Essay Brainstorming

While writing my essay, I have noticed that I have talked about semiotics (accidentally) a lot, so I now have three chosen topics! I'm not quite sure how to split them up, do I talk about all three fairly, or do I focus on colour and gender? I have chosen the latter, however, I have ran out of things to say 2,000 words in, so I may do 1,000 on semiotics and my conclusion. Plus, my working title for the essay is "Symbolism of colour when portraying gender roles and power structures in films". At the moment, I have talked about symbolism in my piece, but no theorist as of yet. I may add a few since it is now an integral part in my essay.

Unused Sources

I have taken out quite a few books from the library, and found quite a few books online. This blog posts shows which books didn't make the cut and my reasons why. I will update this post as I write my essay and eliminate sources. 

KAPLAN, E. (1998) Women in Film Noir BFI Publishing. London

I got this book out for the chapter "Queers and Women in Film Noir" however, it is too focused on film noir and rarely says about femininity as a whole. When it does, it says more about it's effect on masculinity more.  

MULVEY, L. (2009) Visual and Other Pleasures Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Hampshire.

This book was mostly about patriarchy and it's effects on women. I wanted something that was about feminism and on women alone. Yes, I do need to talk about some patriarchy in the essay, but this book focuses more on the sexuality side and male desire. 

GIBSON, A.E. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Chapter 23 (p192). Colour and difference in abstract painting.

Probably referenced that wrong. I still used the collection I found this chapter in, but I decided not to use this particular chapter. It does sound quite relevant and can also be relevant to film, however, Gibson mostly talks about lack of colour. There's no mention of the different colours, just symbolism of monochrome, which is bleakness (which I could have figured out).

Other Influences

I have obviously looked at Sin City and Pleasantville for my Creative Piece, but I have also decided to broaden my horizon and look at paintings and graphics. Here is a blog post of all my findings and relevant pictures.

'Peach Rose Flower Painting' (1887). Georgia O' Keefe.

I decided to include a dying rose in my creative piece, so I looked O'Keefe (being famous at painting pictures). The rose can symbolise a lot of different things, such as sexuality and love. With it dying in my piece, it shows lack of these things. 

'Untitled' (1970). José Gómez Fresquet. 

This piece was made as an antiwar statement, but it can also represent violence against women. I have included influences of this with the colour of red standing out, and using it in my lipstick and blood shots.

'Pintura Habitada (Inhabited Painting)'. Helena Almeida (1975).


This one uses the one colour motif similar to my creative piece. This painting can represent oppression (and possible anger) of women, with the subject scribbling herself out, with the depressing blue colour.










'Micro Chat'. Filwa Nazar (2014).

This piece is more focused on Saudi Arabian women but can also be applied to feminism in general. In this particular piece, women can be described as a 'flightless bird'. It also has the one use of colour (red) which is blood, much like my creative piece. More examples can be found here.

First Draft!

Yayyyy! Finally colour corrected everything (some worked better than others again). I left Stitch all in colour as I just couldn't colour splash it. I also filmed a frog swing at Blackhall which also didn't colour splash very well due to it being on green grass.

RIP Green Frog

I also colour splashed a multi coloured bench using that shape tool and literally just realised the grass in the background is also colour splashed. I hope no one will notice.

I installed a 7 day free trial of Premiere Pro to edit with but that still buffered on my laptop and I didn't have time or patience to learn a new software, so I continued to use Movie Maker. I didn't overlap any clips but I did use a lot of fades and blurs in the dream sequence, and it works.

I have a few fine tunes to do (including that bench) and I will ask for feedback to see if people like it, and it will also be interesting to see if they understand my choices in colour/why I colour splashed, the framing, and the narrative.

I am also unsure whether to create another edit with royalty free music and get a charity attatched. I'll ask for feedback to see if it's good enough. I also like how it fits with the current track.

