MYse en Scene:)

Apologies for the pun. I have taken a photo of my own mise en scene to analyse, I decided to take  a photograph of my photography teacher, I have 2 photos of him and both show a different side to him through his facial expressions.

The background for this image includes some of Webster's photographs of his students which he has received from them as a present to remember the fun times everyone has in photography, there are some images that are by him that he has edited and some images of him edited to look like he is a dinosaur. There are some thank you cards from students (one from me!) to show we appreciate all of his help. There is also a manifesto sheet explaining what photography is all about, there are also timetables on the wall too. All of the pieces on the wall show his organisation in a unique way and dedication to his job as a photography teacher. The computer shows that he is not just a photography teacher but that he is also a tutor for a year 13 class. The purple high chair represents royalty as he considers himself a king. One the right there is a bookcase full of books featuring artists for inspiration. Webster is stood up with great posture, he is wearing a blue-purple toned shirt with a blue tie and formal trousers to look presentable to the school, around his neck is a lanyard to show his identity and get around the school, he is also wearing a camera around his neck to show his true passion for it. In his hands is a portrait photography book in which he is exploring for something to inspire him to create a new piece for a display. The lighting in the image is very light on the left and turns darker from when we see Webster and onwards, this can mean that he is hiding something from us. The second photograph below shows my teachers weird side.

Representation of Women in Films and Male Gaze Theory

Representation of Women
In a recent lesson we learned about the Bechdel Test, this test asks us 3 questions
1. Does this film include 2 women in it?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. Do they talk to each other besides a man?
We watched a short film explaining about this test to help us understand what we were going to be learning about in the lesson.




We then started to think of films ourselves that we thought passed this test without googling the answers, me and my friends thought of The Shallows, Suicide Squad, Bad Moms and Finding Dory, we did struggle to think of some however we did end up thinking of a decent amount of films that pass. We then started to think of some films that could be potentially counted as post apocalyptic themed which are Divergent and The Hunger Games.
 I have researched more into the gender inequality between men and women in films, on the New York Film Academy Blog I found all the statistics I needed, it really surprised me when I saw the figures. The blog has a chart which shows how women are portrayed on screen in the top 500 films from 2007-2012, only 30.8% of speaking characters are women, as soon as I read this statistic I was blown away, that is a ridiculously low amount! Then 28.8% of women wore sexually revealing clothes and 7% of those 28.8% of women are opposed for men, this is too much now I never realised this until we started to learn about this in lesson, that means that only 2% of women are not dressed sexually on screen, as a student I have noticed that I have grew up seeing this on screen and I really do hope that in the future more films pass the Bechdel test and that women are not used as much to attract men in films. After this I then searched into how many men and women visit the cinema, I was very curious as to what the answer would be, of course after reading into the statistics I assumed that more men went to the cinema, however according to a report on Indie Wire they confirm in 2013 that there are more female movie goers, they only beat men by 2% however I was personally expecting 64% of men to be going to the cinema more than women.

https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/#!prettyPhoto/0/ - website used for research into statistics for the presentation of women

http://www.indiewire.com/2014/03/mpaa-data-shows-that-women-are-still-the-majority-of-moviegoers-207223/ - Personal "how many men and women go to the cinema question" chart


Male Gaze Theory
This theory was developed by Laura Mulvey in 1975, this theory consists of 3 perspectives

•  that of the person behind the camera
• that of the characters within the representation or film itself
• that of the spectator.

 In films the theory occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man, the scene may focus on a shot of a females curves which puts you into the viewer in the eyes of a male. Male Gaze theory is only used if the curves are highlighted with specific conventions such as slow motions of deliberate camera movements such as showing a female from her waist with the camera going up to show her face later on. The theory suggests that women can view films through different perspectives such as a mans perspective with the way that the theory can be used. Characters that are to be looked at are passive, they are under the control of the male gaze and exist for visual pleasure.

Mise en Scene

Mise en Scene is a French term meaning "what is put into a scene or frame", it is made up of 5 elements which are settings and props, costume, facial expressions/body language, lighting and positioning within the frame. I will be analysing a scene from each film that I have been analysing already so far, starting with the Book of Eli, to I am Legend, The Road and finally to 28 Days Later.

