Gender Theories

The Male Gaze Theory:

Laura Mulvey coined the term "Male gaze" in 1975. She believes that in film, audiences have to view a character from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The Male gaze consists of three different Gazes.
1. That of the person behind the camera
2. That of the characters within the representation or film.
3. The Gaze of the spectator.

The man man emerges as the dominant power within the film. The woman is portrayed as passive to the active gaze from the man.

John Berger:
"Men look, Women appear"- He suggested that women are there solely for objectification of men within all platforms of the media. We are subverting this stereotype in our film trailer, as the protagonist does not appear in the film to look "attractive" as we are not focussing on the looks of the character, but her actions instead.

Jib Fowles:
"In advertising, males gaze and females are gazed at"

The Carol Clover Theory:


In slasher movies, the killer is finally stopped by a character who Clover (1992) calls the "Final Girl". The " Final Girl" is always a pure innocent girl who abstains from sex. She sometimes has a unisex name (e.g. Laurie, Sidney.) Occassionally the Final Girl will have shared a history with the killer. Sidney Prescott from the horror film Scream, is a common example of Clovers theory.





In our film trailer, we chose to subvert gender theories because we didn't want to comply with the audiences expectations. In our film opening, the girl shown to be the dominant character, subverting the "Male Gaze Theory" (Laura Mulvey) who suggested that the man emerges as the dominant power within the film.  However she could be viewed as the perfect "English Rose". the term "English Rose" is a description associated with English Culture, that may be applied to a naturally attractive woman or girl traditionally with a fair complexion who is from or associated with England. The description has a cultural reference to the national flower of England, the rose, and its long tradition within English symbolism.

Theorists

Narrative
Todorov- Theory of Equilibrium

Propp's character types

Genre
Fowler- Not all characteristics of a genre always appear in a text.


Audience
Stuart Hall- Reception Theory
Encoded Message, Decoded Message, Preferred Reading

Holloran- Active- Researchers should look at what people do to the media not what the media does to people.

Roland Barthes- texts can have multiple interpretations

Theories

Regarding the genre of psychological thrillers, one theory that is prevalent is Tzvetan Todorov's theory on Equilibrium.

He explains that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium, in which the protagonist leads a 'normal' and happy life.

Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, Attempted Repair, New Equilibrium.

Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy is also applicable to our trailer genre. He said that all narratives can be divided into 3 sections: the Protasis, Epitasis, and Catastrophe. The German novelist Gustav Freytag then split these up into 5 parts: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Denouement.

Because of the fact that this is a Teaser Trailer, and is the first time the audience will get a glimpse of the film, it wouldn't make sense to end with Denouement- especially considering the genre is a Psychological Thriller. We plan to end our trailer on the climax, so that the audience will want to find out what the falling action and denouement consist of.

The Exposition introduces important background information.
The Rising Action shows a number of related incidents leading up to a consequence.
This consequence is the Climax, which changes the protagonist's fate. The situation changes from good to bad for the character.
The Falling Action stage contains conflict between the protagonist and others.
The Denouement should eventually create a sense  of catharsis, ending the conflict.

Roland Barthes was a French Philosopher and Literary Theorist was said that texts are either open or closed, and are influenced by 5 codes:

Hermeneutic Code/ Enigma Code- this relates to clues and subtleties within a story. It leaves the audience wanting to know more which is exactly what a teaser trailer should do.
Proairetic Code- contains sequential elements of action in a story. These add suspense to the ambience, which adheres to the purpose of our genre: Psychological Thriller.
Semantic Code- these are aspects of the story that have more than one meaning. Since the trailer is so short and shouldn't give too much of the plot away, the audience will be able to interpret our trailer in a number of ways.
Symbolic Code- this refers to symbolism within a text, certain aspects of mise en scene can be used to show contrast, create greater meaning, create tension and add character development.
Referential Code- this code probably applies the least to us, and refers to cultural, historical and scientific knowledge.