REFLECTION BLOG POST

For my final work, I presented my idea to be a take on surrealist films and how they mediate attention by diverting expectation. I wish to do this by using found footage of a scene between two people and then edit in fast-paced, flicker images of the thought processes of each person before they answer. As a potential message, I expressed my intention to perhaps create a piece centred around the male gaze theory in some way. Feedback from my classmates suggested this would be an interesting idea to work off if I could find the right conversation demonstrating this inequality. The positive feedback on this suggestion has encouraged me to pursue this avenue however, I’ve struggled finding the right conversation to do this with. Thankfully, another suggestion from a classmate answered my concerns and offered to instead of focusing on one conversational scene between two distinct characters, colour code the characters so that I can utilise characters/actors from many different scenes and manipulate the language to say something regarding the idea of the male gaze. By using the same colour schemes, the audience will be aware these are the same characters thus I may be able to manipulate a scene cohesively. Then by doing so mediate the audiences attention to focus on the colour as a representation of the voice and thoughts of that character. Although I must admit, this amount of researching and curating to find the right scenes, language and complimentary tones will be challenging, and make me question how I will manage to devise this film by relying only on found footage.

My example of my idea I showed in class used a scene from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, Winslet’s hair is dyed a vibrant red and Carrey wears dark toned clothes and dark hair, by starting with this scene I’ve tried to find other scenes with red haired women and intend to use these to integrate into a cohesive conversation. Luckily, the men opposite the women in these films I’ve found so far are visually similar to Carrey’s character. Through exploring other scenes with visually similar characters, I’ve noticed the similarities to other highly criticised female tropes in movies beyond how they are perceived through the male gaze. Including the tropes like “manic pixie dream girl” and the “cool girl”, delving into theses tropes has inspired me in how I might go about editing this film and make the audience question these types of female representation in film. By incorporating these characters I intend to present a commentary on the perception of women in cinema by diverting the audiences attention to how the male gaze and other female tropes are similarly represented, through portraying their inner thought process, and comparative elements of the films. Though I’m not completely sure how and what storyline this film will take yet, the feedback from my peers has inspired me to delve deeper into this idea while making sure to incorporate the surrealism I’ve been so inspired by. Whilst portraying this message, the thought processes I portray will evoke confusion like that of surrealism and make the audience question where their attention should be and what the intention of the piece is.