(Evaluation Task 2)
In terms of representation within our thriller we focused on one certain category, that being the representation of gender, both male and female. In this essay i will be showing how we represented gender in our thriller with the aid of 5 screenshots from our thriller, which show the representation of gender in our thriller.
In this shot we see our main female actress, turn out of fear and surprise when she hears the sound of a door opening downstairs. This shot portrays females as weak and helpless, because the look on her face makes it look like she knows something bad is going to happen and she cannot do anything about it. The stereotype surrounding female’s is that they are weak and that they need a male to protect them from danger, this stereotype is formed by TV and films such as superman where a women is weak and vulnerable and needs a man to come in and save her. This is how we wanted the audience to feel when seeing this shot, we wanted them to underestimate this actress and think that she would need somebody to save her. Another stereotype which is represented in this shot is that of a blonde girl and that they are stereotypically less mentally capable then females of another hair colour. The fact that our actress is blonde makes the audience think that she is maybe not that intelligent and that she does not know what to do in a situation where she is possibly in danger, with this shot again we wanted this to be what the audience were going to think of a blonde, pretty female.
In this shot our female character, does something which goes against the stereotypes that have been formed in the minds of the audience during the shot which can be seen in the first screen shot. She does this by taking off her hi-heels, by showing this we wanted to achieve two things, firstly we wanted to her to take of the heels for practicality reasons, she wouldn't be running away from somebody in hi-heels because it would simply be harder and it would just slow her down; Secondly but most importantly we had her take of her hi-heels because we think that it is showing her “take off her feminine stereotypes”, hi-heels are a type of shoe which women wear and is considered stereotypically something women wear to look pretty and taller, which oxides by the stereotype that women only care about how they look and physical appearance, but by taking off the hi-heels she is taking off this stereotypically feminine side of her self and is getting ready to possibly defend her self. This contradicts with the shot in the first screen grab because in that one the audience believes that she is weak and vulnerable and abiding by the stereotypes of women but by taking of the hi-heels in this shot she contradicts those stereotypes.
In this third screenshot we see the shot where our main female actress de-arms the intruder and elbows him in the throat. This is an important scene because it is the first time the two characters make physical contact, it begins with the intruder turning around and the female character running up to him, grabbing his gun and taking it out of his hand and then throws it to the side where the intruder would not be able to get to it; This is very important because it contradicts another female stereotype which has been reinforced by the shot in the first screenshot, this stereotype is that women cannot fight, and our character walks up to the intruder and makes it almost look very simple and very quick, this is done with the help of fast camera movements from left to right, fast paced music and quick cuts made during the editing process making the entire shot look very fast paced which ads to the effect that she knows what she is doing, she can do it very fast and that she can obviously fight. the next thing which our female character does is elbow the intruder in the throat which immediately make him fall which once again surprises the audience who have this notion that women cant fight, it is also because she is fighting against a man who is a lot bigger and a lot stronger than her, which follows the male stereotype that they are strong and know how to fight, but when she manages to hurt him so quickly it makes the male intruder look very weak in comparison to our female character, which ends up contradicting the male stereotype. To help give this across more clearly to the audience we have added a sound effect in post production which amplifies the sound of her hitting the intruder in the throat which makes our female character look a lot stronger, we also move the camera very suddenly when she hits his throat to make it look like there was more of an impact when she hit him.
On this fourth screenshot we see the shot which comes after the one where our female character elbows the intruder in the throat, and here we can see the intruder on the floor, coughing, and holding his throat in pain. This shot is important because it makes the male intruder look weak and the female character look powerful, this is done by having filmed the shot in a slight high angled shot which means that the camera is placed higher then the subject and is looking down towards the subject which can make the character look very week and vulnerable, especially in comparison to the female character which is standing up high above him and looking down at him. The fact that he is looking up at the female character in pain makes it almost look like he is asking for mercy down at her feet, which puts our female character in a state of power which is contradictory to the outcome of the fight which the audience would have predicted because of stereotypes they already have in their minds, that males are stronger then women and that they should be able to beat women in a fight because women are weak and vulnerable.
In this final screenshot we have a shot of our female actress standing above the male character, smashing a bottle onto his head. This shot is as well of great significance because of the way it is set up and what is happening in it; Firstly the shot is shot at a low angled shot with the male intruder in the fore-front, the shot is filmed in a low angled shot, which is when the camera is somewhere below the subjects eye-line and is facing upwards at the subject, this makes the character look powerful and in control. To add to the effect that the female character is powerful she is also smashing a bottle on to the intruders head, which is the final blow in the fight meaning that the fight is over and that she won it, to make this moment more powerful we have increased the diegetic sound of the glass breaking on his head. The fact that she won the fight is contradictory to the stereotypes that females cant fight, she disproves this by beating him and being intelligent and resourceful by disarming him and finding a bottle to smash on his head. This shot is very contradictory to the shot seen in the first screenshot where the audience is lead to believe that the female character is vulnerable and scared and will have to possibly hide or be saved by someone, but instead she contradicts the stereotype and actually overpowers the male character and wins the fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment