The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey 1975

"Visual Pleasure and narrative cinema"

What is the Gaze?

The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people is presented. But with this one it concentrates on how men look at women in the media.

Feminists view this in 3 different ways :

- How men look at women 

- How women look at themselves 

- How women look at other women

Laura Mulver invented the term 'The Male Gaze' in 1975 and she believes that media is produced in the view from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Features of the Male Gaze

Camera lingers on the curves if the female’s body and events that follow a presented based on the males reaction to these events.

Use of the theory in everyday life

Some theorists have noticed the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where the sexualizing of females has nothing to do with the product being advertised.

Criticism of Theory 

- Beauty Pageants 

- Can be directed towards members of the same gender, such as comparison of body image and/or clothing. 

Categorizing Facial Expressions 

Women 

- Chocolate Box (Giving expression)

- Invitational (Welcoming)

- Super Smiler 

- Romantic/Sexual

Majorie Fegurson (1980)

Men 

- Carefree

- Practical 

- Seductive 

- Comic 

- Catalogue (blank expression)

Trevor Millum (1975)

Key Theorists beliefs 

Jonathon Schroeder (1998) "To gaze implies more than a look - it signifies psychological relationship of power in which the gaze is superior to the object of the gaze

Homework

The reason why we couldn't answer all the questions after we watched the video is because the video was so focused on the girl, we didn't notice anything to do with the male singer. Even when an close up of the man singing appeared it made him look rough and focused on his flaws so he didn’t as attractive, we were focused on the lyrics about the girl we didn't seem to notice the little things such as what bowling alley they were playing on or the colour of the man’s shoes. 


Acting on Feedback:

This theory is shown in the task by all the men looking at the one girl in the music video, because of this the audience only looks at the girl, and that’s why we could only answer questions about the girl. This proves the theory because it’s showing that the audience only sees women as an object, that’s how it’s related.  

A beauty pageant is a criticism to the theory because girl’s enter things like this because they want to be looked at by other people and show off what they have. This is going against the theory because it says that women do want to be looked at that way, unlike the theory because that is telling us that girls don’t want to be looked at like that.

I think men and women are represented differently when looking at their facial expression because, in the media they want to appeal to the opposite sex. This means that men want to look differently so they will be more attractive to girls and the same for women. Also you could take it the other way because men want to be represented manly when looking at his facial expression.

Use of the theory in everyday life

For example to sell a certain product they might use a woman who is acting very provocatively, so the men or target audience will buy that product. This mainly happens with perfume, for example there is an advert where she is ripping her clothes off. This is unnecessary to what they are trying to sell, because it has nothing to do with the product. 

Categorizing facial expressions

From comparing the men and the women’s facial expression, the men’s is much more laid back and isn’t as provocative as the women. This helps proves the theory because it show that people will only look at women if they are doing these faces. This makes other women look at themselves and become self conscious because they feel pressured look like this to get attention.  

Todorov’s narrative theory applied to Easy A

• Equilibrium (All as it should be. What happens normally) Olive is going to her school normally with her best friend, but olive is one of the girls that never gets notice.
• Disruption of the equilibrium- Olive’s best friends wants her to come camping with her but, Olive doesn't like her parents so she makes a lie, because of her lie she has to create another lie and another lie to cover up the first one, which creates a rumour that goes round the whole school.
• Recognition- Olive recognises that she has become the talk of the school, and to show everyone and to annoy her best friend she dresses like a tart.
•  Attempt to repair the disruption- Olive makes a live video chat telling everyone, what actually happened, saying sorry and why she did it.
• New equilibrium- She gets the boy that she has always wanted, and he life goes back to normal. 

Acting on feedback: 

From the equilibrium stage I expect that the film is showing the audience what normally goes on with a day to day basis. For example mine is that I wake up and go to school then come home and do homework. This stage is setting the scene from the audience. If you put the disruption of the equilibrium first then the audience would get confused because the disruption will look like a normal thing that would happen in this movie. The features in this are that you meet the characters and what their normal life is, normally you meet the protagonist.

From the disruption of the equilibrium I expect a problem that will happen which will ruin the characters normal day to day life. For example that the school catches on fire which means that there will be no more school and not going to school anymore is the disruption because it is a problem. The features in this section are; you meet the antagonist and the action that goes with it.

From the attempt to repair the disruption I expect that the disruption/ the problem are fixed. For example the fire fighters will stop the fire and the builders will fix anything that has been ruined, here the problem has been fixed. The features in this area are; the protagonist defeats the antagonist and saves the heroine.  