This scene is shot in a cell, the walls are old as you can see the old paint on them showing through, this shows that the cell is to make you feel like a prisoner because it is not a luxurious place to stay in, however for Eli it probably makes him feel comfortable because usually he is out and about looking for shelter and food. The sink in the background looks scruffy and broke which makes the cell look uncared for anyone' s use. The door is the only thing that looks new and looked after in the setting which is strange. Eli is wearing clean clothes, at the start of the film we see him completely covered with dirty and dark clothes, however in this scene he looks looked after and groomed well. The female wears a dress and has long luscious hair, as soon as we see her in this scene we can already see that the woman is used as bait just like the first woman in the start of the film, women are not appreciated and are constantly being used. The female stands by the door looking very nervous as she is slightly hunching her back as if she is trying to be polite to see if she can be welcomed to come in, Eli on the other hand looks very powerful as he is standing more straight, he hold his book in his arm that is not facing the door to hide it, in the other hand he is holding a gun to protect himself as he can tell that this is a trap. The characters have a door used a barrier between them, this shows a lost of tension between them already, the light is mainly focused on Eli as the shadow is on the female, the light also suggests that the two characters are fighting between good and evil.

This scene shows an urban city, it looks very busy as the cars are all parked behind one another which looks like the cars where in a traffic jam, this shows us that the city used to be very busy however now it's down just to a small amount of people left. The main character is wearing dark and loose clothing and looks as if he is at war, he has a weapon strapped to him to protect him too which can also be seen as an accessory. He is standing tall and the camera is pointed straight at him which shows exactly that he is powerful and mighty, because he is stood in the middle is exaggerates the fact he is alone. The lighting looks very gloomy as it looks foggy, it is a simple natural lighting.

This scene is mainly focused on the two characters therefore we do not get to see much of the scenery, we can see in the background which isn't focused looks like an old house or maybe a furniture shop, I can see a table turned over on the floor inbetween the characters and the child looks as if he is sat down on a chair, the wires that are dangling down make me think it could be in a shop as they would have bigger wires or pipes around, but because I have not watched this film just yet I can not exactly identify and explain the setting features. The characters are wearing warm, thick clothing as if it is winter which makes sense because there won't be any heating on when this is a post apocalyptic film, the father looks very tired and hopeless and his beard shows how he is aging slowly and can not look after himself but he does prioritise his son hence him giving his phone the last can of pop, this is a very heart felt scene because the connection between the father and son is precious and makes you feel sorry for what they have gone through and we are proud of how far they have come. The father is kneeling on the floor and looks up to his son which also shows he would do anything for his son and to make him feel comfortable, the son also looks like he respects his dad and looks like he is learning a lot from his father about hope and how to appreciate everything in life. The lighting is very dark as they are in a building, we can see in the background that the natural light from the windows are coming through on the table.

Again I have not watched this film just yet therefore I will be assuming on what is happening in this scene just by looking at this image. The two characters look as if they are in a house or shed, the place looks normal as if it isn't even post apocalyptic themed, because in the background we can see curtains and the christmas light decorations. Personally I do not think that these two characters look like they are friends, they look more like acquaintances instead because they aren't close to each other, the female also looks very suspicious because of her facial expression. The are both covered up well and are wearing something to cover their heads so maybe the christmas lights are up because it is winter time at this point in the film. The lighting looks very dark as if only a lamp is used for this scene, in the background we can see through the window that outside it is dark so it's a night or evening scene which would make sense as to why the lighting is so dark, the christmas lights in the background add a happy vibe to the scene which is the only thing that makes this scene seem positive.

Narrative Theories/Codes

Roland Barthes' theory was the first one we looked at, we learned about Enigma and Action codes through his theory. An enigma code is where many questions are asked, maybe not through characters but maybe by us as we are watching a confusing scene in a film, it enables viewers to predict what could happen next. Both codes are linked due to them following one after another, the enigma code will go first which then leads to the action code in which it is supposed to bring excitement as you are supposed to get your answer as it moves the narrative on.

