Dissertation: Charlie's Angels - T&A TV

Through doing a bit of research I have found that Charlie's Angels was one of the shows from the 70's which was branded as "Jiggly or Tits & Ass Television" which means the show was filled with provocative language and innuendos and had very sexist plot lines.
In this article Farrah Fawcett, one of the original Charlie's Angels" comments about this.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/charlies-timeless-angels-women-who-transformed-television-413911.html 

Dissertation: Remakes

This is a podcast I found which is about the 2 Parent Traps and their differences. 

http://www.ihateloveremakes.com/2011/01/episode-2-parent-trap.html

Dissertation: Waves of Feminism

Today I watched a lot of films on feminism so that I could really understand it and get to grips with the different waves.

Dissertation: Charlie's Angels Compared

These are the introductions to 4 different versions of Charlie's Angels. The first is from the 1976 to 1981 series, the second is from the 2000 movie, the third is from the 2003 movie sequel and the forth is from the 2011 series. I will look at all 4 and compare them to see if the gaze changes of the years. I will concentrate on the movie sequel the least as I the 2 films were filmed by the same director and also were only filmed 3 years apart and so there will not be alot to compare.

Dissertation: Comparing The Parent Traps

This is an article I found which compares the 2 Parent Trap films in terms of their content and character development. It makes some good points which I maybe able to expand upon in my dissertation.

http://www.soundonsight.org/extended-thoughts-on-the-parent-trap-2/

Both Projects: Contacting People

Today I am having a day of contacting people and watching films and Youtube clips for both my dissertation and production concept project.

Dissertation

For my dissertation I have decided that as I am using The Parent Trap as one of my case studies I should try and find out some information from the Disney company themselves about the film and also other remakes and adaptations the company has made. I looked through various Disney websites and found what I thought were relevant email addresses:

1. help@disney.co.uk 
2. TWDC.CorpComms.Europe@disney.com
3. wdsmp.press@disney.co.uk
4. dtpukpress@disney.co.uk

I emailed them this:

I have also signed up to IMDBpro and I made a list of all production companies and the directors (who are still alive) that worked on my chosen films and I am going to email them all asking questions which will help me with my dissertation.

Production Concept

Today I am also going to email the production companies of the shows such as:

Magaluf Weekender - enquiries@twofour.co.uk
What Happens in Kavos - info@dragonfly.tv
Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents - contactus@zodiakrights.com

So that I can find out information about their target audiences that I can add it to my research.

I will also contact the production companies for:

An Idiot Abroad - info@meandyouproductions.co.uk
Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour - emma@jamesgrant.co.uk

So that I can find out about the kind of planning which goes into making a fun but informative travel show like these.

Dissertation: Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze

Today I gave up on reading and decided to see what YouTube and the Internet had to offer me. I was still unsure about what Laura Mulvey was actually trying to say but by watching these videos and slide shows I have a much better understanding.

The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey from Mr Smith

Dissertation: Stepford Wives

Today I watched alot of YouTube videos on Laura Mulvey's theory and I found this video about Stepford Wives. I  really liked what it showed and I am going to look at Stepford Wives a bit more so that I can maybe use it as one of my case studies.

Dissertation: Looking at the Parent Trap

Today I watched the Parent Trap as it is my all time favourite film and as I know the film really well I knew that the female characters were represented differently and I knew exactly what sceens to look at to prove this.

I first of all watched the final scene in the 1961 version, where the parents have their heart to heart, and did a textual analysis on it. I also watched it with auto commentary. This was done by David Swift the director and Hayley Mills the actress who played the twins in this version and by listening to the commentary it gave me extra information on how the mother was represented in this film by the director.

I then watched the same scenes in the 1998 version and also did a textual analysis and made note of the differences.

By doing the textual analysis and looking at both films really closely from another point of view it made me realise that the mothers are represented completely differently. When I realised that the original was done by a male director and the remake was done by a female director it all made sense. I realised that in the original there was obvious signs of the "Male Gaze" which Laura Mulvey talks about but in the remake it was definitely more obvious that there was a "Female Gaze".

When I realised this I went back through the film and realised that the dad's fiances are also represented differently in both.

I didn't think I was going to get much out of this film but I thought I would just compare them as they were 2 versions of a film I love and know really well and it would ease me lightly into comparing films. But from doing this research I have decided that I am definitely going to use this as one of my case studies as it brings up alot of things for me to talk about.

I also need to do a bit of research to see if anyone else has come across a "Female Gaze" or is it something that no one has really gone into depth about.

Dissertation: Bond Girls

Dissertation: Tutorial with Chris

Today I had my first tutorial about my dissertation with Chris I went in there with 2 ideas and he really helped me decide what I want to talk about.
My 2 ideas were:

1. How violence in films effect children
2. Comparing film remakes to original

We decided to go down the film remakes route and as I said I was interested in looking at things being adapted for different formats and being introducing to a new audience. I said that one example I had thought of was comparing Charlie's Angels the television show to the 2000 film. Chris liked this and said to me what about looking at how women are represented in the original version compared to the adaptation. I liked this idea and Chris helped me to think about the structure of the dissertation and what I had to include in each section.

Intro
Paragraph 1 - History of remakes and adaptations in which women are prominent.
Paragraph 2 - Representation of women
                       Look at  - Ideology in remakes
                                      Feminism
                                      Gender in film
                                      Stereotypes
                                      Laura Mulvey
Paragraph 3 - Case Studies 2 to 4 examples applying the theory to the examples
Conclusion

I took everything Chris said on board and got out lots of books from the library which I thought would help me with my research. I will start off by having a look through them and make notes on important points.

Dissertation: Dissertation Ideas

Well since my last blog I have been thinking more and more about my dissertation and after looking through my Media A-Level notes and looking at all of the books in the library I have come up with a lot more ideas and I have kind of confused myself.

Ideas:

1) Representation of women in Alfred Hitchcock films focusing on the lighting, sound, camera angles and mise en scene.

2) How does violence in films effect the audience

3) How classification has changed over the years and what guidelines film makers have to stick to to gain the certificate they want. Focusing on films containing sex and violence.

4) Comparing film remakes to the originals

I will keep thinking about these ideas and do a bit of research on them all and then on my Tuesday tutorial with Chris I can discuss my ideas with him and see what he thinks.

Dissertation: The Dissertation Starts Today

Today I have decided that as the festive period is about time I start thinking about my dissertation. I know that I want to do it on classification films focusing on sex and violence in films as this is a subject I studied at A level and I found it very interesting and I also have quite alot of notes on the subject.

I am still unclear on what I want my question to be but I think I would either like to focus on how violence in films effects the audience or how films with sex and violence in them get their certificates with focus on video nasties and banned films.

I know that with this subject the BBFC will be a huge help to me as they have their own student section on their website. I have decided on a question I will be able to start emailing the right people and hopefully arrange a meeting or go to one of their seminars to help me with my research.