I intend to produce two different posters to advertise my film and my website through including signifiers that link to the narrative. I will create and introduce the central concepts, ideas and characters without explicitly revealing the details of the plot. My posters will include a female character at the age of 18 who is in a relationship in which her boyfriend is dangerously obsessed with her. One of my two posters will show Emily when she’s running away from Dan which is a crucial moment in the movie as it leads to the death of the protagonist and one is a picture of Dan, the serial murderer, with a shadow of a hand luring over his head. The plot is inspired by the movie ‘Fear’ (1996) and presents a toxic relationship due to the protagonists boyfriend controlling her and being overly possessive. I want the background to obtain essences of a dark reality of the . The poster will have an eerie and omniscient style, this is why the unnerving music by Ozzy Osborne is used throughout my film. The text on my poster will be minimalistic as I don’t want it taking the attention of the central image. My movie would be made by small companies who are owned by a large conglomerate such as ‘Pixar’, ‘Disney’, ‘Warner Bros’. Both posters distributed on streaming platforms such as ‘Netflix’, ‘Amazon Prime Video’ and ‘Sky’. Both posters will follow the same theme but from different perspectives. My ideas are based in a tube station at night time to create an even more gloomy atmosphere. One poster is a picture of the protagonist running through the tube station and one will be of the killer sitting on the floor looking distressed with a shadow of a hand luring over his head. The genre of my film is horror based with streaks of romance and action running through it. This is due to the start where the pair are in a happy healthy couple and three quarters of the way through where the use of weapons and violence is used.

My film is based on a 18 year old girl called Emily who lives with her parents and boyfriend, Dan. Dan is secretly an alcoholic and sneaks out of the house to drink at least 5 nights per week. No one is aware of Dan’s psychotic ways until he is found following Emily. She is always travelling around London for work purposes only, meanwhile Dan thinks she is cheating on him. Dan is possessive, slightly psychopathic and has tormented Emily since they started their relationship 3 years ago. One day one of her work colleagues walks with her to the tube as they are working together. Dan sees them together and follows them. In the early morning after, he finds them waiting for a train on the underground tube station on their way home from a job. Emily’s colleague leaves her and goes to the platform next door to go home. Dan follows him and kills him due to his misconception of their relationship. Emily sees, screams and runs from Dan, he chases her but she’s not looking where she’s going and runs straight onto the tube rails and into a moving train. Her ghost comes back to haunt Dan. After being tormented by what he has just seen, he goes to his local bar and ignoring everyone, drinks excessively until he is almost unable to walk. He stumbles through the lanes in the middle of the day to get home and feels as though he is being followed. He gets continuous flashbacks of the crime scene and starts to panic. Emily’s ghost continues to haunt him until he ends his life due to his uncontrollable paranoia.

TZTEVAN TODOROV

Stories have a beginning, middle and end or as Todorov describes; equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium

• equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium
• the conflict that disrupts this initial equilibrium– hero tries to find a solution, main part of the story
• the way / ways in which the disruption looks to find new equilibrium
• the denouement and/or resolution that brings about a new equilibrium
• In his theory, Todorov mentioned that there are 5 stages that a character will go through; those are Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition Repair the Damage and Equilibrium Again.
• He highlights the importance of character transformation within a story.

 Links with Freytag’s Pyramid– exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement

Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function)

Vladimir Propp is a good starting point for thinking about narrative structures, as his work (based around an analysis of fairy tales) suggests that stories use STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories. That is not to say that all characters are the same, but rather to suggest that all stories draw on familiar characters performing similar functions to provide familiar narrative structures.

CHARACTERS FUNCTION to provide narrative structure:

1. Hero
2. Helper
3. Princess
4. Villain
5. Victim
6. Dispatcher
7. Father
8. False Hero

• Cultural Industries– refers to various businesses that produce, distribute, market or sell products that belong categorically in creative arts. Including clothing, decorative material for homes, books, movies, television programs, or music.

