Silence Of The Lambs

Silence Of The Lambs

     In this post i will be discussing the semiotics used in silence of the lambs, how the genre is communicated, and how feminism and queer theory is used in the movie.

     In the opening scene of the film, you can tell straight away that it is a horror. This is just from the fact that it feels like a chase scene in the typical horror locations, the woods. As well as the mise-en-scene, the music tells us that this is a horror because it makes us feel tense, questioning what is happing in this first scene. Why is this woman in a forrest? Why is she running? Who or what is she running from? We then have our minds put at rest after we notice an obstical that Starling passes, and seeing that with what the woman was wearing, we can easily tell that she is training for something, or just keeping fit. 

     During this film, there were so many different uses of semiotics, a very iconic one was during a scene with Hannibal. Hannibal makes a noise with his mouth, and he makes this noice when being spoken to about his past of eating people. The noise is iconic because its something people recognise Hannibal doing when he talks about eating human beings in scenes throughout the film. Something else that i noticed in this film is the use of the death head moth which was found in a victims throat. When Starling found this moth we see a close up shot of it, and after seeing the moth in more detail you notice that there is a skull on the back of the moth. Its easy to see the skull on the moth, but the connotation of this skull shows that it reprasents death. Another semiotic I would like to talk about is from the scene where Hannibal is getting transfered to another prision. The semiotic in this scene is the mask Hannibal has to wear over his face to stop him from causing anyone any harm. The mask is iconic because it makes people remember that he really is a scary and dangerous character. I think the mask can also be a connotation semiotic because you can see its a mask used to protact people, but the mask itself reprasents someone dangerouse or insane, no matter who is wearing it.
     The film relates to feminist film theory by the way the main character 'Starling' is portrayed. 'Starling' is treated as a sexual object by some of the men in this film, this includes her boss, people who work on the force with her and even the bug nerds. When she went to them for work related help, one of the boys asked her out on a date. Even the physcopaths treated her like an object as she walked down the hall that Hannibals cell was located. Although she is treated unequaly, she is a strong and succesful female character, unlike how woman are stereotyped to be like in films. 'Starling' is shown to be capable to doing the jobs only men are thought to do. This is proven when she is investigating for clues on 'Buffalo Bill', she has open a storage door by herself, using her own jack from her car. As she does this a male character is standing watching her. This shows that she is a stronger woman because the audience expects the man to open the door for her. Another example would be when 'Starling is the storage plot, she finds a severed humans head in a jar, she seems scared when she first sees this, but so would anyone, and it doesnt take long for her to get past the fact that its a head in a jar. This shows that she is stronger than most woman in films as stereotypically would have been too scared to do anything with the jar unless a man was there protecting her.
     There are two main characters that are stereotyped in this film, one is a drag queen and the other is a butch lesbian. The butch lesbian stereotype is targeted at 'Starling'. This is because she doesnt make much of an effort on the way she looks, where as most girls dress themselves up as often as possible. Also the first timer we see 'Starling' she is wearing jogging bottoms. The only time she looks feminine is when she is working, this is to make her look more proffesional. Other than the way she looks, she is also targeted as a butch lesbian because she has a deeper voice compared to the other women shown in this film who have higher and more femanin voices. The drag queen in this film isnt one where you can suggest he is becuase of what he does. It is certain that 'Buffalo Bill' is a drag queen because he dresses in womans clothing. We see this when he dancs in his room wearing a wig and womans dressing gown while wearing make-up. The film makes drag queens a negative way to be because in this film, the drag queen is the killer. This stereotypes all drag queens to be a negative thing.
     The most memorable seen from this film was when we find out Hannibal had switched clothes with a gaurd and escaped in the ambulance. The scene stands out to me as it was one of the smartest ways of making the audience believing something is one thing when its not. 

Queer Theory

Queer Theory in "Mean Girls"

   In this blog post i will be discussing how Queer Theory is used in the film "Mean Girls" by discussing the characters seen in the first twenty minutes.

Like in any film, the begining is used to introduce indivual characters and show the audience who they are and how they act.

   Two of the characters who are put in to a homosexual stereotype are Damien and Janice because of the way they dress, talk and act. Damien is very much like a queen and Janice would be considered a butch lesbian. Because these two are friends the stereotypes they fit into stand out more, and you could say its a role reversal.

   We first meet Damien on the Cadys first day of high school. The first action he takes is grabing Cadys hair and explaining how he would like to have the same colour she does. Not only does he do this in a femanin way but the way he speaks is very femanin too. He is immideatly put into the stereotypical homosexual group as a queen. As well as the way he speaks, he also  uses very femanin hand gestures while he speaks and wears clothing that would be considered as girly. He is also seem using the girls bathroom and says yes to owning items of cothing which are pink. This last point isnt what makes him stereotypically gay, but at the same time, Janice, who is consudered a butch lesbian answers no. This draws attention to how the pair are very different from each other and enhanses the steryotype given to them.

   Janice is best friends with Damien and is stereotypically a butch lesbain because she wears a lot of dark clothing and has a lot of her body covered up, opposed to other girls in the school who wear bright colours such as pink and have a lot of skin showing. She is also targeted as a butch lesbian for the language she uses when speaking and for having a low voice compared to other girls who are shown speaking with a higher voice.

   These stereotypes petrude from the social school life simply because they are different. They arent what the audience typically expect then to be like. While other girls are wearing pink and showing lots of skin, Janice is wearing dark clothes all over. And most of the guys shown are talking about firls and sports but damien is spenind time in the girls bathroom acting like a typical queen.

