Gaze (Katy Perry Teenage Dream)

Marjorie Ferguson

Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.

Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.

Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.

Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

Trevor Millum

Seductive: similar to the cool/level look in many respects - the eyes are less wide, perhaps shaded, the expression is less reserved but still self-sufficient and confident; milder versions may include a slight smile.

Carefree: nymphlike, active, healthy, gay, vibrant, outdoor girl; long unrestrained outward-flowing hair, more outward-going than the above, often smiling or grinning.

Practical: concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, mouth closed, eyes object-directed, sometimes a slight frown; hair often short or tied back.

Comic: deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated, acting the fool, pulling faces for the benefit of a real or imaginary audience, sometimes close to a sort of archness.

Catalogue: a neutral look as of a dummy, artificial, waxlike; features may be in any position, but most likely to be with eyes open wide and a smile, but the look remains vacant and empty; personality has been removed.

Our chosen music video is Katy Perry – Teenage Dream, we chose this because it shows a good example of all forms of the gaze.

This video shows the voyeuristic gaze as the audience like looking at the video, because of the fetishistic aspect. Laura Mulvey says ‘women as image’ and ‘men as bearers of the look’ this is shown through the video as the artist Katy Perry strips, and the men all look at her longingly.  However Mulvey’s theory fails to account for the female audience as she focuses on the average heterosexual male. Another criticism of her theory is that since the 1980s the public have become more accepting of sexualisation within the media of male bodies; this is shown in the video as there are a variety of shots showing the main man topless. This is also shown when all actors strip in the sea and play fight.
Marjorie Fergusons theories also apply in Katy Perry’s video, for example the chocolate box is shown throughout, with many full and half smiles. During many clips of the video there are romantic and sexual gazes, this accentuates the fact that she’s definitely ‘available’.
This video also uses the care free gaze by Trevor Millum, this is shown at the very start when the two main characters are in the car, the girls hair is flowing in the wind this gives the impression she is an ‘outdoor girl’. The seductive gaze is also applied during a particular slow part of the song involving a sexual scene; the darkness of the room links to why their eyes are half open, the mood of the scene is also shown through their body language.

TV Drama-Generic Conventions

You will find that TV dramas all have the following ingredients:

Characters – even particular kinds of characters: eg, at its most simple, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters.

Stories – they all tell stories, whether those stories involve adventure, crime or romance and they often, but not always, end happily.

The stories are told against familiar backdrops: – eg, homes, police stations and offices (for crime dramas), hospitals (for medical dramas) – most of which are created in studios. However, most dramas also use outside locations to create particular effects.

Camerawork – particular kinds of shots are used: eg, sequences involving establishing shots followed by mid-shots of characters, shot/reverse shots to show character interaction and, in particular,close-ups to show the characters’ emotions.

Stories use dialogue to tell the stories. Occasionally, monologues are built in (as voiceovers, a character telling a story).

Music is used to punctuate the action, create effects (suspense, tension) and underline emotional moments.

Particular subgenres tend to have items which make them immediately identifiable – police cars, blue lights, operating theatres and scalpels, triage/reception areas in hospitals. Icons of the genre, they symbolise the (sub)genre.

Creating Our Film

Creating a film

As a group we were told to come up with an idea of a film that we could pitch to African-American men, first we struggled but then remembered about the film ‘Freedom Writers’ that most of us had seen, and thought if we made it British then maybe another type of audience would watch as it would be very different to an American film. We decided to set our film in Ruislip College and locations nearby the college as people in the UK would recognise it from the Channel 4 show, ‘The Inbetweeners’; we also decided to hold the open auditions at the college, so students auditioning get a feel for the set.

This was our brief pitch:

There are 5 stereotype groups in a college, these cause gang violence and because of this, the college gets shut down. One of the teachers of the college takes a member from each gang and brings them together to form a separate group for a youth project, everyone feels equal as the groups all join as one. The college is under inspection and they protest to get it re-opened, but the night before it re-opens, one gang member steps up and shows that he disagrees…

We chose to use the same director (Richard LaGravenese) as ‘Freedom Writers’ had used, the editor and script writer of ‘Remember Me’ as after reading reviews on the film, the script was described as moving, however from my own experience of watching it I feel the film editing was just as moving as the script itself.

We were given a maximum funding of £5m so we had to restrict our cast; this gave us the idea to hold open auditions to save money. However our funding has been given to us by a Tax Schemes company, meaning we won’t have to pay any excess tax which lowers the risk of us lowering our funding budget, so that also helped us out.

