My Film

What is my Film About?

Summary of Movie Concept

My film will be based upon Laura Mulvey's theory on the presence of a male gaze in cinema. I want to depict the sexualisation and pressure put onto females to conform with traditional gender roles. Mulvey's theory suggests that females audiences are passive, they gain no pleasure from looking at the sexualised females however, they compare themselves to the "ideal" women from a male point of view. In this film I want to reflect the build up of pressure caused from trying to become this mainstream idealism of what beauty is. Mulvey suggests that the use of fragmentation of the body, slow shots and close ups of erotic areas such as the lips and eyes are used in order to satisfy the scopophilic view of the male audience. I intend to shoot close ups taking off and putting on clothes in order to show the unnecessary sexualisation of the female body within the film industry. I believe that lighting has a strong effect on the atmosphere of a scene, I intend to use pink lighting in some shots, I have chose this colour as it is the most stereotypical female colour and it can also help reinforce the theme of femininity within the shots. 

Equipment Needed

Stabilisation - In order to make sure all my shots are stable I will be using a tripod, my tripod is very lightweight making it easy to move around whilst shooting, it also comes with a smartphone attachment which means if my camera isn't available I still have a device which I can film with. 

Camera - In order to capture the majority of my shots I will be using my Canon EOS 750D, this allows me to alter my technical settings quite a lot which means I have a lot of artistic freedom with the direction of my film. I will be using an 18-55mm lens whilst shooting as it means I can zoom in and out freely to capture the perfect shot, as it offers a range this means I can carry just one rather than having to carry around multiple lenses. I intend to capture some slow motion shots for shit I will use a Samsung phone as I believe the slow motion function captures better quality footage than my camera. 

Lighting - In some shots I want to use pink lighting in order to suggest a theme of femininity, for this I will be using a pink LED flamingo light, the flamingo is quite a graceful  creature which is most commonly linked to females. In some shots I will use the light as a prop within the shot is others, I will just use the lamp to create a pink hue over the scene. As well as this I will need some normal white LED lights, I will be using small torches for outside shots they are lightweight and mobile. For inside shots I will be relying mainly on the natural lighting on location (lamps, ceiling lights, street lights, TVs) to create a very natural feel to the production. 

Editing Organisation

When Creating this production I decided to create a different Adobe file for each different sequence and then I brought all the footage together and filled in the gaps. I created a folder for each sequence which contained the required videos and material which was needed to complete that sequence. 

My Production

Evaluation 

Planning

I really enjoyed filming this production, I was able to alter a lot of different aspects in order to make my artistic vision come to life. I believe the movie came out looking great and I owe it all to my planning. The fact that I had a clear idea of what I wanted to produce made it easier to efficiently create a video with minor setbacks, I didn't follow my plan exactly as when shooting some of the shots I realised that they looked better in theory than they did in actuality, I believe a way in which I could plan ahead for this issue is by producing storyboards in future, this allows me to create a visual representation of what my film may look like so that I know what shots look good and which don't. Some of the shots although may have looked good were too difficult to capture in some situations for example, I wanted to capture quite a lot of shots outside taking off all the items which link to the conformation of female gender roles however, when taking off items such as shoes I realised it is extremely cold outside in winter therefore, I changed my plan in order to include less outside shots as it was too painful to shoot. Another issue that I had is that because of lockdown I had less actors and film crew, instead I chose to act in the production myself and for shots which I was in my boyfriend operated the camera under my clear instructions. Because of the circumstances of the pandemic, I made sure to shoot most of my footage indoors, this meant that no matter what I could capture footage at any moment without being worried about restrictions forcing me to alter my idea to much. Overall, the planning aspect of my film was very positive and helped me produce a film which explores Laura Mulveys of the male gaze clearly and efficiently.

Camerawork

The quality of the shots produced was a little bit grainy as my college closed therefore I was unable to gather all the lighting equipment needed to light my shots properly, I have tried using indoor lighting which was readily available however, I had to use ISO between 800-3200 throughout the footage which has affected the quality but I kept my shutter speed at 1/50 of a second and my aperture very low at f/4-5 throughout the footage. I used a shutter speed of 1/50 as this is the traditional "cinema" speed therefore 9in an audiences eyes this will look more normal and natural. Throughout I have used a variation of shots which I believe link to the theory of the male gaze, I shot a lot of close ups of putting on and taking of clothes to satisfy the scopophilic view of a male audience. Hitchcock influenced me to suggest the idea of sexualisation rather than showing it for example, I took some shots of the mirror in which I would walk past lifting my shirt to insinuate the idea that I am taking my shirt off which can be sexualised satisfying the audience however, I never take my top off fully on camera. I took some shots panning up and down my body as Mulvey believes the use of fragmentation like this in movies is used to pleasure the male audience as they are able to look the female up and down without judgement. Many shots are framed through the mirror, this has been done to link to Jacques Lacan's theory on desire, this theory suggests that when humans start to recognise their reflection they start to feel incomplete as though they will never live up to the person in the reflection. Whilst looking in the reflection, I have overlaid non-diegetic audio of voices tearing the girl down, forcing her to conform and become the idealistic version of a female. In the footage I look directly in the camera through the mirror, this makes the audience feel uneasy in order to put them in the position of the women being objectified, as I stared into the camera I continued to do my make-up in order to make people feel empathetic in a way for forcing women to conform. The use of tracking shots have been used in order to track me as I move around the room, this creates the idea that no matter where a woman goes or what she does in some way she is always being watched either over social media, by authority figures like parents or even by friends and partners. Overall, I believe that my consideration of camerawork and shots was positive, I was able to produce shots with thought of their effect on the audience which look good and are varied in order to keep the audience engaged.

