BFI workshop

1) Type up your notes from the day.

2) Write a one-sentence summary of the ideas of the theorists Matthew Daintrey-Hall covered (you can use your notes from task 1 here if relevant):

bell hooks:

Gender roles are mot normal - being feminine/ masculine

genders are socially constructed- no matter what genitalia you have.

Particularly male dominated society.

particularly in directed toward people from an early age.

"gender becomes a set of connotations" 
Liesbet van Zoonen:

-Nothing has changed over the years- women still objectified. 

Men and woman challenging stereotypical roles.

"liberal feminist" focus on individuals woman political and personal autonomy.

Equality:

-opportunity- education, careers 

-Economy- financial independence 

-representation- challenging stereotypes 

sex role stereotypes- Challenging  challenging sex appropriate behaviour, e.g. slut shaming.  # Appearance= e.g. air brushing fashion models to make them look thinner 

Media male dominated- Makes media aimed only towards men and male pleasures.

Men and woman bodies are sexualised in the media- representation of women sexualised is based on submission and passively of being dis-empowered- Representation of men sexualised  is based on strength, being powerful.

Judith Butler:

Gender is a performance- Series of gestures, actions behavioural and dress codes that construct an imaginary 'man' or 'woman'.

"gender is the repeated stylisation of the body a set of repeated within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal;s overtime to produce the appearance of substance.

I.E.- what we think of a natural masculine or femininity is just a role like an actor that has been played over and over until it seems real. 
Saussure:

Detestation- direct or obvious meaning e.g. man carrying a police badge.

Connotation- something that we can infer.

-meaning are fixed 

-open to interpretation 

-culturally determined if you live is somewhere that has high level of police corruption you may not trust someone.--->our own experience.

Barthes:

suspicious of denotation- suspected there was more ideology involved that people think.

"denetotation is actually just a "dominant connotation""

-meaning is naturalised ' so we accept without question" Barthes.

"bourgeois ideology turns into culture into nature 

Myths are cultural values. 
Stuart Hall:

Authors encode their work with meaning, audiences decode it in often very different ways.

-preferred meaning- audiences understand the intention of the author-n accept the meaning.

Negotiated- audiences accept some elements of the meaning but reject the meaning.

op-positional- audiences understand the intended meaning but decide to re-interpret the text create an alternative. 
Lyotard:

A totalising cultural narrative that organises thought and experiences into a 'grand theory' that makes sense of our lives.

e.g. science, Christianity, socialism

What are some key postmodern ideas?

hyper-reality   -There is no objective 'reality' representation in the media are as real as a actual experience 

intertextuality  -There is no essential 'truth' instead there is a multiplicity of truths, each equally valid.

pastiche        - truth is just a 'discoruage' or ' narrative ' a belief which helps us make brief sense.

bricolage 

niche 

-nothing is original  

-There is no real you the self is fragmented and schizophrenic you are just a sense of experience originated into a narrative of yourself.

Baudrillard:

Imitation that seems more real than the thing it is imitating- mediated experiences.

Intensity and resonance that surpasses creativity for their audiences.

hyperrealtiy is when the audience are hooked in with the series and end up not knowing what the real world is truly like. 

3) Choose one of the films we saw extracts from and watch the whole movie: Captain Fantastic (2016), Pulp Fiction (1994) or Inception (2010). Write a 300 word analysis of your chosen film using theories from the study day (use the exam paragraph structure we were shown on the day - theory introduction, examples from text, why this 'proves' or 'disproves' the theory).

The postmodern theory of hyperreality (developed by John Baudrillard) is the idea that through the media, reality is often skewed together, leaving the viewer to question whats real and whats fictitious. A prime example of this theory being put to use is the 2010 sci-fi action thriller directed by Christopher Nolan, Inception. The entire premise of the movie are the side effects of entering another individuals dreams and the mental toll it can have on the "extractors" (Individuals who enter peoples dreams in order to steal secrets), causing them to often forget what's real and what isn't. The film even gives the extractors a means to determine whats real and what isn't through the introduction of totems, small objects that helps determine whether or not they're in a dream state or currently in reality. Throughout the film there are scenes that have the audience questioning what truly exists, whether or not the main characters accomplished their goal or if they've gotten stuck in limbo (an uncontrolled dream state that leaves the dreamer in an almost permanent state of dreaming). The ending scene of inception plays with this Idea the hardest, ending the film with the main character Cobb; after getting the ending he'd always dreamed of, spinning his totem on a table counter top only to have the credits roll before we get a confirmed answer about his current state of consciousness, evidence of hyperreality can be seen in the aftermath of the ending; literal years of theorising on the true meaning of the ending by fans and critics alike, showing the extent of which they're questioning the end reality of the main characters in Inception