The Male Gaze

N.E.R.D's music video for the song Lapdance, fits in well with Laura Mulveys theory of the 'Male Gaze'. Mulvey theory suggests that:

• "visual pleasure and narrative cinema"
• Active males/passive female.
• Woman as image/men as "bearer of the look.
• Voyeuristic
• fetishistic

N.E.R.D'S music video contains most of these points, it shows many images of women wearing minimal clothing, acting as the 'image'. Throughout the video there are also many clips of the men looking at and admiring the women, this shows them acting as the 'bearer of the look'. Women are treated as objects in this video, they wear little clothing and are there to catch the attention and 'gaze' of the audience. The video is very sexual and seductive towards males, it shows several scenes of women surrounding the male singers trying to seduce them. This also ties in with Majorie Ferguson catorgaries of female expression, the women use romantic and sexual looks and actions to gain attention and hold the 'gaze' of the audience.

The Male Gaze

Marjorie Ferguson (1980) identified four types of facial expression in the cover photos of British women’s magazines:

1. Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
2. Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
3. Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
4. Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

 Trevor Millum offers these categories of female expressions:

1.    Seductive: similar to the cool/level look in many respects - the eyes are less wide, perhaps shaded, the expression is less reserved but still self-sufficient and confident; milder versions may include a slight smile.

2.    Seductive: similar to the cool/level look in many respects - the eyes are less wide, perhaps shaded, the expression is less reserved but still self-sufficient and confident; milder versions may include a slight smile.

3.    Practical: concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, mouth closed, eyes object-directed, sometimes a slight frown; hair often short or tied back.

4.    Comic: deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated, acting the fool, pulling faces for the benefit of a real or imaginary audience, sometimes close to a sort of archness.

5.    Catalogue: a neutral look as of a dummy, artificial, waxlike; features may be in any position, but most likely to be with eyes open wide and a smile, but the look remains vacant and empty; personality has been removed. (Millum 1975, 97-8)

How are regional identity and sexuality represented in the opening sequence of Shameless episode 1?

Consider:

Stereotypes 

mise en scene

music 

camera work

As a class we discussed the different stereotypes associated a with sexuality and regional identity, these are the ideas we came up with:

Sexuality:

Gay: camp, limp wristed, mincing walk, muscular, gay couple; camp one (f) butch one (m), loud and flamboyant.

Straight: insensitive, loves boobs, reads lads magazines, drinks beer, unhealthy, metro sexual - man who takes care of his appearance.

Regional identity:

Northeners: poor, butch, manual labour jobs, strong accents, tracksuits, uneducated, drinkers, old fashioned, gravy on everything, swearing a lot, funny and crime is common.

Southeners: camp/feminine, business men, suits, country club, golf, The 'Essex' stereotype, expensive and more culture.

Shameless episode one:
Ian - Gay, Lip finds his porn stash, he also has a Kylie poster in his room, which is an unusual idol for a teenage boy. He also cries when Lip finds his porn, showing that his is feminine. However he does where unstereotypically gay clothes such as tracksuits.

Lip - Straight - normal teenage boy, thinking about girls a lot of the time, in the opening sequence he has a sexual encounter with a girl, it is somewhat humorous as the girls mother is in view whilst he is receiving oral sex. Lip then gloats to his brother (Ian) about this sexual encounter.

Steve - Straight - he also has a sexual encounter with Fiona in the opening sequence, this is a much more adult encounter. Romantic music plays when the couple are kissing, and birds sound adding a Disneyesk feeling to the sexual encounter.

Fiona - Straight - she has a one night stand with Steve, there is some intertexuality with Fiona's sex noises with Monty Python adding a random but humerous edge to this sexual encounter.

Warp Films Fact Sheet.

Media Essay - Discuss the issues and patterns which enables your institution to thrive as a film business, with a focus on the production process. Ensure you include: • Examples from Working Title and Warp Films. • Comparisons between British case studies and Hollywood.

