Historical text analysis and research
My historical text is 'The Wizard of Oz (1939).
The protagonist in the movie is the character of Dorothy who was played by actress Judy Garland. At this period of time women's rights and equality were at the stage of being a major issue. In society the issue became more known and individuals then looked forward to watching The Wizard of Oz as the female was represented in a way that would not be expected in the 1930's. Judy Garland became an idol for young women which is why the film was such a great success.
The Wizard of Oz is quite similar to The Hunger Games as at the beginning of each film the settings are alike. Both protagonists being female live in a dismal area. The idea of teamwork is essential in both films as Dorothy finds companions to join her on her journey along the way and Katniss has allies in the arena showing teamwork with Peeta and other district competitors.
In both films the power of the protagonists is shown when Dorothy confronts 'Oz' and Katniss shows her strength to the Capitol's president.
Wednesday 10 December 2014
Friday 5 December 2014
Critical investigation task 3
Essay Plan
To what extent do films such as The Hunger Games reflect the recent growth in female protagonists in Hollywood films?
Introduction-
Lay out the argument
The Hunger Games series has made over $2 billion, making it one of the highest grossing films ever made and carries a major franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is now one of the most popular actresses of this time.
Quotes-
Section 1- Primary Text
Talk about the Hunger Games and Hollywood
Perception of female protagonist in the film, talk about how much money the film made, why its a blockbuster.
Use textual analysis.
Quotes-
Section 2- Historical text and how the issue has developed
The Wizard of Oz and Marilyn Monroe- Discuss how they were so popular and idols to females.
Section 3- Secondary text
Gravity, bringing it back to modern times and how this movie was also a hit.
Section 4- Theories and debates
Talk about feminism in film and in society in general (social, political)
Wider context of feminism around the world.
Section 5- Future of feminism and Hollywood, how it might change due to films like the Hunger Games.
The rise of female protagonists
Conclusion- Sum up the argument
To what extent do films such as The Hunger Games reflect the recent growth in female protagonists in Hollywood films?
Introduction-
Lay out the argument
The Hunger Games series has made over $2 billion, making it one of the highest grossing films ever made and carries a major franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is now one of the most popular actresses of this time.
Quotes-
- 'In the top 100 domestic US grossing films, females comprised 15% of protagonists, 29% of major characters and 30% of speaking characters' http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/11/mans-celluloid-world-study-finds-women-under-represented-film
- Katniss Everdeen's triumphs extend beyond the Quarter Quell and the global box office: she has guaranteed the future of the female action hero. http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women
Theories-
- Media effects- modernism
- Representation
Section 1- Primary Text
Talk about the Hunger Games and Hollywood
Perception of female protagonist in the film, talk about how much money the film made, why its a blockbuster.
Use textual analysis.
Quotes-
- 'Hunger Games have access to a spectrum of ‘ways of being’ and any restrictions on their behaviour come solely from the particular rules of the dystopian society,rather than expectations based on gender' -Media Magazine 44
- The protagonists of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon andKill Bill brought welcome spin to their genre. http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women
Section 2- Historical text and how the issue has developed
The Wizard of Oz and Marilyn Monroe- Discuss how they were so popular and idols to females.
Section 3- Secondary text
Gravity, bringing it back to modern times and how this movie was also a hit.
Section 4- Theories and debates
Talk about feminism in film and in society in general (social, political)
Wider context of feminism around the world.
Section 5- Future of feminism and Hollywood, how it might change due to films like the Hunger Games.
The rise of female protagonists
Conclusion- Sum up the argument
Tutorial
Task 1 looking OK but perhaps will need a bit more
depth/detail when you write your essay draft.
Bibliography coming along nicely BUT only 13 entries as yet.
Need to add all the books, journals and every web source you’ve used.
Try and get hold of this book - Action Chicks: New Images of
Tough Women in Popular Culture Paperback – 30 Jul 2004 by Sherrie A. Inness.
You might need to go back to the BFI or look at local libraries.
Critical investigation task 2
Bibliography
Billson, A.
(2011, March Thursday 3rd). Not another terrorised film female.
Retrieved September 2014, from The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/mar/03/horror-films-women-protagonists-the-resident
Cardwell, S.
(n.d.). Film Protagonists. Retrieved September 2014 , from Screen
Online BFI: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/
Carroll, R.
(2014, March Tuesday 11th). It's a man's celluloid world: study finds
women under-represented in film. Retrieved September 2014, from The
Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/11/mans-celluloid-world-study-finds-women-under-represented-film
Clothier, M.
(2011, March Tuesday 8th). Where are all the daring women's heroines?
Retrieved September 2014, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/mar/08/daring-women-s-heroines
Cochrane, K.
(2007, April Friday 27th). The girl can help it. Retrieved September
2014, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/apr/27/2
Cox, D. (2013,
December Thursday 12th). Film Blog- Are female action heroes good role
models for young women? Retrieved September 2014, from The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women
Emery, D. (2014,
11). Strong Female Characters Still Underrepresented in Hollywood, New
Study Shows. Retrieved January 2015, from The Hollywood reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-underrpresents-strong-female-characters-687392
Ettus, S. (2011,
October 10th). 25 Alarm Bells for Women: Sounds from Miss Representation.
Retrieved September 2014, from Forbes :
http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaettus/2011/10/21/25-alarm-bells-for-women-sounds-from-miss-representation/
Film Facts . (n.d.).
Retrieved September 2014, from Women Make Movies:
http://www.wmm.com/resources/film_facts.shtml
Hess, A. (2014,
March 27th). Women Buy Half of All Movie Tickets. That Won't Mean More
Female Characters. Retrieved September 2014, from XX Factor:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/27/mpaa_2013_numbers_women_buy_half_of_all_movie_tickets_but_that_won_t_mean.html
Kistler, A.
(2013, April Monday 15th). FILMAKER GUEVARA-FLANAGAN DOCUMENTS WONDER
WOMAN'S IMPORTANCE IN "WONDER WOMEN!". Retrieved September
2014, from Comic Book Resources: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44913
Lacey, N. (2010).
Engendering change, what's happened to representations of women. Media
Magazine 34, Pages 65-67.
Lauzen, D. M.
(2014). It’s a Man’s (Celluloid). Retrieved September 2014, from Women
in TV film:
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdf
Littleton, C.
(2014, Marc h 11th). Study: Female Characters Under-Represented in Movies.
Retrieved September 2014, from Variety:
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/study-female-characters-under-represented-in-movies-1201129236/
Stingfellow, S.
(2013). Gender politics of survival in the Walking Dead and the Hunger Games.
Media Magazine 44, pg 63.
Vincent, A.
(2014, August 11th). Women in film: no improvement since the 1950s.
Retrieved September 2014, from The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11026415/Women-in-film-no-improvement-since-the-1950s.html
Thursday 4 December 2014
Critical investigation task 1
Textual Analysis
In the first clip Peeta is shown to be the most vulnerable character as he falls of his rope while climbing it as he is training and all the other characters are shown to be fierce. He is given the feminine like role as this is what viewers would expect from the women sidekicks in films. Therefore this stereotype has been crushed as demonstrated in the Hunger Games. Katniss then warns Peeta to act tougher and show the other contenders his skills, whereas here again the female is telling the male what to do which would normally be the other way around. Therefore this shows authority and strength in women, the representation of Katniss is unexpected according to the gender theory of the male normally being the 'Hero'.
