Inception - Realtionship Between Audiences and Films

The relationship between the audience and the film is created when they are watching the film and are either trying to understand what information is the film trying to pass on or just finding pleasure in watching the movie. In this example I wanted to talk about the film Inception as it clearly shows the relationship between the audience and the film as not only the viewer is able to analyse what they see but also they might find pleasure in watching that movie.

In this movie the viewer is able to use active spectatorship when watching as they can try to reconstruct the deeply complex meaning of this movie. Although it might be hard for them to do so, as there isn’t really a way to use the knowledge from similar genres as this film is unique and the meaning is only revealed to the audience when the director wants it to be revealed. Looking at patterns might help in reconstructing the meaning but that might be complex as well as there are many unexpected turns of events and it is really hard for the viewer to predict what might happen next in the movie or what the meaning of scenes that were shown is.

Pleasure is another aspect which might strengthen the relationship between the audience and this film. This is because the audience might feel strong emotions towards the life story of the main character. They might feel empathy towards him as not only he lost his wife which he loved a lot, but she made sure that he would not be able to see his kids and he blames himself for it as he created inception inside her head. So as the viewer knows that they might relate to this kind of situation, which of course would look a bit different and more realistic but they can relate as something similar might have happened to them. This can also, be dragged under the frameworks of interpretation where the audience might look for meanings which relate to their own experiences. So as I have said before they might relate this kind of situation to themselves as they might have lost someone that was really close to them or someone that they loved. And by knowing this they might be able to try to understand how the character will develop throughout the movie and how will he behave.

In this film effects are a crucial part of the narrative as they show the audience how the world looks in a dream, that practically anything is possible. This might allow the relationship to strengthen as the effects in this movie are used to professional standards and they add flow and context to the movie which would be lost without them. Anyway the audience are used to effects and they seem to expect to see visual effects used, so if there isn’t really any effects used then they might feel disappointed unless it is a movie which a deep narrative and just doesn’t need any special effects.

If the relationship between the audience and the film is really strong and they appreciate the film, they there are many fan websites on which they are able to leave their comments or meaning of the movie, which in case of inception is practically vital as different people might have completely different interpretations of what has happened in the movie. This is usually called fandom and audience can show their appreciation through official fan websites, fan made websites or even different events that take place around the world. The same happens with social networking sites where the audience can share their experience with the movie with their friends and even recommend it if they really liked it.

The conditions of reception with this movie is really vital as well, as it cannot be watched with any disruptions as there is so much action in it that the viewer would quickly get lost is a complex narrative and would not fully understand the movie which might weaken the relationship which would be built stronger if the movie would be watched in a quiet room or even cinema. This is because this allows the audience to concentrate fully on the narrative and the action that is happening in the movie and then to understand every little bit that is shown in there. This would make the audience be satisfied as they would have at least tried to interpret the movie themselves and at the same time strengthen the relationship.

Dark Knight - The Relationship Between Producers and Audiences

The interest in public opinion began in 1920’s and 30’s when Americans began to observe the reactions of their audience relating their product. But it wasn’t until 1940’s when the producers started to use experimental measures of viewer response. A good example that shows an in depth relationship between producers and the audience can be seen by the film The Dark Knight. The marketing of the film began with numerous websites which allowed the audience to have a small glimpse at what might be shown in the movie, telling the people to vote for Harvey Dent just like they would be citizens of Gotham City and they were a part of the conflict that was going on between the criminals and the politicians. The next websites showed a hacked version of the original articles but destroyed by Joker which added few Joker smiles to the pictures and black hollow eyes, as well changing the text showing that he is more superior than the law. When the viewer subscribed to the original website they might have received promotional packs which encouraged voting for Harvey Dent. On the Joker side, a website was made to rent a clown and the audience could have sent their picture of them wearing Joker like make-up so that it would be put on there and others would be able to see it. This engaged the viewer into the film even more as could already see a conflict rising, which meant that the film began to show its context even before it was released.

But apart from websites, the producers developed their relationship with the audience by producing merchandise. One example could be shown by Burger King which made a special meal called Dark Whooper which was sold as an advertisement of the film. Later on they also produced advertisements showing their customers doing bad things and saying ‘bring out your dark side’ which greatly related to the film. They have also produced a line of advertisement for children. This meant that they have received a free toy with the meal that they have ordered to further promote the movie and build a stronger relationship with a wide age range of audience. Other merchandise was produced in line with Warner Bros and the items ranged from mugs, phone cases, costumes and clothing which allowed a wide variety of audience choose what kind of items is mostly suitable for them and buy it.

Varied media was sending the audience on scavenger hunts, to take photographs in certain places and upload them to the websites which revealed parts of pictures which either shown a photograph of Joker when fully revealed or led them to other websites which shown them different views that might be a concern on the film or allowed them to participate even more in the project which gave them a satisfaction that they can be a part of it and the relationship between the producers and the audience grew even stronger.

The real target audience for this film would be the hardcore comic book fans which were also taken on a trip in  Jokers world as in San Diego during the comic con they were sent on an interactive chase. This chase made them look for clues that were around the city and at the end of the clues a fan was kidnapped by the Joker. Later at the con the fans were given a Gotham City newspaper which said ‘See you in December’ and showed the fan dead with the Jokers card in his hand.