Day 2 and 3 Filming

Today we unexpectedly went filming while I was at home and the weather was nice and was too short notice to get my camera op down (plus it was during Christmas!) They will still be credited as main camera op, and my Mam stepped in as assistant. It went well and we spent the whole day filming. It was a bit stressful trying to make sure I had everything filmed. I also completely forgot about costume change but I was assured that I was sweating over the small things and no one would notice.

It took a few attempts (hence why it took all day) to get everything as my Mam had never operated a camera before (she did well considering though, and did a pull focus shot I wanted). 

I then went back to Hartlepool the next day to get a few pick up shots I forgot. 

Editing Decisions and Quick Draft

I have colour splashed all the clips from the first day of filming that I wanted. Some turned out well;

Needs touching up a bit!

Most... not so well;

Almost there! Just need to touch up that bit of tuft!

What even is thattttttt

Also, Davinci Resolve is VERY slow and constantly buffering on my laptop, so I have decided to only do colour correcting on it, and do the actual edit on a different software (I have used Windows Movie Maker as it's literally the only other think on my laptop that works and it doesn't look too bad.)

I made a quick first draft with all the footage I have at the moment and I need a LOT more shots. Some of the shots are colour splashed, some aren't (I left Stitch alone for now). The blood ones work particularly well. But I want more quick cuts and overlaps for the dream sequence, which I can't do on Movie Maker. Also the cuts of the Jack Skellington lights I might change (mostly because I didn't know which filter I liked better). I will also change the knife and the hand so you can't tell I've put fake blood on the knife haha. I also need a lot more happy shots. Well, looks like the Blackhall filming will be jam packed!

Please note that the video doesn't start until 30 seconds in (I want to put beach shots at the beginning).

Visual Culture: Day 1 Filming and Editing

Today me and Janice (my camera op) filmed at Hartlepool and my house for half of the shoot (the other half will be at Blackhall one day next week). Janice is my camera op for this project as I can't star, direct and do camera! Also I helped Janice out with her's so it's also a returned favour. The filming went well and we were done quickly and efficiently. 

I've started a bit of editing and found an even better Muse song which fits really well. I also found a better way of doing the lipstick colour splash and found the tracking tool! I make it a bit more red and added the tracking and it turned out really well!

I also looked at the colour splash of Stitch, which was extremely difficult, since the lights (and therefore the whole scene) are also blue, so I had to use that selector tool. However, none of the shapes fit so I had to use loads of circles and squares piled on top of each other. It isn't perfect at the moment, so I will come back to it once I have more motivation and patience. 

Lipstick Test #3

Another software I could use for my Sin City effect is Davinci. Jamie quickly showed me some of it, but he was still trying to get his head around it. So I installed it and looked at this tutorial to do the effect.



It went well with the flowers, creating a serial mode, boosting the saturation, then adding a parallel mode, picking a colour using the qualifier tool. Then going back to the serial mode and decreasing the saturation and boosting the saturation on the parallel mode.

However, the red of the lipstick blended with my hair so I did the same with the nodes, but had to use the 'window' tool to select the colour of just the lipstick on the parallel node.

Finished test is below. The flower at the start isn't perfect, so I will have to touch up on that small black gap in the middle of the flower. The lipstick colour still isn't perfect. This is the less time consuming of the other tests. So this looks like my best bet.

The Music

Music is quite an important piece for my film. I've been told that I can use any song I want to for my creative piece so the first song that came into my head is Muse - Exogenesis (Part 3). There's one lyric repeated ("let's start over again") which is really relevant. It's very emotional. Starts off sad, ends happy! Exactly what the film I'm making is like. Muse also means a lot to me and so does this film.



However, I really want to be attatched to a charity too, so I would need to use a song I have permission for if I do this. I have found one song that could do, but doesn't have the same emotional impact (I have a feeling nothing I will find will have the same impact as Exogenesis).



I like this one a little better, but I still don't feel it has the impact of Exogenesis. I might wait to see how my footage turns out before asking a charity to be attatched to it. If it turns out well, I will use this one.

