Laura Mulvey | James Bond

The James Bond franchise is a clear example of film objectifying females and forcing the audience to view females via the male gaze. THe scene with, ‘Die Another Day’ When James Bond meets the character Jinx demonstrates my previous statement by James looking through binoculars at Jinx when she is coming out of the water. Vignette has been added in post production making it seem like the audience is viewing Jinx through James’ eyes. With the audience just being able to focus on Jinx with the vignette and a closeup of her it is objectifying Jinx and forcing the audience to view the female via the male gaze.

Slow motion has also been added post production which exaggerates her getting out of the water letting the camera stay on her longer leaving more time for the audience to look at her for scopophilia and objectification. Non-digetic music has also been used to suggest James’ fantasy in his head and therefore the audience’s fantasy as they are watching it through his eyes. 

Hegemonic behaviour is shown in the scene when James hands Jinx the glass of alcohol saying ‘you should try it’. He is being dominant and forceful towards Jinx pushing her into trying the drink. This is also shows the patriarchal society they are in. 

Jinx has been coded in a particular way to be noticed. She is in a small bikini, with large breasts and flawless makeup even after she has just left the water. This is a false view of reality. Jinx’s walk up to the bar is exaggerated, again objectifying her. 

Bond’s first words to her were ‘magnificent view’, to which she responds with ‘It is isn’t it, too bad it’s lost on everybody else’. This suggests that women only care about what other men think and they only act in a certain behaviour for men, which is a false representation of women. 

All of this has happened before the audience knows who she is and whether she carries an important role within the film. The film has focused on her appearance before her as a person. 

Laura Mulvey | American Beauty

I will be analysing a scene from the American Beauty. A girls parents are on their way to their daughters school to see her dance at a basket ball game. The dad doesn’t want to go and is being negative towards it. 

The dancing scene starts of with the camera being focused on their daughter and the dance group as a whole and then half way through they stand in the line and the camera focuses on the last girl in the line who you would have not noticed before hand. 

The camera then does a slow zoom of towards her and then cuts towards the dad in the audience staring at her and then keeps cutting back and forth between them un till the camera is zoomed close. 

Unfinished

Representation of Young People | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

This film trailer is for the sequel to the original film The Hunger Games and is about Katniss and Peeta going back into the arena. 

The first time you see Katniss in the trailer is in the beginning where she is sat talking to her sister and comforting her. One of the first shots is of Katniss and Primrose hugging. This immediately shows the stereotypical representation of women being caring and loving towards other people especially her family. She says ‘I don’t want you to get hurt’, which shows that she acts in the best interest of her family. Katniss also appears quite motherly sat comforting her sister, which again is another stereotype towards females. 

Later on in the trailer Katniss is shown to be independent and brave when she is in a way threatened by the mayor of the country and stands up to protect her loved ones and put on a front for the public. Katniss is shown using a bow and arrow and diving into the water when she is in the arena. These are actions that typically a man would be shown to be doing in an action film however again she is opposite to the typical female stereotype of being incapable of doing these things. 

A love interest between Katniss, Peeta and Gale is also shown in the trailer, which supports the stereotypes of ‘young love’ and in many films including teenagers there is often a story in the film based around their love interests. When Katniss and Peeta are talking it shows confusion about what to do in their situation which shows vulnerability amongst teenage love. 

Gale and Katniss are shown talking about what they should do. Katniss suggests what she thinks but Gale has his own ideas which shows the representation that men often do what they want and do not get told what to do. Katniss again however shows opposites to what the stereotypical actions of what a women do which is to let the main take lead on what to do, but again she shows independence by doing the opposite. 

The typical love triangle included in this film is also stereotypical of young teenagers and are common in films involving young people. 

Primrose is Katniss’ younger sister and is shown scared and venerable in the trailer when Katniss is taken away which shows her age and is expected of someone so young. She also seems somewhat naive at the beginning of the trailer when suggesting theres hope with all the violence and killing of people, however supports the stereotype that children are often positive towards things when they don’t always see the bigger picture. 

Towards the end of the trailer young people are shown in the training centre getting ready to go into the arena. Teenagers are typically stereotyped as being lazy and waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen in this generation and this trailer shows them being motivated to get what they want to achieve, (even if they are training to kill people in an arena… )

Katniss shows multiple different roles and stereotypes, some opposite to what is usually expected, within the trailer as well as the other young characters involved. 