Roland Barthes also described 5 codes which are in any narrative.

• The Hermeneutic code which refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and becomes a mystery for the audience.

• The Proairetic code builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something is going to happen making the audience guess what will happen next.

• The Semantic code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word. This suggesting that there is a deeper meaning for every action and word that a character says and does. Maybe it is just to get to know a character better or finding out the antagonists plan. 
•  The Symbolic code is very similar to the semantic code but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into a broader and deeper meaning. This is typically done in the usage of antithesis where new meanings arise out of opposing ideas. 
•  The Cultural code refers to anything that is founded on some kind of canonical works that cannot be challenged and is used to be a foundation for the truth, suggesting that there is some form of truth that is never questioned in a narrative and is taken as gospel. 

We then looked at Rick Altman's 3 Pleasures, the first one is the emotional pleasure  this pleasure is shown in many genres in which the director tries to generate a strong audience response. The next pleasure is the visceral pleasure this pleasure is to try to get a gut response from the viewer such as feeling sick on a rollercoaster scene or a way to make you nervous by showing a tense scene. The last pleasure is the intellectual pleasure in which the director will either make the whole film or a few scenes show a puzzle or a mystery, maybe even a plot twist at the end such as The Book of Eli (trying not to spoil the film here!).


Nicholas Abercrombie said "The boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable."

Post Apocalyptic film closings

The Book of Eli
After Eli rescues Solara (Mila Kunis) from the rapist-murderers, they travel together until they find a white house. In it are two old people that have survived up to now thanks to a few booby-traps house and weapons. They offer the guests some tea, but as its served the lady obviously has the shakes (this is hinting to us that the woman has the shakes due to eating too much red meat). Eli and Solara panic and try to get out, but Carnegie and his gang pull up in armored cars. There's a huge gun-fight, but a few RPGs takes away most of the walls to the house, kill the old couple and Eli/Solara have no choice but to surrender. Eli won't give up the book which is the last one in existence. Carnegie holds a gun to Solara's head and Eli gives in. Carnegie takes the book, gives Solara to his right-hand man and shoots Eli in the chest. They leave him to die, and he can't belive his mission is over. On the road back to town, Solara flips the car they're in, killing Redridge by accident with Eli's machete, and hurls a grenade under the other van closing in on them. She jumps in the flipped car that landed on its wheels, and drives back to Eli. Eli is not at the house. She drives and finds him on the road, walking. He hitches a ride and they make it to the ocean and the Golden Gate bridge. Looking out towards 'The Rock', Eli knows that is where the book needs to be. They row out and make it peacefully past some armed guards. Inside, Malcolm McDowell shows them a museum collection that he is planning to use to bring civilisation back to the world. Carnegie and the shopkeeper prize open the lock to the book, but find that it is written in Braille. Solara's mother tells him she has forgotten how to read it, but that he will be dead soon anyway as infection has set in to his leg, and without his men the townpeople are breaking up the bar downstairs. Eli removes his glasses to reveal his is, in fact, blind. He tells McDowell to get a pen and a lot of paper, and then starts to recite the Bible that he has read and memorized over the past 30 years, starting with Genesis - 'In the beginning...'. The book is finished, printed on a press they have, and bound. Eli dies and is buried in the grounds. As we hear Eli's final prayer of thanksgiving and protection for his friend, Solara takes his machete and ipod, and although McDowell wants her to remain, she decides to head East, back home.
The Road
In the film, , a father (played by Viggo Mortenson) guides a son (Kodi Smit-Mcphee) in a post-apocalyptic landscape practically devoid of life and humanity. Towards the end of the film a man steals the father's and son's trolley full of goods, the family wakes up notices this and goes after the man due to them seeing him before the previous day lurking around. They end up finding the man and the father takes away his humanity by getting him to return the trolley with all of the clothes he was wearing, this is a very emotional and angry scene to the viewers as it makes us dislike the father at this moment, the son begs his father to stop. The father and son argue after they are finished with the man, the son persuades his father to come back and to help the man and allow him to join their family, as they are searching for him they notice he has gone. In the end, the father dies, having taken the son as far as he could and shaped him the best he could to both survive in that world, but also retain a sense of humanity. Right after that very emotional scene, the boy encounters a family: a man, a woman and a dog, who offers to take him in, where the incredibly bleak film ends on a somewhat more hopeful but wary note. The way it's portrayed, they make it somewhat ambiguous whether he can trust the family or not.
28 Days Later
Jim and the others live in the middle of a green-filled mountain valley, in a large home. Several feet away, we are shown some rather disturbing infected and skinny old zombies which is disturbing. We are now flying over green pastures, probably Scotland or somewhere in an airplanes point of view. We are flying very fast, swaying a little bit, just as if we were a fighter plane. We just passed a bridge with some dark spots on it - too fast to see exactly what they are. Back on the ground now we see the bridge where zombies are lying around, obviously very weakend, they can barely move, but when the sound of a fighter plane goes past them, they manage to turn their heads to see what it is. We see Jimmy going to the kitchen where Selena is sewing. Hannah runs into the house, crying: they are here! They quickly spread the O of Hello, which was what Selena was sewing, on the ground. The letters are made of cloth. The fighter jet flies past them, but seems to have seen them! They all dance in joy.
I Am Legend
There are two different endings to I Am Legend. The first is where Robert (Will Smith) ends up finding a cure and experiments on one of the walking dead and realises that through time the cure will work, however the head zombie notices that Robert took his beloved to experiment on, the zombie starts to smash the glass room that Robert, the zombie, Anna (Alice Braga) and her son in a butterfly shape in which then Robert notices that the zombie he was holding onto was what the head zombie wanted back. Therefore he ended up giving in and taking the cure out of the zombie. He hides Anna and her son into the fire pit and tells them to wait. He opens the door and gives the head his beloved back, this is a very emotional scene for the audience. The film ends peacefully without knowing whether the zombies get worse or if the cure is used again. The second ending is that Anna and her son are in the fire pit, in which then the house explodes and we never see Robert again. We are shown Anna and her son travelling to a small guarded town in which then she gives the head person of the town the cure however the head of the town is not interested at this point.

