Charlotte Billingham

Female Representation:

Within our film, we have followed the conventions of female representation within the Supernatural Romance Genre. The females within this genre can be portrayed as weak which is a hegemonic idea about women in general. I’m going to start by comparing the mise en scene of the female character within our film and existing films of our genre.

So in the first picture from the film The Time Traveller’s Wife, the female has her hair tied back in a rather messy pony tail which shows she doesn’t really care about her looks. She isn’t afraid to look messy or cares much for extravagant styles that will make her stand out. Similarly, our film also has a female with her hair in an up do which isn’t extravagant. We decided to follow this convention to represent Mallory as a person who doesn’t really care about the way they look or making people notice her. The audience usually find it easier to relate to someone who looks less extravagant than those with their hair all fluffed and over the top.

The make up in the first image is rather plain and simplistic which again shows that the female protagonist isn’t too fussed at impressing people or making others notice her. She seems like the kind of person who has more important things to do than to doll herself up. Similarly, our female protagonist doesn’t have much makeup on to show that she too is a female that isn’t into all the girly girl hegemonic ideas that are associated with females. By having Mallory with minimal make up and following conventions, it brings out the idea that she is happy with being her as well as the fact she is shy and wants to stay in the background rather than be in the limelight.

Charlotte Billingham

So the second outfit that Mallory Wears is blue. Similarly within the first Twilight Movie, after all the casual outfits Bella wears, she is then seen in this bright blue dress. The colour blue represents loyalty which is what Bella is within the Twilight film, keeping the secrets of her friends as well as trying to please everyone. Similarly, Mallory is loyal and trusting towards others which is the personality we wanted to get across so by having this connotation within our film, it extends the idea of Mallory being a trustful and loyal person to be around. Another connotation that we got from the colour blue was the richness. We wanted to show some of Mallory’s wealth and so, similarly to Bella, we put her in blue to show that she isn’t exactly poor. This works well with the sudden change of heart and showing that she, on occasions, does like to be noticed which is a typical female hegemony of being undecided of their belonging in society (deep stuff).

Charlotte Billingham

Male Representation:So the lead male, Peter, is quite a mysterious fellow with many things we don’t know about him. A lot like Edward Cullen really without the sparkles (sorry to keep mentioning it but its pretty stupid!). Right so here are some of the conventions we have used within our film that have been research from existing films such as P.S. I love you, Twilight and The Time Traveller’s Wife.

So in the first picture taken from P.S. I love you, the male character is wearing rather rough, biker boy clothes. The leather jacket is a conventional type of clothing for a hegemonic bad boy stereo type which is exactly what the male is. Peter similarly has been placed in a leather jacket. We don’t actually know much about Peter however, by the clothing he is wearing, it suggests he is quite a tough rough person. By having this, the audience are made to think he is just another bad boy stereotype who Mallory could do without. The audience are then surprised at his nice, gentle side which is a subversion of the male hegemony when dressed like this. The dark colours of the clothing Peter is wearing are done so that no one really understands or can read anything from him. The dark clothes give Peter a sense of mystery about him so that both Mallory and the audience can’t understand or read anything into him without actually asking or him telling. Dark colours such as black are a symbol of death too so this foreshadows future events; the male in P.S. I love you dies and Peter in our film turns out to be dead.

Charlotte Billingham

So in these two images we see Edward Cullen on the left from Twilight (2007) and then on the right we see Peter from our film The Illusion of Existence. In twilight, as you can see, Edward is made to look rather pale which is seen as one way to represent the dead. Edward turns out to be a vampire which means he isn’t actually alive but he is (confusing, I know). By having the pale skin it gives the audience a subtle hint which all becomes clearer later on in the film. Similarly in our film, Peter has rather pale skin. It is conventional to the living dead and gives the audience again hint of what Peter is like which is all revealed later on. Both characters are seen as secretive and so their pale skin is just a subtle hint to the audience as to their real identities. Males aren’t usually quite pale and so this is a subversion from traditional hegemonic ideas as well as neither males being buff or extremely manly. However, this is contained within our film genre and so the stereotype of the living dead was portrayed in a conventional way.