Lastly from the new equilibrium I expect that the characters will go back to their normal, however the problem may have made new changes to their normal life. For example from the fire I could of met someone and fell in love as a result my new equilibrium is that I go back to school and now I have a boy friend.  The features in this are that normally the protagonist ends up with the heroine. 

Storyboard for Pirates of the Caribbean

Institutions- Low Budget and High Budget

Acting on Feedback:

Analyzing a Film Poster- Titanic

Acting on feedback: 

The titles of the poster, would link into the dramatic side of the genre because the font is very dramatic because it’s bold and it’s the first thing you see when you look at the page. The font used for the title is the type of title that they would have used on the side of the Titanic. Also the colour of the “TITANIC” makes it look industrial because the middle part looks like metal and looks fancy which will link to the boat. However the titles for the names of the actors and the date show the audience the time that the film will take place, because it reminds me of the 1900s because that’s the style font that they would normally use.  The words at the bottom of the page are in a colour that does clash a little bit with the background but it doesn't matter because it’s not the most important part of the movie poster.

The layout of the poster is very simple and it doesn't overlap, this is so that the titles do not take your attention away from the title of the film and the image of the left.

Analyzing a Still Image

Acting on Feedback:

This first picture is the most successful because, I think it shows more genres significant. Compared to the other images that we took, this shows more of the British drama side. If someone looks at this image I think they could guess it is based on drama because of what’s going on in the picture. Drama’s are serious and portray a real life situation; this image does to this because someone is trying to strangle her which could happen to anyone.

Genre signifiers for a Drama

Colour- dark

Costume- what an everyday person would wear.

Character types- can be any type that will fit in a everyday society which means it could be someone at work, or someone with a mental illness

Objects/ props- something that everyone uses

Setting – Civilised space

Sound – that suits the moods of the scene.

Plot lines – conflict between themselves 

Film idea

This film will be a 15 because to make the film quite realistic I would want the actors to use language that will not be suitable for children from under 15. At this age they then can appreciate whats happening and not just make a big deal because someone on the screen has just swore. By having the characters swear it will make them more relateable because it’s something that other detective and people in everyday positions will use the same language. This shows that the characters are just normal people being put into this situation, which hopefully will allow the audience to like them more because they are relatable. It will also be a 15 because of the amount of gore that will been seen in the film. For example the film is about a someone mutilating 7 women bodies. The audience will see mostly everything because you don’t want to show off too much that you put off the audience from watching the rest of the film.  It’s 15 because that is the age group that they should start to mature and understand situations better.

The location is in New York because it’s the city that never sleeps and something is always happening to the surrounding people. A lot of crime happens in New York which will make my film believable to the audience because they know that the murder will more likely to happen there then any other place in America. New York is very atmospheric which means that it will suit the story plot because it’s quite dark in some areas which will suit where the murder will take place. For example I wouldn't have it in Miami because it’s too bright and sunny there so my story wouldn't fit there.

The characters:

John Fallon- This character is the head detective, which means that all the characters rely on him to tell them what the next step is and what they have to do. Because he is in charge and experienced he’s the the type of person to get emotional over things, he is the one that stays strong and is the other characters “rock”. He is incredibly smart, and his intelligence will shine though as the movie goes on. I have picked Simon Baker to be the head detective because he is already in a TV show which is a crime drama ( which means he is experienced with this type of plot line) however, the character he will be playing is completely different from the one he plays on the mentalist which will create a challenge for him. Because he is already on a TV show the audience will more likely to come and watch the film because they like that sort of genre.

Derrick Storm- This character is the “joker” in their group. By having someone that can make people laugh will give a light toned effect when there needs to be, which means that the film will not always be dark and gloomy. I have picked Andrew Garfield to play this character because he was spider man by him being in this film, it will bring more viewers. Also I believe he will play the character really well and he will portray Derrick as I want the audience to see him as.

Ally Stephans- This character is hard working, which means that she is a workaholic. She spends most of her time in the lab investigating what the others have found at the crime scene. I have picked Amy Smart to play this character because she looks like the type of person that will work all the time which will make the movie more realistic.

Carly Odell- This characters is the forensic pathologist. You have to be experienced to be in this job that's why the Julianne Moore is slightly older than the rest of the characters. This gives more emphasis on the murder because she has seen so many of these and nothing is like the murder that they have got this time.

Gabby Hawking- She is younger than the rest of the team and is new, though the movie you see their relationship grow and develop more. I wanted her to be younger because then it will appeal to the younger audience as well, and as a result more people will see the movie.