city of Berlin. It has several similarities to our film with the chase building up tension as it goes along, The protagonist also hides from the chasers and think he's escaped. Universal Pictures would be good as it is a well established production company what know what the audiences want and know how to produce good action films.
Bourne Supermacy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E586mYraTUs
who would be the audience for your media project?
The audience we originally decided our product was for was 16-27, predominantly males. The final product we would say it's still around the same. However our original plan was to incorporate tense, potentially horrifying flashbacks of someone head being held under water, a girl tied up with a piercing scream and someone being thrown into a boot. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to put these into our film, which without, our age range may of slightly gone down to about 15- 25. We chose this age range because we could associate with this group and have similar views. It also would most likely be enjoyed by lower-middle class people, as things what happen in the film they could relate to in their own experiences of life around them.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?..
In our opening 2 minutes our characters are young teens, the audience automatically associates them with young gang crime, which in recent years has become a common news headline. Films often represent male teenagers being associated with crime. In our opening 2 minutes we have backed up this representation. With the chase, clearly not just a game but in fact that the guy being chased is In trouble. With the end of the chase ending with the protagonist getting knocked out with a D-lock what shows teens as violent criminal yobs.
How did you attract address your audience?
The start of a film goes straight into the action of the chase scene and the characters identity are kept mysterious, this creates a series of enigmas for the audience to think about ‘whats going on? Whys this person being chased? What’s going to happen to him? Etc. There is also dramatic tense music over the action, which adds to the suspense and suggests something bad is going to happen, we also end with the protagonist getting knocked out by a D-lock and then has the eyes opening as the final scene, this way it makes the audience question even more, “If this was a dream? Is this the same person waking up who was being chased? ” etc it keeps the audience engaged and wants to watch more, they want to find out what caused the chase, who are the characters and whats going to happen.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The main thing which is obvious in the film is the effective use of titles we used, I used Adobe after effects to make these, I had to learn about how to use 3d fonts, camera layers, stabilising motion and masking frame by frame so that the writing was strategically placed and so that the action took place in front of the text. We also had to find a suitable text which would suit our action, Windows fonts although many, there is little variation between them, so we had to download a font from a free website , we used a font called Philly Sans what was downloaded from dafonts.com. Which is a graffiti text. Making the titles took a lot of time and a lot of patience to get it right.
see more of how I made the titles at: http://cherwellmediamspringett5232.blogspot.com/2010/04/making-titles.html
We also discovered the difficulties of finding suitable copyright free music, we searched a variations of sites for free copyright free but google suggestions generally directed us to copyright free music, but which you had to pay for. The music from the start throughout the chase was "Killer" (www.freeplaymusic.com) then the heartbeat noise when Rory thinks he has escaped is called "Threatening Behaviour" (www.audio.lgfl.org.uk) and finally the "boom" sound at the end when the person opens his eyes is from iMovie. Music is a hard object to decide before the filming is complete. You can decide the type of music which could work, but not the actual piece of music to be used until the last thing.
Another major point is the realisation of how much minutes of raw footage we need to cut it down to make films work and how many hours it takes to film just 1 scene of a film and retakes needed. We originally filmed all the shots with me as the guy being chased, when editing it down we realised we needed more shots to link the scenes together, we also noticed that when played on the computer the scenes had more in than what the screen on the camera showed, so we planned a day to re-film some shots and do some extra ones to make the clips work well together. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances the plans had to be radically changed when I was admitted into hospital, the group had to re-film all the shots we did with new characters. We had originally filmed most of the shots handheld which added to the effect, e.g tension, but they had to film with a tripod which made a steady shot. We could of maybe added a slight digital shake to add to the effect if we wanted to do so.
Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our prelim and final task were filmed and edited in different ways, in our prelim we filmed indoors, with only diagetic sound of the doors, footsteps and conversation with no music. We also didnt have to worry so much about lighting, sound (wind against the cameras mic) or continuity factors like people walking in the shot. However in our final task these all became a factor, the light had to be the same throughout, we has to bear in mind that the audio will be effected by the wind, traffic, planes etc. We also had to take into consideration that there will be people walking around, getting in the shot, driving by etc. To try and quash these to the minimum, we filmed very early in the morning so that it wasn't sunny which would go against the conventions of our genre and so that very minimal people and cars were about. This still didnt help the quality of the audio so even though the sound of the running, gates banging etc may have added to the effect, the wind noise would of ruined the effect and just be like a home movie. That the majority of it would have to be replaced by non diagetic music.
We wanted to carry aspects from our prelim into our main task, the sense of mystery, the enigmas created and we also liked how we ended our prelim by the action cutting to black with the opening of the brief case on to the camera because we all agreed these worked effectively and defiantly the going to black where we felt this would be an effective way to put the title of our film. We used the knock out of the protagonist with a D-lock to go to a black out, However when we first did this on our final task we had suggestions that it looked more like a short film than a start to a feature length film so we added the eyes opening at the end.
The titles in our prelim were also very basic and looked home movie style with them at the end on outtakes, made with a Imovie titles preset. This time we had to include them during the action as stated on the specification.
Being outside gave everyone more spaced this meant we could include more shots of the action from a variety of different angles, whereas in the prelim going up the stairs, which is an enclosed space so we only had a few options of shots to play around with. We also in our prelim didn't have a problem of going from scene to scene as it was laid out for us, whereas in the main task our scenes weren't altogether and were all over different places in oxford so we had the problem of linking them to each other.
Bibliography
The music we used in our film was all from copyright free sources. The music from the start throughout the chase was "Killer" (www.freeplaymusic.com) then the heartbeat noise when Rory thinks he has escaped is called "Threatening Behaviour" (www.audio.lgfl.org.uk) and finally the "boom" sound at the end when the person opens his eyes is from iMovie.
The font we used is philly sans from dafont.com
http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=Philly+sans
The font we used is philly sans from dafont.com
http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=Philly+sans
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Selection of Outtakes from our film
Here is a selection of outtakes from our film what should also prove that I was there for filming, before they had to refilm all the shots we did again, which they did a great job of.
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