Trevor Millum

Millum also identified 5 different types of images.

This is the Seductive facial expression. Eyes are less wide and the expression tends to be less reserved but still presented as confident.

The Carefree pose. This consist of the person in the imagine being nymph like and looking healthy and active. They also have to look vibrant and an outdoor girl. The most important part is that they are smiling or grinning.

An image presented in this way would be named Practical. The woman has to be concentrating and engaged in business. As you can see from the example the mouth is closed and the eyes are directed at an object. The hair is often tied back or a shorter style.

This is an example of a Catalogue pose. The woman looks neutral, articficial and slightly wax like. The features are able to be in any position but facial expression has to be wide eyes and smiling. The personality tends to be removed.

Facial Expressions- Marjorie Ferguson

Ferguson identified four different types of facial expressions on the front cover of British women magazines.

This would be what is known as the Chocolate Box. This pose consists of a half smile, lips together or slightly parted so the teeth are barely visible and lastly a full or three quarters of the face to the camera. Overall generally a sweet pose, hence the name. The effect that is created from this expression is uniqueness and also an uniformity of beauty.

This is what is called the Invitational pose. The main focus is the emphasis on the eyes, which looks inviting. The mouth has to be shut with a small hint of a smile. The head is either to one side, or looking back over the shoulder at the camera, as you can see from the example. The effect created from this pose is the suggestion of mischieve and rather than a sexual promise, it's more a hint of contact.

The Super-smiler. This pose has to contain a full face which contains a wide open and toothy smile. The head can either be thrusted forward, or the chin can be thrown back slightly. The hair in the photo often looks softley wind blown. The effect created by this facial expression and body language is a slightly aggressive and 'look at me' attitude.

This is known as the Romantic or Sexual pose. It includes a male or a female, often two-somes. The photo itself needs to be dreamy, sensual and sexual. The model tends to be heavy lidded to create this effect. The main effect created by that the person in the photo is presenting themself as 'available'.

Laura Mulvey- The Male Gaze

Laura Muvley is a feminist who identified 'The Male Gaze' itself. This is men dressing and positioning camera angles on woman deliberately in the way in which most men would appreiciate to see them.


3 areas of the gaze
- How men look at women
- How women look at themselves
- How women look at other women


The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. Film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a hetrosexual male.


Features of the Male Gaze
- Camera lingers on the curves of the female body
- Events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction to the events
- Regulates women to the status of objects.
- The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily

Stereotype Presentations

As a class we were put into pairs to create a Prezi Powerpoint on one of the seven re-presentation areas. We also had to relate these to stereotyping and stereotypical tv and film to the area we were specified. In the group we watched the end results and learnt the following information about each area.


Age-A baby or very young child is typically stereotyped that they cry, moan and scream a lot. Or the opposite which is that they are very cute and cuddley. On the other end of the scale eldery or 'old people' are classed as often being insane, helpless or even wise.Infact the two stereotypes are different extremes but do actually have in common that they are helpless and need to be cared for by someone. This is the symbolic code between the two age groups.
A clip of Vicky Pollard, from Little Britain was shown to give an example of an over exaggurated teenage stereotype. This stereotype includes teenagers being classed as, short tempered, loud, gobby, rude, bad grammar and committing a crime. We were then shown a picture of a much calmer, hardworking and outgoing teenager which is the opposite to the previous clip.


Regional Identity-The North of the country stereotypically are known for moaning and being miserable about how bad their every day lives are. Something is that is classed with Northerners is that they aren't the brightest bunch of people.Many citizens up North are associated with farming or working in factories due to the stereotype of not being extremely clever.
The opposite part of the country in the South is stereotype with a city design which tends to be grey and monotone. For example 'Hotel Babylon' the characters are dressed with sophistication and look very money based.
The country side is stereotyped to having a different lifestyle to everyone else which is much more relaxed and casual. The pictures that we were shown of characters from tv series bases in the countryside appeared to look much more casual, and down to earth in the way in which they were presented.


Sexuality -A male homosexual stereotype is assosiated with tightly fitting clothes, being a drama queen, and a lack of interest in sport unlike a straight stereotyped male. For example in Little Britain exaggurate a gay stereotype which is always put infront of a dark background to make him stand out much more and seem as femine as possible.
On the other hand a female homosexual stereotype is pretty much the oppostite of a the above stereotype. For example they are assumed to be butch, have deep voices, and enjoy playing sport. A contrast to this is Lindsay Lohan as she would not be stereotyped as a lebsian due to the clothing she is wearing. Many tv shows focus on plots which show homosexuals finding out about their sexuality, telling people, and dealing with the reactions.

Ability and Disabilty-In some of the clips we watched during this presentation on ability and disabilty it stereotypically showed the disabled in housewear. The location of a disabled is also very stereotypical as they are assosiated with living in bungalows, or shabby areas. An example of this was Andy and Lou from Little Britain. In many TV programmes when a character has a disability it is emphasised more than it would be in the real word, this comes across slighly critisizing. The camera angle that i picked up whilst watching and looking at photos of the disabled was that it will be commonly looking down on the character which influences the audience to think of the stereotype which is that they are helpless and small. Something else which implies this is that a helper is always in the frame which once again stereotypes that they are much less capable than everyone else. Lastly, a personality trait that is stereotypical associated with a disabled person tends to be either that they are stupid or less intelligent than others or that they are evil and bitter.

