Isabella's Aice Media Blog: November 2020

Representation in Media

Representation in media has been an ongoing problem since the beginning, but recently the unfairness and stereotypes portrayed in the media has been brought to light more due to this period of wide access to media.

It's no surprise that things such as gender and race are used as marketing tactics and are often taken advantage of in order to benefit the producer. Often times women will be degraded and shown in ways that are much more provocative than how a man would be portrayed. For example, in magazines and on the covers women will be showing much more skin and introduced in a more scandalous way, either by the facial expressions they are making or by the color they are wearing; but, if we look at the way men are broadcasted on magazine covers we see a much different approach taken, the man will often times be fully clothed and dressed in something much more professional. Not only is gender an issue when it comes to these marketing strategies but race and ethnicity as well. People of color and ethnic backgrounds are often overlooked in advertisements and are not equally represented in the media as a typical white person would be, without this representation it is unfair to them.

This is a magazine cover of women, showing almost her full body in the nude, versus a male magazine cover showing him dressed in a nice suit.

This could have detrimental effects on the consumers of this media because often times the one looking at these magazine of women and watching these stereotypical advertisements, are young, impressionable, teen girls. In the commercial for Tide the target audience is clearly women, they demonstrate this by focusing on a mother, who stereotypically loves pink, having to deal with her 'troublesome' daughter who likes to wear camouflage. The ad is clearly geared towards moms because they believe that those are the biggest market for their product, and they are most likely correct; however, this could negatively effect young girls watching these advertisements and cause them to think it's not okay for them to like other colors besides pink, because it may not seem "feminine". The other example commercial shown was one for Axe body spray-the message from this advertisement was basically, if your a guy who wears their body spray, then you are going to get a lot of girls. They portray this message by broadcasting a bunch of half-naked girls all running towards a guy, fully clothed, because he is simply wearing the body spray. This does apply to their target audience, men, but still nonetheless creates a misogynistic, unrealistic tone between men and women.

Although advertisements and media marketing has progressed and come a long way, there are still many aspects to it that are unfair but are still made in order to sell the product and pull in consumers. It is up to the people and target audience to recognize these faults in the media and work hard to correct them and gain equality and a better understanding.

HORROR(PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS)

Psychological thrillers are an exciting subcategory of the genre of horror. These kinds of movies and media hold depth in not only getting the audience to have the occasional scare, but also in the sense of getting the audience to think deeper and for the movie to hold a deeper meaning.

There are different aspects that go into making and producing a psychological thrillers, some of which will be discussed in this blog post:

Content:

An important factor that should be incorporated in a good psychological thriller movie is mystery. Although I'm not discussing the mystery genre, psychological thrillers still incorporate themes of mystery in them and are very important in the creation of these movies. Mystery is important to create throughout the film because it leaves the audience to wonder what will happen in the movie, and cause for an even bigger surprise by the end; which is also a common theme in these type of movies. Many ways to uncover whether the movie was truly a good psychological thriller is once the resolution to the mystery is introduced, if it left the audience in astonishment and caused them to, even after the movie is over, think about it and have to truly think about the ending.

The distortion of perception and reality is also a key point in psychological thrillers. These kinds of films often take a negative or pessimistic viewpoint of our natural world. This is important for the movie to create because many psychological thrillers hold a mirror to our seemingly normal lives, and finds ways in which to manipulate it in distorted way; which in turn causes the audience to question their surroundings and the movie. An example of this can be seen in the movie The Matrix, in this film the protagonist is introduced to the idea that the reality he is living in is an illusion and presents him the option to find out the truth about his world. This movie is an excellent example of a distortion in reality because it demonstrates a normal world, like the audiences, and shows that there may be more to it than we may know.

Production Techniques:

A common technique used in psychological thrillers is using shadows and low lighting. This production technique is used to create a darker mood and feeling, and leave the feeling of uneasiness along with mystery. This adds to the film for the audience member because they can see the tension within the scene. Creating a darker scenery is beneficial to the film of a psychological thriller because it creates depth to the scene, for example, it's a common technique to use when demonstrating a darker side to a character that hadn't been shown before. The anticipation created from the dark lighting is what ensures that the audience is on the edge of their seats and leaves them scared and wondering what will occur next; knowing that dark lighting signals a negative scene coming up.

Another common technique used in psychological thrillers is using flashback or montage editing. This is a common technique used because often times in these type of films the main protagonist or antagonist will use a flashback memory to piece together the surprise ending of the plot and make the formation of the movie come together. Flashback editing also allows for the audience to form a deeper connection with the characters, because they can finally understand why they are the way that they are. The same goes for montage editing used in the same sense, in which it highlights and draws attention to certain key details the viewer might've missed when watching. An example of this production technique being put to work in a psychological thriller movie is in Joker, the Joker has a flashback scene which causes the audience to have a revelation and ultimately, have a deeper understanding for the character and his origins.

Marketing:

A popular marketing strategy for psychological thrillers is to broadcast the actors in them heavily. Psychological thrillers are the type of movies that need to be perfectly executed in order for the message to be accurately portrayed, a main way this is done is through good actors. When any movie has good actors many people want to see it, but especially in the case of psychological thrillers if a well-known or common actor for this genre is used it causes viewers to want to watch the movie.

The main demographic of audience members that watch psychological thrillers are women within the age range of 18-45; however, these kind of movies tend to appeal to a wide range of audience members. Although it is true that both genders enjoy this genre, it tends to appeal to women more for the sake of deeper thinking and due to the drama seen in these movies.

When creating a movie poster for this genre of movies, a common central color used are dark colors such as red, white, or black to demonstrate a shadow. The most common template that can be observed in a psychological thriller movie is the title in either red, black, or white with a disturbing image in the center that represents the film's central idea or message. The image is often disturbing or scary to peak the interest of the audience and make them curious towards the film.

This type of template can be seen in the movie poster:

Examples:

The movie Split (2016) directed by M. Night Shyamalan, follows the events after a girl has been kidnapped; but instead of the movie solely focusing on the kidnapped girl, it also draws attention to the kidnapper and his personal issues. This film is an excellent example of a psychological thriller because it follows the theme of going in depth to a character that the audience wouldn't have expected to analyze. The movie gets its title from the protagonist having split personalities and that being the main struggle and arguments that take place is the protagonist against himself. The idea of split personalities adds even more to the thriller aspect of the movie because it causes the audience to always be on their toes about who the main character will "act" as next. This movie explores the idea of what it's like for someone to live with split personalities and the negative effects of what could happen to someone with this disorder. The film does an excellent job at portraying the deeply disturbed psychological aspects of this disease and definitely keep audience members in anticipation in this psychological thriller.

Inception is a film made in 2010 and directed by Christopher Nolan. This film follows a man who is able to enter other people's dreams and distort their, and his own, reality. With this gift, this man is given the task to enter someone's mind and implant an idea into it, to make them believe it was their own. This is a beautifully created film and follows many twists and turns that cause the audience to be in astonishment of every part of the movie. This is a great example of a psychological thriller because it plays mind games, not only in the movie but on the audience itself; even by the end of the film it leaves the viewer questioning what they just watched. This film has elements of drama and mystery in it which betters the film. The movie uses a key symbol to represent when someone is in a dream or not, they use a dreidel to see if it continues spinning, this is a constant reminder that the audience sees in the movie which causes them to wonder if the main character is still in a dream or not by the end of the film. Many techniques and cues were used throughout the film to portray the psychological thriller and, personally, I think it was wonderfully created.