Critical Evaluation

The production of my twenty key frames was a reflection from the research I gathered from my textual analysis revolving around the topic of the "Feminist Film Theory".  When reverting back to the information I received from my research, I focused most intensely on "The Male Gaze VS The Female Gaze". When communicating this information through my artifact, I focused on the key concepts that I gathered from my textual analysis: spectatorship, voyuerism/scopophillia, and the use of code and conventions. Overall, I feel that I analyzed the Feminist Film Theory successfully through my intense research which is portrayed in a creative light through my artifact .

During my research, I found that a major point that defines a large amount of the feminist film theory was the subject of spectatorship. The most common case for spectatorship to influence a individual is gender, which constructed different interpretations when analysing my primary texts.  This is because it allowed for the audience to align themselves with the characters differently; for example, how a man would in contrast to a woman. 

When I found that Mulvey's theory was challenged occasionally by my primary texts, I decided to interpret this idea within my artifact. During the frames before Cortina gets rejected from her promotion, I emitted the visualization of the male spectator as much as I could. This was because I wanted the contrast between the gendered spectator to be apparent when the narrative changed later within my keyframes; presenting that there is more than one spectator, despite sexuality or gender. For example, evidence of a male spectator was represented when Cortina is making Marlon's coffee. In this shot, I constructed the camera to be of a slightly high angle with the kitchen utilities to be centered within the frame. Furthermore, the combination of the low angle shot and involvement of this dressing of mise-en-scene provided a housewife image upon Cortina, with the low angle representing the higher power of the male spectatorship looking down on her.. To reinforce my research conclusions even more, I then constructed a shot to represent female spectatorship to present both spectators, however I done this through the male character's point of view ironically. When Marlon is tied to the chair, he looks up at Cortina creating an low angle shot, however with his vision extremely blurred. I constructed this shot to represent spectatorship through the idea that I extracted from my research: my Hollywood primary texts directed by men did not follow aspects of the feminist film theory as strongly as my Independent primary texts directed by woman did. This relates to Haskell's theory that "male directors can not portray women correctly". I therefore took this idea in to mind and made Marlon's vision blurred when looking up at Cortina; representing the fact that men can not view women in film as beholding power over them or behaving as the 'active sex'.

 I feel that I successfully interpreted my research of gendered spectatorship creatively through the use of camera angles emitting authority and by setting my film in the early 1970's. This allowed for my keyframes to portray the message that the film industry were not comfortable with the idea of the feminist film theory during the 1970's as it was a recent film movement that could cause a impact on the patriarchal film industry. Therefore, this is why I chose to slowly unveil the idea of female spectatorship as my narrative continued and to form the women character's revenge on the boss as a daydream; the 1970's film industry was not ready for this revolution in the film industry. My strengths of this aspect of my creative artifact was the visual filtering of making the frames appear as if they were shot during the 1970's. Additionally, I could of presented the idea of gender spectatprship greater if I made my camera angles more clearer through the possible use of a tripod. I could of explored with more camera angles to convey power in order for a clearer representation of spectatorship through cinematography. 

