Preliminary Task

Recreation Task Planning

Preliminary exercise: Recreation task


Name of the text you plan to recreate:
Gran Torino. 
Scene/section you will recreate:
Gangsters harassing women scene "spooks" scene. 35.08 minutes. 

Location you will use for your recreation:
Northolt estate. 
Actors you will require for your recreation:
Antoine, Rashaun, Aleiu, raian and jamsin. 
Props/costumes you will require for your recreation:
Gun only. 
Equipment you plan to use:
Camera and tripod. 
Any other relevant information:
none.

Linked Production Brief

Linked Production brief

Your Critical Investigation topic: 
Representations of women in action movies. 

Your Linked Production brief: 
Create a scene from a movie up to 5 minutes long representing gender stereotypes in the media. 
Length/size of production (e.g. 3 minutes, 5 pages etc.): 
the production will be up to 5 minutes. 
Give an example of an existing media text this is similar to what you plan to produce: 
The fast and furious series. 
Give an example of an institution that would produce or distribute your planned production:
Universal studios. 
How would your production reach its audience?
Through the cinemas, then DVD. 
Who do you plan to work with on this project?
Zaid and Raghuveer. 

Have stereotypical representations of women changed in Hollywood?  With reference to The Hunger Games.

1

Representations of women are changing; this can be seen in many of the latest movies. Women are now becoming more powerful and are being given more lead roles to play. Women in films such as the Hunger Games have been given stereotypical male characteristics. The Hunger Games is a movie in which was released in 2012 and has been one of the most successful action/adventure movies of all time. The main protagonists are Katniss and Peeta, they were chosen by the authorities to go into the game and fight to the death. This movie, which may be surprising, has a lead female role where the whole narrative evolves around this one character and the other, Peeta. Katniss has been described as ‘a unique female protagonist’ - Nicola Balkind. The female protagonist Katniss in the movie is portrayed as a strong determined woman with goals, knowing what she needs to do in order for her to get to where she wants to get, which is back home alive. What we in movies would normally associate with a male we see that the character Katniss. She is physically strong; we see this when the character beats up other characters in the game that are bigger than she is. She is also fearless, this being shown by her standing up to others and also taking her sisters place in the games knowing what she will be getting herself into she no fear was shown. We also see in a scene where she helps her fellow friend whose from the same district Peeta and tends to his needs by trying to heal him, this is a female saving a mans life. Peeta does say to Katniss ‘leave me behind’ but she refused to. Here we see the female being stronger than a male in everyway. The character Peeta has been portrayed in the total opposite of her friend Katniss, “Men are seen as the protectors, the saviours, the breadwinners, and the know-alls.”

 He has been shown in the film to give up easily by joining a group of people that gang up on others including Katniss for them to be eliminated first, if you can’t beat them join them. He is also less skilled than Katniss and has been shown only to know how to run away when in danger and is always in fear. We see that the Katniss is the hero in the movie and Peeta is the princess who needs saving most of the time, a child who risks her life to save Katniss showed more courage than Peeta a young man. So here we see stereotypical gender qualities swapped over. We can see that females in movies are being dressed less slutty in a sense that they are more covered up. Katniss in the movie has not been represented in any way other female protagonists in other movies are represented. In the movie we do not see any tight clothing or being in any way revealing with her body. She wears casual clothing like jumpers,  jackets and trousers, ‘a young female heroine who’s not cast as a sex symbol’. So due to katniss being the powerful in control character she was in the movie it attracted most females to go and watch the movie only because a female had the lead role and had been represented as powerful. ‘73% of female respondents watched to see their own gender in a powerful role.’

