social realism.

Fish tank is a 2009 british social realist film writen and directed by Andrea Arnold. the film adheres to the social realist genre in a number of ways. in the section of the narrative where we see Mia in bed and her mum shouting her we get a close up of her asleep and as her mum enters the room the film cuts to an over shoulder shot for us to see what she does; this being a technical convention of socialrealism. there is also a close  up shot of a cd cover which reads 'An England Story' which adds a sense of realism as we see what music she listens too and also a glimpse at her situation and struggle. the film then cuts to her walking down the stairs where she talks to the social worker who wants to get her into a special school; her mum also wants her to go but doesnt adress the matter lightly and she ends up making sarcastic remarks to mia. this shows us that the family is dysfunctional, also when the worker asks about another daughter there is no mention of a father telling the audience that it is also a broken home. at the point where mia runs out the door we then see the movement from the camera as it follows her; the hand held camera effect allows the veiwer to empathisewith mia and feel more part of the situation as the camera acts as our eyes when filming her in shallow focus and mia's eyes when we get a close up pov shot of whatever she is looking at. for example in the narrative when she looks at the window to read something, the film instantly cuts to a pov close up of the dance audition flyer which she is reading. the lighting in the shot is plain and natural, and not overly lit; doing this, the film conforms to yet more convention.

hunger games

Sci-fi conventions in the hunger games.

the narrative theme of anti establishment is present in the hunger games. this is seen in a particular scene   where the people are walkking to sign in to be pick for the games. we have mid shots and log shots of them walking in the masses. the birds eye shot shows the muddy floor giving the impression that it is not a nice place to live. this is then back by the low angle shots of the guards who are stood on platforms above the rest of them. the fact they are being herded tells the audience that there is this anti establishment ideology, as the government is clearly heartless and abuses their power. it is a polysemic text controlling the mass via the media.

as they approach the sign in dest we have an over shoulder shot of the small girl who is probed by some sort of tazar that has a unrealistic sound ,which is a technical convention seen in sci-fi, that possibly has been edited in to sound diegetic. the girl then draws blood and they force her finger on the page leaving a print. the officer then uses some sort of futuristic scanner that registers the blood. this iconography is strongly used throughout many sci-fi films.

Drive and Noir

in the clip show we see driver sat round his friend standards dinner table with his wife irene and son. immediately we see low key lighting and shadows across drivers face in a slight low angle shot. it then cuts to a mid shot of irene with half her face in shadow. it is key that we see driver like this as it tells us that he is the protagonist but also does bad things. standard is telling the story of how he met his wife to his son, all the time we hear a non diegetic sinister score which builds tension and adds an uneasy feel to the scene. the next convention we see is the femme fatale Blanch as she is introduced with "she is beautiful" by the character Cook. we then get a mid shot of her sat down smoking a cigarette, typical noir mise en scene. also she has red hair and red lips; this shows her as very seductive and also dangerous. as the robbery is about to take place we see Standard walk past the side of the building to the door of the pawn shop, this is done with a long tracking shot of him passing the windows where neon signs can be seen; this being another convention. when the camera cuts back to Driver in the car we then get a shot reverse shot of a car entering and parking near by.  when it cuts back to the mid shot of driver he begins to look nervouse. at this point the music begins to fade, once again creating unease and we see that driver is looking over at the car now with a sense of paranoia.

    After the robbery and standard being shot , driver and blanch are in a very dimly lit motel room. the narrative shifts to mistrust and paranoia when driver see on the news that the owner of the store said that standard had acted alone and there was no money taken. he realises that blanch is working for someone else. the camera stays level with blanch as driver stands up tightening his fists. theres a cut to a high angle over shoulder shot when driver hits blanch and jumps on top  of her. we now see the dark side to driver, like in noir where the protagonist does bad things, driver threatens her by holding her down by the throat and raising his hand to her. it is now apparent that blanch had used him and knew that standard was going to die, although she did not sleep with either of them. As blanch enters the bathroom to make a phone call there is a long shot of her from behind allowing us to see the shadows/ light coming through the venetian blinds; again adhering to noir. 

Bibliography draft

Bibliography

1. http://filmfervor.wordpress.com/tag/objectification/ . "The classical Hollywood format has always empowered men and directly objectified women through ‘visual pleasure.’"(1)

2. Documentary- miss- representation  'Females are not represent in the Media for doing something, they are represented for how they look'.(2) 

3. - http://www.bellaonline.com/site/HorrorMovies  “Horror films, and the slasher subgenre, are famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first five minutes as punishment for their indiscretions…”. (3)

4. film- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtsmQlLuQpc (4). this clip helps show that scream can be seen as a parody and that its self aware that it is a typical horror/slasher film.