Moreover, another significant factor of the feminist film theory that reoccurred was the subject of voyeurism and scopophillia. This idea was made evidently clear in "Nine to Five" through Geroge's and Doralee's charcater.  In my research, with "Nine to Five" being released in the 1980's, the feminist film theory was made more comfortable within the film industry. We can see this in an example of "Nine to Five" of the idea of voyeurism being communicated in a light-hearted and humorous mannerism when George is peeping down Doralee's cleavage.  I took this example of "Nine to Five" into account when creating my keyframes and decided to not visually present "The Male Gaze" in a scopophillic mannerism, but to instead avoid the idea of voyeurism and play around with the typical "Male Gaze" structure. For example, like in the bar scene in Thelma and Louise, the camera slowly tilts down from Louise's head to her toes in a slow and sexual nature. I took this idea of challenging this theory of Mulvey's where we are first introduced to Miura and Minnie.I chose to interpret the women's shoes as the main subjects within the keyframe,as shoes are a stereotypical item related to feminity, especially high heels that Miura is wearing. Moreover, I presented the woman's shoes to present the contrast in the characters feminity and challenge the stereotypes of the physical appearance of women; Miura is in heels whilst Minnie is in flat boots. However, this keyframe was also created to present evidence of feminity being represented without the essence of scopophillic viewing. For instance, there is no part of the ladies bum, breasts, legs, etc within the keyframe, unlike the usual use of fragmentation through "The Male Gaze". I could of communicated the idea of femininity being represented in a non-scopophillic mannerism greater by choosing another fragmentation of the characters body instead that could be perceived as a non-sexual image. Moreover, I feel that the slight high angle shot of the stilettos elongated her legs,which could possibly represent sexual desire due to the combination of the elongation of her legs and the feminine choice of costume. Perhaps a fragmentation of both their hands may have been of a more appropriate subject in not communicating a scopophillic image. Additionally, a close up shot of the feet that would take up most of the framing would deflect the image of sexual desire of Miura's elongated lower part of her leg as well. 

Finally, the dressing of mise-en-scene within my keyframes was important as the features of the mise-en-scene would control to what extent the "Male Gaze" was apparent within my artifact. Moreover, mise-en-scene acts out as a artistic form of symbolism within my short film. Furthermore, one of my primary texts; Thelma and Louise represents a transistion of Thelma's character as at the start of the film, she is dressed in white to represent feminity, however towards the end of the film, she is dressed in black and dirty shades of denim to portray masculinity. I found that in my primary texts, the use of code and conventions to conform or challenge stereotypes of gender was used a vast amount. Therefore, I took this feature of mise-en-scene dressing into consideration when I constructed my keyframes. For instance, during my research, I came across the female archetypes in film during the 1970's to which I extracted within my own artifact characters. The main archetypes consisted of the timid yet smart woman, the desirable yet fiesty woman, and the independent and threatening woman. When creating my characters, I put these archetypes in to mind communicated them through mise-en-scenes; similar to Doralee, Violet and Judy in Nine to Five. For Minnie, I dressed her in long black flared trousers to represent a sense of sensibility to her character as well as challenging the stereotypical feminine portrayal of women in film. Moreover, I dressed her in trousers as this communicated the fact that Minnie has a hidden personality that we later see as the disruption of the narrative unfolds. In contrast to the loudmouth character of Miura, who wears a revealing dress, Minnie is guarded within her costume of a shy nature. For example, this is why I placed the position of Miura in front of Minnie in the close up of their shoes. Miura's vibrant stilletoes,placed much closer to the camera whilst Minnie's shoes are framed further away, emitting Miura's upfront personality and Minnie's timid characterisation. I feel that I communicated the portrayal of the female archetypes of the 1970's successfully through my characters appearance. However, this could of been communicated greater if during the editing process of my key frames, I heightened the vibrancy and sharpness of the female characters appearance to clearly represent the characters archetypes through use of colour, material, cut, etc.

Overall, I feel that I did successfully represent the idea of the feminist film theory within my twenty keyframes. I also found that I extracted significant parts of my textual analysis research within my keyframes very creatively. The strength within my keyframes was choosing the key scenes from my screenplay and visually creating them so that the narrative and meaning behind the shots are clear to follow. My weakness yet strength for my keyframes was my editing techniques.I constructed the imagery of a 1970's film through my keyframes very well, enhancing sharpness and rustic filtering to the shots, however, in some shot I would've liked the use of superimposing my images to be of a smoother mannerism. However, I feel that due to the vintage filtering, the errors in some of my editing techniques were disguised well.What is more, I gathered a immense amount of inspiration from my primary texts such as Nine to Five and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, that I feel I constructed clearly within my keyframes communicating the ideas of the feminist film theory successfully through my create artifact.