The second clip of The Hunger Games is when they first enter the Cornucopia which is the death arena. Many close up shots are used to emphasise the fear and panic on the characters faces. However Katniss Everdeen the female protagonist seems to be less worried than Peeta her sidekick, he is shown shaking his head in disappointment whilst Katniss is on stance ready to battle. This creates a strong representation of women and an opposing stereotype normally shown in films which is the female being the weaker character. The sound is parallel to the scene and gets more tense as the countdown is coming to an end and the editing speeds up as there are many jump cuts to show how everyone is preparing themselves at the time of the countdown, this makes the viewer more anxious and intrigues them to see what is going to happen next. Peeta is shown running into the forest to hide as soon as and as fast as he could which left Katniss to be brave and try and fight her way through to get the supplies she needed, showing she is a fighter, survivor and a stronger character than Peeta.
Wednesday 12 November 2014
Tutorial
Exceptional progress – almost 3,000 words of Notes and
Quotes already.
Variety of sources so far but mostly online – we need to add
academic books and journals to even this out.
Four academic journal articles on PDF from previous tutorial
that will balance this out – read through these once you’ve finished with Media
Magazine articles.
Two Media Mag articles found and researched – keep looking
because there may be more.
Keep looking at Media Edu – there MUST be a case study on
there about female representation in film…
Books – two texts in DF07 you can work from. It may also be
worth focusing on books when we visit the BFI.
- In the next two weeks I will concentrate on going through books as I have mostly focussed on online content.
Friday 10 October 2014
Notes and Quotes
·
Women on screen marginalised to just 30% of speaking roles
·
Study found female characters less likely to act as leaders
Women remained
dramatically under-represented in 2013 despite films such as Hunger Games 2 and
Gravity heralding a supposed banner year for female actors, the study, titled
“It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World”, found.
In the top 100 domestic US
grossing films, females comprised 15% of protagonists, 29% of major characters
and 30% of speaking characters
The Heat, starring Bullock
and Melissa McCarthy, was another film that prompted buzz over supposedly
widening roles for female actors.
In a separate study of the
top 250 domestic grossing films in 2012, she calculated that women comprised
18% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers
and editors – a 1% improvement since 1998.
Book- women and film, both sides of the camera
By E.Ann Kaplan
‘’The male gaze, in
defining and dominating women as erotic object , manages to repress the
relations of women in her place leaving a gap not colonized by man, through
which women can hopefully begin to discourse, a voice, a place for herself as
subject’’. Page 2.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women
Katniss Everdeen's triumphs extend beyond the Quarter Quell and theglobal box office: she has guaranteed the future of the female action hero.
The protagonists of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon andKill Bill brought welcome spin to their genre.
Female toughies infiltrated the otherwise masculine domains of The Matrix, Prometheus, Captain America: The First Avenger and Avengers Assemble. The Snow White of Snow White and the Huntsmanturned out to be an adept killer. Not even children's animations have escaped the vogue: in Shrek, the princess knew kung fu; in Brave, she was a warrior.
73% of female respondents watched to see their own gender in a powerful role.
This is a business run by guys," Mariel Hemingway once remarked, "who want women to be a certain way." As long as this is the case, it seems that the female action hero will be sticking around, for better or for worse.
25 Alarm Bells for Women: Sounds from
Miss Representation
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdf
•Females comprised 29% of major characters, down 4 percentage points from 2011, but up 2 percentage points from 2002.
•Females accounted for 30% of all speaking characters (includes major and minor characters) in 2013, down 3 percentage points from 2011, but up 2 percentage points from 2002.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/
It's undeniable that, despite this variety, women on film have been more often restricted to familial or domestic roles than have men. While a number of famous female protagonists have been presented as strong models of motherhood (as in Poor Cow (d. Ken Loach, 1967) and A Taste of Honey (d. Tony Richardson, 1961)), we have rarely seen women whose priority is to pursue and develop their ambitions, talents or vocations
Those who do pursue larger ambitions are often portrayed as being in some sense naïve, manipulated by other (male) characters in the pursuit of their dreams.
As British cinema has developed, the number of female protagonists has increased, and female characters play a larger part in propelling the narrative forward. For example, where the British New Wave films of the 1960s largely confined their female characters to motherhood and domesticity, leaving the male protagonists to speak out about larger social concerns, many contemporary social realist films allow female characters greater power over their own destinies.
