Representation Analysis

I think that representation in all mediums matters greatly. Whether it is in film or television, or even a TV commercial, you want to make sure groups who maybe are underrepresented or underappreciated can see something marketed towards them. It is how a company boosts sales, and gets an overall good reputation with the mass consumers. I have recently viewed two commercials though that I thought completely missed the mark. Not only in terms of showing off their product, but in grossly marginalizing their audience, and driving away a large group of people who may want to buy their product.

My Tide Detergent TV Commercial - Hoodies _ Cargo Shorts copy.mp4

 Here we have an ad for Tide, a company that makes laundry detergent and other cleaning products for her clothes. Throughout the commercial we see the mother talk about how her daughter wears nothing but hoodies, and from the colors and overall background of the home, we can see that visually the daughter contrasts with her surroundings. As the commercial goes on we can see in the mother's face and tone of voice that she is not extremely happy of the way her daughter dresses and acts, and I have to say that I think this commercial has done everything wrong. It acts as if the mother is not happy with her child being who she is, and that she would rather have her dress in pink and like Barbie dolls rather than building blocks. To me, the commercial makes a dangerous assumption that all little girls should act and play with the same things and they should all dress in bows and tutus. The fact of the matter is, not all kids are like that. Many girls like baggy clothes and darker colors, because it makes them feel good when they wear it. The mother in the commercial is seemingly respectful of her daughter's choice to wear and play with what she does, but it is off putting to a viewer to see. It also excludes that whole segment of women that like to wear clothes like this little girl. What tide is putting out is obviously supposed to be humorous, but to me it gets across a certain message. It may have that segment of consumers think "do they not want me using this product?" "Are they discriminating against this type of girl?". A product like Tide is something that should be used by men and women, and I feel like Tide on this specific commercial did an extremely poor job of getting that message across.

 

H&M Close the Loop – Sustainable fashion through recycled clothes

I personally think that this H&M add did a much better job of getting their point across. H&M is a clothing store that has options for men and women. Often times fashion advertisements try to appeal to either men or women, but what those adds don't realize, but H&M did, is that every single person on this Earth is different. It is like the commercial showed, sometimes women wear clothes for men, and sometimes men wear clothes for women. I think H&M showed that that is ok. We all have our different styles and fashions, and we should feel free to express that if we want. One statement I particularly found clever was when the narrator said "Mix red with pink". Often times it is said that with colors like those, they cannot be pulled off together, they must remain separate. I think the commercial did a good job of not only showing that that did not have to be the case, but the person wearing the two colors actually looked good in those colors. This one simple statement being made, really showed off that the person wearing it wasn't afraid to be questioned, she knew that it was an odd choice, but she was ok with it because it is what she liked. That is one part of the message that the commercial tried to get across. At the end of the video, we see that H&M thinks that no matter what we wear, we should recycle them for the betterment of the  Earth. They then show that they recycle any clothing item you left at the store into new clothes. I think this is a pretty smart tactic on their part, because they make everything we have seen so far connect to that one message. Something as small as clothing doesn't matter in comparison to the big picture out there, and I think unlike a lot of these self serving commercials, H&M realize that. H&M as a company obviously isn't a 100% selfless company, but I think it is pretty noble that they tried to tell their consumers about a good cause, and to maybe make them realize and try to help better the world. Overall, I think the commercial was much better done than the Tide commercial. It still wasn't perfect, as it made some generalizations about specific groups, men liking videogames being one example, but I thought that its message overall was much more consumer friendly to all ages, seniors included with the example they showed at the beginning. If I had to compare the two, then this one would be the winner.

 

Genre Research

If I had to choose, I would say that one of my all time favorite genres of film is comedy. 

Comedy makes us feel good, it is supposed to get us smiling and laughing. I can tell you for a fact that whenever I have a bad day, whether that be at school or anything else, I turn on a comedic movie I like to help me feel better. Comedy doesn't just make you laugh though, it also can bring out other emotions in you like sadness. It is because the genre is so dynamic, that I find it so interesting.

Content:

Every day frustrations is used in comedy movies constantly in order to humanize the main character to the audience, as well as set up a space where comedic hijinks will soon take place. Whether it is getting looked over for a promotion at work by the boss, or not being able to properly change a baby, these situations are what introduces us to the character's life and helps us feel invested in them.

                                                                    

                                            

                             Ex: Kevin Spacey from the film "Horrible Bosses" constantly overlooks the  Jason Bateman character for a promotion, but whenever he is asked about it, he constantly puts Jason Bateman's character down in a humorous way.