5. Tatum’s death  in scream. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDxCkY2u2Y. (5) 

6. Internet-. http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/womenslliberation/womensliberation.htm .     quote   " The Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920. This fight for equality was later termed the “first-wave of feminism”. The “second-wave” began in the early 1960’s and ran through the late 1980’s. In this wave, women strived to reach a further sense of equality with men and to allow women to have a greater control over their body and the protection from physical abuse."(6)

7. Book- directed by Alfred Hitchcock , Psycho (the ultimate film guides) pgs. 66-84. this is a helpful piece of research as the book explores different interpretations to the actions and ideology of Marion. Quote 'the attitude towards unmarried sex in psycho can be related to the prevalent social ideology of the day'. 'Feminist critics who have analysed psycho see this as evidence both of Alfred Hitchcock’s misogyny and of the more pervasive patriarchal ideology of Hollywood'(7)

8.  .Internet- http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/scopophilia/scopophilia.html. awsome article on voyuerism and scopophillia, relating to psycho. quote "Voyeurism and the gaze are major themes in Hitchcock's movies as well as elements of his technique."  (8)

9. internet- http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/22/nicole-kidman-hollywood-violence-women. here we have an account that speaks about Nicole Kidman and how she accused Hollywood being a catalyst in violence against women and portraying them as sex objects. the article quotes kidman when she says that she has refused parts depending on how the female character is represented. this shows a clear change in society and strength in female actors, not just a change in the characters. quote "when asked whether the film industry "played a bad role" in the way it portrayed women, Kidman replied "Probably", before going on to say that she refused to take roles that portrayed women as weak sex objects. "I can't be responsible for all of Hollywood, but I can certainly be responsible for my own career." (9)

10.   http://www.slideshare.net/lalaland_xo/horror-film-forms-and-conventions. Talks about the conventional characters in slasher movies. quote ' (10)

'

11. documentary- miss- representation, '97 quote % of publishing companies are owned by Males'. ' 10% of writers of film are female'. (11)

12- Internet - Bechdel test

13. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/alfred-hitchcock-women-psycho-the-birds-bidisha. this article speaks about Hitchcock and Psycho, and how he fails to see women in a positive light. it also touches on the fact that in a lot of his work there are set types of women all having some trait, whether that be deceitful or sexual, but all being weak and deservant of punishment.

14. eBook-women,+murder+representation. this books looks at the change in women’s attitude throughout the years, from being passive and dependent on the men to becoming the suspects in more and more crimes committed on their spouses.

15. http://screampsychohorror.wordpress.com/representation-of-women-in-horror-films/cine-literate. "Traditionally women are represented in horror films as the damsel in distress and are usually being attacked by the killer because they have committed a sinful act.”.

                                                                                                             

Research Project draft 1

Has the representation of women and their ideology evolved in cinema through time, paying particular attention to the horror genre?

In this investigation I will analyze how female protagonists and their ideology are represented in my chosen horror genre texts, 'Psycho' and 'Scream', and if their portrayal and role has evolved. It is believed by some that women, for many years, have been represented as being sex objects, weak, and under the rule of men in many of Hollywood’s biggest films. The texts I have chosen will help me identify these issues and allow me to compare and contrast the texts and discover if representations have evolved within the same sub genre, that being’ slasher films’, but also made in different eras. I firstly will scrutinize the horror genre and its conventions to see if the female protagonist’s mindset and ideology has changed making it more relative to our current society, and juxtapose their reliance on men. Looking at the genres take on women will give me a good indicator as to whether my texts both comply with having the weak, over ruled female protagonist or one is more evolved.

Secondly I will investigate psycho, and build an understanding and ask the question if the texts serves its own moral justice. I will question whether the female protagonists death was some kind of punishment for her out of wedlock sexual relations, and if so why isn’t her lover punished? Thirdly I shall state the differences between the female protagonists in both texts throughout. I will use primary and secondary research to see if female representation reflects the society in which it was made; I will look at Hollywood as a whole and identify issues relating to it being patriarchal. Again, through research I will bring to attention the growth in violence related to women, making them the attacked or more prone to fight back.