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/study-female-characters-under-represented-in-movies-1201129236/
The numbers underscore why pics like “Gravity” (pictured), toplined by a Sandra Bullock, remain a rarity at the multiplexes. Female characters accounted for only 15% of protagonists in the 100 highest-grossing domestic films of 2013, according to the study “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World” by veteran researcher Martha Lauzen, exec director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State U.
Female actors accounted for 30% of all speaking parts in the survey, which has examined some 7,000 screen characters across 300 pics since 2002. Only about 13% of 2013’s top 100 pics featured an equal number of female and male characters.
The numbers for minority females are even lower. African-American female representation on screen climbed to 14%, from 8% in 2011, but down from 15% in 2012. Hispanic characters were flat fro 2011 at 5% and up from 4% in 2002. Asian-American female characters are few and far between, accounting for 3% in 2013, down from 5% in 2011.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11026415/Women-in-film-no-improvement-since-the-1950s.html
Female-led films boosted the film industry last year: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the highest-grossing, making more than $4 billion at the box office and Frozen, Disney's animation about two spirited sisters, was in third place. Female buddy-cop film The Heatwas in 15th place and Gravity, which also starred Sandra Bullock, made more than $4 billion together.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/27/mpaa_2013_numbers_women_buy_half_of_all_movie_tickets_but_that_won_t_mean.html
women made up 52 percent of the moviegoer population and bought half of all tickets sold.
women-led films grossed an average of $116 million to men's $97 million.
films with female protagonists still constitute a risk. But given the losses they’ve eaten on big-budget, male-dominated flops like R.I.P.D., After Earth, and The Lone Ranger, perhaps it’s a risk studios should be more willing to take.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums&usp=sharing
MEDIA MAGAZINE ISSUE 34
John Berger-
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums&usp=sharing
MEDIA MAGAZINE 44
The Hunger Games gives us an all-female domestic scene in which Katniss comforts her sister who has woken from a nightmare. The director quickly establishes multiple personas for our protagonist through facial expressions, costume and her varied interactions with Prim, Gale and the family cat. From early on in the film, it is possible to discuss her heroism, a stereotypically masculine quality, as she volunteers to take her sister’s place at the reaping. Characters move between roles and responsibilities fluidly, without suggesting that any transgressions are based on their gender. page 63
Hunger Games have access to a spectrum of ‘ways of being’ and any restrictions on their behaviour come solely from the particular rules of the dystopian society,rather than expectations based on gender. page 63
In The Walking Dead,survival means a return to traditional roles and the end of equal opportunity. After Andrea learns how to shoot, she suggests that she would be more useful performing watch duty than domestic tasks, but Lori attacks her for overstepping her boundaries. Unlike Katniss, whose shooting prowess is celebrated, Andrea is viewed as self-serving for wanting to use her skills. The fact that female characters in The Walking Dead are pressured into ‘keeping house’, even when they are capable of protecting the camp,shows that the stereotypical gender roles
fiercely championed by the characters are rooted in ideology, rather than what is necessary for survival. Page 63
Women in Film- PDF
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-underrpresents-strong-female-characters-687392
The study showed that only 13 percent of the top 100 films featured equal numbers of female and male characters. Those that were cast were younger than their male counterparts and less likely than males to have clear goals or be portrayed as leaders.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women
Katniss Everdeen's triumphs extend beyond the Quarter Quell and theglobal box office: she has guaranteed the future of the female action hero.
The protagonists of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon andKill Bill brought welcome spin to their genre.
Female toughies infiltrated the otherwise masculine domains of The Matrix, Prometheus, Captain America: The First Avenger and Avengers Assemble. The Snow White of Snow White and the Huntsmanturned out to be an adept killer. Not even children's animations have escaped the vogue: in Shrek, the princess knew kung fu; in Brave, she was a warrior.