Another interesting way that the producers used to build a strong relationship with the audience were the posters shown as they features the logo of the production and the main characters, which not only makes the audience interested in the production but is also eye catching which might bring new viewers to the film as they might feel that they like the way that the poster was created and decide to watch the film. The main characters also, showed up on the covers of magazines like Total Film or Empire which might have brought new viewers to the film and strengthened the relationship with the old ones.

The film premiere was changed because of the death of Heath Ledger, the actor that played Joker, in his memory the carpet instead of red was black and the actors dressed accordingly in dark colours as well, promoting the movie at the same time but also showing that they lost someone from their crew. Later on the orchestra played extracts from the movie and there was a show which featured the iconic Batmobile.

After the premiere of the film, it received a score of 9.0 points on IMDB and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes which are very high scores showing that the film was successful and encouraging the people who weren’t really that interested in it to watch it.

Production Contexts

Independent movies are feature films which are created mostly or completely outside of a major studio. The film is considered an independent only when less than a half of its finance comes from a major studio. Independent films might find it hard to get a distributor, this is because unlike the Hollywood and their subsidiaries which already have distributors; independent films mostly are complete before they find a distributer, which mostly happens at different film festivals. When the distributor would want to acquire the film from the owner they would buy it for a set fee, meaning that the producers would not receive any further payments for the money it would make during the sales. Another option is that they might offer them a cut from the film's profits, which means that they will receive a certain percentage from the amount of money that the film earned. This kind of process is called acquisition. Independent films can be funded in anyway the producer wants. They might fund it themselves, get help from different websites like kickstarter which might help fund it. The financial determinants depend on the amount of money the producer has or is able to raise to film its movie. It is best if an Independent movie has at least one star casted into the movie as this might help with securing the distribution because the movie might sell better if the audiences see someone that they can identify.

International co-production movies are created when two or more countries decide to come together to make a film. Many of the films which are made outside the USA are international co-productions. The co-productions are made by official agreement between countries, and they seek to achieve economic, cultural and diplomatic goals. They open new markets for films and TV programmes which might increase the quality of the productions because of the share of investment. International co-productions benefit from the share of financial resources. This means that the financial situation depends on those countries who are filming the movie as they share the costs of the production. So, if big production companies from different countries come together to make a film then they will have much more money to produce it rather than if small production companies were supposed to do the same. The funding bodies for such films would be the production companies which are making the film or organisations from those countries which help with such projects. The amount of money that the productions will receive depends on the production companies and the different organisations that might help. The tax incentives depends on the country where the film is being made. This means that the tax that is being paid for the income from the movie is being calculated by the country in which the filming is taking place. Sometimes production companies prefer to enter an international agreement if the tax is lower in the other country and they would earn more money because of that fact.

Developing countries is a third production context which refers to the films that are made mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, this kind of productions can also be called third cinema. These films usually cover political and social issues of those countries which lets the people associate with the films as they understand the problems that are covered in there. In Africa, this cinema is called Nollywood and it covers issues like independence and cultural identity. They can easily identify with this cinema as the films usually show a lot of tribes but also, moved on to upper class life, like businessmen and women. Third cinema is a really poor production context as the countries in which it is aren't that rich. This means that the films are made with really low budgets and have amateur actors. The films are also burnt onto CDs after the post-production to lower the costs even more. But because the these films are made with low budget, then any sponsors that they might get and make the budget higher might have control over the production stage of the movie.

In Fear - British Production Context

The movie In Fear is a film in horror genre, this is because of all the narrow roads which might make the viewer seem uncomfortable and even claustrophobic, not only because of the narrow roads but also because the main characters are stuck in their car, which might not be a safe place, as anyone can easily brake the window and get to them. Also, the unexplainable situations that happen show the horror genre. This is because the main characters appear to be in some kind of a labyrinth from which there isn't any way to escape, which scares the viewer as they imagine how they would feel if they were in such a situation. The last aspect that represents the horror genre of the movie is the darkness and the night that finally crosses the path of the characters. The darkness is a classical theme that appears in horror movies, as it hides the unseen terrors from the viewers and that's what scares them the most.

The production context into which the film In Fear fit into is the British context, this is because it stars  mostly UK actors and the action is happening within the UK. Also, most of the action is happening within one place, which is visited over and over by the characters, and most of the action is shown in the car, they barely get out of it. And most of all there aren't that many characters used in this movie when comparing it to the Hollywood or Bollywood productions. Talking about the characters, the 3 stars that were presented in the movie are quite popular Iain De Caestecher, Alice Englert and Allen Leech have played in many productions before, this means that the British production context does use popular people, unlike the Bollywood context which uses the local people which aren't really known around the world.

