Sunday, 23 December 2007
Sunday, 16 December 2007
Summary of Mulvey
Mulvey uses ideas from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and Lucan’s theory and applies them to Hollywood films via a feminist perspective.
Hollywood films are a narrative cinema and the narrative is usually told via a male perspective, hence the protagonist tends to be male. The audiences being male or female are positioned to identify and idealize the male hero, as they see a perfect version of themselves which generates narcissism, as the idealized version of us is reflected via the hero.
Freud refers to scopophilia as the pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies as (particularly erotic) objects. Mulvey argues that the viewing conditions of cinema facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of the female characters. The fact the females are objectified via the ‘Male Gaze’ and are passive characters reflects patriarchy and the media creates misogyny through objectification of women.
Freud argues the men unconsciously see women as castrated and this causes them to feel anxiety which is why fertishization objects are used in order to reduce anxiety.
Moreover, women have penis envy so they use phallic objects which act as a symbolism of power and dominance.
How this relates to my study:
The theory is challenged as Betty being the main protagonist is a female so in some ways it doesn’t reflect patriarchy. Therefore the audience identify with betty.
The voyeuristic idea can be linked as the characters do not know they are being watched and so can the idea of the objectification of women, as some of them are objectified yet this is also challenged as such are not.
The fact ugly betty is predominantly aimed at females means it will challenge this theory more than reinforce it.
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Sunday, 25 November 2007
10 key words
1) alternative comedy- a form of comedy, often experimental, that challenges mainstream values and expectations, first developed in radio programmes and then on tv.
useful:ugly betty does challenge mainstream values by making betty 'ugly' and by having different people such as Marc (gay guy).
2)Amercian Dream-a cultural myth based on the belief that the USA is the land of opportunity and promise where anyone who works hard can achieve all the good things in life.
useful: this is shown as Wilhemina is shown to be a self-made women and the setting glamourises America. However, the fact that Daniel has not achieved his job and only got it because of his father demonstrates the reality and emphaizes that the american dream is in fact a myth.
3)anti-climax- a point in the narrative, following the climax or emotional high point, which lets down or deflates the experience, leaving the viewer with a sense of disappointment.
useful: Santos being shot is when the narrative reaches an anti-climax as all the issues he and Hilda had been resolved and they where to get married, bet he dies.
4)camp-a comic performance where characteristics are exaggerated to the point of absurdity for comic effect.
useful: camp representations of homosexuality via Marc's character as he's shown to be very feminine
also camp representations of females as Amanda is shown to be an extremely ditzy woman.
5)common sense- a term coined by Antonio Gramsci to decribe the consensus in public opinion that forms around topics of social ,political and economic concern in the line with the ideology of the dominant class, as represented by the media.
useful:socially-if a male is feminine it is assumed he is gay
6)lowbrow- decribing media texts of low intellectual content, designed primarily for light entertainment
useful: due to characters such as Marc and Amanda and the minor storylines, the audiences are not required to think that much
7)highbrow- term used to describe media texts with a demanding intellectual content and requiring specialist knowledge to be understood.
useful: although some elements of ugly betty seem to be lowbrow, it can be said that some of the light entertainment is underpinned by serious issues such as the fact that Marc is gay provides entertainment, yet theirs a serious side to the way it is viewed as he doesnt tell his family
8)Lippmann, Walter- US political philosopher who, in Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), raised doubts about the possibility of developing a true democracy in a complex media-dominated society, where elite groups manipulate the masses . He sees stereotypes as simplistic and negative.
useful: within Mode, there is not a democratic enviroment and as Mode is a magazine, it does manipulate people within the show, and ugly betty manipulates its audiences.
9)long shot- a distance shot where the camera is a long way from the subject being filmed
useful: usually used to show the setting as New York -makes it seem busy, lively etc.
10)New Man- a term used to describe a new type of masculinity identified and developed by advertising media in the 1980s.
useful: Daniel can be viewed as a new man in ugly betty.
useful:ugly betty does challenge mainstream values by making betty 'ugly' and by having different people such as Marc (gay guy).
2)Amercian Dream-a cultural myth based on the belief that the USA is the land of opportunity and promise where anyone who works hard can achieve all the good things in life.
useful: this is shown as Wilhemina is shown to be a self-made women and the setting glamourises America. However, the fact that Daniel has not achieved his job and only got it because of his father demonstrates the reality and emphaizes that the american dream is in fact a myth.
3)anti-climax- a point in the narrative, following the climax or emotional high point, which lets down or deflates the experience, leaving the viewer with a sense of disappointment.
useful: Santos being shot is when the narrative reaches an anti-climax as all the issues he and Hilda had been resolved and they where to get married, bet he dies.