73% of female respondents watched to see their own gender in a powerful role.
This is a business run by guys," Mariel Hemingway once remarked, "who want women to be a certain way." As long as this is the case, it seems that the female action hero will be sticking around, for better or for worse.
Their dramatic potential
seems to centre partly, on their veneer of vulnerability. If society defines
femininity as weak, and youth as weak too, then it stands to reason that the
pre-adolescent female is the ultimate symbol of vulnerability. This status
certainly creates a strong counterpoint when these characters encounter some of
the perilous beasts that seem to mass and breed in filmic fantasy worlds. When
Dorothy is besieged by flying monkeys, for instance, or Rosaleen, the
protagonist in The Company of Wolves, dreams of a werewolf "hairy on the
inside" (who emerges when Stephen Rea rips away his own skin), the
dramatic effect is emphasised by their status as young women.
The Wizard of Oz,
"the power centre of the film is a triangle at whose corners are Dorothy,
Glinda and the Witch. The fourth point, at which the Wizard is thought for most
of the film to stand, turns out to be an illusion. The power of men is
illusory, the film suggests. The power of women is real." No weakling
then, Dorothy.
For film-makers, the
transition from girl to woman - and the possibility of reproduction - seems to
offer more frenzied, extreme potential than the transition of boys to men.
These fantasy films symbolise the onset of female sexuality through a
burgeoning, powerful creativity that can take many forms, but is explicitly
psychological, rather than physical.
Dorothy and Rosaleen's psyches run wild while they are unconscious,
asleep.
There are multiple
references to blood and menstruation in these films. Dorothy's ruby slippers, for instance.
In L Frank Baum's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from which the film is
adapted, these shoes were originally silver, and their changed colour seems to
make this reference even more marked. The idea of menstruation as a source of
fear and worry also arises in this last film, when the Wicked Witch of the West
conjures up the vast, undulating - and poisonous - poppy field, which turns the
whole screen red.
Not another terrorised film female
While
it's women who do most of the screaming – since Peeping Tom, the camera prefers
to stalk females – I don't think the slasher subgenre is misogynist
Horror movies like to
place their characters in peril, and their almost exclusively male directors
invariably view women as more vulnerable, more easily terrorised than their
male counterparts, fair game. "You fear more for her than you would for a
husky man," said Brian De Palma.
children's books are
packed with ballsy girls, egging each other on to ever greater feats of
physical and moral courage as they stand up to evil and save the world(s
Take Lucy in The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe. Both may have to contend with bossy big brothers and
cooking, cleaning and keeping-your-feet-dry big sisters, but it is Lucy who
first finds Narnia
25 Alarm Bells for Women: Sounds from
Miss Representation
1. American teenagers spend more
than 10 hours a day consuming media, most of it filled with content that
objectifies women and distorts their bodies.
2. 53% of 12 year old
girls feel unhappy with their bodies, 78% of 17 year old girls feel unhappy
with their bodies and 65% of women and girls have an eating disorder.
3. Rates of depression
among girls and women have doubled between 2000 and 2010.
4.
“I worry about how much pressure my daughters feel. In a society that features
anorexic actresses and models and television stars, we get conditioned to think
this is what women should look like.”
- Katie Couric
- Katie Couric
5. Girls are learning
to see themselves as objects. American Psychological Association calls
self-objectification a national epidemic: Women and girls who self-objectify
are more likely to be depressed, have lower confidence, lower ambition and
lower GPAs.
6. US Advertisers support this content – they spent 236 billion in 2009.
Because of deregulation – “This is the first time in human history that
marketers have dictated our cultural norms and values.”
– Caroline Heldman, Occidental College
– Caroline Heldman, Occidental College
7. Women respond to
advertisers’ messages of never being good enough: American women spend more
money on the pursuit of beauty than on their own education.
12. Only 16% of protagonists in
film are female. Only 7% of film directors and 10% of writers are female.
