Explore how gender is represented in media..
An example of how gender is represented in Film today is how directors use popular franchises and the characters they've created to empower women. Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, directors of the Marvel comic book hero movies know the demand for the most popular superheroes like Iron Man, Spiderman, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk. These characters are mainly pointed towards the teenage-male demographic therefore most of the screen time is fixated on the main Male actors playing the popular characters. This means that females trying to get involved and connected to a character have a much harder time having many feelings when there are only two main female roles and the rest are male.
The men get most of the screen time and most iconic scenes proving that they are on top and they get the movie the sales and the female characters don't have many memorable scenes. However, in the final act of the movie, there is a scene where all the female actors band together in a 5-minute scene where they all help the beloved character Spider Man. This scene to me shows representation of how powerful these women are; the fact that the stereotypical male character is the one saving the girl or damsel in distress, and how this time the directors played with this concept and flipped it around making the female characters save a male character (Spider Man). This scene shows women empowerment and is very important in the media today when we are in a society where men and women should be equal. The fact that a blockbuster film like Endgame has a scene like this means the creators are trying to spread the word of gender equality and empower women using female superhero characters alongside male characters that are known globally. Even other female characters part of the MCU the two black women actors Tessa Thompson and Danai Gurira have a more significant amount of screen time just to show black women are also just as powerful as the white women.
What this display of female empowerment proves is that we are in a changing society and they portrayed this in the character black widow as the movies progressed. As the only woman among the original Avengers, The character Black Widow played by Scarlett Johansson was subject to feminine stereotypes, bitter one-liners, and skin-tight bodysuits in her earlier MCU films. However, as time went on, she became the complex character fans will remember even her death and now a main female role in the MCU can now relate with the younger girl audience. Her personality and several talents are brought too light, and she begins to feel less like a supporting character, getting more screen time and starts to become more like the protagonist, she was designed to be. This will be even more evident when she becomes the lead in the MCU's second solo female-led film, Black Widow.
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| Black Widow in a Skin-tight body suit. |
The Tide ad shows many codes and connotations towards the stereotype of women in the 1950s being housewives. In America men were known to be the head of the house; going out to do hard work, making money, driving cars, and expecting their significant other to do all the work at home while they are away. That work includes looking after the kids, cooking the food, and most importantly cleaning. Cleaning was hard work and time consuming and overall not a fun job to do, therefore making a product trying to sell to households would not be easy, so the designers of the Tide ad had to come up with ideas and design techniques to put on the box to sell to women.
The representation of women in the ad is culturally specific so it can appeal to the demographic that it's pointed towards to. They used white women because at the time it would have been middle to high working class house holds that could afford this. The woman used in the ad has the stereotypical housewife attire with the white top and headband. They also gave the woman bright red lips, white shirt with blue polka dots and a headband and those are colours that represent the American flag showing that all true American women should buy this. The woman is smiling while hugging the tide box which is trying to say that if you are a woman and you have this product you will be happy. We can see little hearts come out of her head as she hugs the Tide, the iconography used connotates with the feeling and emotion of 'love' and 'joy' when using tide. The smiling of the woman can also attract men who have wives because they would want their wives to be happy while cleaning. On the sides of the box there are a lot of the personal pronouns used so they can directly address the women buying the Tide.
SAVESYRIASCHILDREN ADVERT
Save Syrias Children is a charity add that is aimed to highlight other kids lives in Syria by using a British family to show that it could happen anywhere and that we should take into consideration that just because it's not happening here doesn't mean that it's not happening in other parts of the world. Throughout the add, key themes and editing details are used and expressed to get the message across; technical camera editing, lighting and colour in the frame, what's in the frame; people and props, sound; music and sound effects, language; people speaking in the background and tag-lines used.
The camera work in this advert mostly has a set camera angle which is between the medium close up shot (MCU) and the Close Up shot (CU). These shots were used throughout the ad so the audience and get intimate and almost share the feelings we see with the girl and her surroundings. The use of the CU is trying to get the audience as close to her as possible so we can have empathy for her as she experiences the horrible sights she's seeing, as well as the warm feelings she experiences at the start. We start off with the camera having her face and neck in front of the cake so we can see all the candles, which are is an important symbol in the ad, the camera angle allows us to see the light illuminate the girls face showing the warmth she is feeling on her birthday, the yellow-orange tones in the first few scenes slowly fade out and transition to scenes which get more dim and colder. They appear to highlight the premise of the ad and match the feelings of the girl the audience is empathising with. The camera work appears to stay the same when the girl is in her white higher working class-home so the everyday objects and surroundings seem realistic so the audience can relate more with her. When she is outside it's a MCU shot that is shaky, this adds to the realism and this hints to future shakiness of the camera when the ad starts to escalate with unpredictable movements. We see a shot when the girl is in a car when the camera is further away from her face compared to the shots when she was in her home. This shot is to set up the new setting that the girl is in and tell the audience that she is not in her 'white higher middle-class home' anymore. The lighting later on in the advert shows connotation to an idea of fear and uncertainty, this is because when the girl was at home and safe the colours were warmer and we saw orange-yellow light illuminate the girls face making her appearance look healthier, when she is outside the colours are colder showing her face in a different light so when she gets sick and when she is in a new outside environment the blue tones come out.
