A little bit about representation..

Representation is based on stereotypes. Stereotypes are usually simplified and often an exaggerated representation of a character and also an over generalized belief about a particular category of people. In this case, the specific group that I am going to represent within my project would be women and girls of the ages 14-30. For as long as people can remember, women have always been portrayed as the “weaker” sex and also portrayed as dumb, non athletic, dramatic, only skinny, loves pink, considered objects and more. Let’s start with personality traits, domestic behaviors, occupations, and appearance. Woman’s personality traits are expected to be emotional and accommodating, their domestic behavior is expected for them to take care of the children, cook, and clean the house, many people are quick to assume that women’s occupation should be teachers and nurses, and lastly, for appearance, women are expected to be thin and short. As you can see, not only do people expect women to be this way, but the media world does as well.

To begin, one example within the media of how this group is represented would be the film mean girls. Although the movie mostly states the stereotypes of a high school life and the high school kids, it also shows us many stereotypes that “represent” women. For example, in Mean Girls, everyone is categorized into a group, and the most popular group (which are the mean girls) are known as the “Plastics.” This group’s name is a reference to a plastic Barbie Doll and these girls are mostly popular for their fit bodies, fancy clothes, their luxurious lifestyle, and their luscious hair, and most importantly fake, just like all Barbie Dolls. This film just goes to show that the Plastics, along with all the other girls are judged and criticized primarily on their looks. This happens a lot with women in real life. For example, most people seem to believe that if women are not skinny, then they are not beautiful. Also, the “Plastics” are shown as non-athletic and that only the men can play sports. For instance, as many of the students are in their P.E class, the film shows one of the girls on the phone walking around, one of the girls attempting to catch a ball but cant, and lastly one of the girls being carried by all the guys until she reaches the football field. While nowadays people are less likely to stereotype in their advertising, there are still many ways to go when it comes to the representation of women on screen and on print. With this being said, another example within the media of how this group is represented would be in Magazines. One specific Magazine that does this would be GQ. If you were to search up on google, “The GQ Women” you would see many women on the front cover of magazines half naked, and wearing minimal clothing. This shows the world that women can only be considered sexy and confident if they “show some skin.” When it comes to Magazines, men get cars, sports, watches and abs. Women get makeup, gossip, fashion, and weight loss. Both are getting fashion in various degrees but women get “feminine” magazines and men get “masculine” magazines. For example, the colors red, pink, and white dominate the covers of women’s magazines with more fancy fonts and represents femininity. Meanwhile, darker colors like black, blue, and grey dominate the covers of men’s magazines with bolder and harsher fonts to assert a tone of a dominance design.

Furthermore, I feel that these representations of women are very unfair. Although some women are represented this way, many other women are not. For example, women are intelligent, independent, they value work-life balance, empathetic, nurturing, great multitasks, athletic, and more. This is not considered fair because if media outlets continue to portray women as dumb, non athletic, dramatic, only skinny, loves pink, considered objects and more then many people will continue to treat women the way they are treated now and see them as the weaker sex. As a woman, I can say that these stereotypes are mainly incorrect. Back then, you used to see movies about princesses like Cinderella that depend on a man to save their life and make their life better, but now you see movies like Legally Blonde, where they don’t need a man for them to live “happily ever after.” Honestly, without women, humanity would lose its natural balance.

Finally, the representation characteristic that I would retain is that women are emotional and dramatic. Although there are many women who are strong and show no emotion, there are also women who tend to show way too much emotion. Honestly, I am not even gonna lie, lots of girls are more dramatic, emotional, and sensitive than guys are, and all you women reading this know that it’s true. We can’t help it, it’s just the way we are and the way we perceive things. Think of it like this, who is more likely to cry during a sad movie… girls. Who is more likely to get butt hurt about what others say about them….. Girls. Who is more likely the drama queen….. GIRLS! Now, guys can cry, get butt hurt, and be drama queens as well, but you mostly see it in girls first and that is why they are portrayed as dramatic and emotional. A stereotype that I would challenge is the appearance of women. I am a believer that no matter what size, shape, or form women are, they are always considered beautiful, and I would challenge this stereotype because women do NOT have to be thin in order to be beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, some women are obsessed about things like that, but the majority of women are learning to embrace and love how they look and feel in their own body. This stereotype of women having to be thin could drive them to do things like stop eating, working out like crazy, and getting surgery, but by breaking this stereotype, I would be showing women that no matter what they look like, they will always be accepted and loved. Overall, many stereotypes can be misleading, but they can also be true. Either way, media has been and always will develop stereotypes about different groups.

Genre #2 : Horror!