The film In Fear represents the British production context by different aspects, like by the narrative, characters, dialogues and locations used. The dialogue is reflects the British context by the strong use of British accent by the actors, which instantly communicates the production context to the audience. Also, they use slang language sometimes in the movie and there is slight bad language, which is quite common in British films. Another aspect is the location; the whole movie was filmed in the UK which is not only shown by the classic UK countryside but also, by the weather. It starts to rain during the movie and it does so for quite a long time, I suppose that this was made on purpose to represent the British production context, much clearer, to the viewer. Furthermore, the characters show that the audience are watching a British production context movie, as two of the actors originate from UK, so having a UK cast only strengthens the idea of a British context. The British style narrative is reflected by the use of effects, which weren’t as spectacular as Hollywood production context uses, without massive explosions or incredible CGI effects, but the narrative in this situation is much more important than the SFX, which shows the British production context as they try to make the narrative of the film more effective than the effects that are shown in it.

 

The technology that was used in this film relates to the production context as there was no CGI used or any special make-up apart from the blood. It relates because British production context is much different from the other contexts, it doesn’t use SFX as often as Hollywood for example but puts more work into the quality of the movie, rather than the quantity of special effects or CGI. This film was much different from the other ones which I have looked at, because of many aspects; some of them include the use of CGI, or SFX make-up. For example This film is different from World War Z because they, massively used CGI to create the zombies, or various explosions, which isn’t really seen in the film In Fear, that’s why it is completely different from the Hollywood context. Also, in In Fear they didn’t use any SFX make-up to make a person look like someone else, just like in the film Rise of the Zombie where they placed a lot of make-up on the actor to make him look like a zombie. In film In Fear they have only used some blood to show wounds, whereas in the Bollywood production context they have used much more make-up.

Rise Of The Zombie - Bollywood Production Context

The film Rise of the Zombie was a horror genre this is because of the brutality, gore and inhumane behaviour shown in the movie. And all of these actions are committed by a zombie who eats human flesh and insects. But the whole horror genre starts from the idea that the main character travels to a forest far from the civilization meaning that it is very desolate so no-one would be able to help him if something happens and that is what happens, he gets bitten and there is no way he could get any help, as he thinks that he is alright and no-one else saw what happened to him so no-one is worried about it and they won’t put him in hospital. Furthermore, there is one more aspect which makes this film a horror genre, it is the parts of the bodies which the main character finds everywhere, like hands, eyes and other parts, it is really scary to find something like that in the place where you are, especially if you have no idea what is happening to you; you don’t expect it, and even don’t remember what happened to the owner of these body parts.

The production context that this film related to is Bollywood, this is because of the place where all the action is happening, in India. This is shown not only through the location but also by the language in which they speak in mostly, Hindi, and by the food which is brought to the main character by one of the villagers, which is probably one of their traditional foods. Also, the production context is represented by the effects that they use, because of their small budget they aren’t using any SFX but to make the main character look like a zombie they put a lot of make-up on him to lighten his face, make wounds on him and apply the fake blood. Another aspect is the music, which is just classical in all the Bollywood movies. Furthermore, the action is taking really long to develop, and the viewer is waiting really long to see if there would be any action that would define the climax of the movie, but there is barely any. Also, the star in this movie is Luke Kenny, which isn’t a really famous person in our regions of the world, but I can guess that he might be famous in India and some regions around it, because he not only directed the movie but also, played the role of the main character.

The production context relates to the film by the narrative, dialogue, characters and locations used. The dialogues are mostly in Hindi but there are some English words used which I think is just pathetic, as it is shown in this movie how much they want to drive to the Hollywood style of films. But even though they try to do so, the dialogue that they use is all said in nice language, there is no swearing or other bad language so they still keep to the Bollywoods’ standards, but drive into the Hollywood direction. Also, the locations used in the film, they seem like India’s shanty town and forest. They show completely different standards of filming compared to Hollywood. Furthermore, the narrative of the film is concentrated around the feelings of the main characters which are the typical course of action that is taken by the Bollywood. And even though they broke up at the beginning of the movie, the main character keeps on calling the girl, and then she tries to find him after his disappearance, so this means that even though they argued their relationship, might still develop throughout the movie, which is really weird but I guess that they might feel bad about what happened between them. The production context is also, represented by the characters that play in the movie. All of them are from India, but the main character and his uncle have English surnames which is another move towards the Hollywood context. But, because there was a much smaller budget for this production than for the Hollywood one, there were far less characters playing in it, which didn't even fill out the 7 spheres of action. So, this shows that this production context is way different from the Hollywood context which usually tries to put many characters in the film, to fill out all the 7 spheres.

The technology which was used in this film was much more limited than the one used for Hollywood production, this is because Hollywood used CGI to make their zombies, which made them look very realistic, and really scary. But just because Bollywood didn't have the same technology it doesn't mean that the zombie looked worse, it was just a smaller scale apocalypse than in the World War Z. The Bollywood context used mostly SFX make-up to make the zombie look realistic and with the various lightning techniques, it looked pretty scary at points. At other points, the zombie looked very gruesome, especially, when he was ripping his skin from his arm to show how he is changing and along with him his body. But apart from the visual techniques, the film was lacking in soundtrack, the jumpy bits should have such soundtrack that would scare the viewer, just like in World War Z when the family was running up the stairs to the helicopter, there was a lot of soundtrack there which made the viewer jump each time the zombies came out. Whereas, in Rise of the Zombie, there is a lot of that missing, as when the main character attacks the people, it's not even scary because of the lack of the soundtrack. Also, there was one mistake which I spotted in that movie, when the main character rips out the heart from a man chest he puts his hand in the part of the body where stomach would be or even the start of intestines, but still rips the heart out, I think that it would look more realistic if he would put the hand a bit higher, at the height of the sternum.