To thrive as a film business you must create and market popular films that will make a profit, this means that they will cost less money to produce than the money they receive through cinema ticket sales, DVD sales and memorabilia sales. Making a profit is an important part of success in the film industry but you must also become respected and recognised by audiences and other film companies, there are many issues and patterns that must be considered to help a film business thrive. Many of these issues occur in the production process for example getting funding and choosing the appropriate cast.

The production process plays a huge part in creating a successful film institution, without producing films you cannot be a film institution. Once your producer has created and developed an idea he must then begin to search for funding to pay for the film to be produced. This can often be difficult as most producers look for  3-10 investors as a fewer number of investors will give the produce less control and if one of his investors were to pull out the producer would lose a huge chunk of his budget and this may put a halt to film production. This is the case with Warp films, as they are an independent film company unlike Working Title and can often struggle to find investment, and for this reason produce low budget films for example This Is England had a budget of £1.5 million as very small budget compared to Working Titles £8million budget for Hot Fuzz. However Hot Fuzz’s budget looks miniscule when compared to Hollywood films such as Avatar’s budget of $237million. This is the main difference between British films and Hollywood films.

In the production process the producer acts as an entrepreneur, they develop the idea, search for funding and choose their director and cast. This is another issue as choosing the wrong director and cast could cause the film to flop, and using big name directors such as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron combined with high profile actors could increase the popularity of a film greatly. Yet in the case of Warp films their budget does not allow them to use either big name actors or directors, they must search for young acting/directing talent which will not be over expensive. However once they have discovered this talent they may use them several times to increase their reputation.

When producing a film it is of great importance to plan each stage of the filming process, the producer must make a detailed plan of what will be filmed when and how long it will take. Many producers decide to film the most difficult scenes first so that they can get them out of the way and proceed with filming the rest of the film. It is important to plan in detail so that the film will be released on time, this is especially the case in Hollywood because many of the films are marketed to build up suspense and excitement about the release date and if the film was not released on time it could lose a lot of this excitement and cost the company money.

In Hollywood the marketing of a film is seen to be the most important part of the production process. Hollywood films cost such vast amounts of money that for the producers of the film it is even more important that the films are popular and produce a large amount of revenue. For Hollywood films marketing plays a huge part, they see the film industry as a global marketplace and focus of creating excitement and building the popularity of a film, by doing this they often create far more revenue than British film Institutions. In contrast British film companies tend focus on securing the funding to produce the film rather than securing a profit from the film. Hollywood take a more business like view to their films whereas British films institutions focus on the achievement of actually producing the film.

In conclusion there are many patterns and issues that film institutions much overcome in order to produce films and become a successful film institution, and it is clear that Hollywood takes a different approach, they are much more profit driven and business like in their production on films. Whereas British films do not, although they do still make brilliant and entertaining films they make much less profit and produce a much smaller amount of films, making them seem much less successful and leading to the downfall and lack of production of British films.   

Rushmore

Rushmore was made in 1998 and was directed by Wes Anderson, a well know director who's work is very recognisable.
We were set the task of watching the opening part of Rushmore and deciding whether the main character Max Fisher was a stereotypical teenager. As a class we came to the agreement that Max was not a stereotypical teenager. In fact he is quite the opposite from the stereotypical teenager, being lazy and lethargic. Max tries very hard to get involved and shows great enthusiasm to find something that he is good at, he does this by taking part in all the clubs in Rushmore college. Max is very active and from the opening montage it is clear that he does not lack energy and is most definatley not slugish, another aspect which is often associated with stereotypical teenagers. By taking part in each club shows he is not the stereotypical teenager. Max also presents himself in a very formal and precise way, unlike some of the other students he wears his blazer and neatly tied tie and each time we see him his hair is carefully swept across and his glasses are clean and perfectly placed on the bridge of his nose. All this points separate Max Fisher from the stereotypical scruffy teenager.
Overall it is clear to see that Max Fisher is far from the stereotypical teenager, he is far too hard working and ambitious to be placed in this stereotype.