Director – Richard LaGravenese, £2m overall

Editor – Andrew Mondshein, £10,000 a week [10 weeks]

Location – Ruislip College, £100,000

Cinematographer – Barry Ackroyd, £50,000

Cast – Open Auditions, £50,000 overall
- Venue: Main hall at Ruislip College [place of filming]

Script Writer – Will Fetters, £50,000

Plus the below the line costs, amounting to a maximum of £100,000

Production Documentary

We watched a video on the importance of Production teams as a class, and were asked to make notes on each subheading.


Role
The role of the producer is to come up with the original idea, write the main storyline and organise/hire all the other workers such as, editor, director etc. The producer is the centre of everything about the film, they have the job of looking at the bigger picture of everything, they have to be able to let the director visualise the final ideas. Their role is also to protect the director, allow their ideas to be adapted if the director visualises it differently. The order or producing is, developing the film > raising money to cover costings > making the film > marketing the film. The producer must inspire the director with their ideas and script, this is so that the director simply puts the ideas into a practical performance including a beginning, middle and end.


Package
The package consists of 'who' 'how' and 'what'. 'Who' is the cast, who will play each role, casting is extremely important as the actor must fit the specification of the character and the dialogue that the character says. 'How' is how will the film be made, where will it be filmed and how will each scene be linked or staged. 'What' refers to the production team, which areas of production will be covered by which employee etc. 


Invest
The production team have to look into costings and what's affordable, such as locations. The UK is cheapest for UK film production teams, but different countries have different rules. There are usually 3 - 10 financiers interested in each film, this means there is more than just one person to pitch your idea to. Having just one funder is easier at the start of production, as you can decide on most things, however once the film is marketed they control what happens from then on.


Plan
The film is broken down scene-by-scene, the crew always film the most difficult scenes first to get them out of the way, they could be difficult because of location, actors or particular props. When casting they have to find actors who understand the idea of the film and match the script and storyline to ensure correct casting. The cinematographer is very important as they are the right hand man within production, they have to film your ideas perfectly as they have the hard job of taking the producer and directors ideas and making them visually connect and link together on camera.


Budget
This means investment, as the film is given a budget by the financiers/investors and the producer has to manage the costs evenly considering location, cast and director and editors wages etc. There are above the line costs, and below the line.
Above the line - The more expensive costs e.g. script writing, cast, screenplay, director, producer, cinematographer
Below the line - The extra small costs e.g. sales people, extras, shooting workers, set-up, set designing, costume, photos


Audience
The production team have to think about:
Which cinemas will the film be showing at? Main cities in England? Smaller cinemas? Global cinemas?
Who is the target audience? Does the genre fit the audience?
These two questions are important to think about whilst marketing the final product of the film. The audience also has to bring in at least the same amount of money as it costed to make the film, this way the investor and all workers gain from being involved in the film. 


Marketing 
There are additional costs of marketing, such as:
Global marketplace
Cinemas
DVD
TV
Soundtrack
The most important part of marketing, is trying to advertise the film as a 'need-to-see' so that people who watch advertisements on television, or see posters will immediately want to see the film. The difference between the British Film industry and Hollywood produced films is that British production teams start filming as soon as possible, and use instinct ideas, whereas Hollywood production teams plan really far ahead in terms of release dates and where the film will be shown around the world.