   The issues these characters in the film have are that they are, in a way, outcasts for not acting how most people of their gender should act. Some of the audience watching the film may have a problem with this as the only homosexuality portrayed for a male is a typical queen, which is not how all gay men are like. Its the same for the woman, not all lesbians are butch and this could cause offence.

 

World War Z

World War Z

In this post I will be discussing the Hollywood film "World War Z". I will be talking about the genre, I will be explaining how you can see, in the cinematography, what production context the film fits in.

     First of all I would like to point out that the film is a hybrid of horror and action. During the title sequence there is audio that makes the viewer feel uncomfortable, its unsettling. There are a few clips in the title sequence that would relate to the typical horror film, such as the flock of birds flying in a grey sky, the insects and other animals fighting. The other clips aren't part of the codes and conventions used in typical horror films. They are very fast paced towards the end of the sequence which gives the impression that the film will include action and fast paced scenes. The action side of the film is seen very early on in the actual film as there is an explosion, seen in typical action films, and then cars driving at fast speeds, similar to a car chase which is also seen in a typical action based film. The first sign of this being a horror film is the zombies. There is one part of this scene that I think relates to typical horror film conventions. This is when the man gets bitten by a zombie and "Subway Sam" is counting to 12. During this scene, the main sounds become muffled, and all you can hear clearly is the soft toy counting and the man turning into a zombie. Many horror films use the innocents of a child's toy or rhyme and turn into something scary. Here, it was realizing that people only had 12 seconds before they turned completely into a zombie. The sounds of the zombies are also what make it obvious that this film is a horror. The zombies bones are clicking and cracking when they change, and they are making groaning and screeching and this is one aspect of the zombie that makes them terrifying to the audience. The make up is very well constructed and helps the director overall create and sell the image of his film further pushing this film into the horror genre.

    I have already spoken a little about how the production context fits into Hollywood films, but I am going to go into more detail about how you can really see that this is a Hollywood production. The first thing you notice that happened in this movie is that there were so many different locations around the world were used. This instantly makes it a Hollywood Production as it clearly has a high budget to be able to do that. Also the great use of special effects and visual effects gives the film a realist aspect which further appeals to a modern audience. It is Hollywood productions that can afford do this due to the high budget that they have. Also the amount of background artists used in the film really stands out, Hollywood Productions can afford this so they usually have large amounts of them the most. These factors are what really sets a Hollywood Production apart form other productions.

    The main character "Gerry" is played by a huge star, Brad Pitt. This had a huge impact on the amount of sales this movie got overall an the publicity it got was immense, due to the fact Brad Pitt was in it. Hollywood Productions can afford to spend a larger portion of the budget on big actors such as Brad Pitt and Peter Capaldi who was another star in the movie.

     In the typical Hollywood Production with a genre of action, there is always a disaster that if its not affecting a whole city they its affecting the whole world, but there is always a hero to save the day. This is exactly what the narrative for 'World War Z' is. 'Gerry' (Brad Pitt) is set on a mission to go find a cure to stop the zombies. Although he doesn't find the cure, he instead finds out that the zombies need healthy body's to infect, and uses vaccinations to help healthy living humans become protected against the zombies until a cure is found.

    The dialog used in this movie fits in with the genre and also with the certificate of 15, there isn't any  use of strong language which is allowed but is clearly avoided as it wasn't needed in this film. Also it may have affected the age rating at which it was set. This is typically what a Hollywood Production does as they really wont use strong language unless its appropriate. The use of a lower age certificate also increase the target audience rage and allows the film to generate a bigger gross

     The characters in this film include all 7 sphere of characters in Propps theory. (The hero, villain, helper, false hero, dispatcher, princess/prince and the donor) The hero was "Gerry" this was obvious as he was the main character, and played by Brad Pitt, the main star in the movie. But you could see he was the hero in the movie because he was the one sent on the mission to save everyone, and he also helped people on his journey such as the woman who got bitten, he saved her from becoming a zombie. The villain in this film, is the disease that is spreading and causing people to turn into zombies. These zombies are the ones ending the human race. At the same time, without them knowing they are stopping the hero from finding the cure. A scene from the film that would prove this point is when on the plane leaving Jerusalem, a zombie starts infecting the passengers and plane crashes and badly injures the hero, they didn't mean for that to happen, they just wanted to do to him what they would do to any other, its just more of an incontinence to him as he is trying to stop them and save everyone. The helper in the movie was introduced in Jerusalem, Segan is a soldier in the military who helps Gerry get to the plane out of the country safely, and also leads him towards the W.H.O laboratory. This helped as this is where the cure was actually found. The false hero was Andrew Fassbach, he was a scientist and seemed really smart and confident. He was certain he was going to find a cure but decided to back out once he was confronted by the zombies. He slipped and ended up shooting himself. This was because he didn't listen to the hero, clearly was an accident but it could have been avoided. The dispatcher is Thierry Umuntoni, he was the one who asked Gerry to fulfill the mission, after previously working with him before he decided to stay at home with his family. The princess is Karin, Gerrys wife. This is because she is a main character and she is constantly being kept safe from the zombies. The donor is the doctor at the W.H.O lab, as he gives more information to to Gerry and gives him a way to get to the vaccine.

     The technology used in World War Z related to the production context as you could easily tell the the movie was a Hollywood Production. You could see straight away on the opening title sequence that the editing software was up to date as there was a use of split screens in frames to create a certain image. Also the explosions and visual effects that was used looked incredibly realistic which goes to show how far a big budget will get you.