KTA 4

6* - analyse the concept of 'representation' in a media product you have studied



In this essay I am going to be discussing the digital media product Venom. I will discuss how the concept of representation and examples to support my answers. Tim o'sulivan et al(1998) said that for the recognition to work, there has to be shared recognition of people and places, therefore they have ideologies. This means that for the film to be recognised then scenes of places that everyone knows to allow people to recognise the type of film and what is happening. I agree with this idea because Mise-en-scene shows the establishing shot which tells the audience the setting and shows where the action will take place in the whole of the film. In my products case which is Venom(2018) at the start of the film an establishing shot is taken of San Francisco's tall city buildings which tells the audience where Eddie Brock lives because after the establishing shot we see Eddie. Because of this shot we recognise the setting and we link it to stereotypes we hear about the location this makes us recognise the film more and feel more involved with film. Another example of this is the science labs in the film testing the people and the science labs are seen as ire and not a nice place. Sound shows the they are ire as the slight musical changes are introduced, for example when a patient tries to attack Eddie there is a loud rawr and the tone is changed from the happy city to a creepy science lab.

Laura Mulvey's theory(1975) involving re representation is that women are objectified and seen as not as powerful, she also states that women are seen in the view of homosexual males. An example of this being a male looking at a woman he likes and it zooms into her face in slow motion to show he love for her. In my product which is Venom one of the main heroes in the movie is a woman named Anne Weying who helps Eddie defeat Drake who is the leader of the main evil company. This example is why I disagree with this statement as women recently are getting their own movies and also becoming more important characters, not for just sex. An example could be the up and coming Marvel film 'Captain Marvel' a filmed based around the life of Marvel superhero Captain Marvel who is played by a woman and in the film shows how she is very powerful.

Another theory that links with Laura Mulvey's theory is John Berger's theory in 1976. His theory was that men act and women only appear in films. This rather sexist comment is not apparent in Venom as just like Mulvey's theory the women in Venom is a very strong character, this character being Anne Weying. Taking that into account I will have to disagree with Berger as women are actors as well so they act and multiple films like Venom and Star Wars 7 where the main protagonist is a female called Rey. However I can see where he got that theory from as films like James Bond where women actors are only seen as Bond's lovers and are only in the one scene. People could consider that as not acting. However in my opinion recently films like Captain Marvel show that women are true actors and work well alongside men.