Colour Splash Test (Part 2)

I filmed a quick bit of footage today with my new camera to see if I could do the colour effect any better (my low quality camera was an issue while editing so I treated myself and bought a DSLR).

Testing out my new #camera #canon #rebel #eosrebelt5i #selfie #dslr

A photo posted by Sarah Joy (@sarahtrix) on Nov 14, 2016 at 4:00pm PST

I filmed a shot of a flower which worked fairly straightforward as there was no movement and a defined colour. I followed this tutorial to do the effect on After Effects.

I also chose to do a CU of the lipstick rather than a XCU of the lips. This was probably a mistake as when I was editing, the red of my hair was similar to the red of my lips. Luckily Jamie was on hand to suggest useful tips, such as using the pen tool to pick out the red of the lips but not the hair. But I have to move the pen tool every frame to track the movement. It's time consuming, but it works.

Jamie is doing something similar with the Pink Gym but on Davinci Resolve so I might sit in or look at his notes (with permission) as it would be handy for me too, if there is an easier version. However, I have installed the software on my computer, but it is very slow, so I would have to book out an edit suite to use it.

Visual Culture #8 - Colour

Aristotle studied light, colour and secondary colours and also how they linked to status. Da Vinci also looked at colour (see later on in this post for more detail). Baroque used chiaroscuro (dramatic shadows). Issac Newton looked at white light through a prism and came up with the hue circle. Goethe came up with the 'theory of colours' and physiological colours (the effects of colours). The lecturer then mentioned dioptrical colours but didn't say what they were and can't seem to find it online, I'll have to ask the lecturer about this. Josef Albers looked at the bauhaus and it's relation to colour. According to Albers, colour is deceiving, and we perceive it in relation to our surroundings.

https://filmutopiablog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/a56af35026076d0afac79ab477827149-444x249x19.gif

A few other theorists that might be handy;

• Schopenhouer and Colour (1816). 
• Newton vs. Goethe (wiki). 
• Wiltgenstein - 'Remarks on Colour' (1950).

Colour in Film

This part will be mostly in note form as it was just the lecturer spit balling different filmmakers and each colour's meanings. 

Hand colouring with Edison's 'Dance Serpentine'. Barbara Flueckiger. Melies. Spellbound - Hitchcock. Hand tinted scene. Colour as a change of narrative; The Virgin Suicides. Change from black and white to colour; Schindlers List.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ab/1d/97/ab1d978332fa0caefcbf29c3a11ba9fb.gif

• Red - blood, passion
• Yellow- sun, happiness, gold, deception warning
• Blue - heavenly, exotic, gender, social media, chaos (Ancient Greece)
• Green - fertility, nature, jealousy, poison, money
• Orange - amusements, energy, fire

(we seemed to ignore quite a few colours)

Complementary colours are on the opposite of the colour wheel. Analogous colours sit next to each other. Triadic colours are 3 colours arranged evenly spaces around the colour wheel. Tedratic colours are 4 colours in complementary pairs. 

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In Tuesday's lecture, we looked at colour and spatial theory. A few of these notes don't make sense as I believe we looked a bit too deep into it, with colour being multi-dimensional. I've also put something about 'map of the new art' which is art without borders and new horizons.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/796552b8f50d47675a639bd492e0046e/tumblr_mju2ozL3Id1s8dzsqo4_250.gif

Spatial theory is the study of space and place, this can be material objects, geography, and the environment. Space is a physical setting, where as place is an outcome of social processes. The spatial turn - space not static. Background action shapes ideas???? (notes don't make any sense)

Colour alters perception. Colour theory is still in it's infancy; computers can detect 16 million colours, we can detect 10 million, but there is only 11 basic colour terms.