World War Z - Hollywood Production Context

The movie World War Z is a horror genre this is because the whole film is filled with zombies running around and killing people. Because there are a lot of zombies, we can see very animalistic behaviour within the dead society, they are unscrupulous, driven by hunger which leads them into aggression against human kind and they are uncontrollable as it can be seen that they don’t even care if their bodies get damaged or totally broken down. Also, we can see that the action is taking place in many dark, desolate, secluded locations which bring the tension up as the viewers wonder what might happen next to the characters and if they would survive.

World War Z was filmed as a Hollywood production context, by the Paramount Pictures which are an American company. Most of the actors which were present in the film were American which responds to the Hollywood context. Also, there was a great amount of money put into the film as a budget because the main actor travelled the world a lot, visiting about four countries and he was also on a ship with his family. The budget corresponds to the production context as mostly Hollywood production have a large budget because it is the most popular context, and if it is known by many people then it is aimed at larger amount of audience and more money will be earned because of the film so they put a large budget into it. Also, the CGI that was used in the film making the zombies was very realistic which means that no amateur did it but it was a job for an expert, so this also means that more money was put in the film to make it look as realistic as it is possible.

The star that was involved in this movie was Brad Pitt, which is associated as a hard to kill, tuff guy, but also, as loyal man which will fight for his family. This is because he starred in movies like: Fight Club (1999) or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Both of these films are extremely different, one showing aggression, fighting and hate and the other one showing love, care and sympathy for the other person. World War Z combines both of these ideas in one film, showing Brad Pitt as a dangerous but also a caring man.

The locations used in the film relate to the production context as there is a wide variety of places where the main character travels to, this must have involved a large budget so only big production contexts would be able to do it. But the action begins in America so it is just simple that the production context would be American. In the film World War Z the characters greatly refer to the production context as it uses the full 7 spheres of action. The hero, which is really obvious, is Brad Pitt. This is because he shows up throughout the whole movie and practically saves the day, just like all the heroes should. Also, this actor is quite famous and because of this his character refers to the Hollywood production context as they usually use very famous people and put them into the main roles. The villain is usually the person who opposes the hero, but this time, it is a disease, which by infecting people tries to stop the hero from succeeding. This means that the villains are the zombies. The false hero in this situation would be Thierry which is the person that brought all the main actors onto the ship. The reason that he is the false hero is that he promises the family to stay and be safe on the ship and then he sends them off to a different place, which looks like he would betray them when they weren't needed anymore. Heroes’ helper would be Segen, the woman that the main character saved from becoming a zombie by cutting her arm off. She helps the hero to travel to the W.H.O. research facility. The dispatcher in this film is the Naval Commander which sends the hero to Korea as he begins his quest around the world. Person that needs to be saved by the hero and at the same time the princess would be the main characters’ wife as, he is starting his journey because of her, he does it to protect her so that she would be able to stay in on the ship with the daughters and be safe. The last character in the 7 spheres would be the doctor from the research facility; he would be the donor as he gives the hero the opportunity to get viruses to save the healthy people. The dialogue used in World War Z is practically the English that we can hear from day to day basis, it is just, there aren’t any hard or uncommon words used in it, whereas in British the dialogue might be more complex or just stereotypic. And in Bollywood movies the dialogue might be done in their language, which would greatly reflect that production context. The narrative relates to the production context as it is mostly based on constant action, and the Hollywood production context is known for making films like this, with big explosions and dramatic actions, whereas other production contexts try to produce different kinds of narratives, not mostly action based only.

The technology used in the film relates to the production context because zombies were made using CGI, which was used very professionally as they looked realistic. This allowed the production context to put more money into CGI than actors, which surely need to be paid more than it is spent on people who would act. In these scenes there are no way that someone would act in a wrong way as the zombies were generated in there so fewer scenes had to be retaken. So if the production company didn’t have to pay so much for the actors then because of the saved money they could put more of them into CGI and produce much better quality images. Also, some scenes were probably, impossible to film with actors, like the climb of the zombies onto the wall in Jerusalem which meant that CGI was essential to use.

Silence Of The Lambs Analysis

While watching The Silence of the Lambs I have noticed the use of some semiotics. The first one would be the fog. Fog is the iconic element of many horrors representing danger, and being unsafe but also a mystery as something that cannot be seen because of the fog might be hiding in it. As it was used in the forest in the opening scene, it made the forest seem as a much more dangerous place than it really is, and having the image of a woman in there gives a feeling of uncertainty to what will happen to her. Another semiotic which I have noticed is the use of moths. Moths are night butterflies, and butterflies are a sign of rebirth or as it would be more relevant to the story of finding own identity, referring to Buffalo Bill which didn't feel himself as a man and wanted to be reborn in a woman's skin, hence the murders. The last semiotic which I noticed was the clever use of darkness, which is another iconic element of nearly all horror stories. It was used in many situation, when Clarice was in garage of some kind, when she found the head in a jar, it was mostly dark in there and it felt really unsafe, just like something was about to jump out on her. The other use of darkness was when Clarice was nearly killed by Buffalo Bill. The action there really brought the tension up and left the viewers in doubt  if Clarice is going to survive, especially that Bill had noctovision glasses and he could easily see Clarice, how scared she was and didn't even know which way to walk to escape. This semiotic has shown the real horror part of the film, and was used really well.


