Friday, October 27, 2006

Task Ten: Book Research

• Gilligan, Sarah (2003): Teaching Women and Film. UK: BFi
  Focuses on the category “woman” and what it actually means as a construct and a reality. Also helps to understand about women gaining control
• Davis, Glyn and Dickenson, Kay (2004): Teen TV – Genre, Consumption, Identity. UK: BFi
  Talks about how race and gender affect friendships within girls. This will be of help to me as Pretty Persuasion is about friendship and has a lot to do with race as there is an Asian, Muslim girl.
• Cook, Pam and Benink, Mieke (1999): The Cinema Book 2nd Edition. UK: BFi
  Information on Laura Mulvey and the male gaze, Sigmund Freud’s fetishism and male sexual anxiety, psychoanalysis, females in film, the female spectator and queer theory.
• Tasker, Yvonne (1998): Working Girls. UK: Routledge
  Again, this is looking at female friendships but in the melodrama genre. This leads on to lesbian chic which is homosexual relationships within girls. Also looks at how class, ethnicity and race affect female friendships
• Nelmes, Jill (1996): Introduction to Film Studies. UK: Routledge
  This information is about women and film and the history of women in film. Looks at the feminist revolution and the representation and stereotyping of women in the media. Also concentrates on gender theory and looking at masculinity and womb envy.
• Smelik, Anneke (1998): And the mirror cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory. UK: Palgrave Macmillan
  Information on the male gaze, the female spectator, female desire and lesbian film studies.
• Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender and Identity, An Introduction. UK: Routledge
  This book looks at Gender representation in the past, Gender representation in the present, Laura Mulvey and the male gaze, Masculinity and Femininity, Girl power, queer theory
• Bennet, Peter and Slater, Jerry and Wall, Peter (2006): A2 Media Studies The Essential Introduction. UK: Routledge
  Quite broad information about the media but particularly looking at representation, mediation, stereotypes, minorities, realism and ideologies
• Penly, Constance (1988): Feminism and Film Theory. UK: BFi
  This book is an in depth look at the place of women in film and how society has changed to allow them to be more known and seen in the media. A lot of feminist theorists give their view on what they think.
• Wayne, Mike (2005): Understanding Film Marxist Perspectives. UK: Pluto Press
  Marxism in film and how it affects the film. Extracts from Adorno, Gramsci and Althusser. Also looks at Hollywood as Monopoly Capitalism.
• Branston, Gill and Stafford, Roy (2003): The Media Student’s Book 3rd Edition. UK: Routledge
  Looks at representation within gender, questioning positive and negative images and ideas of changing representation. Also looks at how stereotypes are formed.

Sherish at 5:16 AM

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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Task Nine

My class blog buddy is Bushara...

...her independent study looks at the representation of women in Sex in the City

• Although my text is a film and Bushara's text is a tv show they are similar as they both have strong references to the way that women are represented
• In both texts, women are shown as sex obbsessed, but in their own different ways
• The ages of the characters are different, but they are still represented quite similarly as the females are shown as being quite strong
• The females in Sex in the City enjoy sex for themselves, but the protagonist in Pretty Persuasion has sex with other characters as her way to stardom, which could be seen as enjoyment for herself although its not the sex she enjoys but what she will get out of it
• In Pretty persusasion we see a variety of different females being represented which is also the case in Sex in the City
• In film women are shown to be less active whereas in tv they are shown to be much more independent and strong. Sex in the City is based on older females choosing to do what they want in life and making it happen.
• Both texts provide the male gaze as they have voyeuristic pleasures as well as the fetishistic pleasures

My blog buddy from the other class is Navdeep...

...her independent study is looking at "John Tucker Must Die"

• Pretty Persuasion is a film about a young teenage girl, Kimberly, who is sexually active and uses her sex to get to her main goal in life: fame. She would do anything to become famous and one of the ways she does this is by suing her teacher. Another way is by sleeping with the lesbian reporter whom she blackmails.
• John Tucker Must Die: basically its this guys whos dating 3 women, wen they find out they set him up with this other girl, and persuade her to flirt with him jus so he can really start 2 like her and fall in love with her then once they've got him propa likin her she just leaves him and its revenge
• Navdeeps essay is just about how teenagers now in films are playin roles like getin revenge and vengence and theyre no like damsel in distress type, or jus there for their luks and how they have meaning to their character
• These two texts are both teenage films and both have female protagonists although in JTMD we have a male and a lot of females are stronger
• In both texts the females want revenge on the male
• Both texts have strong representation of women
• The females in both films are subverting the stereotypical roles of females
• Both films are mainstream Hollywood
• The males in the film are seen as evil and abusing femininity
• Navdeeps blog has a lot of info on the representation of women and how it has changed also looks at teen films in general

Thanks for being my Blog Buddies :)

Sherish at 1:17 AM

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Saturday, October 07, 2006

Task Eight

Teens in movies
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/scansw/teen.html#anchor147406

Cult of celebrity
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/scansw/teen.html#anchor147406

Synopsis of films
www.imdb.com

Laura Mulvey male gaze
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey

Male gaze
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.htmlFemales in filmhttp://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/index.html

Reviews
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article1096305.ece

Gender, Race and Ethnicity- on this website there is a lot of information on Islam and the media which relates as in Pretty Persuasion, one of the main girls is Muslim, so this will help me to expand my interpretation of the representation http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/GenderMedia/index.html

Media Ed - There is an article on this website on "women representing women" which talks about how the gender of the director of the film can affect the representation the audience see http://www.mediaed.org.uk/resource/view_list.php?category=ca_theory

Media, Gender and Identity - talks about how gender is represented in todays society http://www.theory.org.uk/giddens.htm

BFI- On this site i found a 16+ guide on strong women. I can use this as the main protagonist in the film is seen as being strong and dominating http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/strongwomen.html

Useful review
http://emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=143

Article on feminism in pretty persuasion
http://www.fearofafemaleplanet.com/?p=1

Article on femme fatales
http://www.crimeculture.com/359/FemmesFatales.html

Representation of youth
http://www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/repsyouth.html

Female protagonists in film
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/index.html

Sherish at 11:18 AM

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Task Seven

More Keywords....