Genre and Narrative | Skyfall Anaylsis

Narrative:

In terms of Propp theory there are obvious characters within this scene of Skyfall. James Bond can be obviously identified as the hero in the film as he is wearing an all black sharp suit with black shades (which makes him identifiable as bond) with close ups of his face of him looking calm and composed when being forced to shoot towards the woman opposite him. There are long shots of Bond slightly looking up towards him which creates the feeling that he is powerful and brave while amongst the villains in the scene. The audience would know that Bond is the hero if they have watched previous James Bond films however if someone hadn’t seen him before they would know that he wasn’t bad as he did not shoot the girl and also when he kicks into typical ‘Bond mode’ when he starts to shoot the other villains an fight back.

The other character shown in the scene is the villain. The audience would be able to tell he was the villain as he forces Bond to shoot the girl in the scene and then goes onto to shooting her himself. He also has an entourage of people with him to ‘protect’ him if bond turns on him. The villain also dresses smartly and so you can tell he has money and power. The villain also speaks in an authoritative and patronising way towards Bond talking as if they are on the same side and they are trying to achieve the same thing, when in fact they are not. This shows the audience he is villain as they are usually quite cocky and think they are above everyone else.

Binary opposition is shown in the scene when Bond and the villain have a close up of them face to face showing good and evil. This also shows narrative to the story as it tells the audience that they are working against each other.

The girl in the clip is the Princess in the scene as she is shown to be in trouble and is being targeted by the villain. The villain places a shot glass on her head for him and bond to aim at. There is a long shot of the  girl showing her on her own opposite the men which makes her look vulnerable. The woman is wearing a red dress in the scene. Red is a connotation of love which could suggest that she is the love interest in the film or in the case of the Propp theory the ‘princess’. Red can also mean danger which she is in, in the scene that we watch as the men are getting ready to shoot her. This again could suggest the following narrative in the film.

Genre:

Some people that have previously watched bond films would know that the genre is spy and action, however for the people who have never watched Bond films before it is given away with particular elements of the film.Particular types of genre’s repeat certain narrative in many films so therefore the audience can predict what genre particular films are by the narrative of the film.

You would know that the film is action , as at the start of the clip the villain pulls out two guns which is iconography for what is about to happen. The guns represent that violence is going to occur making it fall into the action genre. Bond later then goes onto fighting back against the villains and shoots them, which again shows the action element to the film.

The audience would know that it is a spy film by the equipment that is shown e.g a tracker. Bond is also wearing a dark suit and dark shades which is a stereotype of what spies wear, so it implies to the audience that he is in fact a spy. You could also tell that it is a Bond movie as once Bond has fought back against the villains the typical Bond music is played which is repeated in each of the bond films and therefore is recognisable to the audience.

Niche and Mainstream

Describe Niche and Mainstream audiences with specific text examples.

A niche audience is small and specialised. Only this small audience of people are likely to be interested in this particular text. 

e.g Storage Hunters could be classed as having a niche audience. The channel it is on is DAVE which is not an extremely well known channel, therefore only certain people would tune into that channel to watch this particular programme. The show is also mainly shown in the day so not many people are at home, so if they wanted to watch that particular programme they would have to record it. However the show is shown multiple times throughout the day meaning there is a lot of access to it making it more mainstream. The content is also in some ways niche as it specialises in a specific interest which is buying and selling items, however it is a reality show which again is classed as being mainstream. This show therefore has aspects of both a niche audience and a mainstream audience. 

A Mainstream audience is a wider audience with the texts that they are interested in being well known and popular amongst a large amount of people. 

e.g X Factor is a mainstream text as it is shown on primetime TV to a wide audience. It is shown on primetime TV as because of the amount of people watching the show, the channels can make more money on advertisements as more viewers equals more money. The show is aired on TV every Saturday from September to December at 8:00pm making it a popular time for people to watch TV. The content is also well known and popular amongst many people. The audience can also easily access the TV show as it is on a main TV channel, ITV. The show is informal towards the audience with the presenter talking to the audience and the audience are able to get involved with the show. The show also has well known celebrities appearing on the show. This would appeal to a wider audience. Many people can also socialise over the show as it is a highly discussed topic with parts of the show being comedic making more people want to watch it so they do not feel like they are missing out. 

Coursework Question

To what extent do the tv shows, the Inbetweeners and Skins, challenge the teenage stereotypes, specifically looking at season 1 episode 1 in both programmes?  

Teenagers and young people are stereotyped in a particular way in the media. I am going to be analysing how they are represented in the TV programmes, Skins and The Inbetweeners. Skins portrays teenagers in a bad light associating them with drugs, alcohol, parties, sex and general violence, making these the main focus of each episode. In comparison, The Inbetweeners has a more comedic view of teenagers focusing on the more common and relatable characters and their unsuccessfulness with girls, embarrassing situations and them in general trying to transition into young men. I will be applying theories such as the ‘Male Gaze’ and the objectification of women. The uses and gratification theory is also important and whether the audience take a preferred, negotiated or oppositional reading.