Gender-The stereotypical view that we were given of a man was dressed in trousers, short hair, more money, and much stronger. The contrasting stereotype of a woman is usually, dressed in skirts and dresser, long hair, the housewife, and less able to defend herself.
Males are always portrait as the more dominant character within TV programmes and are stereotypically known as the 'supporters' and 'protectors'. A female which is reguarly portrait on TV are crying and overreacting, which is then resolved by being restrained by a man. Another stereotypical view on men as a gender is that they are associated with fighting. The man is seen as someone who is supposed to understand the situation which a woman is in. Some programmes do not show gender which is represnetative of everyday life, for example Hollyoaks as the characters are models and something to look at rather than realistic figures. Something else that is now very stereotypical is that when a woman is acting independantly and fighting her own battles, this may be frowned up on and seen as a bad situation.

Narrative Codes- Roland Barthes

At the beginning of the lesson we learnt a little bit about the man Roland Barthes himself. He was a semiologist, which means he basically studied different texts for a living.
When a story is being told the narrative either has to be open or closed.

Open Narrative-Can be unravelled in many different ways, and lead to many different things. For examples many soaps have any open narrative like Eastenders or Hollyoaks.
Closed Narrative- There is only one obvious thread to pull on. Which means that only one outcome could be possible instead of various choices. Examples of this would be children's programmes as they nearly 100% of the time finish with a happy ending.

In media there are different codes. These examples explain what each code contains:

Action Code- Applies to any action that implies a further narrative or action. An example of this would be if someone draws a gun, something else has to take place next.
Enigma Code- This refers to any element in a story that is not explained, and therefore exists as an enigma for the audience, raising question that demand an explanation.
The Semantic Code- An element in a text that suggests a particular, and often additional meaning. For example it may say something, but wants to imply a completely different thing.
The Cultural Code- Any element in a narrative that refers to a 'science or body of knowledge'. In other words the Cultural Code tends to point out our shared knowledge about the way in which the world works.
The Symbolic Code- A code which is very difficult to be explained. The code that shows what makes the different within certain things.

Rushmore- Is Max a stereotypical teenager?

I think that is made clear from watching the montage that Max would not come under the class of what is supposedly your stereotypical teenager. Just from viewing the short montage clip it is obvious the Max does many more extra curricular clubs than what would be expected of the usual stereotypcial teenager. As the years have gone by not the best picture has been created of what would a stereotypical teenager actually be classed as. The image which is tended to be portrayed of a teenager is not necesserily entirely true and most likely does not apply to the majority of teenagers themselves. It is assumed that a teenagers prioritys is to smoke, drink alchohol, take drugs, hang around on street corners, and commit general anti-social behaviour.

At the beginning of the montage we may assume that Max would be classed as your typical teenager. We then begin to see that he appears to be a leader of many unusual and definitely not typical clubs. By taking note of all the types of clubs he is a part of, it becomes much clearer that Max is certainly not your typical teenager and a picture begins to be created that he may even be a social outcast and extremely lacking in friendship. By just looking at the photo above, it shows Max in a mid shot and in the center of two other characters. His postion being central shows that he does like to be the at the main point of attention, and this links back to the way in which he is in control of many clubs and groups. I think that his body language just from this one photo shows that he thinks highly of him self in comparison to others around him. Also from the montage we get to see this more and more throughout every club he is involved in.

I noticed when watching the montage, every type of person that he hangs around with, involved in these groups are allyounger than him. This is not usually typical of a teenager to hang around with people who have a large age gap in comparison to yourself. The reason why Max may be part of all these groups is that it is the only time he may feel he can gain respect from others as they are younger and could possibly look at him as a role model. Once again relating back to the picture, his dress sense is much smarter than a typical teen would be expected. This could be that he thinks of himself superior and once again wants younger age people to follow in his footsteps to show that he has a place in society.

If we were to step back and look at this montage from a completely different perspective, it could seem as if he is very much the typical teenager. For example from his parents view he would seem a very sociable and an outgoing character that seems to want to be involved all the time. He obviously cares a lot about his education and wants to exceed to the very best that he can, which is realistcally what most teenagers would love to do. It would also seem that Max is having a lot of fun doing these activities as it may be the only place he feels comfortable with his social status. In the photo, Max is the Russian Leader of the 'Model United Nations'. This could largely relate to America and Russia being the two largest economies in the world. He feels as if he is not accepted in his own country and does not have a high enough status to take any control, so therefore he then heads to the other option which would be Russia, because he thinks he would have a much more appreciated status. Something to notice is that Max is wearing a stereotypical Russian hat in the photo, which may assume his little knowledge of their culture and countrry. So this could be classed as a very stereotypical teenager thing to do.

Overall, i do not think Max is a stereotypical teenager.

Re-Presentation

My definition of Re-Presentation is using different media to present a copy of something which was original to try and make it seem as real to the orginal version as possible.

Re-Presentation- The way the media present 'something' as though it were real, it is not real merely a copy of something.

Signs- Something which communicates a piece of information.

Signifiers- Multiple 'ideas' or 'feelings' behind a sign. All signs belong to cultures.

Gate Keepers- The people in charge of what we get to see.

Ideology- A belief system.

Before watching a clip from the film Rushmore we were told to consider Mise en scene:
- Camera Angle
- Props
- Setting
- Lighting
- Acting

We then watched a short clip without sound from the film Rushmore and answered the following:

1. Where is the film set?
A private, christian, all boys school in America.

2. Describe the main characters personality?
A serious character, clever, daydreamer, quirky, smug and maybe lonely.

3. What is he excellent at?
Maths or maths equations.

4. How do others view him?
As a genius or a hero.

5. How was he dressed?
Smart, in a blazer, smarter than everyone else around him.