Gender And Media Representation

Gender is perhaps the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation. Essential elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender - what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine - particularly in advertising - and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics
 We encounter many different male and female role models in the course of a day's media consumption. The issue is, that although these different role models may at first glance appear to be very varied, do they actually represent enough of a range of men/women? Are we simply given variations on a stereotype that become sub-stereotypes in themselves? By adopting role models and parading them through the media as people it is desirable to 'be', are we stunting individual growth?

Editing Job List

• Take into consideration 'Low angle shots'
• Re-consider my animation
• Tidy and cut any loose bits of film
• Focus on titles

Add Post List

• Link my piece of Media to either Facebook/Tumblr/Personal Blog
• Audience discussion on feedback for my film
• Real media references - Finish questions - make a slide show
• Evaluate 2 screen shots from my film
• make sure I have a clear showing of development through my audience research

What are the representational issues of your piece? Gender? Age? Ethnicity? Locale?

In my film there is a representation of gender as normally in must horror films the murderer or psycho is male as to in my film that character is female.

Titles and Graphics; Reasons for choice of font/style/size and placement?

For my titles I have used animation as most film openings have some sort of logo and animation. I wanted to look deeper into my name of the piece "Child Games" by using sections of child toys to spell out the title and contrasted it with leaves/wood to represent the location of my piece.

What opens and closes the piece?

The piece is opened using simple titles but emerging different short clips to create tension, The piece closes with the animation of the title but this time the leaves are covering up the animation, but I also thought that this may look like the film has come to a closure so I think that I need to re-consider this aspect.

Have you cut into the footage or is the piece still lacking pace?

In some areas I have cut into the film but perhaps the long shots of each character walking needs to be cut into and it could be cut into using different shots or angles for example Myra suggested low angled shots.

Is the sound clear with no unwanted interruptions?

I think that in some areas of my film it is a little unclear with the sound there is not much dialogue therefore I have made a lot of soundtracks. I think the soundtracks are clear as I have looked at volume control and Ducking.

What aspects did you always wish to avoid? reasons?

I always tried to avoid fake acting, I tried to ensure that all the staging directions and speech lines were performed in a believable way. This is because I want the viewers to believe in my film and try to understand my ideas fully. I found it difficult to avoid long shots of my characters walking as they may make the viewers feel bored and not want to keep watching.

What are the real media influences and inspirations for your piece?

For my piece I found a piece of real media rom the Phones4U christmas "scary girl" advertisement were a tagline is used "don't miss out on our deals or they will haunt you". I can relate this to my piece of media as the character in the advert is similar to my character in my film. I think that I was inspired by this piece of media because it uses a similar selection of camera shots and angles and I think the mise en scene for example her costume is similar to what I wanted to portray.

Does your piece invite curiosity or introduce an enigma?

Personally I think that when viewing my film it creates moments of curiosity when the antagonist appears then disappears. I think that by the quick shots of the Antagonist in a bathroom allow the viewer to develop snippets of her background and through the use of sound effects of a spirit the viewer is able to determine that the antagonist is in fact a ghost.

Marlwood Meets Media Masters

Today we were extremely lucky to have a workshop with UWE lecturers and freelance journalists, Myra Lee and Phil Chamberlain. Myra and myself had a one to one session and she detected all the areas of my work that I could improve. Firstly Myra advised me to re-shoot some shots in my location as conifers and railings were in the way and made the location look to suburban. She also advised me to do an audio check to make sure my sound was clear. As well as looking at low down shots and tracking shots, perhaps following the protagonist. Finally she told me that the animation was very clever although she had difficult reading some areas of it, so I need to make it stand out better. Overall I feel that it was a positive experience and I can go away and think about these last editorial decisions. Im really happy with the outcome and especially how my film has been praised.

I also put myself forward to be in charge with writing the newspaper article along with my colleague Kathryn. We had to produce an article that would be published with the image of us at work in the workshop. The article told different aspects and feelings towards the workshop along with a few quotes from students and the expertise themselves.

Relevance to 'Real Media'

I was given 3 double page spreads of an advertisement for the 'Phones 4 U' Scary girl campaign. For me this meant that I could study how different shots were used within the advertisement and I could compare these to my own work. The pages indicated how long it took to make the advert and how much time was spent on developing the final outcome. According to the director it took 14 attempts to produce the final cut. I found this interesting as a lot of similar ideas were conveyed in my own work as well as the advertisement, this meant that it was easier to take onboard the directors advise and conclusions.


http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/phones-4u-looks-to-reach-older-audience-with-scary-ads/3030491.article