The props in the advert are used to create a realistic setting so the target demographic is British people. The birthday cake which is shown at the start of the advert is a key idea throughout the advert and is used as this motif that appears in the ending shot. It was cleverly constructed to make this cycle of starting off with the blowing out of the candles and saying make a wish and also ending with the same thing but the difference being the second time it happens it is in a completely different environment and it's when the main character looks at the audience, finally interacting with them as the video ends. This is impactful because the viewers watched a young girl go through a lot of pain and to end with her birthday like how the video started it creates this timeline and the ad is trying to say that this girl went through all of that in one year. The ad uses he birthday and "make a wish" at the start so when British viewers see this they can immediately relate to the scene because it's a tradition that they have and it makes it can make it more personal to the viewer and give the girl more of a personality. The girl in the video is in a British setting throughout which could be quite confusing because the terrible events happening in the video doesn't occur in the UK however the video is trying to be relatable to its audience and explain that it could happen anywhere.
There is a shot in the ad where the dad and girl are at a park having fun playing football which is very popular in the UK. While they are playing the dad says "Here I come" completing the well known phrase from the game Hide and Seek, "Ready or not" that was said earlier in another shot. This small detail added was foreshadowing the future events that would occur. Hide and Seek is a game where someone goes to hide and the point of this video is about Syrian families shaving to go and hide from terrorist attacks which is a hyperbole of the hide and seek reference.
Water Aid Charity
In the ad the opening shot shows a stereotypical UK house with a digital radio to show that this is a middle class house and they do have some sort of luxury which is used very early in the first six seconds of the video to establish a British audience in comparison to Africa, they don't have the technological luxury the UK have. The lighting is cold only because there is rain outside the window showing how British people stay inside while it's raining to stay away from getting wet when in reality there are people who would love to be outside in the rain because they don't have that luxury of having water for free, until it quickly switches to warm lighting in Africa which is a binary opposite, this is used to show contrast and highlight how the rural Africa setting is different to the Suburban UK household. Another way they used Africa's sun to its advantage was to position the water so it reflects the golden sun making the water sparkle and appear to be golden. Gold is known to be something that rich people have possession of, and knowing that the African children don't even have access to water makes it seem that this water is gold to them, making the water to be high value to them like gold is for high class people living in the west.
The ad transitions over to a girl in Africa with a pale of water, decent clothing, and surrounded by tall dried grass where you can hear the insects. The sound of the rain from the UK house fades out slowly transitions into the sounds of the insects to again show contrast in the outside setting the environment around the main character. This ad is set in the rural area of Africa as a tactic to show the poorer part which is a stereotype that has been adopted by western people. They expect Africa to be a place that is filled with poverty, and not as advanced as other countries even though there are parts in Africa where they are advanced and do look like first world countries but in order to get British viewers to feel empathy towards the children in the ad they shot the video in a place that doesn't look like they have a lot of luxury. This is a stereotype that has been adopted by a lot of people to think that when you think of Africa, its connected to extreme hot weather, small villages and no clean water. The main character is holding a pale of water and it appears to be empty as it zooms in on it to show that she has nothing
The ad has a tone of a lot of natural noise, this was used to make the viewers watching feel like they are there and in the environment. The main character in the ad sings a song which was a very popular pop song called "rain for good". This song was used because it was known and would be recognisable to a wider audience. The song gradually gets louder as a more of the children in the background join in and it sounds like a church chorus adding a triumphant sound to show some sort of victory that can only be achieved once the viewers watching donate to the cause. This is important to show because it is being clear about what the charity is trying to do to help children that need clean water so consumers know what they are putting their money towards, on the other hand, showing this part of the ad can be a risky decision because it is showing them enjoy water which defeats the purpose of what they are trying to do. For example someone watching would see happy kids enjoying water and feel like they wouldn't have to donate, which is why during the happy tones with the golden lighting of the sun reflecting off the water, the singing, the bright primary colours of the buckets and clothing a message appears saying "650 million people still don't have access to clean water". This is a very heavy message and combining that message alongside the visuals creates an empathetic shot that encourages the viewers to donate.