• Production– the action of making or manufacturing from components or raw materials, or the process of being so manufactured.
• Distribution- Distribution means to spread the product throughout the marketplace such that a large number of people can buy it. The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign.
• Exhibition/Consumption- the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group. 
• Media Concentration- in which decreasing numbers of individuals and organizations own media outlets, effectively concentrating the ownership of multiple organizations into the control of very few entities. 
• Conglomerates- a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises.
• Globalisation- The production, distribution, and consumption of media products on a global scale, facilitating the exchange and diffusion of ideas cross-culturally.
• Cultural Imperialism- Cultural Imperialism Theory states that Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by imposing n them Western views and therefore destroying their native cultures
• Vertical Integration- refers to the merger of companies that are in the same business but in different stages of production or distribution. 
• Horizontal Integration-  is the merger of two or more companies that occupy similar levels in the production supply chain.
• Mergers- an acquisition in which one or more of the undertakings involved carries on a media business.
• Monopolies- concentrated control of major mass communications within a society.
• Gate Keepers- is a process by which information is filtered to the public by the media.
• Regulation-a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority.
• Deregulation-the removal of regulations or restrictions, especially in a particular industry.
• Free Market- an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
• Commodification- the act or fact of turning something into an item that can be bought and sold.
• Convergence- a phenomenon involving the interconnection of information and communications technologies, computer networks, and media content.
• Diversity- it means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences
• Innovation- the process of not just an “invention” of a new value for journalism, but also the process of implementing this new value in a market or a social setting to make it sustainable.

• RUPERT MURCOCH
• Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• Birthdate: 11 March 1931 
• Education: Worchester College, Oxford
• He has 6 children including Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James
• MEDIA EMPIRE
• became a media tycoon
• Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has unveiled plans to launch a new UK television station and will bring Piers Morgan back to the screens as a presenter, threatening to further disrupt the rapidly shifting broadcasting sector.
• Murdoch’s media empire includes Fox News, Fox Sports, the Fox Network, The Wall Street Journal, and HarperCollins.
• In 1981, Murdoch bought The Times, his first British broadsheet, and, in 1985, became a naturalized US citizen, giving up his Australian citizenship, to satisfy the legal requirement for US television network ownership.
• He won the companion of the Order or Australia in 1984
• Worth:  $17.1 billion.
• In 2015, 21st Century Fox announced that Murdoch would be handing off new leadership roles to his two sons, James and Lachlan, keeping the company in the family. Lachlan, 48, now holds the role of co-chairman of News Corp and executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation
• Fox corporation is owned by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share; Rupert Murdoch is chairman, while his son Lachlan Murdoch is executive chairman and CEO

As part of this unit of work you need to complete the following exam essay, as ever exam essays can be found on the top menu, with feedback from the exam board.

Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words, it is something learnt through repeated performance.

How useful is this idea in understanding gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertising campaigns?

In this essay I will discuss how gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertisements. Judith Butler, writer of the book “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity”, is a philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. She strongly believes that gender should be seen as a human attribute that shifts and changes and disagrees with gender being limited to male or female. Butler says “Audiences learn how to perform gender via the media.” meaning that the media construct a person and their identity form them without people realising. Although he has similar beliefs to Butler, David Gauntlet, said “Audiences are in control of the media – adapting and assimilating ideas about themselves through the various representation that the media presents.” illustrating how audiences are collectively adapting cultural norms and adapting themselves to fit in to society.

Lisbet Van Zoonen is another theorist that supports Butler and highlights the idea that the concept of ‘woman’ is not a homogenous, collective noun. He thinks that people could be aware that there are differences between women and that ‘gender is not the defining quality alone for women, and intersects with race, sexuality and class.’ (Hendry & Stephenson 2018:52). Van Zoonen, develops and applies ideas of cultural hegemony (GRAMSCI) and interpellation (ALTHUSSER) towards feminist studies while prioritising the realm of popular culture as the site of struggle, where identities are continually being reconstructed.

The Maybelline advert represents an inclusive advert consisting of people who are not the stereotypical male or female. For example sexuality, gender, race and the use of marketing strategy’s encourage a wider audience and target audience. Most makeup adverts are stereotypical and usually only include women however in this particular advert it uses a male to represent their product.

Manny MUA, a social media influencer is included in this advert alongside another character, Shayla who is another social media influencer. Manny is a gay male, he is presented in this advert as quite feminine as he has a high pitched voice and is American which are both ‘stereotypical‘ traits of a gay/feminine male. This could be perceived as both positive and negative to the representation of sexuality as it represents men in the makeup industry that has been preciously dominated by women.

The advert presents both characters using the mascara and showing the audience how the mascara is applied. It is presented as a rich expensive product as the emphasis on the amount of gold used in the advert to show the expense and high standard of the product as gold connotates to money and power. In the advert it shows both characters going from not having expensive clothes on and being in a average NYC apartment to the transformation of them wearing gold outfits and looking ‘glammed up’ after using the product. Presenting this idea to the audience that if you use the product then you will then also feel this luxury. The advert also presents the idea of diversity of gender and race as Shayla in the advert is a black straight female and Manny is a white gay male. This is and example of a positive counter typical advert as it shows the audience that the product is not aimed at any specific group of people and that anyone can use this product. As in the advert ‘score’ that we looked at it focused on a specific group which is focused on middle class white men. Notice how in the video, the dominant signifier is the product shot of a suitcase full of mascara with gold shines illuminating from it. The gold shines represent the product as being a high quality product. However, the scene and set (the apartment) reminds the audience that the mascara is cheap.