• Aristotle came up with the theory of white and black being principal colours. Yellow and blue are secondary. 
• Alberti said there was 4 true colours, but more can be created from them. White and black are alterations of other colours.
• Issac Newton came up with the colour spectrum. White light was released into a prism and the output was a range of colours. There's 7 different segments.
• Goethe, Chevreul and many others said that there are 3 primary colours and secondary colours can be mixed from them.
• Scientists in the 19th century came up with RGB primary colours. 
• 20th century chemists came up with the 3rd colour model CMY. To lower ink costs, they came up with a 4th, CMYK. 
• Itten came up with colour combinations and hues.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Prisma-goethe.gif

There is primary, secondary and tertiary (3 colours mixed) colours. Then there is addative (RGB) and subtractive (reflects light) colours. Addative synthesis is mixing colours of light. [insert some eye diagrams here and some sciency stuff]

Hue is a synonym of colour. Tint is to go lighter and add white. Shade is to go darker and add black. Tone is dull/bright variants and adding grey. There are also aggressive 'warm' colours and passive 'cool' colours. The value is how light or dark a colour is. The colour wheel is the order of the spectrum and the relationship between them is very important. Complementary colours are opposite each other and contrast. Analogous are 3 adjacent colours. 

At this point in the lecture, I couldn't take it seriously with the lecturer repeatingly saying orange (orangy orange).

Visual Culture #7 - Creative Documentary and The Conversation Piece

In Monday's lecture, we looked at creative documentary, and briefly how social media and the internet can have effects on documentaries.

Nichols (2001) came up with the 6 modes of documentary;

• Expository - addresses the viewer directly, led my narrator
• Observational - fly on the wall, 'observe' style. Subjects forget they are being observed
• Participatory - filmmaker and subject in dialogue/conversation. Louis Theroux
• Reflexive - 'constructed texts'. Bowling for Columbine. Doesn't tell you what to think
• Preformative - personal. Hypothetical situations (in their shoes). Autobiography.
• Poetic - organised in themes and patterns. Experimental. Lyrical.

http://bit.ly/2e2pkVP

Documentaries are used as a vehicle for social change. We also talked about different examples of documentaries; artists documentaries, docusoaps, and ones that use real-life footage. The lecturer gave us an extract about Big Brother and whether it was a reality show or a documentary.

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On Tuesday's lecture, we looked at 'The Conversation Piece and the Rhetoric of 'Talk' (1730-70). Paintings used to depict conversations and we looked at how conversations can be read but not heard in art. The idea of talking disappeared with new technologies such as sound in film, being invented and giving us the luxury of hearing.

This topic could link to our subject with silent films, however, title cards and expressions were often the form of discussion and gave us some insight to hearing.

http://bzfd.it/2eA3qFS

The Conversation Piece showed off wealthy connections, and later, romantic/emotional symbolism in France. Britain mostly used it to show wealth. The painting was used to show the families wealth and a polite taste, showing that they are knowledgeable and are culture vultures. 

The paintings didn't require much detail or talent and were essentially just family portraits and was considered 'proto-photographic' (a snapshot of the time), making the spectator think they have arrived suddenly and have eavesdropped on the conversation. 

http://bit.ly/2fvAaVP

In the 1970s, the focus became on more of the people rather than the room they are in, but there is still emphasis on wealth and culture. But it focuses more on the family members and becomes more like a portrait, showing relationships between the family and a 'genuine conversation' feel. 

A modern resurgence also uses this technique with modern day issues such as social issues, racism and police brutality, or maybe the lack of conversation in modern day. This painting suggests this. The conversation piece is also included in photography. 

http://artandresponse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/the-talk.jpg

Visual Culture Theorists

I dug up my notes today from A Level film and found a few pieces on different theorists. However, the main module I did it on in AS have gone missing and I have probably recycled them. Typical. The below notes are colour coded; green is ones to definitely use and are relevant, yellow are ones to use as backup (they look impressive, but not 100% necessary). 

• Laura Mulvey- 'the male gaze'. Women sexualised for male pleasure. "to-be-looked-at-ness"
• Carol Clover - 'the final girl'. The female protagonist that survives the film (more applied to horror)
• Barbara Creed - 'the monstrous feminine'.
• Helsby - "voyeuristic pleasure"
• Gauntlett - "queer theory". Identities are not fixed. Useful extract.
• Freud - voyeurism (pleasure in looking)
• Vladimir Propp - antagonists vs. protagonists serve narrative function
• Todorov - equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium
• Claude Levi-Strauss - binary opposites
• Lazarsfeld - hypodermic needle theory. Passive audience. media 'injects' ideas.
• Gerbner - cultivation theory. Passive audience. Repeated exposure to same values.