The opening scene in Silence of the Lambs, clearly shows the horror genre of the film. This is because of the eeriness within the forest, which is caused by the fog that is just above the ground and the dark and unlively colour of the forest just like it would be dead. The forest seems to be a very large place as we can see in the first few seconds when we are introduced to Clarice when she is climbing a steeper part of the forest and the camera shows that the a horizon full of trees. This part adds a little bit of eeriness because the forest seems to be very secluded, and the viewer might not feel really comfortable with a woman, which seems to be there alone, to be in that place. Supposedly, it might be because the viewer can see her running, but they don't know if she is running away from something or someone, or if she just does her regular training. She surely doesn't look scared but the viewer might be unsure of her fate, because if she isn't running away from anyone, then what is she doing in those woods, and will something attack her during the running? These might be the questions that the viewer will think of when watching the very beginning, and will start to connect with Clarice as a character. But this scene is what shows the viewer that it is a horror movie, because it raises so much questions, and shows her vulnerability because if she would be attacked by someone in such a large forest then, there surely wouldn't be any help for her as no-one would hear her screaming if something happened. Also, the soundtrack that is played in the background sounds very mysterious, making the this scene seem even more eerie than it is, this is because it is quite a normal exercise for people to go for a jog, even around a forest, but the soundtrack makes the viewer wonder, what actually might happen next to Clarice. So, as the viewer learns a bit later on, she is on a FBI training camp, and does her routine exercise and in there are few signs which have been cleverly put in the foreground of the shot. They might seem like normal signs but it is quite easy to figure out that they correspond to the character which the viewer meets a bit later, Hannibal Lecter. This is because the viewer learns that Lecter used to kill people and then eat them, which means that they were in hurt, agony and pain, and Hannibal loved to do it, so the words might be a connotation of Hannibal's behaviour but also represent Buffalo Bill's action, but as far as the film shows it Bill didn't really love the killing, as he was rejecting that idea as much as he could, treating woman that he captured as objects rather than people, so I suppose that the signs reflect the idea of Hannibal's character rather than Bill's. Another thing which is barely visible about the signs which might also, correspond to Lecter is the last, a bit blurred sign; when the movie is stopped in the right moment the viewer might just about to make out the word 'pride' which has really faded out.  Theoretically, it might also reflect Hannibal's character because it can be easy seen that he was proud of his actions and did not regret anything that he did; and he did show that he is capable of continuing his work if he gets out of jail.

 

The main character in Silence of the Lambs is portrayed to be a strong, individual woman, which can handle anything. But also, because of the fact that she is a woman she is disregarded by a lot of people. This can be mostly seen by the actions of the policemen which see no real authority in her. This happens when she and her boss are talking with the policemen at a funeral and when she begins to tell them what to do they look at her like they would be surprised that a woman gives them commands. This just shows how much respect they have for her, but there is no surprise in this, because if she is in a mostly men orientated job, like it can be seen in the lift where she is practically surrounded by them, then they don’t expect a woman to be as good as them in the same job. But she proves them wrong, at the point when the men stop believing that she will be useful and take her of the case.

 

 

She shows that not only they were wrong when looking through the suspects, but she finds the real killer and saves the kidnapped girl. This shows that she has a strong character and doesn’t give up easily which has helped her when she was talking with Lecter. At that point we can nearly see her breaking, as she was really touched by his opinions about her life, but she gets back on track each time and gets some information from him. This also shows that she takes risks to achieve what she has to, as she was warned not to play Lecters’ games as he might destroy her psychologically, but she does that anyway. Clarice is also, portrayed as an attractive woman because, Buffalo Bill admires her for a long time before he decides to kill her, this just shows that even for him she was attractive. But also, a lot of men try to “hit on her” as she asked one man herself. Another scene, where it can be seen that Clarice is portrayed as an attractive woman is when she is running with her friend on the training camp and male officers gaze at them even though they have run next to them, they still look back. Apart from being attractive she is also, seen as a sexual toy by the prisoners. This can be seen at the point when she enters the prison and all the men start behaving like animals and one even throws his cum on her, showing that he would want to do only one thing with her.

