About gender in film

G'day!

This could appear to you as a bit of odd post. A mixture of societal anger and philosophical curiosity. But sometimes I think stuff like this and my blog is about 50% about stuff I think about (3 abouts in one sentence! Success!), the other 50% being about stuff that happens to me. So... Expect more of these sometime in the future.

This is going to be a difficult subject to handle. After all: we are raised into our genders since childhood and it's perhaps one of the strongest identification points in ourselves.
Anyway, I'm just going to scratch the surface here. Gender roles go way back and I'm not really a professional in this. But... the subject came up today and I feel like talking of it. Even though I have talked about it many times before. Perhaps I write more about it someday.

People are different and unique in their own right and regardless of the gender. However it seems that men have much broader scale to express themselves within. This is best exemplified by how women are represented in films.
A few months back I was attending to a lecture about film industry and its relation to other aspects of culture. One of those other aspects was gender. In films, most women fall into few categories:
(I can't remember them all now, but I'll update as soon as I get my hands on my notes)
1. The Love Interest / The Sex Object
2. The Femme Fatale
3. The Loving and Wise Mother
4. The Innocent Child / The Cutie
5. The Big Momma

Of course there are exceptions, like Sarah Connor in Terminator or Ellen Ripley in Alien. But could we categorize all the male roles in films into 4-7 roles? I doubt it. We'd need about 20, at least.
Let's try. Here's all the roles for men I care to remember at the moment.

1. The Heroic Hero
2. The Tragic Hero
3. The Villain
4. The Comic Relief
5. The Boss
6. The Traitor
7. The Coward
8. The Mastermind / The Scientist
9. The Brawn
10. The Mentor
11. The Rival
12. The Father
13. The Ladies Man
14. The Smart Mouth Kid
...
And so forth.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/men-ups-manly-men-in-classic-pin-up-poses

Rise to equality is difficult process. To overcome old societal differences between genders while minding the genetic differences. To achieve this we should pay more attention to the ways society subconsciously alters our perception of men and women. Like the roles women play to us and how they are represented. These are in a way more dangerous differences than the more tangible ones, because our "defenses" aren't up. We take it as it is.

When I studied to matriculation examination I read a comic book about philosophers. I liked it. But the ending was truly surprising. The book basically said that everything you've read so far has been from the perspective of men. Almost all great philosophers are men, they inspected the world from their manly point of view, and some of them even disliked women and doubted their intellectual ability. There have been great female thinkers as well, but they have been knowingly pushed aside by their male counterparts. So, congratulations! You've read a comic book about philosophers of history, but know shit as all of it is compromised by peers and historians lynching the thinkers representing the other 50% of the people because of their gender.

I fucking loved the ending.

J

A lovely song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5RUNLQBQE

About school

Hello there! 

Well. School truly started this week. Finally! Now we're getting our hands dirty! 

First, we have a deadline for our first scripts. It's two weeks from now! Thankfully, that's the deadline for a synopsis of the script and not for the finished product. My partner and I already have a basic idea to work with and to craft into a solid piece of script. Hard work ahead. 

The script will be rewritten several times and thoroughly criticized and only the best will be filmed. A not-so-slight pressure (for a first script in the school), but our careers afterwards are likely to mimic that. (Ok, yeah, sure, we did kind write script for our silent film, but it's a project for our "camera and lighting" -classes, not for our "dramaturgy and screenwriting" -classes, like this one. )

But that's fine.  

Teacher also laid out certain restrictions. Plenty of my ideas are outside of those rules. Rules like: 

* Only basic drama

* Characters of your age

* No weapons, blood, horror etc. 

* More than just dialog

* Doable with our resources (naturally!)

* Running time around five minutes

Basic drama sounds boresome, doesn't it? With minimal ambition and experimenting...! 

Rational rules nevertheless. Perhaps it's best like this. To write as basic story as possible, but still make it work. 

My pals and I are planning sort of film noir -film, and I would've liked to screenwrite that idea, but it won't unfortunately do. We're still doing it, but now it's during our free time.  

Earlier, we also planned of making this "poetry video" and enter into a competition with it, but it seems now that we won't meet the deadline. A shame. We had good ideas for it. 

