This will help you to
• 1. Analyse films using analytical approach
films for film studies
• 2. To analyse films for critical approaches
• Most important: You must not choose the
same films when you analyse them and you
must make sure what you submit for each task
is different, or you will have to re do it.
Film studies
• For this task you must pick two full films, or clips
from a few films or trailers to show you can
analyse them.
• 1. You will pick a film or (clips) you must a use
feminist perspective to analyse the clips and use
both genre analysis with a bit of narrative
analysis to analyse them.
• You must analyse a second film from a feminist
perspective, but use content analyse approach.
To start the assignment
• Intro: You may start with something similar. In this
report I am going to analyse two films using a feminist
perspective, and I am going to compare a qualitative
genre based analysis with a quantitative content
analysis, to show how different methods work. I have
chosen to analyse two horror film one is ... The other is
.
• (What you could do is compare old horrors with new or
remakes like clash of the titans, i.e. with a genre
analysis how have characters changes, with a content
analysis are weapons prioritised differently)
How to analyse from a feminist
perspective
• If you cant remember much about feminism then read
the PowerPoint on feminism and horror films first. You
could apply feminism to other types of genres, but
there are plenty of theorists to use when it comes to
horror i.e. Laura Mulvey and the Male gaze, Final girl
theory; Carol glover.
• The key thing about feminism is showing that in films
women are show as being unequal and playing
stereotypical roles, this could be shown through low
and high angle shots, or just in the choice of clothing
that she is made to wear i.e. red and white have
different connotations.
Representation
• Laura Mulvey – argues that cinema positions the
audience as male. The camera gazes at the female
object on screen. It also frames the male character
watching the female.
– We watch the girl; we see the male watching the girl; we
position ourselves within the text as a male objectively
gazing at the female.
– Can be applied to other media forms also.
• Key word: Hegemony (dominant ideology)
Example of feminist analysis
(this is above what you would be
expected to do, but worth a watch)
Genre based analysis what to look for
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The Main Genres
Action / Adventure
Comedy
Crime/gangster
Drama
Family
Historical / Epic
Horror
Musical
Science Fiction
War
Westerns
What defines a film's genre?
Characters
Mise-en-scene
Narrative
Music
Editing
All genres are recognizable, well that is one theory, but in genre theory there is also a debate
which suggests rather than genres being fixed they change over times and become
spoofs/paradoies, a bit like scream and scary movie. What you could do is analyse old horrors
with new, to see if women’s roles have changes or look at how genres have changed. Through
the following analysis
Generic features
• Genre share the same elements of paradigms
with others in the same category, this makes
them recognisable to the producers who
create them and the audience. Audiences
recognise these patterns and things brings
about a certain expectations i.e. horror films
the isolated house, the final girl etc.
Use the following bullet point of general features to help you
analyse and use key words in your analysis such as iconography,
low angles, mise-en-scene, juxtaposition, watch the following
examples afterwards to help you analyse).
Paradigms:
1. Typical Mise-en-scène/Visual style
(iconography, props, set design, lighting,
temporal and geographic location, costume,
shot types, camera angles, special effects).
2. Typical types of Narrative (plots, historical
setting, set pieces).
3. Generic Types (link this to feminism and how men and women
are represented i.e. Are there typical characters (do
typical male/female roles exist, archetypes?) i.e how are men
portayed how are women portrayed.
Typical studios/production companies… i.e.
certain genres have certain directors, and certain
types of sound effect and editing i.e. paced paced
editing shows tension being built think about the
trailer for taken
4. Typical Personnel (directors, producers,
actors, stars, auteurs etc.) i.e ge
5. Typical Sound Design (sound design,
dialogue, music, sound effects).
6. Typical Editing Style.
Watch the following
they will help you
analyse your films.
Be able to develop responses to media products
You will analyse the films using a content analysis of films, but also analyse
generic codes and conventions i.e (content, style, symbolic, cultural, technical);
changes over time, eg in audience, ideological shifts, re-definition, obsolescence,
spoof, pastiche, parody
Look at the Narrative structures: narrative, eg single strand, multi-strand, closed,
open, linear, non-linear; alternative narrative; enigma; climax; equilibrium
Representation issues: negative; positive; of social groups; of social issues;
stereotyping; presence and absence