Rushmore

'Rushmore' was directed in 1998 by Wes Anderson, he is well known for his work and has been described as an auteur, meaning his work is very recognisable and he has a good visual style.
As a class we watched the opening of Rushmore and focused on the main character, Max Fischer, we had to discuss our thoughts on whether he is a stereotypical teenager, we all agreed on the answer 'no'. This was because as we watched the opening it showed him taking part in every single club at Rushmore College. He tries everything possible in life to find something he excels in, this isn't the behaviour of the average stereotypical teenager, they're usually described as lazy. Max also dresses formally in his suit and tie every day with evenly combed hair and glasses, the stereotypical teenager would wear comfortable clothes and try and fit in with the latest fashion trends.
There is a montage sequence within Rushmore, this means that a short section of the film shows time passing quickly and the events within this time, the montage is usually accompanied by a suitable song. From watching the montage, we find out that Max may well participate in every club and more, but he is no good at anything he does. For example, he's the leader and founder of every team and club, however he's only on a yellow belt in karate, he's only flown for 4.5 hours in the flying club, he's the second conductor in the choir.
At the start of the montage it shows the Rushmore school journal cover, there are decorative bees flying upwards on one side of the journal cover, this could represent that he 'flies' from one activity to another leaving a trace of him behind in each group, just like a bee with pollen from flowers. Equally it could suggest that he's 'as busy as a bee' or that he is 'the bee's knees' which also stands out as not being the stereotypical teenager. My last thought on the meaning of the bees is that they could portray his hopeful attitude as they're flying upwards to the sky, insinuating Max's dreams as he looks up and imagines what life would be like if he excelled in something.
The music playing through the montage is 'The Creation - Making Time' the style of song is happy and hopeful, but also there is a lot going on instrument-wise within this piece of music, this could link to the fact a lot is going on in Max's life. The reason his life has so much going on in it is because he's part of 18 school clubs and teams:
Yankee review Publisher - he leads the others, and is dressed smarter than the other members of the school newspaper team.
French Club President - he is wearing his school suit with a red beret and sash to symbolise his role.
Model United Nations - he's representing Russia, which is a country with power - he has power over Mexico and India on each side of him in the meeting.
Stamp and Coin club Vice President - this is unusual for typical teenagers, is he the only member?
Debate Team Captain - Max is an outsider, wearing his school suit - no one else is... money?
Lacrosse Team Management - in his school uniform on the side of the pitch, sat next to the jocks of the school, organising some equipment.
Calligraphy club - president, perfectionist work, alone in the club?
Astronomy society - founder, wearing the red beret, holding the books whilst everyone looks through telescopes.
Fencing Team Captain - school chinos and fencing gear, looks content with the team (it's a rich boy's sport)
Track and Field JV. Decathlon - no one else runs with him, you would expect to see the whole team behind him, alone.
2nd Chorale Choirmaster - wearing the school suit, feels like a leader.
Bombardment Society Founder - posh name for dodge ball, still wearing his suit uniform whilst playing.
Kung Fu Club - yellow belt, which is one of the first stages within Kung Fu, he's the eldest member with the lowest position.
Trap and Skeet club founder - (clay pigeon shooting in England) wearing his suit, has correct headphones and a wingman though.
Rushmore beekeeping - president of the club, there are two members including himself.
Go-karting - wearing the beret from the French club, three people are going around the circuit, he has a rubbish go-kart compared to the rest... money?
Max Fischer Players - a drama club, he named it after himself - leaving his trace.
Piper Cub Club - flying club, 4.5 hours (amateur) wearing traditional scarf and goggles.


The song playing in the background fades out at the end of the montage, the last line of lyrics is 'pulling the wool, acting the fool.' This suggests that the song is relevant to Max's character, he pulls the wool over peoples eyes and makes it look like he knows everything about anything, but he's acting the fool by wearing his suit all the time and generally not being good at anything he does.

American Beauty.

In class we watched the first ten minutes of 'American Beauty' as a class and were told to analyse the character Lester Burnham played by Kevin Spacey. We took notes on his body language, voice and clothing. We also took notes on the mise en scene which includes the background


My Notes on Lester Burnham:
- 42 years old, American accent, confident and bold
- mid-life crisis
- average body shape of a 40 year old man- unhappy with his plain life
- wears full pyjamas
- one teenage child - Jane (plain name) - plain life, average- combed hair, normal businessman suit, nothing special
- gardening obsessed wife, everything has to be matching/perfect
- he seems the character who would sigh a lot, bored of his own life
- defeatist attitude, negativity surrounds him, pessimist, cynical
- doesn't love his wife any more, she doesn't either, fading marriage
- Lester himself is fading as a person, his life is complete and he's waiting for it to end- everything that could possibly go wrong in his life has or will
- trapped in his own life, no way out until he expires, he watches the world go by
- cynical, monotone American voice, although well spoken, unenthusiastic.
- looks well off: decent car, big house, big shower, materialistic family, computer etc.
-bland body language
-no ambition left in him
- stereotyping: she drove the car, he was late; she has power and is dominant, he sat in the back of the car asleep like a child

Mise en Scene

Red, White and Blue, were the three main colours repeated threw out the opening ten minutes this is continuity of the three American flag colours. The backgrounds were always dull, using monotone colours as well as textures, nothing ever stood out, this may have been to focus the audience’s attention on the character Lester Burnham himself, this also matched his mood and life.

When looking at all my notes together Lester seems to of lived his life and now is slowly waiting/deteriorating, he seems the type of person that when after he dies, people will have nice things to say but at the same time nothing at all for example 'he was a nice man, never said much'. In the end there is no way around his average 'plain ' life, so it seems he will put up with it until the day he dies.