Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory

Throughout both courses, I have found it beneficial to study how different social groups are presented through media. Therefore our work in Miss Brown's lesson on the study of social groups can cross over into our research because by featuring social groups we are also commenting on the whole group. Therefore we could wither follow or avoid generic conventions in order to change or follow the stereotypes of the groups we feature. Here I took a look at the theory of the 'male gaze'; a theory which comments on gender and how it's represented in film-making.

Laura Mulvey was a theorist who studied and compared how both genders (male/female) are represented in society. She argued that men often think of themselves as the more dominant and important of the two genders. Most importantly, Mulvey constructed the theory that men aim to create a society where women are of a lower dominance and males are supreme.

After looking at many film clips from various film genres it was made clear that this theory does have strong proof. Most films featuring women represent them as more of a love interest or possession. To achieve this, directors commonly focus on the curves and sexual features of a woman with little action or responsability in achieving the re-equilibrium.

Mulvey's theory confirms this as she stated a womans role in a film is to:

• To be an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view.
• As an erotic object for the audience to view.

However, in some films a female is cast as the main protagonist, such as Kill Bill, where Uma Thurman plays an extremely dominant role - breaking some stereotypes Therefore the audience see her as more of a masculine character through the use of various conventions. Despite this, her character is treated like an object throughout the film to create realism in our society; even though she is not a typical woman, men continue to view her as weak. In effect, this only emphasises the directors point that women should not be treated as weaker or less dominant and that women are often misjudged in society.

Titanic essay and improvement

Titanic clip analysis

After having the Dr Who essay marked I decided to look back at the previous essay we had written. Here I realised how the planning was a lot more basic and unorganised. However it did feature some important conventions such as how colour can connote different tones.

With the method I use now to write notes I can fit in many more notes and locate the points I require much faster, which will be very beneficial in my exam. Moreover, by knowing what to look for when analysing a clip, I will know what is important to include in opening which will result in helping our final piece of work.

Representation of gender - clip evaluation

From my essay I achieved a low band four. For a higher band four mark I must improve on every point, despite just scraping all of them. I believe to achieve this I must write more content in more detail and develop my points.

From this task I have learned how the exam takes place and have a better understanding of how to achieve a high mark. By repeating these mock essays I will hopefully be more prepared for the exam.

I also discovered through completing this essay, that a lot more goes into media than I first anticipated. For example, each part of mis-en-scene can be analysed in a shot and had some affect on the audience. Therefore I will have to consider every single detail when making the opening, as well as just camera shots and dialogue. I feel that by improving on my deconstruction of slips from television and cinema, I may be able to achieve a higher quality opening as we will understand the techniques necessary a lot clearer.

Representation of gender - essay and improvement

Before writing my essay I read the mark scheme to understand what I needed to include. I understood that the main goal in the essay was to relate detailed points back to the discussion topic. Therefore I spoke mostly about the conventions used throughout the clip which could be linked in to how gender is presented. I then explained their effect on the audience and why the makers might be presenting gender in that way.

Representation of gender - clip analysis

In our lessons with Miss Brown we are currently watching video clips from TV and film. We then record ways in which the makers have used conventions to present topics in a certain way. In our first lesson on this we looked at a clip from Dr Who and how gender was presented. We each then filled out a grid that would help us to write a full essay later on.

Overview of important camera angles

In order to further my understanding of camera shots we looked more specifically at some of the basic shots used in film. I found these definitions extremely helpful as well as the numerous camera shot definitions that are featured in the revision booklet. I believe that in our final piece we could create a convincing and engaging opening by just using these shots alone. However, we may use various others shots that possibly make the opening even more thrilling or unique.