Tuesday, June 4, 2019

BFI Study Day: follow-up work

1) Type up your notes from the day.

Samaritans links to hooks theory as it shows women being objectified. Gender is inbuilt and socially constructed."Gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalised"
Gender fluidity is reinforced in the music video 'Stay Where You Are'. Women are sexualised since the skirt kept lifting up. The main singer is dressed to appeal to others. Van Zoonen said media is quite male dominated.
Denotation is what it is and connotation is it may be or what its  inferring. 
Barthes says meanings aren't fixed; they're open to interpretations. Denotation is actually just a dominant connotation.
Key postmodern ideas:
There is no essential 'truth' instead there is a multiplicity of 'truths', each equally valid 
Nothing is 'original' - art, style, even values 
Meta-narrative means a totalising cultural narrative, that organises thoughts and experiences into a grand 'story' that makes sense of our lives. 
Simularca- iimitation that seems more real than the things it is imitating.
Readerly texts- fixed meaning, passive reception. sit back and enjoy
Writerly' texts- spectators contribute to their experience. "lean forward".

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 becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalized." Gender roles are constructed, men and women are victimised from a patriarchal society.  bell hooks believes that traditionally masculine attitudes and behaviours aren't natural but rather constructed by a patriarchal society.

Liesbet van Zoonen:
Believes that treatment of women hasn’t changed since the 1960s and we still need equality between men and women. Van Zoonen also believes that in a patriarchal society, woman bodies are sexualised and vulnerable whilst men's bodies are sexualised through power and strength.

Judith Butler:
Butlers main theories about gender is that gender is a performance: series of gestures, actions, behavioural and dress codes that construct an imaginary 'man' or woman.

Saussure:
Saw society as a system of institution and social norms that form a collective system that provides conditions for meaning-making and hence decisions and actions for individuals.

Barthes:
Roland Barthes believed that signs we assume are denotations are actually 'dominant connotations' that hide ideologies. He called these 'myths'.

Stuart Hall:
'Authors' encode their work with meaning audiences decode it in often very different ways.

Lyotard:
Lyotard believes a totalising cultural narrative, that organises thought and experiences into a 'grand 'story' that makes sense of our lives.

Baudrillard:
Baudrillard states “Hyperreality – a condition in which ‘reality’ has been replaced by simulacra.” ◦ Simulacra –when a sign loses its relation to reality, it begins to simulate a simulation (the process in which a representation of something comes to replace the thing which is actually being represented.


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 narrative of inception is a protagonist named Cobb who has his own unique of finding or stealing intel from somewhere. This is not done by hacking a computer or causing harm to civilians to gain valuable information, instead its done by tapping into someones thoughts and dreams to steal information. Cobb is given an opportunity to reunite with his children therefore agrees on taking on the mission to implant something, something known as inception. Inception inhabits stuart hall's reception theory in its narrative since the audience may have a different point of view. The preferred reading is the director is trying to deliver not a standard spy genre film that consists of robberies however, subverts normal spy genre movie as everything is done through manipulating thoughts in the mind. Whereas, the oppisitional reading is the audience may think this movie is too unrealistic and can not be generalised in real life since you can't really enter into someones mind. Personal identity may not be created since its all based on a fictional story.
Postmodernism can be applied to this movie since you see a lot of simularca where the imitation is more realistic than the thing that being imitated. In inception real life locations are created in the mind however altered to look more appealing to the audience. 

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