4)camp-a comic performance where characteristics are exaggerated to the point of absurdity for comic effect.
useful: camp representations of homosexuality via Marc's character as he's shown to be very feminine
also camp representations of females as Amanda is shown to be an extremely ditzy woman.
5)common sense- a term coined by Antonio Gramsci to decribe the consensus in public opinion that forms around topics of social ,political and economic concern in the line with the ideology of the dominant class, as represented by the media.
useful:socially-if a male is feminine it is assumed he is gay
6)lowbrow- decribing media texts of low intellectual content, designed primarily for light entertainment
useful: due to characters such as Marc and Amanda and the minor storylines, the audiences are not required to think that much
7)highbrow- term used to describe media texts with a demanding intellectual content and requiring specialist knowledge to be understood.
useful: although some elements of ugly betty seem to be lowbrow, it can be said that some of the light entertainment is underpinned by serious issues such as the fact that Marc is gay provides entertainment, yet theirs a serious side to the way it is viewed as he doesnt tell his family
8)Lippmann, Walter- US political philosopher who, in Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), raised doubts about the possibility of developing a true democracy in a complex media-dominated society, where elite groups manipulate the masses . He sees stereotypes as simplistic and negative.
useful: within Mode, there is not a democratic enviroment and as Mode is a magazine, it does manipulate people within the show, and ugly betty manipulates its audiences.
9)long shot- a distance shot where the camera is a long way from the subject being filmed
useful: usually used to show the setting as New York -makes it seem busy, lively etc.
10)New Man- a term used to describe a new type of masculinity identified and developed by advertising media in the 1980s.
useful: Daniel can be viewed as a new man in ugly betty.
Blog Buddy meeting...
In our meeting, me and Tanya discussed the following things:
- how the roles of women have changed and adapted to reflect modern society
- theorist which will be useful for both of us
- some useful books
- social context- issues that can be linked to our studies
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
http://watchingamerica.com/eltiempo000030.shtml
useful website on ugly betty and it links it to the social context
useful website on ugly betty and it links it to the social context
Translating the Telenovela:Genre, and Scheduling
In terms of international television, American network programming has traditionally been viewed as an export, where programming flowed in a one-way direction from the United States to other countries. In recent seasons, however, American networks are seeing some interesting success in what’s being imported instead. Shows like The Office, from British version of the same name, and Ugly Betty, from the Colombian Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, have become distinct hits with American audiences. These shows aren’t reproduced exactly as they were in their countries of origin, though; they have been re-casted, rewritten, and reworked for American viewers. This process of “Americanization” provides an interesting site for analysis.
Ugly Betty is an especially interesting case, because ABC and executive producers Salma Hayek and Silvio Horta did not just have to “Americanize” the show, they had to do it without alienating the Hispanic viewers, a large contingent of whom were already familiar with the original Betty La Fea and the telenovela genre. Hayek and Horta’s team clearly utilized a multitude of both blatant and inconspicuous techniques to achieve this cross-over success, but the most basic change – the time and length of the program – is perhaps the largest contributing factor to the embrace it’s received from American viewers.
Like most telenovelas, the original Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, aired weekdays in 30-minute episodes in a finite strip. Early signs hinted towards ABC following this telenovela format with Ugly Betty and airing it as a daily strip during the summer. However, when ABC actually commissioned the show, it was slotted as an hour-long weekly to air in the fall, in primetime. [1] Making Ugly Betty an hour-long dramedy with a budget of $2 to $3 million per episode[2] was the first and perhaps largest step in translating Ugly Betty for American audiences. The dramedy format and the budget takes the show and puts it in a language viewers are used to seeing on television: cinematic production values, elaborate sets, multiple filming locations, and elevated or accelerated dramatic narrative, a style particularly evident in shows like Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal. In fact, shows like Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal, whose over-the-top mix of serial drama and comedy created an endearing quirkiness with viewers, are in part what helped Ugly Betty translate so easily – the hour-long dramedy formula is what allowed Ugly Betty to retain much of the exaggerated drama of the telenovela while adapting to American television.
In addition to adapting Ugly Betty as a dramedy, changing it to a weekly and placing it on Thursday nights near other hour-long dramedies (although Grey’s Anatomy is now much more of a true drama than the dramedy it was in its first two seasons) also helped translate Ugly Betty for American audiences. As a lead-in for Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty had the opportunity to garner the attention of the primarily female audience that already tunes in to watch Grey’s. The two shows back-to-back have helped make Thursday nights a “chick-flick” destination and served as the ratings powerhouse for ABC. If Ugly Betty had remained a daily strip, it would be airing every weekday, most likely next to and up against a different show every night. It would have had to stand on its own without the anchoring of an already immensely popular show and bring viewers back to the same show every day, which might have proved much more difficult. The hour-long, weekly dramedy format made Ugly Betty a much easier show for viewers to warm up to, as they didn’t have to tune in every day to see what was going on.