Another convention used constantly in comedy films is that of language. The usage of bad words is often used in comedy movies to up a character's reaction to something. Whether something amazing just happened or something bad, swears are used to trick the audience in a sense. Even if a joke is not funny, a lot of movies put them in-between in order to make the audience think along the lines of "well he is swearing, that is hilarious".

                                                                         

Ex: Gordon Ramsay in Hell's Kitchen. The way he talks to people, and the fact that he swears so much is extremely funny to people, and it is one of the things that has made him so well know today.

Production Techniques:

When making a comedy movie, it is important to know exactly what the audience wants to get from their ticket purchase. They want to get something light hearted and fun, not serious or scary. Because of this, most directors when creating a comedy will have the film be very bright and colorful, not dark and gloomy. Color can give off certain vibes to the audience without them noticing. By using light colors like light blue and yellow, you give off a warm and welcoming vibe to the audience watching your scene. They do not need to be on edge or prepare to be scared, they can sit back in their seats and relax.

You may have noticed that most comedy movies nowadays star the same 20 actors in them, and that is due to the brand recognition that those stars bring with them. It is extremely hard to convince a general audience to go see any type of film that does not include a big name star. It takes an enormous amount of advertising, and must have one impressive trailer. But, having people like Dwayne Johnson in your movie convinces people to go see it, because he is popular, and the audience knows what they are getting when they go to see a movie with him in it. He is familiar to them, they don't need to do any extra work to get into one of his films, which they would need to if it was a complete unknown taking over as the lead character.

                                                                          

Ex: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, and Jon Bass in Baywatch. The colors in this photo are bright, and the situation shown here plays against audience expectations. They expect to see 3 lifeguards all extremely fit and tan, but the joke is that there is one life guard who is the complete opposite of that long running stereotype.

Marketing:

Comedies are a rare genre in the sense that they have made comedies for literally every age group imaginable. Young kids like to see random chaos happening on screen, while the older crowd can appreciate the jokes and situations that characters find themselves in more. Comedies are generally more marketed towards male viewers, but nowadays, the space for female and male comedies have widened immensely, with one of the most successful comedy films of 2015 called "Spy" starring Melissa McCarthy in the lead role. The posters that most comedy movies have are able to sum up the plot of the film by just looking at them closely for a couple of seconds. Often times it will have the lead or leads front in center in some wacky costume or outfit, and then some wild situation going on in the background that draws your focus.

                                                                      

Ex: The poster for the film "22 Jump Street" shows the two main characters with guns, and in spring break attire which matches with the poster's background. This indicates to the viewer that the two characters are undercover cops, trying to stop a crime during spring break. The viewer can tell this before even seeing the text above their heads that explain it.                                            

Sample 1:

The film "21 Jump Street(2012) is about two high school enemies who 7 years later become best friends and police officers. They are both recruited into the jump street program which sends cops undercover into high schools in order for them to bust drug rings. As the two experience high school life they find themselves growing closer and closer apart. I think the film uses many things to its advantage. The dialogue unlike many adult comedies at the time is actually written extremely well. It has a lot of swear words, but it does not rely on them to be funny, and it is extremely well acted. Something that I noticed in the film that no one else seemingly has, is that when they are in high school, the lighting seems a little darker than when they are at other locations. I think this is to subliminally get across the message that high school is a "bad place". Everything this movie does works extremely well, and it honestly works as an action film just as good as it does a comedy.

Sample 2:

The film "Anchorman 2" is a comedy that uses its setting to its advantage. The film takes place in the 80s, and is about a news anchor named Ron Burgundy and his news team. What the film does so well is that it uses the time period to its advantage. They could have easily made it so that the film takes place in modern times, but they wanted to take things to the next level. Nothing did that more than the marketing for this film known as "the Ron Burgundy press tour" Will Ferrell, who played as Ron Burgundy appeared on numerous interviews and real news broadcasts in character, and it was a genius way to get exposure for the film. To this day, nothing of the scale has been attempted, because that specific press tour was so big and worked so well mainly because of how Will Ferrell was able to adapt to the situations he faced in character and in real time.

               

Creation Of Blog

 My name is Anthony. The reason I am creating this blog is in order to fill you in on all my thoughts about Film, how the industry works, as well as the tips and tricks you may need to navigate the consumer market of entertainment. Hope you enjoy!