Nicky's Media Coursework

Monday, 31 January 2011

Sin city was also one of our influence as it is a crime thriller just like Playtime. The film's unique colour processing renders the film mostly in black and white but retained some bits in colour was the kind of theme we was going. Initially we wanted Playtime to be in black and white but we decided not to do this because we felt it would not appeal to our target audience so instead we used this concept in our poster. We were also attracted to the way the camera used angles to emphasise the importance of the characters. We tried to use a range of different angles from low angles to aerial shots but e then decided it would be more effective to do a close up shot of the protagonists' face.

The Movie Salt starring Anglina Jolie is one of or main influences for our poster. It has a similar genre and it also features a female protagonist which isn't very common and predictable. We were attracted to the way the main focus in the picture was her face and we thought we could develop that idea and incorporate the childlike theme we had. The eye catching feature on the salt poster is the prominence of the characters eyes and the contrast between light and dark. we tried to incorporate this by using a black background and the use of colour. We decided to make her lips bright red so they stand out and is the main focal point alongside the use of colour in the title and the young boy shown in the reflection of the glasses. The use of colour in the title depicts the relation how young children can be attracted by colour.
The simplicity of the structure of the Salt poster reminded us that clear and basic texts,fonts and boldness can elaborate the meaning and significance of how the film
can be portrayed in an exciting way without making it to busy.

Magazine Cover Theory

The magazine cover conflicts the theory of british film theorist, Laura Mulvey who talks about the male and female gaze. viewers are encourage to identify with the protagonist of the film which tends to be a man. Playtime has a female protagonist which is portrayed on the magazine cover which doesn't portray her as desirable which is the 'norm'.
The male gaze is a well established phenomenon in film,advertising and other types of media. The concept of it is the tendency of media to view its subjects of heterosexual men which is aimed primarily at females. In the case of Playtime it conceptualises the idea of the female gaze.
People watch movies like playtime give people a sense of enjoyment and thrill. Male viewers may be attracted to it because it gives them visual pleasure as the protagonist has a dominant role and is shown to be a sexy criminal. Women may her position as empowering and as Mulvey talks about the beginning of annihilating patriarchal Hollywood.
An example of the Male gaze is this scene in the movie Heart- Magic man-The virgin suicides.

Cropping pictures is a tool used to put an emphasise on different element of the body correlating to the male and female gaze theory, so instead of this....