It’s difficult to postulate whether or not Ugly Betty would have had as much success as a half-hour sitcom or even half-hour American telenovela. News Corp. Ltd’s MyNetworkTV has aired English-language telenovelas Desire and Fashion House, which stay very much in line with the traditional telenovela genre, but has not seen much success with either show.[3],[4] The success of translating Betty into a dramedy certainly does not say that telenovelas will never be successful on American television. Instead, it may just be the beginning of bridging the divide between Hispanic-market television and mass-market American television. As Buena Vista International Television Senior Vice President Fernando Barbosa recently said ,
“One of the big stories this year, obviously, was finally getting a successful script from Latin America exported to the U.S. — which was ‘Betty la fea’ (ABC’s “Ugly Betty”). Even so, they took a telenovela script and adapted to a U.S. genre as opposed to keeping the telenovela format. Having said that, ‘Ugly Betty’ was a great triumph for Latin America. It will take a little time for U.S. producers to capture the essence of the genre, but it will happen, little by little.”[5]
http://smutube.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/translating-the-telenovela-ugly-betty-genre-and-scheduling/
Ugly Betty is an especially interesting case, because ABC and executive producers Salma Hayek and Silvio Horta did not just have to “Americanize” the show, they had to do it without alienating the Hispanic viewers, a large contingent of whom were already familiar with the original Betty La Fea and the telenovela genre. Hayek and Horta’s team clearly utilized a multitude of both blatant and inconspicuous techniques to achieve this cross-over success, but the most basic change – the time and length of the program – is perhaps the largest contributing factor to the embrace it’s received from American viewers.
Like most telenovelas, the original Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, aired weekdays in 30-minute episodes in a finite strip. Early signs hinted towards ABC following this telenovela format with Ugly Betty and airing it as a daily strip during the summer. However, when ABC actually commissioned the show, it was slotted as an hour-long weekly to air in the fall, in primetime. [1] Making Ugly Betty an hour-long dramedy with a budget of $2 to $3 million per episode[2] was the first and perhaps largest step in translating Ugly Betty for American audiences. The dramedy format and the budget takes the show and puts it in a language viewers are used to seeing on television: cinematic production values, elaborate sets, multiple filming locations, and elevated or accelerated dramatic narrative, a style particularly evident in shows like Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal. In fact, shows like Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal, whose over-the-top mix of serial drama and comedy created an endearing quirkiness with viewers, are in part what helped Ugly Betty translate so easily – the hour-long dramedy formula is what allowed Ugly Betty to retain much of the exaggerated drama of the telenovela while adapting to American television.
In addition to adapting Ugly Betty as a dramedy, changing it to a weekly and placing it on Thursday nights near other hour-long dramedies (although Grey’s Anatomy is now much more of a true drama than the dramedy it was in its first two seasons) also helped translate Ugly Betty for American audiences. As a lead-in for Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty had the opportunity to garner the attention of the primarily female audience that already tunes in to watch Grey’s. The two shows back-to-back have helped make Thursday nights a “chick-flick” destination and served as the ratings powerhouse for ABC. If Ugly Betty had remained a daily strip, it would be airing every weekday, most likely next to and up against a different show every night. It would have had to stand on its own without the anchoring of an already immensely popular show and bring viewers back to the same show every day, which might have proved much more difficult. The hour-long, weekly dramedy format made Ugly Betty a much easier show for viewers to warm up to, as they didn’t have to tune in every day to see what was going on.
It’s difficult to postulate whether or not Ugly Betty would have had as much success as a half-hour sitcom or even half-hour American telenovela. News Corp. Ltd’s MyNetworkTV has aired English-language telenovelas Desire and Fashion House, which stay very much in line with the traditional telenovela genre, but has not seen much success with either show.[3],[4] The success of translating Betty into a dramedy certainly does not say that telenovelas will never be successful on American television. Instead, it may just be the beginning of bridging the divide between Hispanic-market television and mass-market American television. As Buena Vista International Television Senior Vice President Fernando Barbosa recently said ,
“One of the big stories this year, obviously, was finally getting a successful script from Latin America exported to the U.S. — which was ‘Betty la fea’ (ABC’s “Ugly Betty”). Even so, they took a telenovela script and adapted to a U.S. genre as opposed to keeping the telenovela format. Having said that, ‘Ugly Betty’ was a great triumph for Latin America. It will take a little time for U.S. producers to capture the essence of the genre, but it will happen, little by little.”[5]
http://smutube.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/translating-the-telenovela-ugly-betty-genre-and-scheduling/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)