As promised, I’ve sent you all an e mail with the IB Film Zoom meeting schedule in a word doc alongside a table which features your preferred specialist role (indicated by you in the survey)for your Collaborative (group production) Project and where you can also fill in your finalised research question and film choices for your Comparative Study.

We have two group sessions one on Wednesday at 3pm and one on Thursday at 1:30 pm. If neither of these is suitable I’ll try and organise another time for you next week but please try to make the effort to join if you can as some of you are struggling to understand the Comparative and/or anxious about completing video work and this is a space where I can hear and respond to your questions.

I’ll put the finished table up on the blog/send out to all class members before the meeting.  Therefore, I need you  fill in your research question and/or missing production role info into it and e mail this to me as soon as possible.

 You can also let me know which group you want to work in now that you can see who wants to do which roles – only one of these roles can be covered in a group so you may have to change your original ideas about who you wanted to work with. Note that the maximum group size for this project is 4 students and the minimum is 3 students.

Look out for the Zoom meeting joining instructions in your inbox – I’ll send these when I get your completed table sent back.

Here is a reminder of the other Comparative Study deadlines set for this term:

Email first draft of source list to teacher by 22/6/20 (including the details of the source films themselves, websites, books, articles etc used as citations – an example source list will be available on SharePoint)

Send first draft of 1500- 1800 word script by 29/6/20

Send final draft of 1500- 1800 word script (after written feedback is received) by 16/7/27

From now until the end of term, I’d like you to focus on completing your Comparative Study. The aim will be to submit a 1500- 1800 script (with source list) which can be turned into a video essay.

To help you with this, I’ve created an additional resource on SharePoint  which explains how the Comparative Study is structured. This set of slides contains links to exemplar student material which received high grades (7) in the 2019 series – these will be useful to watch as they really demonstrate how the final product should look and sound.

You should already have made some headway on Phase 1 (decide on films and research question) and Phase 2 (undertake primary and secondary research)  of this process and  should now be able to get to work on Phase 3 which is the actual writing of the script.

Before you do, can you please make sure that you have watched both films and that they are accessible to you in  a recordable format i.e. that you have them on DVD so that you can rip them onto Premiere as you will need to import clips from them and won’t be able to do this if you are watching on a streaming service like Netflix or Prime. If you can’t get a copy of your films on DVD then its unlikely that you’ll be able to complete the video essay and may need to choose different ones, possibly even amending your research question.

Revised deadlines for this project now look like this:

Post up final film choices and research question on the blog by 15/6/20 (its important that these go on the blog so that others in the group can see what you’re doing and avoid too much cross over of ideas/ repetition of material)

Email first draft of source list to teacher by 22/6/20 (including the details of the source films themselves, websites, books, articles etc used as citations – an example source list will be available on SharePoint)

Send first draft of 1500- 1800 word script by 29/6/20

Send final draft of 1500- 1800 word script (after written feedback is received) by 16/7/27

Good luck!

Activity 1

• Subaltern – the suppression of expression of the lower and colonised classes – being dependent on European influences.
• Orientalism – refers to the Orient, in reference and opposition to the Occident; the East and the West, respectively. Edward Said said that Orientalism “enables the political, economic, cultural and social domination of the West, not just during colonial times, but also in the present.”
• Diaspora – a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale.
• Exoticism – the process of finding a unique cultural custom from a different culture that excited people from the western colonies.
• Mimicry – This is the practice of the people of the colonised imitate the customs (clothing, language, politics, education etc.) of the coloniser.
• Otherness – The way a group neglects or marginalises another group from society. Classifying the other group as “other” stresses the fact they’re inferior and as a result carries onto the way the represent others, in the form of stereotypes.

Activity 2

I think the 2013 film Belle (aka La Ragazza Del Dipinto) explores the themes of the idiom White Man’s Burden. The film is about an illegitimate daughter of a navy admiral that is trained and brought up by her aristocratic uncle and his wife. She grows up to abolish slavery in England. The film won the 2014 British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent film, the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture and the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture. Belle is based on a true story about Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and an African slave woman.

Please complete the survey by following this link before 5/6/20

This film supports some of the ideas of the poem, the “White Man’s Burden” to try and modernise and civilise the undeveloped world, in this case, 19th century which was opened up for trade by the US in the mid 1800s after 200 years of isolation from the world. Western influences is apparent in this film from the government structure, to the military, to the social customs and the suppression of traditional classes like the Samurai. However, unlike most countries conquered by western civilations during this time, Japan embraced modernisation instead of reject it, as before the US arrived to Japan, the nation had a prosperous economy and had a steady diplomatic government and therefore were able to hire many European and American technical experts to catch up with rest of the developed world.