Barker and Jane (2016) said ‘rebellion of younger women against what was perceived as the prescriptive, pushy and ‘sex negative’ approach of older feminists.’ According to Barker and Jane (2016), third wave feminism, which is regarded as having begun in the mid-90’s has many recognisable characteristics such as; an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, fluid and multiple subject positions and identities, the reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ and sex positivity.

The Queer Theory was founded by Alan Sinfield and Jonathan Dollimore in 1990. In terms of applying queer theory to feminist critical thought, many people, including Judith Butler, expressed doubt over the approach towards the oppositions like male/female; feminine/masculine, man/woman.

In contrast to Butler’s beliefs, the Score advert represents a degrading advert consisting of women who fit the stereotypical female category. They are dressed in little clothing, and carrying a man on a raised platform

The use of marketing strategy’s encourage a wider audience and target audience. Most makeup adverts are stereotypical and usually only include women however in this particular advert it uses a male to represent their product.However, not in a positive way. The Score advert was produced in the year of decriminilasiation of homosexuality and as such, the representation of heterosexuality could be read as signaling more anxiety than might first appear. When studying the advert, it was important to take into consideration it’s historical, social and cultural contexts. Score heavily relates to gender roles, sexuality and the historical context of advertising techniques. The advert makes men think that if they use score, women will instantly be attracted to them and they will become the superior, alpha male. Women didn’t have the rights that they do now when this advert was made and they were often objectified by men and were and are often stereotyped. This is an example of Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze‘ theory. The male audience are most likely attracted to the females in the advert due to the little and somewhat ‘tempting’ clothing. Notice how in the advert the woman at the back of the photo is reaching up to touch the male sitting on the platform. This represents her desire to connect with the male as he is using the product. Notice how in the fine print the word ‘Score‘ is mentioned 7 times and there are 4 pictures of the product containing the word ‘Score‘ also.

In summary, I believe that gender being “an identity instituted through a stylised repetition of acts” is learnt through the repeated performance of more modern adverts being made that are inclusive and focus on realistic/actual audience, meaning all types of gender rather than companies continuously focussing on their target audience and finding models who fit their stereotypical customers. The Score and Maybelline adverts are a perfect example of stereotypes/countertypes, radical/reactionary, and inclusive’exclusive.

DAVID GAUNTLET- IDENTITY

Fluidity of identity– Gauntlet comments on how someone’s identity can change because of how men and woman are being represented in media. Identity is always changing and people are adapting to new cultural norms. He now says we have a “greater diversity of identities”. Fluidity of identity means that a persons identity is always changing and they aren’t just one way or have one personality trait.

Constructed identity– This is when people build up their identity and it slightly changes, depending on their peers/audiences. men and women for example are becoming more balanced and there is also no longer a specific gender, people classify themselves as ‘they’ and that is the identity our generation has allowed people to do. Magazines, Movies or the opinion leaders who dominate our society (influencers, celebs) all help us to “construct” this identity for ourselves suggesting ways of living by acting on their advice or recognising ourselves in a character of a film.

Negotiated identity– A negotiated identity is a balance between our own desires and meeting the expectations of others. it is us showing how we balance or different identities around others.

Collective identity– Means that we refer to our sense of belonging to group, weather that be out of a shared interest/experience or even something in common. Our desire to engage with others and “fit in”. These groups could be social, religious, occupational or gendered.

Harry styles article- aim to bring and spread joy

Harry Styles ‘is adamant that his venture is less like a celebrity venture and is more of a celebrity endorsement’ Harry styles stated that he doesn’t think that “putting someone’s face on something sells a bad product”- shows identity isn’t fixed.

Judith Butler

“repetition of acts”

“repeated performance”

Judith Butler at home notes:

Judith Butler is a philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. Butler is best known for her book “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity”. In this book she explores and challenges the existing “feminist model” and how it has defined the female gender. In a historical context, Butler says that we have viewed gender in a binary fashion. This means that men and women are divided into particular categories that are fixed and cannot be changed. She argues against this and says that “gender should be seen as a human attribute that shifts and changes”. Butler believes that a person is not as specific as their gender she says that there are not specific acts or qualities that specify your gender. She preaches that gender is a title and has nothing to do with your actions or the decisions you make. To create identity, she thinks that you can change your gender and strive off of you as a person without having to follow specific gendered stereotypes. Butler writes to break the gender stereotypes and create counter types to involve and suit everyone instead people being tied down to specifically male or female. For example, football isn’t just for men and netball isn’t just for woman.

