Updated and improved introduction

How far does "The Hunger Games' and 'Salt' challenge the stereotypical representations of women in mainstream Hollywood cinema?

The representations of women in films tend to vary; there are many different genres of films that portray females in diverse circumstances influenced by societies expectations of women, leading to the diverse female characters throughout Hollywood cinema. I will be centering on the action genre and how female protagonists are represented and how it challenges the stereotypical representations in mainstream Hollywood cinema today.  I chose to focus upon this certain genre because female action roles aren't represented as what is thought to be the stereotypical female character that is represented through cinema today. The two texts I will be focusing on within my coursework are 'The Hunger Games' and 'Salt'. Both of these protagonists are represented as a contrastive role opposing the stereotypical representation of females. Firstly I will discuss whether or not the female bodies, within these two texts, are being objectified for the male audience; here I can discuss to what extent Laura Mulvey's theory of The Male Gaze is being used. I will also discuss to what extend the female protagonists rely on men in relation to how independent they are and how they look after themselves compared to how the stereotypical female is represented. Lastly I will discuss how they think and act and their ideologies and whether or not its relevant for today or dated. For my investigation I'll use theories such as Laura Mulvey's, The Male Gaze to discuss how both protagonists are represented in comparison to the stereotypical female. I can also discuss how feminism has an affect on the representations of my two protagonists and how feminism has had an impact on the progression and change based upon the representations of women in cinema today.

Fish Tank

How typical is Fish Tank to its genre?

Fish Tank is a social realist film which focuses around issues that individuals of the underclass face during their everyday life. A typical convention of the social realism genre is the use of unknown actors which is key this genre of film because it makes the film seem more realistic. Fish Tank conforms to this convention as the actress who plays Mia was scouted from a train station while arguing with he boyfriend and she hasn't worked on a project since. Social realism focuses upon real life situations which occur within the underclass society and represent what actually happens to these people and to achieve this social realism films tend to shoot on real locations instead of shooting on sets; by shooting within real settings it contributes to making the film seem as realistic as possible. The same goes for the lighting; natural lighting is always used and studio lighting doesn't tend to be used as it can give a artificial effect which isn't what the social realism genre is about. Technical conventions such as different camera techniques contribute to a social realism film. One camera technique which is frequently used is hand held shots. By using this technique it agains gives a sense of realism which makes the film more believable. A scene where this technique has been used is within the first few minutes of the film where Mia is walking through the estate and the camera is tracking her and it gives the effect that you are walking by her as the camera is hand held which creates this effect. Another scene where there is a hand held camera is the scene where Mia is drunk and Connor puts her to bed. Another technical technique that has been used in this scene is slow motion. The slow motion occurs a lot throughout their film, predominantly whenever Mia and Connor are together in a close environment. This gives a sense of fantasy and escapism as this never occurs on real life, this is the one techniques that doesn't conform to the typical conventions of the social realism genre. 

SALT - Official Trailer