Production Documentary

In Class we watched a small clip about the Production of films and how much time and effort every aspects consumes.

Producer:
The producer comes up with the initial idea of the film, it is also the producers job to get the funding for the film. They must also choose the director and cast that they want in their film. The producer is the entrepreneur of the film, and the most important person involved in the production of the film. They must choose the right director and cast to make the film successful, if they make the wrong decision the film could be a failure.

Script: 
The script is also very important, it has to relate to the audience and the actors/actresses. It also has to inspire the director. Every script has a beggining a middle and an end and 10-15 drafts are written before everyone is satisfied.

Attracting Investment: 
Attracting investment is a crucial stage of production, without investment the film cannot be made. Most producers look to television companies and regional film industries for investers, it is less of a risk if you have a large number of investers most aim for 7-10 different investers. This is because if one investor pulls out you only loose a small preportion of your funding, if you had 2 investors and 1 pulls out you have lost half of your funding and the film may not be able to go ahead. Having more investers gives more power to the producer.

Planning:
Planning is also a crucial part of production. When producing a film you must allow time for filming each individual scene, many producers decide to film the most difficult scenes first as they have more time.

Budget:
All films have a budget and each film is considered as an individual bussiness. This means that it is important to make a profit on each film. All costs must not exceed the budget, it is important to consider all above the line and below the line costs.

Audience:
Before producing a film you must have a specific target audience, they must be able to relate and understand the film. A film with no target audience will not be popular.

Marketing:
When marketing a film it is important to consider the genre of your films and if it would sell better at a particular time of year, eg horror films at halloween. There are lots of things to consider when marketing a film, such as when it will be released in the cinema and DVD. Hollywood films focus on marketing and popularity where as British films dont. It is not unknown for a film to cost more to market than to produce.

Film Financing

There are many different ways in which films can financed, the producer must secure funding for the production of the film before they begin filming. It is difficult to predict how much a film is going to cost to produce.
These are the different ways that funding can be secured:
Government Grants:
These are Grants provided by the Government, this scheme is designed to encourage creativity and develop new talent within the British Film industry. Film Production can benefit a country as it creates new jobs, allows the national culture to develop and can also lead to an increase in tourism.

The UK Film Council and The National Lottery:
These provide funding for films in a number of different ways:

Tax Schemes:
This offers a direct subsidy to shoot and produce the film in Britain .

Tax Shelters:
This scheme allows those who invest in the UK films to pay less tax, encouraging more people to invest in British films.

Pre Sales:
Pre sales involves the Producer selling the right to distribute the film before it is made.

Binary Opposites

Binary opposites

View more presentations from edprice.

American Beauty Opening Scene.

American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey Stars as Lester Burnham.
In class we watched the opening scene of American Beauty and examined Kevin Spacey's character Lester Burnham.

Lester Burnham is a 42 year old man, who is married and has one child: a teenage daughter. He lives in a very stereotypical American neighbourhood, his wife is very uptight and obsessive is her body language and actions. This is a contrast to Lester who is very sedated and subdued in his body language, giving off the impression that he no longer cares about his life. There is no doubt that Lester has succeeded in life as he lives in a nice house and drives an expensive 4x4 car, however in the opening scene we can see that he no longer looks forward to work and has lost his ambition. It is also obvious that he no longer loves his wife, which is mutual, we can see this by the piercing look she gives him as he makes her late. It is also obvious that his sex life is poor, he states in the opening scene that "jerking off" in the shower would be the high point of his day. In conclusion, Lester is having a mid-life crisis, he is unhappy, forgetful and has a defeatist attitude.

During the opening scene we also looked at the mise en scene of the opening scene. I noticed that there was certain colours that were repeated throughout the scene, these colour were red, white and blue - the colours of the American flag.

Magazine cover + contents anaylsis

View more presentations from edprice.