Codes and Conventions

• Abandoned Locations

This is a very common convention for the post apocalytpic genre, creating a sense of loss of a civilised society, barren wastelands of direlect houses and cars does this theme justice, and again creates a sense of hopelessness that the audience feels for the characters. This is seen in films such as The Book of Eli and The Road where often abandoned cities shape the harsh world.

• Low Key Lighting

This convention for the post apocalyptic genre brings tension and fear to the audience, an example of a great scene for this convention is 28 Days Later in the opening scene when a group want to free the locked up monkeys.

• Physical and Mental Challenges

Physical challenges can be travelling for long distances, for example in The Road and The Book of Eli where the characters walk by foot for miles and miles, a mental challenge happens in all post apocalyptic films due to the characters living in a world without communication and not eating regularly.

• Tight Communities/Dangerous Gangs

The Book of Eli shows this convention, for example the group that are using a woman as bait to either rape or kill someone that walks past to try to help the female that pretends to have broke her trolley and looks very weak to persuade characters such as Eli to help. Another example in the film is the tight community that the remaining of the "town" has as they try to act as if everything is normal.

• Crisis that Occurs

Post apocalyptic films can have different reasons for them to start, for example in I Am Legend the convention is due to a medicine failure, The Book of Eli starts due to a war, 28 Days Later is because of a medicine failure again, The Road is due to a natural disaster.

• Dark Themes

Dark themes are in most post apocalyptic films, these can be death which happens in all of them, rape which happens in The Book of Eli, murder and violence which happens in many PA films too.

• Strong Male Protagonist

This convention is used in PA films as the audience needs a dominant character to give them a narrative, and the story a chance, if the character was weak and vulnerable we would not expect them to survive the apocalypse, which would make the film unrealistic. An example of a strong and powerful character is Will Smith in I Am Legend.

• Death/Violence

Death and violence are key themes in the PA genre, they are to create fear, hatred, loss and depravity. The Road is an excellent example that uses this to its advantage, the film shows images of families that have hung themselves and people that have been brutally killed for the basics of supplies. Violent scenes occur frequently, for example in The Book of Eli there are fights with many gangs that have hijacked Eli and Carnegie's gang.

