Exam question

What have you found interested in the representation of gender in the film you studied?

the film 'Monster' released 2003 by patty Jankins opens with a blank screen and a non diegetic voice over of the narrator. this immediately lets the audience know that the person with the voice over is our protagonist. we then go to some footage of a young girl in front of the mirror and dressing her self as a princess we then connote that this girl could be our protagonist. this subverts to the typical protagonist of the film which is typically a male protagonist.

in this film most of the men are represented as dominant. the men is the society are taking the advantage of the women because of their dominance in the society Towards the middle of the film we see Aileen the main lead trying to get her self a job abd because of her inexperience she can't. on police man taking the advantage of being a police man and a man takes her in his car and black mails her if she doesn't do exactly as he tells her to he will arrest her. by saying that he takes advantage of her.

Mostly the film shows the men as the dominant then women, but in the beginning of the film when she goes back to her garage to get her stuff, Thomas her landlord asks for money but she says she doesn't have any he lets her off and gives her beer and a sandwich. this connotes that not every one in the society which she lives in is corrupt.

this film is an independent film so it doesn't have the typical representation of the characters. the character of Aileen is homosexual because of that she plays the strong part of the film almost like a man. she looks after Shelby and plays the roll of the provider in there relationship. her visual codes include trousers t-shirt and a shirt in top of the t-shirt. Aileen's costume suggests that she has masculine side to her. this representation subverts to the typical representation of the protagonist.

Aileen already was in a relationship with Shelby but she was going out and earning some money from prostitution. as an audience, the film puts a clear idea about how men are in the society but for Aileen that's how she makes money. after one night she got raped she started to hate men every time she went prostituting she killed the men. we denote Aileen and Shelby in a restaurant and a man tells Shelby to stop smoking Aileen violently pushes the man and leaves this we see an high and on the man. this makes him look week and vounrable. to wards the end of the film when Thomas is trying to worn her about the police she doesn't listen because she doesn't trust men any more.

London to Brighton synopsis (summary of the film)

- Kelly find Joan on the street

- Kelly takes her in

- Kelly takes Joan to Darick

- Darick asks Kelly to do prostitution for him in return he will give her money

- Joan agrees, and goes with Kelly

- an old man come and takes Joan away to have sex with her

- he ties Joan to the bed Kelly hears her screaming and rescues Joan, where Joan stabs the man

- both Joan and Kelly leave london and go to brighton

- the old man's son threats Darick to bring the two girls to him or he will kill him

- Kelly and Joan go to brighton n and start living with there friend

- the old man's son tells Darick where the two girls are and darick goes after and gets them

- he goes to the old man's son and hand over Joan

- where the old man's son tells Joan ho his father has always been unfair to him

- he makes Joan shoot darick

- the old man's son shoots darick and his friend

- the old man's son gives Kelly and Joan some money and lets them go

Reflective Analysis

Our brief was to create a short three to five minutes sequence from ten to twenty shots. It had to be the part of the film. The genre we chose was thriller horror. This sequence fitted in the second part of todrov’s theory, which was the disequilibrium. This is where something always goes wrong. As in the group my responsibility was to edit the takes. From my last project I found out that I was good at camera work and editing. When I joined this group all micro aspects were already chosen so I thought I could help out with camera work so each time I offered some thing the group didn’t agree to what I had to say they said it doesn’t work with the idea of film. After that I took the job of editing but the group member, which was doing editing started to help out with camera work so I did the editing. It’s important to create meaning for the audience so it would relate to them and to create something which doesn’t have an obvious meaning but has a hidden meaning. This makes it more effective and more interesting for audience to watch.

This sequence is conventional of our genre because we used an isolated park, which is a convention of our genre. The location connotes normality

When the girl is waling home and we see a POV from the girl looking at her phone texting her mom after that I have faded the shot showing the time pass because from my audience feedback I found out that the same continuing doesn’t keep them interested in the film any more.

Through my editing I have created meaning for the spectator. In the sound, I have made the music louder and lower volume to create the climax in the sequence of the film. In the shot when we see the ghost the music goes really loud and fast beat to show her power which makes the audience feel as she is powerful and dominant.

It builds up suspense for the audience when they see the face of the ghost the first time the music goes very high and fast and rock like. From the audience feed back I found out that the location was good.

Toward the end I made the character walk very slow with creepy horror type of music to make the audience feel uncomfortable building up suspense tension and theater of the mind, making the audience think what is going to happen to the girl.

Yes we did met the brief which was to make a short two to three minute sequence and we made 2 min 21. I our group we decided to make a horror or a supernatural thriller and we made it successfully. In my opinion I think I fulfilled my roll very well and took the full responsibility of a good editor and completed the task and the responsibility which was given to me. I think I clearly represented the genre of a horror and a supernatural thriller with the creepy music and slow motion editing. The sequence we made was designed to fit in the second part of todorov’s theory which is the disequilibrium that is when every thing goes wrong and we clearly showed the audience what its about. I think that he only improvement, which I can think of, is the improvement of music as we used a rock music which does not go with any other music so we had to compromise with a different music and try to put them together. According to the audience feed back one of them said, “POV of view of the ghost is vey confusing” which could have been improved but because the camera work was not my responsibility so I could not change it.