More news! Yesterday we finished shooting our silent film, "Exodus"! Shooting took place over three days and lasted overall about seven hours. A lot, when considered that the finished work will last no more than 5 minutes. Things take time, and it's even more true when you do those things for the first time. Sure we messed up a bit, but there could've been a lot more confusion and chaos than there was. So, in the end, we did well. 

We were the first ones to finish filming, or to start it. Other groups have barely a script yet. I sure hope that doesn't mean that we were somehow too hasty and not careful and thorough enough. 

There's still editing left to do. My favorite part :). Other members of the group agreed to let me do the most part of it, and I shall start next week. 

As the length of this post grew and grew, I decided to split my text in half and release the other part about other stuff soon. 

So that's for now. Expect more in a few days. 

J

Have you heard? R.E.M. split up. I wasn't their #1 fan, but it's unfortunate nevertheless. But it's better to stop while you're still on the top. 

I listened this track a lot when I studied to my matriculation examinations and had the phrase

"Every day is new again, every day is yours to win. And that's how heroes are made" as my wallpaper at that time. It's kinda comforting. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKJoX5YXs98&ob=av3e

About my subject

Hey again!

This time I will tell you about the subject I'm about to study: screenwriting and visual expression. (I'm not sure whether the correct translation is "screenwriting" or "script writing". I think both are so close to each other, that it makes no difference. But I'll use the former from now on, for the sake of consistency)
As my lessons have barely started, this will be but a brief overview.
Thus, the following is mostly based on what I'm told and what I've read. Details (and possible corrections) will follow someday.
So... "SWAVE" is vast in it's core. It's about creative process. From it's earliest forms (conception and script) to it's very last (publishing and marketing). And everything between.
Art form that will receive most of the attention (and will be studied more than others) is video and its close relatives. Worry not, there'll also be some focus on both print- and web media. In both artistic and commercial point of view.
I find the name a bit misleading, as screenwriting is a just one part of a long process. But we all will write several scripts during our studies, and the best will be filmed.
The first year will be mostly "just" theory (dramaturgy, history and so forth), but still we'll do at least one short film from ground up, assist in several others and not to forget all the practice works and our own personal projects, to which we are encouraged to.
But yeah. This ain't just filmin'. There are some language studies involved and economical math. But by studying 'em we know how much money we dare to ask in several languages!
We'll also found our own cooperative during our sophomore year and work sometime somewhere to get some valuable/real life experience in our industry.
There's a possibility to study and/or work abroad. I won't miss that chance!

However, SWAVE is just one half of a bigger picture. There's also parallel group that studies "digital sound and commercial music".
The whole point of this segregation is to have future professionals of both industries under the same roof and to learn to work with each other. To unleash the most of our potential and to get the best results. We share some lessons, to my belief, but the true extent of cooperation is a mystery for now.

Anyway, I'm excited and can't wait 'til we start for real, as now we're just learning our school's policy, different operating systems and getting acquainted.

See ya

J.

Let's continue with Sigur Rós:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaDCx5a_xPE

About my blog

Oh! Hello there!

Well... This is new. I'll be honest:
I'm not quite sure where to start... Should I tell you about myself? About my new life? About my blog and reasons behind it?
Yeah. That latter one is good. Let's go with that. And, of course, why should you bother reading this in the first place.
I decided to start a blog as my plans for the future began to unfold. I realized how drastic they were and how much they would change my life as I know it.
New social circle. New home. New school. New town. New diet. New phase. New life.
Even though change can be good, I didn't want to leave all that was good behind. My friends and family, mostly.
So, there are number of reasons why I'm actually writing this.
I want to stay in contact with my friends. Make it easy for them to know how I'm doing. (damn... I miss 'em already...) I also want to document one of the more intriguing phases of my life. For myself and for others. Write about how it feels when almost everything around you changes. About adjusting to those changes. About starting your own life.
And like the subtitle says, I want to tell you what's it like to study "script writing and visual expression" in a small town in middle of nowhere. Yeah. How cool is that..?
Most likely, I'll also write about stuff that's kept me thinking. I'm a kind of person who thinks a lot.

A lot has already happened. I'm writing this from a place that's going to be my new home for the next four years. My school starts tomorrow. I'm a bit hungry right now.
But that's all for future releases.

See you soon
J.

BTW. I've also thought about posting some songs at the end of my blog that somehow suit the situation or that just are relevant in some weird way.
This is the first song I played in my new home. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQDWlvh5gtU&feature=related