The Queer Theory is relatable to one of the characters in this film, more precisely to Buffalo Bill. This is because he would want to become a woman, but it was made impossible to him, so instead he dresses like a woman and puts make-up on his face to look like one. But he is so obsessed with the idea of becoming a woman that he kidnaps woman and kills them to cut the skin from their backs to make himself a woman suit that he would probably want to wear. This is a very negative portrayal of a homosexual because people might associate all homosexuals to be so obsessed about the other gender that they might kill to become someone else, but it isn't really relatable to all homosexuals as all people are individually different from others and they cannot be stereotyped because of someone's behaviour. But as it was said in the film, we learnt that Buffalo Bill wasn't born a homosexual, he was cruelly treated, so this might connote that he hated himself for being so weak that he couldn't protect himself  and wanted to become someone completely extremely different, and maybe because he considers women as beautiful but weaker creatures then he felt like he needed to become one to match his way of feeling about himself.

I think that the most memorable scene in the film was the crucifixion of the policeman when Lecter was escaping. This kind of death might connote the way in which the policeman died, as he was beaten to death by Hannibal, or tortured. This means that his death might symbolise the death of Jesus, that both of them died as martyrs.

Apart from the points which I have already discussed I have found some more interesting scenes which I wanted to talk about. The first one would be about Buffalo Bill, and the way he treated his victims. In the video above there is a scene in which he talks to the kidnapped girl and he doesn't talk to her normally but refers to her as to an object "It rubs the lotion on its skin and does this whenever its told". Also, after she screams that she wants to see her mummy again, we can see a slight movement on Buffalo Bills mouth in a gesture like he would be nearly crying. This might connote that he isn't really excited about the killings and only does them for the skin and after he would have enough he would stop, how else could it be explained that he is sad that he hurts the girls and refers to them as 'it' as an object, which was never alive, it never felt anything. This might suggest that it is easier for him to kill if he refers to the girls in this way, if he doesn't associate his victims as humans . Another interesting scene was shown when Clarice was supposed to meet Lecter for the first time and she was warned that he is really dangerous by showing her a picture of a nurse attacked by Hannibal. We aren't really shown the picture but as the shots move between the characters there is a bright red light shining on them, I suppose that this light might refer to the picture at which they are looking at, and the colour of the light represents the blood, signifying that the nurse wasn't in a good state after the attack, and that the picture consisted of a very bloody image. After the meetings with Clarice, Lecter knows that she depends on him and that he is in control to how much information she obtains, this allows him to play around with her and manipulate her however he wants. For example, he lets Clarice walk off, but when he calls he back she comes running hoping to gain more information, and this action makes Lecter more satisfied as he is in the centre of interest and everything depends upon him. The last interesting scene is right at the beginning of the film when Clarice is called into her boss's office and before he comes in, she has time to look at some of the articles about Buffalo Bill. I suppose that this moment let her hook onto the case. I suppose that at this time she heard the crying of the defenceless lambs once again, meaning that when she could help in the case, she wanted to find the killer even more than anyone else to take revenge for all these women which couldn't defend themselves and eventually save the lamb that she blames herself for throughout the film.

Mean Girls - Queer Theory

In the movie Mean Girls we can see two Queer Theory stereotypes, these are the characters Damien and Janice. They play opposing roles, as Damien is much more feminine than Janice who in terms of Damien is much more masculine. Damien can be considered this type of a queen homosexual, because he acts in a feministic way and can also be considered a drama queen at times. This stereotype can be assigned to him because of his body language. This doesn't mean that he acts just like a female but you can see, feminine characteristics in the way that he walks, moves and gestures. Also, the way that he talks could connote that he is more of a feminine character, this is because his voice is much higher than any other male characters which are shown. Moreover, if comparing him to any other male characters, they are much more attractive than him which strengthens the stereotype, as he is different than all the other males. Another thing that makes him more feminine is the way that he acted when he and Janice took Cady through the corridors, he was protective in some way shouting to everyone to move out of the way, just like a mother figure. Furthermore, he is carelessly staying in girls toilets, just like he would feel that he belongs there, and while being in the toilet we learn that he has pink clothes. This is especially weird and unexpected because the two girls with which he talks to, don't own any pink clothes. The last aspect that I think makes him this type of homosexual guy is the way in which he reacted when Janice and him started to talk to Cady. The first part of her that he saw and taken into consideration was her hair; the colour of it. I suppose that it is very rare for a man to notice the women hair and say that they want exactly the same colour.

On the other hand, Janice is much more masculine and aggressive character. We can see this especially when someone walks next to Janice and makes a rude comment about her hair, and she, instead of feeling humiliated talks back at him. Moreover, we can see her mostly in black clothing, this could connote that she rebels against some kind of idea about people being considered in the same way where they should really be seen individually to who they really are. This clothing makes her stand out from the crowd and convey this idea that everyone is different. Also, the way she wears her clothes; she is nearly always covered from top to bottom by the clothes, which is not rally considered to be a feminine way to wear something, especially if we have a comparison. She can be compared with the so called 'plastics' which were shown wearing their sports kit in a very feminine way, with most of the legs showing and tops so short that you can see the belly. This is considered to be more feminine way of wearing clothes in that movie, than how Janice wears her clothes. The last aspect that makes Janice that kind of a soft butch is her hair. This is because they are black and she always wears them tied up, whereas 'plastics' have this rule to wear the hair tied up only once a week. This looks like, they would want to keep their feminine status by having their hair loose most of the time rather than look tie their hair back and look like guys without anything on their heads. These stereotypes would consider all the homosexuals to act in this way, whereas some will be more masculine or feminine regardless of their gender.