13. Between 1937 and
2005 there were only 13 female protagonists in animated movies. The female
characters in G rated movies are just as likely to wear revealing clothing as
in R rated movies.
14.
More than 70% of women on TV are in their 20s and 30s. “A male dominant system
values women as child bearers so it limits their value to the time that they
are sexually and reproductively active and they become much less valuable after
that.” – Gloria Steinem
15. Women and girls are the subject of less than 20% of news stories. “When a
group is not featured in the media… it is called symbolic annhilation.” –
Martha Lauzen, Center for the Study of Women
in TV and Film
16. “All of Hollywood
is run on one assumption: That women will watch stories about men, but men
won’t watch stories about women. It is a horrible indictment of our society of
we assume that one half of our population is just not interested in the other
half.”
– Geena Davis
– Geena Davis
17.
“There used to be a thing called the family hour, where you couldn’t air
anything inappropriate for families before 9 o’clock at night. That is gone.
Today it is the wild wild west. In the last 25 years our lawmakers have
essentially been absent, out of the picture.”
- Jim Steyer, Common Sense Media
- Jim Steyer, Common Sense Media
- In 2013, women accounted for 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors. This represents a decrease of two percentage points since 2012 and a decrease of one percentage point from 1998. - Celluloid Ceiling 2013 Report
- Women accounted for 10% of writers, 15% of executive producers, 17% of editors, 3% of cinematographers, and 25% of producers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2013. - Celluloid Ceiling 2013 Report
- Women comprised 6% of all directors working on the top 250 films of 2013. This represents a decrease of 3 percentage points from 2012 and 1998. Ninety-three percent (93%) of the films had no female directors. - Celluloid Ceiling 2013 Report
- 36% of films employed 0 or 1 woman in the roles considered, 23% employed 2 women, 33% employed 3 to 5 women, 6% employed 6 to 9 women, and 2% employed 10 to 13 women. In contrast, 1% of films employed 0 or 1 man in the roles considered, and 32% employed 10 to 13 men. - Celluloid Ceiling 2013 Report
- A historical comparison of women’s employment on the top 250 films in 2013 and 1998 reveals that the percentages of women directors, writers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers have declined. The percentage of producers has increased slightly. - Celluloid Ceiling 2013 Report
- A historical comparison of women’s employment on the top 250 films in 2013 and 2012 reveals that the percentages of women directors, writers, executive producers, and editors have declined. The percentage of women producers has remained the same. The percentage of women cinematographers has increased slightly. Celluloid Ceiling 2013 Report
- Only 11% of all clearly identifiable protagonists are female, 78% are male. - It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World
- In
Academy Award history, four female filmmakers have been nominated for best
director (Lina Wertmuller-1977, Jane Campion-1994, and Sofia Coppola-2004,
Kathryn Bigelow - 2010), but only Kathryn has won.
- Women's E-News
- In 2013, during the 85th Academy Awards, across 19 categories 140 men were nominated for awards versus 35 women. There were no female nominees for Directing, Cinematography, Film Editing, Writing (Original Screenplay), or Music (Original Score). - Women's Media Center
- 9 percent of the top 250 movies at the domestic box office last year were made by female directors. That’s substantially higher than the 2011 figure of 5 percent. - NY Times Report
- Diversity means money. Broadcast comedies and dramas with more diversity get higher ratings. Films with just 21-30% diversity earned a global median box-office total of $160 million, while films with less than 10% diversity made just $68.5 million. - Indiewire
- Women are underrepresented by a factor of nearly 2 to 1 among lead roles in film; women had the lead in just 25.6% of the films. - Indiewire
- Things are not moving in the right direction for women onscreen. The numbers are stuck at around 30%, yet remember, women buy 50% of the tickets. The numbers continue to show that Hollywood doesn't care enough about women. They believe that sexualizing girls and women sells tickets. - Indiewire
- Women support women. Films directed by women feature more women in all roles. There is a 21% increase in women working on a narrative film when there is a female director and a 24% of women working on documentaries. - Indiewire
- Females direct more documentaries than narrative films – 34.5% vs 16.9%. - Indiewire
- Top
male critics wrote 82% of film reviews featured on Rotten Tomatoes during
a two-month period, with top female critics accounting for less than 20%.
