Media Representation Theory Pack Two: Feminist/Van Zoonen

 

                                                               The Silence of the Lamb (1991)

A. The extract uses the idea of male gaze. Women are generally seen as passive and soft. In this extract, it shows a women doing "male activities" that you wouldn't see so often because it's mostly a male dominant thing to do exercise and train on an obstacle course making which male gaze is removed. 

B. The extract does not reinforce the idea of the female body as a spectacle, it shows that the women is doing completely fine but doesn't get recognized for what's she does. She is among the rest of the men and follows no potential power at all. But it's to give power to the female audience that women can do men activities without natural talent.

C. The woman in the extract is shown to be doing exercise and work in a science building. The men are shown to be taller and bigger than her which shows that she is still dominant but still lacks power and popularity for what she's doing. No man questioned that she does manly activities meaning that women are somewhat common for those types of actions.

D. The woman is doing the most active representation, taking on men's active roles. The passive representation would show that she is isolated when in a man's world, she is mostly seen as the only women when walking around the FBI headquarters which is most seen when she goes into the elevator. She also receives slight glances for what she's a outlier, she also doesn't speak much as she follows orders from men like she's being moved around. 

E. The extract is supporting subversive female representation, women are supposed to look like queens of beauty, but she is shown be sweaty, have messy hair, and have a fair manner when talking to men. Meaning that this main character is not based on her looks but mainly her character and actions.

Media Representation Theory Pack One: Representation/Hall

                                                    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2019) 

The filmmakers use representations in many ways, they start showing the household of a morning to a new school, the mother starts shouting at miles in Spanish and English repeatedly, his father just takes care of his son making sure he goes to school correctly. Miles is shown by his constant music and art of black heritage, he listens to pop music in his headphones which goes to a Latin pop which resembles his Puerto Rican background, to a rap genre of music. He also follows the graffiti style of art, he sticks stickers on the street to his way to school, which could be debated as breaking the law by littering or vandalism, but his intent is to spread positivity by these stickers. Miles expresses himself as not belonging at the new academy he's going to because of the lottery he got lucky and won. He doesn't understand the new people that he will have to study with and rather be with the people that he understands, he phrases this difference as telling that his old school is better among the people. The reason miles are forced into an all-round better academy is for miles to be a good person in society unlike what his parents thinks to his uncle. We know that he and his family lives in a somewhat poor neighborhood in which is stereotypical for people to be often criminals, his uncle is someone who doesn't live in the prettiest place and only blast music very loudly. His dad became a police officer to tie in the extra protection that it comes into raising a son with trying to keep bad habits away as possible. The conflict between his dad and his uncle made it where he is required to take the path of going to this new academy. 

Media Language Theory Pack Five: Postmodernism/Barthes

                                                                          Sinners (2025)
 

In the movie Sinners, this extract shows how three white people try to get into a blues club with the owner being suspicious of them and not letting them in. This extract shows how the three white people sing Irish folk songs outside of a southern juke joint represents postmodernism by using authenticity is impossible to find. The moment is shown with many different culture changes and time periods in a way that it doesn't feel accurate. It mostly puts references of horror and musical to make one. The scene tries to blend in the horror and music together, almost like the cultures are blending with each other. The aspect of media blending would best describe this scene. Of how much cultures and genres are combining to give a meaning of separation between the group of characters. It tries to put in a musical genre with a horror, the culture plays a big part of how Irish singers compare to a blues club. Knowing that the group of three whites are secretly vampires also mixes in the use of myth with other sources of media being portrayed.

Structuralism – Claude Levi-Strauss

 

                                                                     Shaolin Soccer (2001)

This extract shows how the unexpected team at the start dominated the whole match. The guy on the team Puma were talking trash due to them looking clueless and stupid. He later spoke his word to much, as soon as the match started, team Puma concede a goal instantly, giving a sense of satisfaction. It also creates a sense of opposition with the use of constant change of showing that team and their reactions. We can use mise en scene to determine that the stylistic opposition is made with the color of the teams. Shaolin has a bright orange which does separate its white color of team Puma, it gives a clear representation of what team will be the main focus.  All these reasons show the viewers that they should clearly support Shaolin before the match even started.

                                                                        They Live (1988)     

The extract shows how everyday items are shown its true identity and goal. We can use Genre-driven binary oppositions, this film is a horror, but it shows that aliens are a thing meaning it is also a Sci-fi driven film. The use of sci-fi gives it how the aliens will have advanced technology that will contribute to the horror aspect of the film. Using mise en scene, the main character puts on a pair of glasses to reveal a black and white world with words on objects, this gives an opposition of how the colored world distracts everyone from not knowing they are falling in the traps of the aliens. The main character would not make a single sound despite looking through the true world many times. We hear the world around him while he discovers the truth of that item or person. These both functions give a separation between good and evil and who is part of the evil side, which are the aliens.

Narrative Equilibrium – Tzvetan Todorov

 Proppian characters- Ethan is our seeker-hero relying on the Benji, Benji is the donor helping Ethan to get inside the plane. Brant is the dispatcher in charge of the operation. The people on the plane are the villains. 

Equilibrium- Benji spying on a plane on the grass with a ghillie suit.

Disruption- The plane starts to move and prepares to take flight.

New equilibrium- Ethan gets on plane to get the packages off the plane.

In media res- It starts mid-mission when they are trying to steal something from the enemy.

Mult perspective narratives- The point of views switch between the team that's trying to steal the package and the people on the plane who we get their reaction from.

Analysis

This extract shows how at the start can already be at its max intensity seen by the suspense of Benji messing up with his controls it creates. As Benji is on a grass field, it switches to Ethan jumping on a plane which shows that this mission is serious. It also shows both sides of the mission which we can see the faces of the supposed villains.

Semiotics Theory - Roland Barthes

Sign- In the top right, outside of the rule of thirds can tell us that he is different than others.

Signifier- The lone desk in the empty room

Signified- It gives isolation and abnormality

Denotative meaning- A odd guy talking on phone to a person while sitting on a chair infront of his desk in a empty room.

Connotative meaning- It suggest that this guy is struggling, has no company, and demands that a change needs to happen soon.

Code- The code is alone, has a dark contrast in colors, outside of rule of thirds, only has one subject, and a plain boring setting.


Analysis-

The whole extract was to introduce a weird character that is shown to be different than your normal person. With the setting meaning that he is alone and doesnt do much besides sitting in his desk. With the car crash that happens later, it suggest that he will have to do something outside of his comfort zone.