I don’t suppose that these stereotypes are used correctly, this is because not all homosexual people behave this way, just because some are more masculine or feminine, it doesn’t mean that their behaviour is exactly the same as it was portrayed in that movie. Although, I don’t think that these stereotypes are used entirely correctly they were added into the movie for a specific reason. This is because people like to laugh at situations or people which behave differently, and not meaning this in a bad way, it is funny to see a guy which is excited about the colour of someone’s hair or a girl which is sassier than guys. But I think that the use of these stereotypes was essential in this movie, otherwise it would be just another teenage problems movie, which isn’t really interesting but, if the characters are portrayed in a different way than they would be shown usually then the whole storyline is much more interesting, like it was seen in this film. So even if the film is showing stereotypical behaviour of homosexuals, I wouldn’t change anything in the way they were portrayed. This is because it made the film really funny and worth watching, whereas if it was just about the life of normal teenagers and their problems then it would be really boring.

I have looked at one of Queer Theorists, Judith Butler. She has written a book Gender Trouble in 1990, where she talked about feminism and how women are wrongly seen in the community as a group that has common characteristics and interests. She argues that there is no clear line that separates the characters or behaviours of men and women. All of them have their own individual identity. She also, says that feminists reject the idea of biology to be the destiny of each person. But as the patriarchal culture developed, it left no choice for males and females but to live according with the socially accepted behaviours. Butler prefers the idea of gender being something that varies from one person to another and there are no set similarities between them. And she argues that the only reason that people can say that they feel more like a man or a woman is because of the cultural identity which set some kind of standards for both of the genders. But in the movie Mean Girls, these standard boundaries are extremely violated. First of by Damien which behaves more like a woman should with his pink shirts, walking into girls bathroom, being the only man on the meeting which only the girls had to say sorry to each other and by simply his feminine behaviour. The second example is Janice which behaves in a more masculine way as she wears mostly black and the clothes cover her nearly from top to bottom, not like the other girls which wear skirts or t-shirts. Also, by her sassiness to other people, and there are no other girls shown which behave like this.

Girls Against Boys - Feminist Theory

When the woman is sitting in the bathroom we can see an empty stare on her face, she seems to be looking into the space and thinking about something. When the man from the other room calls her, she gets up and walks to him in a way that would mean that she isn't really interested in him and does what she has to do. During that scene we can also see an interesting reflection as the woman named Lu walks next to a mirror, but instead of seeing her reflection we can see a reflection of another woman, Shea, which cannot be at the same place as Lu because she was left behind at the police station by her. I suppose that this might have a deeper meaning which is shown in the whole movie, it could connote that these women get so close together that they start to become one another. But going back to the clip, when Lu comes out of the toilet, we can see a policeman gazing at her even before she appears in the doorway. This can be seen till the moment when she puts material round his head to cover his eyes. But meanwhile, the gaze that we can see from the policeman isn't a look which would be seen from a man in love, it looks more like he would treat Lu like a sexual object which can be used to his likings and then left behind like an old toy. This stops when Lu shows her true face, that she is more like a Femme Fatale character that uses her attributes to get what she wants, like she has done with the policeman. This gives her an advantage because the policeman didn't expect such a turn of events, but Lu knew from the very beginning what she was doing and why she wanted to do that. In addition, Lu is wearing red lipstick, this could pass a strong sexual message to the policeman as red is the colour of passion, heat and love, but also death, aggression and blood; which in this case is more relevant. As it is visible in the video, Lu wears only a black short dress, which shows a lot of her body, this connotes that she isn't afraid of her sexuality and is able to use it to get whatever she wants. This shows the situation in which they are, it is shown how the policeman is a bit nervous about what is happening, but Lu is shown like she knows what she is doing and controls the whole situation. And even though it is a bit awkward situation for the policeman, Lu doesn’t stop but even pushes him to continue by taking more of her clothes of.

This film is closely related to feminist theory, that’s why I wanted to look at a feminism theorist Laura Mulvey. She is best known for her essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, which was written in 1973. This article was influenced by the theorists Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. This is one of the first essays that helped to shift the orientation of film theory towards more psychoanalytical. Her contribution to this theory gave a more feminism look at it. She said that the classical Hollywood cinema put the viewer on more of the male position, and the women only appeared as an object of desire and male gaze. According to Mulvey, women were and still mostly are put in films for the visual pleasure. She argues that the only way to fight with this stereotype is to produce films which challenge this idea and show woman in a completely different way. This is what is shown in the film Girls Against Boys, Lu is portrayed as an attractive woman which uses her qualities to the ends of moral extent and during that process she kills men, because she thinks that all of them want to use women, and that they mean nothing to men, just like they would be toys for them. This is why she wants to get rid of them, which is a completely different way in which the women are portrayed, because if they were just a target of visual pleasure, harmless and always in trouble, needing saving then the picture that Lu shows of women is completely different. This is because Lu isn’t harmless, she is the complete opposite of it, she is dangerous and can unscrupulously kill all the men that will stand in her way, or if they have something that she desires, like the policeman. He had a gun so she used her attributes to get the gun and then kills the only witness.