Maybelline & Score at home notes:

Maybelline:

When advertising their products, they always use females in their adverts. This is because females are the ones to use it the most, more than men. It’s seen as a female brand due to the repetitive acts of one gender, however all types of people wear makeup, for example, celebrities like Johnny Depp and Boy George have used and continue to use eyeliner when turning up to social events and shows. Males who act on stage and screen need to wear foundation and blusher too.

Score:

It advertises the idea that if you shave you will be more attractive and “get what you’ve always wanted”. This is seen as a product for males and that men should be buying it, however just because it’s a shaving cream, it doesn’t mean it is only for men, just because men use shaving cream, doesn’t mean woman don’t. The male gaze is attracted to the women in this product as they are in provocative and ripped clothing. The woman seen in the score advert seem to be carrying the man who has recently shaved using the product, as well as this they are trying to touch, stroke and feel the man. This can be seen as a sexist, stereotypical representation of woman as it shows that they bow down and treat men like kings when they are attractive/using the product advertised. This is clearly a repetitive theme used in adverts still to this day.

Judith Butler quotes

“Audiences learn how to perform gender via the media.” – The media in today’s society constructs our own gender identity for us.

“our gendered identities are not naturally given but constructed through repetition and ritual.” – This shows that this is how we act because it is a fixed stereotype given by society.

“Alternatives to the gender binary exist but are presented as subversive.” – Genders other than male and female exist but are seen as disruptive.

“Society constructs a binary view of gender” – A binary view is a social construct made up of two parts that are framed as complete opposites (e.g. male and female). This is slowly developing and changing, making the world have more fluidity of identity to consolidate the way people want themselves to be viewed by society.

David Gauntlet quotes

“Audiences realise they can change their identities” – They can be whoever they choose to be at anytime without being held back by society.

“The media provides a range of products in which a huge diversity of identities is portrayed.” – In society, there are many people who choose to present themselves with a variety of identities to suit themselves and make themselves content.

“The media provides a range of products in which a huge diversity of identities is portrayed.” – In our society there is a huge amount of individuals who portray themselves with a varies of different identities.

“Audiences are in control of the media – adapting and assimilating ideas about themselves through the various representation that the media presents.” – illustrating how audiences are collectively adapting cultural norms and adapting themselves to fit in to society.

Feminist Critical Thinking

The Male Gaze- Laura Mulvey

Toril Moi- Feminist = a political position Female = a matter of biology Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

1st Wave Feminism

‘sexism was coined by analogy with the term racism in the American civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Defined simply, sexism refers to the systematic ways in which men and women are brought up to view each other antagonistically, on the assumption that the male is always superior to the female‘(Michelene Wandor 1981:13)

2nd Wave Feminism

‘the feminist literary criticism of today is the product of the women’s movement of the 1960’s’(Barry 2017:123)

3rd Wave Feminism -Raunch Culture

‘rebellion of younger women against what was perceived as the prescriptive, pushy and ‘sex negative’ approach of older feminists.’ (344)Barker and Jane (2016 p. 344)

According to Barker and Jane (2016), third wave feminism, which is regarded as having begun in the mid-90’s has following recognisable characteristics:

• an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
• individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
• fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
• cyberactivism
• the reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
• sex positivity

3rd to 4th wave feminist critical thinking

The shift in critical feminist studies that reconciles exploitation against empowerment illustrates the shift in feminist thinking towards the 3rd Wave of feminist thought, see for example, groups such as Third Wave Foundation.

.

Judith Butler: ‘gender as performance’

identity can be a site of contest and revision‘Butler (2004:19)

Hook: Multicultural Intersectionality

As Barker and Jane note, ‘black feminists have pointed ot the differences between black and white women’s experiences, cultural representations and interests’ (2016:346). In other words, arguments around gender also intersect with postcolonial arguments around ‘power relationships between black and white women’. So that ‘in a postcolonial context, women carry the double burden of being colonized by imperial powers and subordinated by colonial and native men’ (ibid).

Queer Theory

In the UK the pioneering academic presence in queer studies was the Centre for Sexual Dissedence in the English department at Sussex University, founded by Alan Sinfield and Johnathon Dollimore in 1990 (Barry: 141). In terms of applying queer theory to feminist critical thought, Judith Butler, among others expressed doubt over the reductionist, essentialist, approach towards the binary oppositions presented in terms of: male/female; feminine/masculine, man/woman. Arguing, that this is too simple and does not account for the internal differences that distinguishes different forms of gender identity, which according to Butler ‘tend to be instruments of regulatory regimes . . . normalising categories of oppressive structures‘ (14:2004).