Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' - 1958

After watching 'Vertigo' we can compare it to how women are perceived nowadays in films. Here are some notes we came up with:

• Male characters related to world of work and money
• Women are related to notion of success
• Madeline had money which her husband couldn't get unless she died so he killed her
• Men are producers of meaning and women the bearers - Scottie's actions make the film but the film is actually about Madeline
• Men provide the story and women provide the visual pleasure
• In Laura Mulvey's book 'Visual Pleasure' she write that:
  "the presence of woman in an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation."
• Hitchcock is critised by many as being a 'misogynist' 
• Binary Opposition; Active/Male and Passive/Female. 
• Women in films are the erotic objects of the male gaze
• Men on the side of meaning, reserve
  Women on the side of mystery, excess and emotion.   
• Midge, Scottie's ex-wife, still is in love with him. However, towards the end, she is forgotten about and she is side-lined and her story is left unfinished due to Scottie's new, more attractive love interest. 
• Midge went against the typical 1950's women - she was independent, works as a clothes designer and lived alone in her own apartment. 
• Scottie went for a submissive woman rather than one who cares for him. 
• Madeline was one of Alfred Hitchcock's 'ice maidens'.  He had a tendancy to cast blonde attractive women whose look was unattainable naturally e.g Madeline's white blonde hair. This was Hitchcock's representation of how he thought women should have looked. 

Looking Magazines

Men's Health - November 2015

• Dark, dull colours on cover; black, blue and yellow. 
• Veiny arms, sweaty chest, gnarly facial expression all to show 'masculinity' 
• "#1 source for and about men"
• Instant result articles, quick and easy.
  'Pack on 33% more muscle'
  'How to burn 180kcal in less than 5 minutes'

Mission Statement:

"It's the brand for active, successful men who want greater control over their physical, mental and emotional lives."

Cosmopolitan - February 2016

• More stereotypical colours for females; pink, purple, yellow, etc.
• 'Fun, Fearless, Female'
• The world's largest young women's media brand

Mission Statement:

"To empower young women to own who they are and be who they want to be."

Women's Health - Jan/Feb 2016

• Bright, fresh colours
• Smiley, slim model - shorts and sports bra
• Perfectly curled hair, and perfectly applied make up. 
• Glamourising health and fitness, not accurate representation of post-work out. 

Mission Statement

"The must have action plan for today's modern women. Women's Health gives consumers the tools they need to make instant positive changes in their lives. Women's Health propels consumers into action."

10 Commandments For Reflective Writing

1.  Focus on creative decisions informed by institutional knowledge - you did what you did partly because of what you had learned about how the media produce, distribute and share material.
2. Focus on creative decisions informed by theoretical understanding - you know what you did because of having a point of view in relation to media and meaning, and  you can describe that in relation to cultural media theories.
3. Evaluate the process , don't just describe it - why some things worked well and others not so well.
4. Relate your media to 'real media' at the micro level - give clear, specific examples of how you used techniques and strategies to create intertextual references to media you have been influenced by.
5. Try to deconstruct yourself - try to analyse the reasons for own tastes, decisions and preferences rather than thinking that is just the way they are.
6. Choose clearly relevant micro examples to relate to macro reflective themes -  be prepared with a 'menu' of examples to adapt the needs of the reflective task.
7. Avoid binary oppositions - your media products will not either follow or challenge existing conventions; they will probably do both.
8. Try to write about your broader media culture -  don't just talk about your production pieces, try to extend your response to include other creative work or other media-related activities you have been engaged in.
9. Adopt a metadiscourse - don't just describe your activities as a media student to reflect on the 'conditions of possibility' for the subject and your role within it - what kind of an activity is making a video for media studies, compared to making a video as a self-employed media producer?
10. Quote, paraphrase, reference - reflective writing about production is still academic writing, so remain within this mode of address.

Suffragette News

With the film 'Suffragette' premiering at the opening of the London Film Festival last night, the issue of the representation of women in the media has come to the fore. Meryl Streep in an interview with 'The Today Programme' expressed how 'enraged' she is about the lack of females in top jobs, not just in film, but everywhere. Carey Mulligan said "our industry is sexist. It's taken 100 years to make a film about this enormous human rights movement, and that's incredible to me."

The interviewer quoted some shocking statistics:

In 2014, the top 10 female actors earned just over half what the top 10 male actors did.
In 2014, only two out of the top 100 films were directed by women.
In 2014 there was no female actor over 45 in the lead or co-lead of any of the top 100 films.

Meryl Streep said, "It has to do with the distribution of films, the way films are financed. Of the 10 top buyers for films in the United States across all territories, there's not one woman. If the people who are choosing what goes out into the multiplexes are all of one persuasion, the choice will be limited and then that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Feminist protesters used the occasion to stage a 'die-in' at the premiere to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Case Study: Suffragette

Our case study for our A2 exam is the new 2015 film 'Suffragette'. This film is the first for such a big human rights movement.

The film will receive its European premiere on Wednesday 7 October at the Odeon Leicester Square, attended by the filmmakers and the cast (including Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep).

Below is the film's synopsis and press release for this film:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-suffragette-opens-59th-bfi-london-film-festival-2015-06-03.pdf

Here is the Suffragette trailer:

My Exam Blog

I have created this blog to use a source of 'revision' for my A2 Media exam. On here I will blog about news articles, exemplar exam answers/essays and any information for the case studies I will use in my exam.