To help in my investigation I will apply Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze theory’ to Psycho, seeing how Hitchcock technically objectifies Marion and at times addresses voyeuristic pleasures shared by the audience and the antagonist Norman Bates. In doing this I can build an understanding of the time the film was made and how Hitchcock wanted to show off his leading actress and why he wanted the audience to be included in Norman’s sexual yet murderous desires. After I can then apply the theory to scream and begin to see some form of evolution in the female protagonist in these iconic horror films. The feminist theory aids the male gaze concept, therefore I intend to utilize this to support my investigation, thus proving that patriarchy is visible in this text, more so than ‘scream’, due to the era in which it was filmed. This will help me see the way each protagonist is represented and the change in their ideology.

“The classical Hollywood format has always empowered men and directly objectified women through ‘visual pleasure.’” (1) In the documentary Miss-Representation it states “Females are not represented in the Media for doing something; they are represented for how they look”. (2) More specifically this type of female representation occurs in the Horror genre. “Horror films, and the slasher subgenre, are famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first five minutes as punishment for their indiscretions…”. (3) My first text Psycho conforms and subverts to this; the protagonist Marion is first seen on a bed wearing a skirt and bra; this is shown through a track/panning shot gazing into the window, instantly making the audience the voyeur. “Voyeurism and the gaze are major themes in Hitchcock's movies as well as elements of his techniques” (8). As the film then cuts to inside the room we then see a man half naked who she is having sexual relations with out side of marriage.  Immediately we see her indiscretions but she addresses the fact that they are not married and they meet in secret. She says, “We could meet respectively. With mother’s picture on the mantle piece and my sister helping me boil a big steak for three.” this shows that she no longer wants the relationship to be secretive or just about sex. This makes us believe that she has an innocent side and that she wants to be good, therefore the convocation takes place as she is putting her clothes on; the camera pans up ,as she stands from the bed, to a very awkward position, as if the audience is spying on them. The shot is a high angled two shot with slight shallow focus thus ensuring the focus is on Marion. This opening does objectify the woman technically with the two shot of her on the bed and only the mans lower half in shot, making the male look powerful and conforming to my previous statement. Also the long mid shots of them on the bed mean that we see a lot of her body and sexual nature, this is where it subverts the second quote as we don’t get the impression that she is “hypersexual” as she confronts the wrong in what they are doing. But this opening scene is all about how the female protagonist looks and getting a glimpse at her naïve ideology.

The sequence in scream where Sidney is first attacked (4), shows us a completely different mind set to that of Marion. The film is sees by some as a parody, this means that it mocks the slasher sub genre via the dialogue and the stories plot; also making the film self aware. Audiences at the time the film was released would have been somewhat cineliterate having had the resources to watch a number of horror films thus developing the ability to spot the irony and satire in the inter-textual references. Sidney believes that her boyfriend is on the phone as we get a long shot of her pacing round the living room talking to him. When talking about horror films she says “You know I don’t watch that shit. What’s the point there all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big breasted girl who can’t act, who’s always running up the stairs when she should be going out the door!”, she mocks the layout of a typical horror film but also directly tells the audience what is about to happen. Sidney's ideology is way more advanced than Marion's as she mocks the stereotypical horror film.

This article summarizes the characters seen in typical slasher films (10) “The protagonist: this is usually a female role, they are usually the most morally standing and smartest of the group. The sex appeal: this role is often filled by a promiscuous woman who is often first to be killed…” Scream conforms to this as we have Sidney, the protagonist who always manages to escape and then we have Tatum; who wears provocative clothes and is a flirt. Her death sequence (5) starts with a mid shot of her walking into the garage to get beer. She has a lot of makeup and red lip stick, also a short skirt and a tight top on which make her breasts stand out giving the audience visual pleasure. As she walks to the fridge the camera tracks before cutting to a shot from behind her where we then see her bum become objectified as it is in centre frame throughout the shot. Here I would say that it conforms to the male gaze as when the camera cuts back we see that that is where the killer is standing.

“The Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920. This fight for equality was later termed “the first-wave of feminism”. The “second-wave” began in the early 1960s and ran through the late 1980s. In this wave, women strived to reach a further sense of equality with men and to allow women to have a greater control over their body and the protection from physical abuse” (6) the politics show that feminists have battled for equality for years but only really to build motion at the start of the 60s where fighting for women “women to have a greater control over their body and the protection from physical abuse”, which suggests that psycho was a male attack on the fighting feminists; a way to divert the public’s thinking by reminding them that women are week but can also be controlling in a negative way, for example the antagonist Norman who’s alter ego is that of his dead mothers! Right at the very end there is an unsettling slow zoom in mid shot of Norman sat on a chair in the police station. The woman’s voice over is his thoughts as he now has completely taken on the mind set of his dead mother. At the end of the dialogue he looks up directly into the camera, like scream, making the film self aware. Scream on the other hand was made in 1996 the film has a less misogynistic feel as it is the women who are empowered in the end as the last scene where the two antagonists are threatening to kill Sidney she manages to turn it round. When antagonist Billy is dying on the floor we get a high angle over shoulder shot of him, from Sidney's perspective; this then cuts to an extreme low angle shot looking up from his gaze, where he is surrounded by two females who are in total power.