- The Wrap
- WMM has
more than 500 films in its collection, representing more than 400
filmmakers from nearly 30 countries around the globe.
- In the
last decade, WMM has worked with dozens of local women’s organizations in
Asia, Latin America and the Middle East to support new International
Women’s Film Festivals.
- Projects
that WMM has supported and distributed have been nominated for and won all
of the most prestigious media awards, including the Academy Award, Emmy
Award, Peabody Award, and the duPont-Columbia University Broadcast Award,
among others.
- WMM now
sponsors more than 200 projects in its renowned Production Assistance
Program, and has helped filmmakers raise close to $4 million in funding
over the last 5 years.
- WMM has
returned more than $1.5 million in royalties to women filmmakers over the
last three years.
- WMM
serves as an advisor to pioneering projects around the world including:
the Gender Montage Project which trains filmmakers in the former Soviet
Republics; and a groundbreaking program developed to promote filmmaking in
Iraq.
- WMM
films have been aired by major broadcasters around the world, including
HBO/Cinemax, PBS, Sundance Channel, IFC and international broadcasters
such as ZDF, Arte, KBS Korea and TV Globo Brazil.
inspired to create more female heroes and
other heroes that truly reflect the world in which we all live. I hope
audiences will support women as creators and films and series
with women as the leading protagonist by buying tickets and books to
see these . Finally, I hope audiences will stand up to demand producers create
the kinds of images and stories they want to see, write the kind of plot lines
that make them feel strong and empowered.
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdf
- Females comprised 15% of protagonists, 29% of major characters, and 30% of all speaking characters.
•Females comprised 29% of major characters, down 4 percentage points from 2011, but up 2 percentage points from 2002.
•Females accounted for 30% of all speaking characters (includes major and minor characters) in 2013, down 3 percentage points from 2011, but up 2 percentage points from 2002.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/
It's undeniable that, despite this variety, women on film have been more often restricted to familial or domestic roles than have men. While a number of famous female protagonists have been presented as strong models of motherhood (as in Poor Cow (d. Ken Loach, 1967) and A Taste of Honey (d. Tony Richardson, 1961)), we have rarely seen women whose priority is to pursue and develop their ambitions, talents or vocations
Those who do pursue larger ambitions are often portrayed as being in some sense naïve, manipulated by other (male) characters in the pursuit of their dreams.
As British cinema has developed, the number of female protagonists has increased, and female characters play a larger part in propelling the narrative forward. For example, where the British New Wave films of the 1960s largely confined their female characters to motherhood and domesticity, leaving the male protagonists to speak out about larger social concerns, many contemporary social realist films allow female characters greater power over their own destinies.
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/study-female-characters-under-represented-in-movies-1201129236/
The numbers underscore why pics like “Gravity” (pictured), toplined by a Sandra Bullock, remain a rarity at the multiplexes. Female characters accounted for only 15% of protagonists in the 100 highest-grossing domestic films of 2013, according to the study “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World” by veteran researcher Martha Lauzen, exec director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State U.
Female actors accounted for 30% of all speaking parts in the survey, which has examined some 7,000 screen characters across 300 pics since 2002. Only about 13% of 2013’s top 100 pics featured an equal number of female and male characters.