Post Feminism
Part of the post modern perspective which takes the achievemens of feminism for granted and views it as ineffective in explaining the current condition of women and the many identity choices they face.

In this film we have pretty girls that attract the male, but they know this which makes it ok for them as it is their aim.

Teen Movie
A film directed at a target audience of teenagers and adressing their interests.

My chosen text is a teen movie

Stereotype
The social classification of a group of people by identifying common characteristics and universally applying them in a generalised way.

In this film we have characters that break and conform to the stereotypes that they are given

Representation
Provide models of how we see gender, social groups, individuals and aspects of the world we all inhabit.

Representation is important as my independent study is focusing on the representation of females in my chosen text

Post Modernism
'After the modern' generic variation in media texts and as a definition of cultural attitudes. They don't follow generic conventions or traditional narratives.

My chosen text is not generic or traditional

Gender
Psychological and cultural aspects of behaviour associated with masculinity or femininity, acquired through socialisation, in accordance with the expectations of a particular society.

My texts includes males and females, but they don't particularly just follow their sex in the way they behave. We have a battle of the sexes in this film during the court case

Binary Oppositions
A term used by Claude Levi-Strauss as part of his argument that narratives are structured around oppositional elements in human culture, for example, good and evil, life and death, night and day, raw and cooked.

In this text there is the battle of male and female, good and evil, family and independence and many more binary oppositions

Iconography
The distinguishing elements, in terms of props and visual details, which characterize a genre.

This film is full of iconography relating to the media as the main character has an obbsession with wanting to be famous

Empathy
The ability to share the emotions or piont of view of a group or individual.

Although there is no one person in the film who the audience can empathise with on a whole, during different scenes the audience are able to empathise with different characters

Determinism
A marxist concept that individuals and institutions have no chioce of their behaviour because their decisions are shaped by socioeconomic content of the media

Kimberly is obbsessed by wanting to be famous so everything she does is because of what she sees on the TV

Sherish at 10:19 AM

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Teen Movies

http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/scansw/teen.html#anchor147406

The teen movie, or 'teenpic', is a genre which exploits the teenage market as a mass audience. Variously described as 'whimsical, ephemeral and pervasive' (Martin 1994, 65), this is not a strict, enclosed genre. Ideas of what constitutes a popular culture are continually changing. In this case, the nature of the teen movie genre changes very rapidly over time and there are crossovers with neighbouring genres

French film critic Robert Benayoun once described the 'normal qualities of youth as naively, idealism, humour, hatred of tradition, erotomania (abnormally strong sexual desire), and a sense of injustice' (Martin 1994, 67). This description is very true to the teen movie, because it points to the two poles of the genre (Martin 1994), that is, at the one end, the craziness characterised by freeforall fun, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and at the other end, the equally important innocence, uncomplicated contact with another human being, and the unformed, impossible dream of a better world tomorrow

It is worth noting the ongoing relationship between teen movies and mass culture (see 'The Contribution of POpular Culture to Social Change). Belton (1966) wrote that 'if films and filmmakers produce culture, they are also produced by it. The movies are inseparable from the society within whichthey exist; one does not produce the other; rather, each interacts with the other and they mutually determineone another'.

Sherish at 9:31 AM

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Monday, October 02, 2006

Task Six

(there is some of the scene i analysed before and after this clip - this is just to get a faint idea)

Britany is asked to go up on stage and imagine she is alone in her bedroom with the door closed by her drama teacher. She then starts to undress in front of her class and starts touch herself. Then opening her eyes and realising she just embarrased herself she runs out calling her teacher a "fucking pervert" and her best friend, Kimberly also runs after her calling him a pervert too.

• close up of teacher talking about how it is ok to perform private moments and you should be able to to become successful
• zooms out so we are shown that there is a whole class watching which is intimidating for the young girl
• We see a medium shot of Britany who looks scared - the medium shot is able to show us that she feels uncomfortable as she is fiddling with her hands
• teacher asks the girl to close her eyes and imagine - here the teachers voice becomes seductive towards her
• the fact that the teacher is forcing her could show his dominance over her which is confirmed by his age and also his role as her teacher
• there is another male teacher there too who shouldn't be - but he is also enjoying watching
• the non-diegetic sound starts and is quite mysterious which helps to build up suspense
• this sound and the teachers seductive voice accompanys the scene of Britany starting to undress
• the mise en scene of the school shows innocence
• we see a close up of Britany's best friend Kimberly who looks worried
• close up of the teacher looking rather uncomfortable, but enjoying it (voyeuristic pleasures)
• we see a point of view of shot from Britany if she had her eyes open
• close up of teacher then Britany who opens her eyes and starts to cry as she realises
• teacher tells her she did a good job and that she should carry on
• teacher: "you gonna stay and act like a professional or run and cry like a little girl"
• Britany: "I am a little girl you fucking pervert"
• long shot of the class showing no one else cared but Kimberly who follows Britany
  
• the school girl image represents innocence and purity, which is corrupted by the male
• the male gaze is conformed to as we see a male watching something he wouldn't usually be able to see and enjoying it - this is voyeuristic pleasure which could also be aimed at the audience
• we see the male in a more dominant role, as her teacher
• she comes across as obedient as she does what she is told - conform to stereotypes
• even though this is a female dominated film - we still see them as victims
• males are sex driven

Sherish at 8:46 AM

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