Scream Openning Scene

While watching the opening scene of the film Scream we can see and hear many codes and conventions which communicate the horror genre of the whole film. The first one is the title itself. This is because scream might have various connotations; some of them might be fear, pain or agony. So by seeing the title on its own we can imagine that the film might be based on these subjects. But going into the scenes, firstly we can denote that we see an innocent blonde woman. Why innocent? It's because she is wearing a white top and light coloured trousers; the colour white connotes purity, goodness and innocence which is how she was supposed to be presented to us. I think that her clothes were chosen on purpose so they would signify these ideas to us. But, I also, mentioned that she is blonde, this is also an important aspect, because we associate that blonde women might be less intelligent, which would signify that she might not be able to escape from the person that would be trying to get her, as they might be more intelligent than her; this would mean that they would have a plan how to catch her and she might panic, act in a way which would make her more vulnerable and not be able to think clearly which wouldn't help her with the escape. While we are introduced to the character we can hear the telephone ringing; it seems like a normal action to pick up a ringing phone to know who calls, but I think that the stranger felt like he would be invited by her, to her life, when she picked up the phone, because after she picked up the phone the first time, he kept on persistently calling her. I suspect that if she wouldn't have picked up the phone then he might have let go as he might have felt like she had rejected his request to be part of her life. But because she did pick up he kept on calling her; in the first call we can hear his voice which is really calm, strangely too calm, we can't hear any surprise in the tone of his voice that he has heard a voice of a woman which he never heard before, this might connote that he has called her on purpose and is just lying to her that he doesn't know what number he has dialled. And although he is trying to make the woman think that it is just a coincidence that he has called her by acting like a fool and asking her 'what number is this', the tone of his voice contradicts it all. These aspects might connote that he has a plan that is related to her because he isn't surprised that she doesn't want to talk to him, but still keeps on calling. The action is taking place at night which is an iconic time for the horror films, as a great majority of them are surrounded by darkness, this is because we can't see anything at night and people are usually scared of what they can't see or understand. Also, because we can't see much in the dark, the objects that we see, or rather their outlines seem to be more scary because our imaginations is making these objects look like something similar to the objects that scare us, or what we are expecting to be there. So within the arms of darkness, there is one shot showing the swing moving. The swing might have been moving because of the wind, but as we are introduced to the characters and the beginning of the storyline, the swing might suggest to us a very crucial part of the narrative, that the calling stranger might be within the woman's property. After that shot the film shows us scenes from the kitchen which has its own mise en scene that reveals as the narrative progresses. The first important aspects of the kitchen are the knives which are taken out by the woman and they make this symbolic sharp metallic noise which can only be associated with killing. Also, popcorn is very important through that scene because it grows along with the rise of the climax, this could symbolise that when the popcorn will blow up the narrative might be resolved. During the kitchen scene they start to talk about scary movies and the stranger makes her guess which is his favourite scary movie, while they talk we can hear satisfaction in his voice, as though he would be pleased to hear her talk about brutal and maniacal monsters from those movies. This might indicate that he likes the thought of pain and death and when he can find someone to talk about it he is really pleased. After that they start to kind of flirt with each other, at least she thinks that this is what he is doing. Who in the right mind flirts with a stranger that has called them and tells them that they don't have a boyfriend even though we learn later that she really does have a boyfriend? This action might show the blonde woman stereotype, because I think that she has forgotten that he is a stranger and persistently calls her even when she told him that she doesn't want to talk to him. When he stops asking her about her boyfriend, he tries again at getting to know what her name is, when she asks him why he wants to know he replies 'I want to know who I'm looking at', at that point a mysterious soundtrack is played. His words might signify what I wrote before, that he is right outside her house and doesn't plan to leave without doing what he has planned. Also, after he says that, we can hear a dog barking outside which might connote that someone strange is outside, because dogs usually bark when they see a stranger walking past their property or when they are walking onto it. This information makes her feel insecure in her own house and she starts to lock the doors in the house even the glass doors. While she does that a tense soundtrack is played to make the scene look scarier than it really is, because nothing is really happening during it, we are just told that he might be outside the house. The soundtrack stops when she locks all the doors to make it seem like she is now safe because she has locked herself inside. But, really how safe can she be? She has glass doors all over her house, it just takes someone to have something heavy on them and they can easily break the glass and enter the house, so it is foolish of her to think that she might be safe, and locking the glass doors. It would have been better for her if she left the doors unlocked, because, by now we are sure that the stranger will enter the house, and she, if she wanted to escape, would have to open at least one of the doors that she closed, to escape, so this will take her time which she could have spent on escaping rather than opening the doors, this makes her more vulnerable. So after she locked all the doors she talks with the stranger again, and a tense soundtrack is put back on when he says 'to see what your insides look like' in relation to what he wants from her. There is also another sign that purely tells us that he is outside, because all the others might have suggested that, but when he says 'turn on the patio lights, again', and knows the name of her boyfriend we can really get scared for her life, as it seems that he is some kind of maniac because he really tortures her mentally during the last minutes of the opening scene.