Another technique the creators of the ad used was giving the main character a name. Giving the name 'Claudia' which is a western name and is common can make people relate more with them because it is a name that people are used to and to add more personality.
Dizzee Rascal
GENRE
hip hop Rap about dizzee rascal rise to success and gives a positive message
use of props and toys makes it look light hearted
toys are on the ladies piano In her world, old and white people who run London
puppets are controlled by people higher up
NARRATIVE: old white lady is in control by letting dizzy out the box and all the toys are hers. Her reaction towards the toys interacting are always showing disgust.
REPRESENTATION: using "muffin and the mule" reference as the white woman in that show inspires the woman playing the piano. He samples a tune from "Captain Sensible" that plays throughout the song
TECHNICAL CODES: camera is far away to show a full s
LIGHTING AND COLOUR: washed colours, saturated pastel likes colours which strays away from the grime genre that his fans are used to.
PROPS AND COSTUMES: Wearing hoodies, hoodies were frowned upon during the time this song was made.
Paul Gilroy's Theory
Gilroy presents the idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era. The idea that civilisation constructs
Riptide is a 2013 Indie/ Folk music video that shows many connotations to famous movie franchise tropes especially horror. The film making techniques are heavily inspired by Wes Anderson's style which will be explained in relations to technical codes. The songs genre being indie seems to parody many horror tropes and is a good window for allowing postmodernist techniques to be used for example women always being a target for being murdered and in crime movies, it's common for a pretty white blond girl to be targeted. This also could have connections to the stereotype of blondes being dumb by getting themselves into these situations. There is intertextuality shown that has a woman being tied up; this links to the horror vibe the video gives off but later shows her breaking free from the ropes. This could symbolise to the recurring theme of breaking free and escaping situations the woman doesn't want to be in. We also see this in another scene where the woman leaves the country and buys a plane ticket to New York, this is a metaphor for escape and how the woman wants to physically leave her dilemma about domestic violence, this shows how desperate the woman is in the narrative to leave. Domestic Violence against women is a key theme in this video and it is highlighting this idea of a woman going through domestic abuse but the song is not directly telling the audience about it however it is written to show that it is aware of the message, similar to the breaking of the fourth wall, the reflexivity used is a smart way of showing quite a dark theme in this case domestic abuse and sexualising women but doesn't shove content in the viewers face making them interpret it how they want to.
There is a shot in the video where it shows a book on how to Photograph Women, this is used as a subtle nod to the theme of the narrative because throughout the video we see shots of women from many different angles and also plays with the idea of breaking the forth wall; communicating with the audience in an indirect way. The use of high camera angles that are used on the women to make them appear smaller. The lighting used is dark at times so it makes the women portrayed to be in a position where they may be unsafe and afraid. When the women are left on the scene for a long time it makes the audience feel uncomfortable because it is not right for a camera to be zoomed in on a bruised woman for a long time. We see women from a back angle, that doesn't show her face, feet, legs and back which is used as eye candy for the male target audience although the shots may be intentionally done not for the male target audience but to show that they have meaning and connote a message to stop objectifying women for example the scene where there is someone spying on a woman from the bushes below again objectifying the woman referring to her as a prize or item that the man can stare at.
The woman singing at the microphone is represented in a typical way in terms of beauty and glamour. She is wearing red lipstick and makeup and her hair is done, the spotlight is on her. It tries to make her look sexual or seductive and a perfect ideology of what a woman in media should look like. However as the video progresses the makeup gets smudged like she's been assaulted. The girl is clearly very terrified because of her face and her eyes seem to wander off when she's singing like she is paranoid or scared of someone in the audience that she is directly looking at, this may be the reason why she sings the words wrong.
In conclusion the women are montaged in a way to show many different stereotypes on the representation on how media sees women for example being abused, afraid, sexy, powerful and wealthy. On the other hand the men portrayed are mostly shown to be the victimisers and are the ones recording and spying on woman due to the fact that the song was made by a man and they made this song to gain publicity and this song was an invitation for new audiences to interpret the video how they want.
THEME: Domestic Violence Intertextuality - shows a woman tied up and that she eventually escapes the rope, breaking free.