The numbers for minority females are even lower. African-American female representation on screen climbed to 14%, from 8% in 2011, but down from 15% in 2012. Hispanic characters were flat fro 2011 at 5% and up from 4% in 2002. Asian-American female characters are few and far between, accounting for 3% in 2013, down from 5% in 2011.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11026415/Women-in-film-no-improvement-since-the-1950s.html
Female-led films boosted the film industry last year: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the highest-grossing, making more than $4 billion at the box office and Frozen, Disney's animation about two spirited sisters, was in third place. Female buddy-cop film The Heatwas in 15th place and Gravity, which also starred Sandra Bullock, made more than $4 billion together.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/27/mpaa_2013_numbers_women_buy_half_of_all_movie_tickets_but_that_won_t_mean.html
women made up 52 percent of the moviegoer population and bought half of all tickets sold.
women-led films grossed an average of $116 million to men's $97 million.
films with female protagonists still constitute a risk. But given the losses they’ve eaten on big-budget, male-dominated flops like R.I.P.D., After Earth, and The Lone Ranger, perhaps it’s a risk studios should be more willing to take.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums&usp=sharing
MEDIA MAGAZINE ISSUE 34
John Berger-
- Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. pg 65
- ‘men active: women passive’ page 65
Inevitably the representation of gender has changed in the last 40 years and this reflects the fact that young women are now often far more ambitious than they were and believe they are competing with men on a level playing field. pg 67
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0i5diL3vrEiSGxRNHIyZmM4Ums&usp=sharing
MEDIA MAGAZINE 44
The Hunger Games gives us an all-female domestic scene in which Katniss comforts her sister who has woken from a nightmare. The director quickly establishes multiple personas for our protagonist through facial expressions, costume and her varied interactions with Prim, Gale and the family cat. From early on in the film, it is possible to discuss her heroism, a stereotypically masculine quality, as she volunteers to take her sister’s place at the reaping. Characters move between roles and responsibilities fluidly, without suggesting that any transgressions are based on their gender. page 63
Hunger Games have access to a spectrum of ‘ways of being’ and any restrictions on their behaviour come solely from the particular rules of the dystopian society,rather than expectations based on gender. page 63
In The Walking Dead,survival means a return to traditional roles and the end of equal opportunity. After Andrea learns how to shoot, she suggests that she would be more useful performing watch duty than domestic tasks, but Lori attacks her for overstepping her boundaries. Unlike Katniss, whose shooting prowess is celebrated, Andrea is viewed as self-serving for wanting to use her skills. The fact that female characters in The Walking Dead are pressured into ‘keeping house’, even when they are capable of protecting the camp,shows that the stereotypical gender roles
fiercely championed by the characters are rooted in ideology, rather than what is necessary for survival. Page 63
Women in Film- PDF
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-underrpresents-strong-female-characters-687392
The study showed that only 13 percent of the top 100 films featured equal numbers of female and male characters. Those that were cast were younger than their male counterparts and less likely than males to have clear goals or be portrayed as leaders.
Wednesday 8 October 2014
Critical investigation research
Newspaper website-
Relevant articles-
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/research.html
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/08/wonder-woman-female-superhero-movies-week-in-geek
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdf
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/study-female-characters-under-represented-in-movies-1201129236/
http://www.businessinsider.com/female-protagonists-lacking-in-2013s-top-films-2014-3?IR=T
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11026415/Women-in-film-no-improvement-since-the-1950s.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/27/mpaa_2013_numbers_women_buy_half_of_all_movie_tickets_but_that_won_t_mean.html
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdf
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/study-female-characters-under-represented-in-movies-1201129236/
http://www.businessinsider.com/female-protagonists-lacking-in-2013s-top-films-2014-3?IR=T
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11026415/Women-in-film-no-improvement-since-the-1950s.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/27/mpaa_2013_numbers_women_buy_half_of_all_movie_tickets_but_that_won_t_mean.html
From Google Scholar-
The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins
Wicked By Gregory Maguire
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson
Cinema studies- the key concepts, second edition - By Susan Hayward
Women and film, both sides of the camera- By E.Ann Kaplan
Women and film, both sides of the camera- By E.Ann Kaplan
Names of PDF files-
Are female action heroes risky role models? pdf
Women in film pdf
The ageing women in popular film pdf
Portrayals of age and gender in popular film pdf
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