(side note, I couldn't find any particular people to cite about colour theory so the notes above are mostly gender)

Going through my notes, colour seems to link with semiotics a lot with what each colour means. This has made me think of possibly changing my topics. Not quite sure yet.

I have also found useful notes on the Riot Grrrl Manifesto, Surrealism (some gender studies involved) and a few key films in reference to the theories; The Descent, Fight Club...

Visual Culture #6 - Signs, Symbols and Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and is essential for communication, as it can often include facial expressions. Sassure founded the idea of semiotics and also came up with the idea of "the signifier and the signified". Charles Sanders Pierce later developed this with the idea of the "icon, index and symbol". The icon resembles what it stands for. The indexical sign refers to the senses, for example looking at a wet pavement we know it's been raining. The symbolic sign is thing we are culturally learnt, for example rose is symbolic for love. 

Yea Rose is symbolic for love, it's obvious

http://www.radiotimes.com/uploads/images/original/84459.gif

Roland Barthes developed it further with his interpretation of connotation and denotation and signs in relation to myth. Denotation is the primary meaning and the connotation is what we gather and interpret from it.

We then had a look at some film posters and what they could reveal about the film. Lost in Translation was the best example for this, and Donnie Darko, which adds mystery to the film, not giving much away. We also had a look at some advertisements. 

http://www.sharegif.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Donnie-Darko-quotes-1.gif

Barthes also had a theory of 5 codes;

• Proairetic code - the sequence of events. We want to know what happens next.
• Hermeneutic code - where the story avoids telling the truth, witholding information from the viewer. Often happens in mystery, crime and detective films. 
• Connotive or semic code - the deeper meaning. Object as a symbol or a metaphor. Often in surrealism (dream logic)
• Cultural or referential code - cultural references
• Symbolic code - binary opposites

http://bit.ly/2e7MKoY

There are also a few other codes in film;

• Dress codes - represents class, gender, age, employment, sexuality, status
• Colour codes - red=passion, etc
• Non-verbal codes - gesture, a 'look', body language
• Ethnicity/race codes - language, dress...
• Cultural codes - pop culture references
• Class codes - designer brands, money, dress, objects of desire
• Cinematic codes - angles, framing, type of shots

A handy book to look at is Semiotics: The Basics by Daniel Chandler (who also writes about 'the gaze'). Also, a note to myself, check out these films; Wings of Desire, Pleasantville (and also Adam Curtis).

https://66.media.tumblr.com/aea9e92e8237bb67b3c7664bee2b815f/tumblr_mjhc4kdRo61qiz3j8o1_500.gif

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Semiotics or realism?

Realism is aesthetic theory based on similarity or an identity between the photograph and depicting reality. A photograph is indexical (caused by it's own referent (what it refers to, indicates). The signifier (actual photograph) is the same as the signified (reality).

http://66.media.tumblr.com/acb3d3bbe31e754aa1ababa315c26b72/tumblr_mswmovcBjf1sytwjuo1_500.gif

Semiotics is distinction between the signifier and signified. The difference between what we see and the actual reality is not identical. Reality is constructed through codes and requires the spectator to give a signified meaning. We interpret the world as signs to be read: a paradigm shift into the way we think. 