Ironic and Dark Humour/Parody and shows a lot of POSTMODERNIST techniques like the horror genre
REFLEXIVITY - making the audience aware that the show knows what its doing like breaking the forth wall (dead pool and Rick and Morty)
NARRATIVE: A main recurring scene at the chorus as the video goes on
GENRE/AUDIENCE: Indie(independant) + Pop/ Generally guitar or ukulele
Indie music tend to fetishise alternative and quirky technology
Retro and not trying to be mainstream. An old TV program is playing to show its
TECHNICAL CODE:ICONOGRAPHY,CAMERA LIGHTING:
Shot is similar to Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr Fox and Isle Of Dogs) his use of symmetrical and props to develop characters and themes.
Objects in riptide have lots of meaning like the knife and gun that shows up a lot
First scene; Woman looking scared as she is restrained at a dentist. Low angle shot to make a character feel more powerful and confident
Second shot is a woman in a bikini in the water, showing only her back and not her face which shows depersonalisation. This sexualises the girl which is mostly used to draw attention
Another shot where a girl is running away to the riptide only showing her back again - distancing her from the audience
A dark shot where a girl is in a bed and get dragged away
"Techniques of photographing girls" the video is aware of itself as it shows a book that has that title.
Blue Velvet - the chorus when the girl is singing the words wrong its shot in darkness so her face is highlighted to show the smudged makeup
DIRECT + LITERAL LYRICS: "Running away to the riptide" literally shows a girl running to the riptide. The girl sings the words wrong on purpose an it doesn't match the lyrics
Childish Gambino - Sweatpants
What kind of world is being represented by the media text and how is real life being constructed and mediated by the producers?
sad
Is what presents close to reality?
No, in the music video it shows Donald Glover loop in the same area several times and the more it goes on the more strange the visuals get
What elements of the group, issue or event being represented have been selected for the audience,l and which elements have been ignored or removed?
reason and answer
-Section B Computer Games:
How have video games and consoles changed through history?
Video games have changed throughout history thanks to the advancement in technology and since 1973 all the way up to the present years with the internet.
• which consoles/devices were available
NES in 1985 was well received after fixing the video game crash where games were seen as a waste of money and weren't selling well. It introduced
• the important and influential games of the time
• the advances in technology and playability
• main audiences
and links to other media e.g film, social media
What do the following terms mean?
MMORPG Massive multiplayer online role playing game AUGMENTED
REALITY
PERSISTENT
WORLDS
CRPG
AVATOR
List and summarise the various audience pleasures and experiences that computer games can provide ( e.g completing levels , making money , competition with others etc. swapping tips and watching other gamers etc. )
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Case Study:
Assassin's Creed is an open-world action-adventure stealth video game franchise by Ubisoft. The Assassin's Creed games focus on the rivalry and conflict between two ancient secret societies - the Assassins, who represent freedom, and the Templar, who represent order. Versions of these societies have existed for centuries, with the Assassins seeking to stop the Templars from gaining control of ancient artefacts that are capable of overriding free will to control people. The Assassin's Creed games have been fairly accessible to a large amount of audiences from phones to windows and even different game consoles from the Nintendo DS in 2008 to the Playstation 5 in 2020. The company Ubisoft have a good relationship with Nintendo but seems that Nintendo's game hardware doesn't support meaning some games are missing on Nintendo consoles. This may be due to Nintendo's main focus on supplying games for a younger audience.
Recurring themes and main gameplay element in the Assassin's Creed games is the combination of stealth and action. similar to the METAL GEAR SOLID, although the gameplay was quite uninspired and not very polished. Ubisoft made uninspired spinoffs similar to Square Enix when they make the KINGDOM HEARTS spinoffs only for some easy sales for a game with a low budget. Until with ASSASSIN'S CREED 2 starring Ezio as the main character being one of the best sellers and even earned game awards because the development team listened to the reviews of the previous game and adapted on it, making a new world to explore and taking away the boring side quests and develop an interesting backstory to engage players.
And in 2010 when ASSASSIN'S CREED: BROTHERHOOD was released fans were not expecting a good game due to the fact that most of the creative team left.aa Although it's confusing title not having a number at the end it was just as good as AC2.
There was a movie based on the video game universe to expand the demographic and new audiences.
The quality of graphics are respectable for a triple A game of that year and looks very realistic. The gameplay is also realistic
Develop of understanding of mainstream and independent
Independent:
-mixture and undefined dramas, offbeat comedy
Social themes + messages
"serious" content, downbeat or open endings, "real"
Niche + small older active audience, critically acclaimed "important"
Not needing to become a commercial success because the budgets aren't as big.
Unknown actors, some stars will be in independent
Independent studios + Co-funding from other companies
Don't tend to be part of a franchise, because they have a main message they want to show to audiences
Mainstream:
-Escapist entertainment: where the audience can feel like they have escaped their real world.
