Answer one question from this section.
You must refer to the three main texts you have studied in each answer.
Either,
A1. Explore the different ways in which people are represented in your three main texts. [30]
Or,
A2. How typical are your three main texts of their genre? [30]
we chose...
How typical are your three main texts of their genre?
Knee-jerk reaction - all films we have studied are universally typical of their genre with a few subversions
Plan
Conventions
Paradigms
Iconography
Mise-en-scene
Genre hybridity
Bond - Bond sleeps with Lucia
Steve Neal - repetition and difference
Mulvey - the male gaze
Target audiences
Atypical
Patriarchal hegemony
After the storm scene MMFR
Arbor saves swifty
Tokenism
Introduction - DAC
Definition - Genre refers to the type or category of media product. Genre is essential for audiences as it allows them to select a media text based on their own taste and preferences. Genre is also essential for the producer, as it allows them to use genre conventions as shortcuts to efficiently make a film. Argument - I shall argue the texts I have studied are generally typical of their genres with some notable subversions. This is achieved by producers in order to target a specific audience and to maximise profit. Additionally, genre conventions are an excellent way of conveying the ideology of the producer. Context - In order to explore this argument, O will be looking at The Selfish Giant, a social realist drama directed by Clio Barnard in 2013, Mad Max Fury Road, directed by George Miller and released in 2015, and finally Spectre, an action film in the Bond franchise, directed by Sam Mendes and released in 2015.
The Selfish Giant - Arbor Saves Swifty
- While The Selfish Giant may seem atypical of a drama film, it is completely conventional in terms of being a social realist film.
- Limited release in arts cinemas in the UK and failed to make it's budget back at box office.
- Only uses diegetic sound brings attention to the lexis of the characters, who are stereotypically working class.
- "Don't use those big words to intimidate me" - suggestion of limited lexis
- Arbor uses derogatory and offensive language, telling his teacher to "fuck off" and calling him a "dickhead", demonstrating his limited lexis. Transgressive and socially unacceptable. Breaks hegemonic social norms of respecting teachers.
- Themes - bullying, derogatory use of the word "pikey", typical of social realist films
- Rebellion against authority and the education. "I've had two kids through this school and you've failed them both". Both positions and anchors the audience to the ideology that the education system is flawed. Ideology expertly encoded by Barnard.
- Handheld cinematography demonstrates deliberately low production values, encoding an atmosphere of tension, and underlines the difficult lives of the protagonists.
- Highly typical protagonist, with Arbor demonstrating his heroism. A POV shot of Swifty being intimidated is followed immediately by a cut to Arbor's reaction.
- Establishing shot of Arbor's feet twitching under the table. Wearing trainers, suggesting he is both poor and rebellious.
- Mise-en-scene of dull, washed out colours, connoting a depressing northern setting.
- Detention room is completely full, connoting the school is ineffective
Spectre - Lucia scene
- Reinforces patriarchal hegemony. Lucia is both sexualised and objectified.
- Gesture - Bond completely covers Lucia with his body, pushing her against the mirror, after forcing her against the mirror in an intimidating manner
- Absolutely conventional of the Bond genre, sex is bond's reward, Lucia his trophy
- Dialogue - "my husband took no notice of me" "He's a fool" - reinforces Bond's hegemonic power
- Ian Flemming - Wish fulfilment - Bond is an idol to heterosexual men. Reinforces conventions of the Bond genre.
- Gesture, breaks glasses on floor. Conventional and stereotypical response
- Bond murders two people in the garden with no repercussions
- Femme Fatale - 'the deadly woman' archetype - suggests that women are dangerous and untrustworthy. Again, conventional of the Bond/action genre
- Lucia - represented as both exotic and older. The slow, drawn out classical soundtrack emphasises Lucia's slow movements. Low key lighting emphasises the wrinkles on her face. Bond is also older, though this fact is not notable, reinforcing patriarchal hegemony