Lighting

In my production lighting plays a strong role, the use of pink lighting on shots which reflected succumbing to female stereotypes helped reflect the theme of conventional femininity. The lamp used was able to create a hue over scenes as well as acting as a prop within many of the shots. I used the prop as a symbol of femininity, at the end of the production when I stripped myself of all the things that make me conventionally female, once I do this I used a close up of the light in low key lighting as I turned it off and on to make it seem as though it is flickering and dying. The use of this imagery is used to suggest the abolishment of gender roles, the feminine light dies with the femininity. I used non-diegetic sound of a light fizzling out when the light flickered in order to make the idea more clear. Throughout the production I have mainly relied upon lighting readily available on location, when I was shooting inside I used warm lighting so that it looks more homey, this has been done in order to create a juxtaposition between how a home is meant to be seen compared to version the female feels, it is warm a lovely however, the girl feels uneasy and unsafe as she feels she cannot even be herself in her own home. When shooting outside I was able to use LED torches and phone torches, as I was mainly shooting close ups and mid shots, I mainly tried to shine the light on the props or on myself in order to make sure the important things were viewable whereas the background is less important. For example, when shooting close ups of me walking I focused the light on the shoes to reinforce their importance by making them stand out. I believe throughout my consideration for lighting was great however, I believe that if I had access to college supplies I would have been able to light my shots a bit better, overall I made the best shots with the equipment I had available, I believe the slightly underexposed look in some of the shots helps link further to the melancholy the girl in the production feels when being told what to wear and how to look.

Sound

Sound plays an important role within this production, most of the sound used within the shots is non-diegetic as I wanted to use audio of thoughts and things people have said to the girl which slowly drive her insane. When it was internal thoughts I used vocabulary such as "I wish" to show the girls desire to be a normal girl in order to please everyone around her, I juxtaposed this with phrases such as "I hate wearing skirts" showing that she doesn't want to become a conventional example of what a female should be. I used the song "S.L.U.T" by Bea Miller, I chose this song as it has lyrics which are empowering which link to my concept for example within the first verse she uses the lyrics "If you don't like what I'm wearing, well, you're only bothered 'cause you're staring", this links to the idea that people constantly feel the need to tell people what they can and can't wear which is reflected in my video in the shot which pans up and down my outfit with a voiceover of my mother and boyfriend telling me I shouldn't dress like a boy. Where it says "you're only bothered 'cause you're staring", it links to the theme of scopophilia, they gain pleasure from being able to look however, at the same time feel the need to judge. Near the end of the production as the character becomes overwhelmed, the voices of herself and everyone else start playing over the top of each other, they being to sound jumbled and muffled to reflect that she is become so overwhelmed with all the beauty standards people expect her to keep up with. The use of the audio here has a great effect in the video and makes the message very clear to an audience whilst keeping them engaged. I believe that throughout my video the use of sound has been well thought out and helps greatly with making my concept clear as well as making the video more engaging for an audience.

Costumes and Props

I believe that the costumes chose to be used within the production were well thought out. When representing the female as the idealistic image of a lady the colour scheme was very pink as this is traditionally seen as a feminine colour. The outfit chosen was a cropped top in order to be able to show some skin so that I could suggest the idea of sexualisation. I was wearing a skirt as well as this is traditionally seen as feminine. As well as this, I decided to use suede pink heels as these are very feminine. I chose outfits which were easy to take on and off so that I could capture the shots of me taking clothes on and off easily and smoothly. In the end scenes when she takes off her "feminine" clothes, she appears to be wearing all black, the colour black is used to link to rebelling, I was trying to show how I am straying for traditional gender roles in order to be my own person. I needed to wear clothes which were skin tight and small so that they would fit under my female outfit without looking to obvious. At the start before she becomes the conventional version of a female she is dressed in very scruffy clothing for example, there are holes in the shoes, holes in the leggings, the hair was very messy in order to show the exaggerated version of how people interpret women that don't dress up and wear make-up. The use of under-exposed shots within this scene created shadows under the eyes making me look tired and awful making the message a lot clearer.  

Overall, I believe that my production was meticulously planned and came out very successful at exploring Laura Mulveys theory on the male gaze. I was very considerate of what shots I should use to get the desired effect, what clothing I should use, what song would work best, what the best coloured lighting would be to insinuate the idea of femininity. Although I believe some extra planning would've been helpful overall, I believe the production was a success, it is creative and engaging and clearly explores my concept.