• Religion

Religion is used in many PA films. The Book of Eli is based on religion, due to Eli protecting the last ever bible that was not ruined in the war, he was the only good person that was trusted in the film to hold on to it not like Carnegie that would use it for the worse. Another example is in I Am Legend, the female that saves the main character believes that everything will get better, however the main character shouts "THERE IS NO GOD!".

• Hope

Hope is a big part of all PA films as it is the only thing that motivates the characters in all of the films to keep going and to not give up. For example Eli uses his bible as his form of hope in God, also the female in I Am Legend Anna hopes that God will help her and her son whereas Robert (Will Smith) tries to make her snap out of the "phase" that he believes she is in.

• Item of Significance

An item of significance can be something that motivates the characters again to keep going like hope, for example Eli and his bible. The Road's item of significance seems to be the main characters son and the hope to find a safe place. In I Am Legend the item is the cure. The item of significance is what shapes the story line and gives meaning to the characters.

The Book of Eli Documentary and a theory

Levi-Strauss Theory
Levi-Strauss introduced the notion of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the production of meaning with narratives. He argued that all construction of meaning was dependant, to some degree on these oppositions, for example good vs. evil, male vs. female, etc.

In today's lesson we are looking at watching a documentary on the post apocalyptic film and answering some questions along;

1. What questions are posed by post apocalyptic films?
2. What are the "walking dead"? How have they been used in other films?
3. What might be the key to survival in post apocalyptic narratives?
4. How far will Eli go to survive?
5. What would survivors of the apocalypse ask?
6. In The Book of Eli, what has happened to Bibles and why?
7. How is religion used in TBOE? How is religion used in reality?
8. How do societies in reality avoid catastrophes?
9. Who will the future leaders be in post apocalyptic scenarios?
10. What does Eli represent?

Questions that are posed in PA films are "how would we survive?", "how would we strive to maintain our humanity?", "who would guide us?","who would lead us into the future?", "how would we rebuild the word?", etc. The "book" is the centre piece of the film, it can be used for good or evil. The walking dead are numb people that are connected but not connected, their bodies are on shut down, they have no senses available to them, in other films the walking dead can be shown differently for example in I am Legend they are presented as zombies, it keeps the idea of something living but not living, they are used to show no hope, anger and sadness, maybe even lack of energy. The key to survival in most PA films is "hope", most of this genres films end with some kind of hope, for example Eli being able to make the bible available to everyone, I am Legend shows that the female character is given the cure to turn the world back to normal and The Road also shows that the son finds a new family to look after him. However in real life, you would need skills from around 50-100 years ago due to lack of food, clothes, no technology, etc. Eli goes very far to survive, he kills animals to eat to be able to survive, he searches around houses to find new clothes, and even exchanges in shops some of his wipes he uses to clean himself just to charge his iPod, this shows exactly how much little things mean in this film. The survivors would ask "is there a God?", obviously Eli believes there is and doesn't lose hope, in The Road the characters also believe, however in I am Legend the main character explains how there are so and so amount of people but now there is a small amount he then shouts "THERE IS NO GOD" because he loses hope. In TBOE, we are shown that because of the war all of the bibles were destroyed and there was just that 1 bible left and everyone had hope there would be at least 1 they could find, in which Eli ends up keeping on to it and remembers every single word inside it as he reads it every single day. Religion is very important in TBOE as it is expressed in a strong way. "He who controls the past, leads the future", Eli's actor Washington explains that Eli chooses to share even when he is struggling and still decides to help her, a true leader is kind and loyal. Democrat societies have a way of listing themselves. An example of a future leader is Donald Trump, due to the way he presents himself, you can even say that he is like Carnegie in TBOE, another is Barack Obama is more like Eli due to the way he is looked up to. Eli represents hope, altruistic, knowledge, faith that humanity can rebuild, he is shown as a good person, for example in the bible it states "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" which is used in the film for the fighting scene in which Eli ends up chopping off the mans arm.