Semiotics was conceptualised in 1915 by Sassure but developed in 1960s with ideas of structuralism- the idea that thought can only exist within a system that necessitates, interrelations and reciprocation. We read signs in the world and treat everything as a text to be read. Visual culture is the signifiers and the concept we read is the signified.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/5d/33/84/5d3384b17d36f61d728108e88df29367.jpg

Labels are arbitrary and only corresponds to objects because we are culturally conditioned to recognise them. [insert some deep conversations about fonts and flags] (also this picture came up on the slides and made us laugh)

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maduazyHZa1qasxjlo1_500.gif

A visual metaphor uses an image rater than words to make the comparison between one thing and another. A metonym is an image rather than words to make an association between two things. A symbolic image makes reference to something with a more literal meaning (a cross=a church). Advertising uses this a lot. Banksy has an antithesis (contrasts) and places opposites together to create new meanings. 

Lipstick Test

Today I experimented with different apps to try and achieve my colour splash effect. I downloaded a burst app to take loads of pictures at the same time and then I could edit them in the photo splash app.

I later found out that the burst app has it's own effects and has something similar to a colour splash. However it didn't quite generate the black and white effect I wanted.

So I then saved a few pictures to edit in colour splash and then turn into a gif. HOWEVER that also didn't generate the effect I wanted (the colour seems to jump) but the black and white is a lot stronger and I like that.

My next port of call is taking a video and trying to edit it in Davini or After Effects.

Domestic Abuse Chairities

I have developed my visual culture creative piece lately and decided to cover domestic abuse in LGBTQ+ relationships. I feel like it's something not covered in the film industry, covers the topic of gender, and can also portray my idea of using one colour instead of dialogue in each scene (like Sin City). 

I have researched into a few charities I could possibly message to attach their name to the project (this is more for post production, but I felt that if I researched into it, I could portray it more truthfully).

Galop

National LGBT Domestic Abuse Helpline. 

Some useful information on what exactly domestic abuse is too.

Emotional and practical support for LGBT people experiencing domestic abuse. Abuse isn’t always physical- it can be psychological, emotional, financial and sexual too. Speak out, don’t suffer in silence.

London LGBT Domestic Abuse Partnership

If you are in London, the LGBT Domestic Abuse Partnership can help too. The DAP is made up of 4 LGBT agencies who each provide different services for LGBT victims/survivors of domestic abuse. With one phone call, you will be linked in with Galop, Stonewall Housing, LGBT Switchboard, and London Friend.

Stonewall

Information on LGBT's rights when it comes to domestic violence and guides to read through.

Safelives

Not for LGBT specifically, but they look for new ways to stop domestic abuse. My film might be useful.


A few more domestic abuse (in general) charities;

• Refuge
• National Domestic Violence Helpline
• Samaritans 
• Women's Aid

Visual Culture #5 - Gender and Film, LGBTQ+ Film and The Gaze

We have a new time for our visual culture lessons on a Monday now- 5:45-7:15. Weird times but hey it works better for the lecturer. This week we looked at gender in film, but first we had a quick history lesson in feminism.

Mary Wollstonecraft fought for equal rights and in the mid 1800s women could study freely. First wave feminism started with the suffragettes and a campaign for education. Second wave feminism in the 1960s saw the end of WWII (where people realised women could handle the men's jobs at home fine) and the introduction of the contraceptive pill. Third wave feminism saw the riot grrrl and ladette culture. Transgender rights and queer theory also emerged at this time (1990s). 

PLEASE APPRECIATE THIS GIF it took me so long to find out the name of this film and a gif apart from Marla Singer

Future reference the gif is from The Last Seduction

https://67.media.tumblr.com/596c9edec7cd5d6e43321f28341b974b/tumblr_nvik025EJR1ugh9ieo1_500.gif

Fourth wave feminism in 2008 saw the rise of the internet and social media. People wanted justice. There are three main type of feminists;

• marxist feminists - blame class for inequality
• radical feminists - blame patriarchy for inequality
• liberal feminists - believe legal reform will change inequality

Some film theorists now! This part of the seminar was mostly names (most of which I have learnt in A Level. I have also added some of the theorists I looked at then in the list);

• Laura Mulvey - the male gaze. 3 different gazes (director, protagonist and the spectator). Women as decorative objects.
• Carol Clover - the final girl
• Barbara Creed - the monstrous feminine
• Freud - voyeurism (pleasure in looking)