1. Horror
2. Horror is a very popular genre that has the intention to scare, frighten, startle, or disgust the audience by using feelings of terror. Not to mention that horror is also overlapped with the supernatural fiction, and even fantasy. Usually, the aim of a horror film is to stimulate the audience’s nightmares, along with fears. At the same time, the plots in a horror film usually consist the intrusion of an evil event, person, or force in somebodies life. Due to this, horror films include suspense, jump scares, and uncomfortable situations, in order for the audience to feel their heart racing or jumping out of their chest. The Horror genre targets an audience of the age 15-25. The reason for this is that most young adults and teenagers enjoy thrills. These thrills are more likely to excite a younger audience rather than exciting an older audience. Lastly, a common thing that each horror film has is to include either death, monsters, and blood.
3. While making a horror film, many production techniques are used, to produce a feeling of fear and startle throughout the entire film. An important production technique is Mise-en-scene which includes low-key lighting. People fear the unseen and unknown. Low key lighting is often used in horror films to create a creepy, mysterious, and dark atmosphere. They are also used to enhance shadows and darkness. By doing this, people will feel more vulnerable and threatened as they are unable to see as much. Another production technique in Mise-en-scene would be the costumes. Costumes play a major role in any film due to the fact that they aid in developing representation. In horror films, costumes are very important because they add to the mise-en scene of the film which will help create a very uncomfortable feeling, due to the fact that the costume represents “sinister” characters. The fact that the character wears dark clothes represents the tone of the film and makes it scarier for the audience. It will also help the audience identify if the character is a protagonist or an antagonist and also help the film become a lot scarier and suspenseful. These costumes are either usually dark or covered in blood, and makeup. Also, another production technique in Mise-en-scene would be the location, or setting of the film. Many horror films use a range of different locations like haunted houses, graveyards, rural locations, and suburban houses. Usually these locations are isolated, in order to make it harder for the victim to escape. For example, if the film was to take place in a haunted house it would normally be featured during the night, in an old and abandoned house that is broken down and solitary. Typically, haunted houses mostly involve a tragic accident to occur within the location, like somebody dying in the house or cursing it, which causes it to be haunted. Also, in these production techniques, common shots are used in order to heighten emotions. For instance, many close-ups are used to show possible importance of people or specific objects. When films use this production technique, it makes the audience feel a connection, in order to increase fear. Not to mention that many horror films use Non-diegetic sounds like high pitched sounds, violins, or suspenseful music in order to build suspense and change the emotions of the scene. Then, many of the same colors are always used in horror films, which are dark colors. Two of the main colors that are used are Red and Black. Red creates a feeling of danger, blood, and energy and also stimulates a a faster heartbeat/ breathing. Black creates a feeling of negative, power, and submission and stimulates a feeling of negative connotation, fear, and the unknown. Color does way more than just stimulate feelings, it also represents the role of characters. For example, if someone is wearing black, they would most likely be seen as evil, or negative in the film. On the other hand, if someone wears the color white, they are seen as angelic an innocent. You get the difference? Lastly, many objects are used in horror films like guns, knives, crosses, dolls, old TVs, mirrors, cameras, and way more. These objects make it known that the audience is watching a horror movie and add more suspense into the film.
4. The Conjuring- The conjuring is one of the most famous horror movies and is very popular. The Conjuring is about the story of how paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were called in order to help a family who was being terrorized by a dark presence in their home. The investigators are then forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, where they end up finding themselves caught in a terrifying case. To begin, the lighting in the conjuring is consisted of natural lighting and low key lighting. For example, whenever the scenes would be shot outside, they would use natural lighting, which includes the sun. Whenever the scenes would be shot inside the house they would use low key lighting which heightened the fear and anxiety because of the unknown in the darkness. The costumes of the family and the investigators include pale colors to capture their innocence and earthy colors that are associated with the 70’s. These costumes add a soft texture to their warming family environment against the chilling forces present in their surroundings. On the other hand, the evil force that is terrorizing the family looks like a nun who is dressed in all black. The fact that the nun is wearing all black suggests that the evil force is the villain or the bad guy, with a lot of power, and negativity that is terrorizing this poor family. Also, the location that the family lives in is a farmhouse that is isolated, old and almost broken down. If you have watched the movie, you notice that when the family moves in, the house is creepy, and needs lots of renovations to it. The conjuring also consists of faster and higher pitched non-diegetic sound which is used just before and during the big event, this creates a more scary effect and suspense to the scene, whilst also hopefully scaring the audience. Lastly, objects like crosses are used in this movie, but are used differently. In the conjuring, the use of crosses is turned upside down which represents “a symbol of atheism, humanism, and the occult. Several black metal bands use an inverted cross to call attention to their supposed devotion to Satan. Upside-down crosses appear in horror movies as a signal of demonic activity.”
5. Saw- The movie saw is about a man named Jigsaw who kidnaps people that have done bad things in their life that somehow relate to him, and forces them to do things they would never do in order to survive. Usually the things they have to do are serious like either hurting themselves, or hurting someone else. It is considered a game that forces people to think, like a “jigsaw puzzle” and do things under pressure and time. Although this “jigsaw” is doing something bad, he can never be charged because he is not killing these people, the people are killing themselves. In this movie, the lighting that they use, is always dark and low key. Just like The Conjuring, this lighting heightened the fear and anxiety of the viewers because of the unknown in the darkness. The costume that the victims use are normal clothing that ranges from the ages of 20-40 years old. On the other hand, the bad guy named “Jigsaw” usually wears black and shows that he has power of everyone who is being forced to kill. The location is always isolated when it comes to the movie Saw. In all 8 movies, the location is usually an abandoned house, and an abandoned warehouse. These locations are isolated and hard to map, due to the fact that he doesn’t want his victims to escape. Lastly, their are many objects that are used in this movie. There are knives, cameras, saws, an even a doll. This movie is so good!
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Sources:

“Horror Films.” Most Influential, Significant and Important Films in American Cinema - The 1960s, www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html.

“Why Costumes and Make-up Are Still so Important to Horror Films.” CineVue, 25 Apr. 2018, cine-vue.com/2018/04/why-costumes-and-make-up-are-still-so-important-to-horror-films.html.

“What You Need to Know About High Key vs. Low Key Lighting.” The Beat: A Blog by PremiumBeat, 3 Jan. 2018, www.premiumbeat.com/blog/high-key-vs-low-key-lighting/.