2

In comparison, the film Tomb Raider which has been released much earlier than The Hunger Games which was in 2001.  This moveie compared to the hunger games has its similarities and its differences. One of the major similarities ia that both main protagonists in this movies are both women, they both have the main roles we see that women in since the early 2000’s had been given more lead roles and have increased more since then. ‘The femme protagonist stats are up 4% from 2011’. The character film has also been represented women with the characteristics of what society would expect from a man. The character being represented is Lauro Croft who is an orphan, who has inherited riches from her father. Laura Croft is adventurous and highly skilled and has been trained by the best. She has also been represented in the film as a strong, highly skilled determined woman with goals. However, what Laura Croft has still been misrepresented in the film, she is a woman and in order for the film to attract a wider audience they have endorsed the male gaze up on her. This means sexualising the character so that male characters would feel attracted and would see her as a perfect woman. “deep-seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by the international film industry”. In one of the scenes we see that the character Laura Croft is showering, here we see water running down her body making her look sexy for the audience. Men want her, woman want to be her. We see also a few shots of her body parts for example her bum and a bit of her left breast. After this we see her how she is for most of the movie. She wears shorts which are tight and reveal how big her bum is so it looks more defined and more attractive. This is also worn so that the audience are able to see her thighs. She wears a tight crop top where the audience would be able to gaze up on her chest, this all being done purposely for the males and female gaze. It also represents her in a negative way as it shows to female audiences that looking attractive overrules comfortablitly. The institutions and films making woman look more sluttier instead of making them look less sluttier and cheap looking then they are already looking. ‘movies from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States, and United Kingdom, also found women were more likely to be depicted in a hypersexualised manner than men. Girls and women were twice as likely as boys and men to be shown either in sexualised attire, in the nude, or thin’

3

4

5

In the media film industry I believe that not much has changed, eventhough they are producing movies that have what most femenists and most of female audicne want however, we can only see this in a handful of movies. “men still dominate the cinema and gender is continually misrepresented in cinema and in films.” I believe this quote is true that gender is still misrepresented in society and in the media. We still see in the movie industry women not having big roles, most of which are still misrepresented in movies. They are still representing women stereotypically in a way that society is comfortable with. Women in movies still continue to wear clothing that is revealing then this influencing society, as it would be seen by female audiences making them believe that this is the way that females should be dressing up. It also affects behaviour in society for example women are not expected to have great jobs in high positions putting them down resulting into less women taking chances and pursuing higher goals and achieving their full potential. “There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there can be lots of them in films. How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue science, technology and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), politics, law and other professions today in movies.” So for the future I believe that movies that will be made will have more women featured as there has been a shortage in female actors not only that have speaking roles but that are there present in the scenes of the movies. “One female visible for every 2.4 men”

In conclusion, I believe that the film industry would have to adapt to the changes being made and the demand of the audience who desire movies which feature strong influential women. The Hunger Games has been a great inspiration to many women across the world seeing a different side to women in movies. since The Hunger Games and other films like Gravity have become major blockbuster hits, people are starting to like the changes that are being made in gender representation of both male and females. Hollywood is indeed changing the way their ways and are using more females, changing the way they are shown to audiences in cinemas and at home. They are becoming less stereotyped in some aspects So yes stereotypical representations of women have changed in Hollywood for the better to a certain extent. However, not as much as it should have as most movies being released still misrepresent women.

p1

‘a unique female protagonist’

–      Nicola Balkind  - The hunger games book

a young female heroine who’s not cast as a sex symbol

-http://www.wired.com/2012/03/katniss-everdeen-hollywood-heroines/all/

“Men are seen as the protectors, the saviours, the breadwinners, and the know-alls.”

-http://griid.org/2013/02/12/normalizing-male-dominance-gender-representation-in-2012-films/

‘73% of female respondents watched to see their own gender in a powerful role.’

-http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women

P2

‘movies from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States, and United Kingdom, also found women were more likely to be depicted in a hypersexualised manner than men. Girls and women were twice as likely as boys and men to be shown either in sexualised attire, in the nude, or thin’

- http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/23/film-industry-gender-discrimination-study

“deep-seated discrimination and pervasive stereotyping of women and girls by the international film industry”

P3

P4

P5

“This further proves that men still dominate the cinema and gender is continually misrepresented in cinema and in films.”

-http://griid.org/2013/02/12/normalizing-male-dominance-gender-representation-in-2012-films/

One female visible for every 2.4 men

-http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29319557

“There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there can be lots of them in films. How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue science, technology and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), politics, law and other professions today in movies.”

- http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/23/film-industry-gender-discrimination-study