Upbeat endings + closed endings
Usually have stars
Large mass and passive audience, commercial success. They need to be commercial success because they have a big budget to earn back.
Usually part of a franchise
Funding and Production
- Major studio (Disney, Sony Animation, Warner Bros., Marvel etc) these big studios will already have money and
Black Panther is defined as a mainstream film because of the factors that films need to be to be classified as a mainstream. It is an escapist movie meaning the directors have created a whole new universe which is Wakanda in the MCU. Making this universe takes a big budget to create the CGI affects and make the setting realistic. Independent films don't have the budget to create that escapism aspect therefore making in mainstream. The movie is Sci-fi, Superhero and action; three mainstream genres for movies that appeal to a large audience and fanbase that Marvel established.
Black Panther fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe because the movies follow up from the events from the Captain America: Civil War. By using another well known movie to introduce the events of this movie already establishing an audience a few years before the movie came out.
It's different from the other MCU films because its the first film where the main cast is black African-american and reaches a whole new niche. The success of the film is mainly because a lot of the
the film has a linear structure where the hero learns how to overcome his challenges. there is a bitter sweet ending because t'challa ends up killing his cousin because of altercations that happened when they were kids. but overall the hero does win and restores peace in wakanda.
there is room for a sequel but unfortunately chadwick boseman died of cancer in autumn of 2020 meaning that there can't be a sequel with the same black panther.
there is a lot of heroism in this movie because the characters and how they are determined to avenge members of their nation and fill superhero roles that have been passed down which is the black panther. this makes the audience relate to the characters more because they are determined to be heroes for a reason.
Who produced and finance the film ? What was the budget for production ?
How large-scale was the distribution ?
How financially successful was it ?
Does it also have any of the key features more typical of an independent film ?
I DANIEL BLAKE - An indie film
Palme Dor Film festival winner - an older audience,
BFI - British film institute - it's where the money came from to make it
Newcastle setting - quite an obscure area thats outside of London,
Main star is not a well known actor. Its about the benefit system in the UK which relates to a more older audience where younger people cant relate. Its tackling this as the "villain" because this movie doesn't have any escapism aspects
In the trailer the director is mentioned unlike big budget marvel films the director isn't mentioned as much and it's more about the actors.
Radio:
Music genres may include pop/rap/classical/indie etc. and give a clue to the station's target audience.
Spoken word genres may include chat segments, interviews, podcasts ,documentaries,comedy panel shows, drama, news broadcasts and lifestyle programmes and also give an idea about the station's target audience.
RADIO 1: POP MUSIC, YOUNGER AUDIENCES MAY LISTEN TO IT
RADIO 3: CLASSISCAL MUSIC, AND A PODCAST DICUSSING THE SOUND AIMED AT ADULTS
RADIO 4: PODCASTS AND STORIES ABOUT REAL PEOPLE BEING SHARED, AIMED AT ANY AGE, AND THOSE WHO WILL BE INTERESTED ON LISTENING TO THE PODCASTS.
Beyonce Formation:
Beyonce is represented as strong, and powerful towards the audience this is shown through her use of Direct address, giving a different insight on society's view of women, also giving power to her culture, this is shown through her code of clothes and body language being able to act more freely and how she likes not how she should act according to society.
Gender – Beyonce’s body and the way in which it relates to her star persona and her African-American identity in the 1900s is a key element in her Music video as it refers to slavery, she’s suggesting despite slavery not existing anymore there’s still oppression on black in 2016
Gender - Focused on mainly black females being strong and powerful and fighting for a better rpresentation in society. Links to the black lives matter movement.
Age - All ages are shown from kids to the eldery. for example the three young black girls, showing their confidence and pride in the way they are with their afros. and not to be put down or out of place due to society which is run mainly by the white older male.
Issues - Racial tension following the events of Hurricane Katrina.
Positive representation - The video emphasises black people in a different manor of being just as strong and powerful that white people. The opening shot of beyonce on the police can symbolise the attempt to decrease the oppression on black people and rise above. As an opening shot it is ppowerful because it breaks from beyonce's main persona on close ups and looking glamourous way. It sets the tone of the music video
Negative Representation - Formation uses stereotypes such as sexual images of black females.
Camera Work:
Angle - high shots to show the vulnerability of black people. Low angle shots used to show they're strong, through their footwork in dance.
Camera shots - Close ups which illustrate emotion. Establishing shots which show the scene as a whole for instance the flooding scenes showing the impact the hurricane had.
References:
Sinking police car -
Flooded waters -
MLK -