Definitions:

Subaltern – The suppression of expression of the lower and colonised classes – being dependent on European influences

Orientalism – The portrayal of Asian countries and cultures from a prejudged western perspective, tending to generalise these cultures and in turn ignoring and eroding their differences

Diaspora – This is the voluntary widespread movement of people from their native homeland

Exoticism – The process of finding a unique cultural custom from a different culture arousing or exciting from the western coloniser’s perspective

Mimicry – This is the practice of the people of the colonised imitate the customs (clothing, language, politics, education etc.) of the coloniser

Otherness – The way a group neglects or marginalises another group from society. Classifying the other group as “other” stresses the fact they’re inferior and as a result carries onto the way the represent others, in the form of stereotypes

Reframing the Male Gaze

The film ‘The Hunger Games’ is a great example on the re-framing of the male gaze as the main protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence volunteers in the place of her sister, Primrose, to participate in a tournament with those involved being forced to fight to the death until one remains. She is shown to be non-passive for doing this as in most films, the women is portrayed as weak as well as showing a lack of courage. Throughout the film, her character and female side characters break the stereotype of being visually sexual as Katniss wears neutral tones of clothing, not to mention it being concealing and loose. within the film, Katniss is shown to be able to be independent and able to handle herself in intense situations as not only does she save herself, but also male competitors which breaks the notion of women being dependent on men as well as men being their protectors.

Activity 1

• Subaltern – someone of lower status
• Orientalism – the representation of asia in a stereotyped that is from the perspective of colonialists.
• Diaspora – the dispersion of any people away from their home or homeland.
• Exoticism – style, traits or characteristics associated with a particular distant foreign country.
• Mimicry – imitating or mimiking something or someone in order to ridicule them.
• Otherness – The quality of being different

Activity 2

I think the film ‘Amazing Grace’ from 2006 explores the themes of the poem well. The film is based on a true story about a christian politician and member of parliament called William Wilberforce, who fought for many years to make the African slave trade illegal. It explores some of the details about how African people were treated during the slave trade and the attitude of rich white people. The film follows William as he presents a bill to the house of commons to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. He is defeated and considers leaving politics. After 20 years of fighting and with the support of his friend William Pitt, (who was currently the prime minister) his wife and John Newton (a former slave ship captain) the bill was passed in 1907 and the slave trade is aboslished forever in the whole British Empire. This film shows the colonial attitude of a lot of british citizens who thought of black Africans as subaltern. The film also helps to reflect how the british colonialists thought they were superior and they should own slaves as property, they did not view them as humans but rather animals. They thought because britain was more developed in technology and civilisation that blacks deserved to serve them and work for them in order to become more developed.

DEFINITIONS:

Subaltern – Having a lower status to others. 

Orientalism – How we view Asian countries and place them into stereotypes.

Diaspora – The dispersion or spread of people from their homeland.

Exoticism – Looking attractive to others due to a culturally unique feature you have.

Mimicry – Imitating to ridicule.  

Otherness – Being different.  

WHITE MAN’S BURDEN – Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Send forth the best ye breed—

Go send your sons to exile

To serve your captives’ need

To wait in heavy harness

On fluttered folk and wild—

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half devil and half child

I feel that the Disney adaptation of the film Pocahontas half reflects this poem solely because when John Smith first meets Pocahontas, he calls her a savage and says he can help civilise her (referencing the poem and how it talks about white men colonising being seen as helping others when in a matter of fact, it removes and ruins other cultures traditions). But, Pocahontas refuses and introduces John Smith to her traditions later allowing John Smith to appreciate her culture as opposed to terminate or appropriate.

Activity 1

Activity 2

Captain America – Transformation Scene

Before Captain America’s transformation he was a skinny kid with no muscle. The transformation made him taller and stronger. Before the transformation he looked like a child but after it he looked like a man. Before the transformation nobody really noticed him but after it he can walk into a room and be the centre of attention. Also after it woman come onto him more as he is a war hero and has a much better body.

C.J. Parker – Baywatch

This is a screenshot from a scene in Baywatch. This is the perfect example of the male gaze as the shot shows us what Ronnie is looking at and how he views C.J. Throughout the film C.J. is continuously shown through the male gaze viewpoint.

Activity 3

I think that The Fault in Our Stars is a good example of modern filmmakers attempting to take a less sexist and more female centric. The film is about two cancer-afflicted teens that meet at a cancer support group. They both share the same acerbic wit and a love of books. The director, Josh Boone, is male; this shows us that male directors are trying to change the stereotypical female actress and are trying to make characters in films more relatable to the average person.

The reason I think this movie is a good example of modern filmmakers producing a film that is less sexist and more female centric is because the film is a romance/drama and would normally be most sexist and show woman from a male perspective The Fault in Our Stars does not. The movie shows that people love for personality instead of looks. As the two lovers both have cancer they both understand what each other are going through and both know that they do not know what will happen, however they both have an uplift mood and try to make the most of time they have together. They both have fun and laugh a lot however there are still sad parts in the film. I think this helps us to remember that life is not always perfect and bad stuff happens; including this in the film makes it more like real life and less like a perfect movie. This helps us relate to the characters more so we make a stronger emotional attachment to the characters, which makes the film more impactful to the audience.