A few books I could look at:

• Simone de Beauoir - The Second Sex (1949)
• John Berger - Ways of Seeing [chapter 2] (1972)
• Naomi Wolf - The Beauty Myth (1990) [third wave]
• Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique (1993)

Representations

• 1920s - The Flapper
• 1930s - Hollywood
• 1940s - Noir, femme fatale, trophy (Double Indemnity)
• 1950s - Monroe, Bombshell
• 1960s - Dorris Day

https://67.media.tumblr.com/81dfa4a86879fda905402bc701eae40e/tumblr_n5xs62KCut1qdm4tlo1_500.gif

LGBTQ+

We had a very quick look at homosexuality in the classical ages and also the hays code. Also briefly mentioned cross dressing. The rest of my notes don't make sense as the lecturer was going too fast. Something about Warhol.

http://images.amcnetworks.com/ifc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Rocky-Horror.gif

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In Tuesday's seminar, we looked at gender, identity and 'the other'. I didn't get very useful notes that I didn't already know, the lecturer also wasn't confident, constantly saying it's "very confusing".

"Some gender differences in the mind and behaviour may in part be the result of our biology (prenatal hormones and genes) interacting with our experience) but the old “nature vs. nurture” debate is absurdly simplistic and a moderate position recognises the interaction of both." - Simon Baron Cohen

I wonder if they're related

https://magicoficecream.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/station-inspector_sacha-baron-cohen.gif

We then looked at the gender spectrum which could also link to colour theory. The lecturer then went to list every gender (a bit pointless to be honest). I won't be typing these up because there's too many and it's on the VLE. 

We then looked a bit at 'two spirit' which is when North Americans mix gender roles within first nations and native american tribes. Mahu means both male and female genders.

Another mention of Tangerine. Comparing colouring books ('beautiful girls' vs. 'brilliant boys'). A quick look at Grace Jones singing with a hula hoop (not sure what this has to do with gender. Any other Grace Jones video would be understandable). We then somehow talked about facebook privacy, again not sure what this has to do with gender.

Had to post this because Tom

http://www.wotyougot.com/pictures//2012/06/grace-jones-at-wembley-tennis-260612.gif

Visual Culture #4 - Brechtian and Dogme / Paradigms, Relativism and the Creative Process

That was a mouthful. With the lecturer this week, we were supposed to learn about Brechtian and Dogme. We touched on it a tiny bit, but the lesson was focused on auteur theory that we missed last week. Not quite sure if the lecturer will continue Brechtian next week or if we will skip straight to gender.

Bertold Brecht was a marxist playwright who was very political in his works, and often broke the fourth wall.

http://i2.wp.com/www.hofmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Deadpool-GIF.gif?resize=480%2C208

Dogme 95 was a very purist movement with strict rules (aka the vow of chastity). There was no capitalist values, the director must not be credited (but most break this rule), no special lighting, music, genre, etc. It was made to purify the film industry.

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In Tuesday's lecture, we learnt about paradigms, relativism and the creative process. But first, a few definitions;

• rhetoric - persuasive writing. Negative term nowadays. 
• paradigm - basic assumptions. Commonly accepted and shared. Set of accepted ideas
• paradigm shift - change in underlying assumptions
• relativism - 'relate'. Understood in terms of what it stands near in relation to (context in which it was made)
• cultural relativism - values and culture making, only valid in own cultural context

We normally don't question culture, we just accept it (a paradigm). However, some artists wanted to establish and break the rules. Some examples of paradigms in film are genre, style, location, etc. We then looked at "unity in variety" with different films using the same location.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--KPm9j5dX--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1484311854805567409.gif

Westerns are also paradigms interpreted through the lens of different cultures, with spaghetti westerns, etc. This can result in a culture clash where objective truths are discovered. Cultural evolution is always changing, where it can be marginalised or adapted, often resulting in a culture clash with different values and opposing paradigms. Hybrids also often happen, that are also authentic and true. Acculturation can be a consequence.