“Feminist critics who have analyzed Psycho see this as evidence both of Alfred Hitchcock’s misogyny and of the more perverse patriarchal ideology of Hollywood” (7) so far I have proved that psycho does objectify women and portrays them as being weak by attacking them in the narrative and technically. I believe that Hollywood does conform to this statement, both at the time psycho was made and present day although feminists and actresses are making a point that Hollywood is male dominant. In 2006, actress Nicole Kidman accused Hollywood of contributing to violence against women by portraying them as sex objects. “When asked whether the film industry "played a bad role" in the way it portrayed women, Kidman replied "Probably", before going on to say that she refused to take roles that portrayed women as weak sex objects. "I can't be responsible for all of Hollywood, but I can certainly be responsible for my own career” (9). This supports the idea that Hollywood has a patriarchal ideology. To reinforce this; “97% of publishing companies are owned by Males.10% of writers of film are female” (11). These facts show that even more modern films such as Scream are still produced my men within a male dominant society.

Based on the facts and arguments presented, I believe that the representation of women has not evolved, yet their ideology has. We are still being show the sexual nature of women but there has developed a certain sophistication in some female roles within the horror genre. For instance, Sidney is able to escape from the killer and defeat him. The character conventions state that in the slasher sub-genre there is mainly a female protagonist. In psycho the audience is lead to believe that Marion has out smarted her male boss and is now running off with his money, but when the film takes that dramatic turn it is then left to the men to search for her, find her and capture Norman.

    I do believe that the feminist movements played a huge role in changing the way women were perceived. Although I feel it has slightly failed, in that areas of Hollywood and the media still portray the females as sex objects and ruled by men; as in Scream not all the women are as powerful as Sidney. Conventions still state that there will still be the “sex object” character.

 

Words count: 1,977

My Question!!!!!!

Has the representation of women and their ideology evolved in cinema through time, paying particular attention to the horror genre. (Looking at Phsyco and scream.). also look at.

research list :
1.Internet - Bechdel test
2.eBook-women,+murder+representation. this books looks at the change in womens attidue throughout the years, from being passive and dependent on the men to becoming the suspects in more and more crimes commited on their spouses.
3.Book- directed by Alfred Hitchcock , Psycho (the ultimate film guides) pgs. 66-84. this is a helpful piece of research as the book explores different interpretations to the actions and ideology of Marion. quote 'the attitude towards unmarried sex in psycho can be related to the prevalent social ideology of the day'. 'feminist critics who have analysed psycho see see this as evidence both of alfred hitchcocks misogyny and of the more pervasive patriarchal ideology of hollywood'(7).
4.internet-http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/alfred-hitchcock-women-psycho-the-birds-bidisha. this article speaks about Hitchcock and Psycho, and how he fails to see women in a positive light. it also touches on the fact that in a lot of his work there are set types of women all having some trait, whether that be deceitful or sexual, but all being weak and deservant of punishment.
5.internet- http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/22/nicole-kidman-hollywood-violence-women. here we have an account that speaks about Nicole Kidman and how she accused Hollywood being a catalyst in violence against women and portraying them as sex objects. the article quotes kidman when she says that she has refused parts depending on how the female character is represented. this shows a clear change in society and strength in female actors, not just a change in the characters. quote "when asked whether the film industry "played a bad role" in the way it portrayed women, Kidman replied "Probably", before going on to say that she refused to take roles that portrayed women as weak sex objects. "I can't be responsible for all of Hollywood, but I can certainly be responsible for my own career." (9)
6.Internet- http://www.slideshare.net/lalaland_xo/horror-film-forms-and-conventions. talks about the conventional characters in slasher movies. quote ' (10)

'

7.Internet- http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/scopophilia/scopophilia.html. awsome article on voyuerism and scopophillia, relating to psycho. quote "Voyeurism and the gaze are major themes in Hitchcock's movies as well as elements of his technique."  (8)
8.documentary- miss- representation, quote 'Females are not represent in the Media for doing something, they are represented for how they look'.(2) '97% of publishing companies are owned by Males'. ' 10% of writers of film are female'. (11)
9. film- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtsmQlLuQpc (4). this clip helps show that scream can be seen as a parody and that its self aware that it is a typical horror/slasher film.

10 - http://screampsychohorror.wordpress.com/representation-of-women-in-horror-films/cine-literate . "Traditionally women are represented in horror films as the damsel in distress and are usually being attacked by the killer because they have committed a sinful act." .

11- http://www.bellaonline.com/site/HorrorMovies  “Horror films, and the slasher subgenre, are famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first five minutes as punishment for their indiscretions…”. (3)

12- http://filmfervor.wordpress.com/tag/objectification/ . "The classical Hollywood format has always empowered men and directly objectified women through ‘visual pleasure.’"(1)

13. tatums death in scream. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDxCkY2u2Y. (5)
14. http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/womenslliberation/womensliberation.htm .
quote   " The Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920. This fight for equality was later termed the “first-wave of feminism”. The “second-wave” began in the early 1960’s and ran through the late 1980’s. In this wave, women strived to reach a further sense of equality with men and to allow women to have a greater control over their body and the protection from physical abuse."(6)


In this investigation i will analyse how female protagonists and their ideology are represented in my chosen horror genre texts, 'Psycho' and 'Scream', and if their portrayal and role has evolved

1.     Looking at genre conventions and if they have changed and if the films fit the conventions regarding women.

2.     Then look at psycho and Marion’s character and ideology. Use research to explore her sexual relationship out of marriage, how that was seen at the time, and how she may have been punished. Also comment on how Sam isn’t.

3.     Begin to talk about the male gaze theory and how it applies to psycho.

4.     Move on to scream. Talk about the protagonist’s role and how she seems to be dominant that Marion. Also comment on the time gap between the two. Use research to show the change in women’s attitude to a more equal society. Also look at her relationships with men.

5.     Go on to apply the post feminist/feminist theory to scream and see if it matches with psycho. Is marion being seen as femininst or pre feminist, is Sidney post feminist/feminist? Make a note that scream is more feminine dominant.

Has the representation of women and their ideology evolved in cinema through time, paying particular attention to the horror genre?

In this investigation I will analyze how female protagonists and their ideology are

represented in my chosen horror genre texts, 'Psycho' and 'Scream', and if their

portrayal and role has evolved. It is believed by some that women, for many years,

have been represented as being sex objects, weak, and under the rule of men in

many of Hollywood’s biggest films. The texts I have chosen will help me identify

these issues and allow me to compare and contrast the two films as they are from

the same sub genre, that being’ slasher films’, but also made in different eras. I

firstly will scrutinize the horror genre and its conventions to see if the female

protagonist’s mindset and ideology has changed making it more relative to our

current society, and juxtapose their reliance on men. Looking at the genres take on

women will give me a good indicator as to whether my texts both comply with

having the weak, over ruled female protagonist or one is more evolved.

Secondly I will focus on psycho, and build an understanding of why the

protagonist is portrayed as she is; also question whether her death was some kind

of punishment for her out of wed lock sexual relations, and if so why isn’t her

lover punished? Thirdly I shall state the differences between the female

protagonists in both texts, and the excess of female dominance found in scream. I

will use gathered research to show the shift in time as to when the film was made

and how women of a more modern society have better equality to that of the

1960s. also through research I will bring to attention the growth in violence related

to women, making them the attacker or more prone to fight back; and seeing if this

has had an impact on the film media and what we see in scream.

To help in my investigation I will apply Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze theory’ to

Psycho, seeing how Hitchcock technically objectifies Marion and at times

addresses voyeuristic pleasures shared by the audience and the antagonist Norman

Bates. In doing this I can build an understanding of the time the film was made and

how Hitchcock wanted to show off his leading actress and why he wanted the

audience to be included in Norman’s sexual yet murderous desires. After I can then

apply the theory to scream and begin to see some form of evolution in the female

protagonist in these iconic horror films. The feminist theory aids the male gaze

concept, therefore I intend to utilize this to support my investigation, thus proving

that patriarchy is visible in this text, more so than ‘scream’, due to the era in which

it was filmed. This will help me see the way each protagonist is represented and

the change in their ideology. I will be backing up my statements in this aim with

various research found on modern actresses, and their take on how women have

been and still being represented in the film media.

Jordan mistry.