Trinity's Blog: November 2019

Tide Ad

In the very beginning of the ad, the mom makes it abundantly clear that she has tried to change her daughter’s style when she said: “We’ve tried the whole pink thing.” That comment insinuates that girls are supposed to gravitate more towards pink because it is a feminine color. This mother is reinforcing the gender labels that society has distributed through color to her young daughter and she’s even wearing a pink cardigan while doing it. They looked to be a middle to higher class family which someone watching this ad can interpret it as people of a higher class looking down on those who dress differently. Her mom was obviously not comfortable with her daughter dressing more like a tomboy than a girly girl and the message this video is giving can be offensive to women who choose to dress more masculine than feminine. People choose to dress the way they do because they like it and feel confident with their style and sometimes individuals want to wear something that was designed with the opposite gender in mind. No one should feel pigeonholed or trapped in fashion because fashion is supposed to be personal and customized to all individuals. There are a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community that crossdress and this is showing them that in order to make others feel more comfortable they need to change their outer appearance to look more like society's idea of normal. They are subliminally being told that they are outcasts and are not accepted because of their styling choices. The little girl is playing with wooden building blocks while the mom is talking to the viewer and at the end she asks her daughter if she’s building another car garage. The question alone makes it known that her daughter has been building these for a while. Having the mom question her daughters choice to build blocks instead of playing with dolls for example is another way she is trying to make her daughter conform to society’s gender standards. The mother in the ad is basically saying that her daughter shouldn’t be an architect or an engineer because she doesn’t have the qualifications due to her gender. Little girls watching this who dream of having careers in male dominated industries may feel like they shouldn’t go after that profession because it’s not common for women to have jobs in those fields. Women have historically been suppressed and bullied into not acquiring main industry careers, high paying positions, or jobs that require any major political, intellectual, or physical challenges. There was a time where being anything but a stay at home mom and taking care of your family was taboo and unheard of. Over the years society has gotten better with treating women with enough respect to give them the opportunity to be industry executives, receive equal pay and work jobs that were typically seen as too manly or strenuous for women to handle.

Axe spray

This ad oversexualized women to the point where I couldn’t comprehend how it was approved to be aired and viewed by the general public. The women in the ad were dressed in very revealing bikinis and were running through the woods towards the man spraying the axe like wild animals which is pretty dehumanizing in my opinion. One thing that I noticed was that all of the women in the ad were young, skinny, and white. There weren’t any curvy or plus sized women in this ad, no one looked older than 30 years old and I think I saw one African American female in that entire video that contained at least 100 or more women. There was a major lack of race, body size, and positive gender representation in this ad and those who watch it may be under the impression that only skinny white girls are desirable by men. If I saw this ad on tv I would definitely be disgusted with how the women were being portrayed as mindless animals that should be seen for their bodies and what they can give men. The ending line even says “spray more get more” which is really suggestive. Just by having a fully clothed woman smell a man's cologne and give him a compliment or something along those lines, this ad easily could have been subtle. But the creators of this ad knew who their target audience was, men. If they could appeal to them visually and feed their egos by showing an average joe having a flock of girls running after him after using this product, they would make a huge profit off of it. Advertisers count on the insinuation of the ad, more women, to sell their product to the intended audience, men.

Genre Conventions: Content

Musicals are known for their show-stopping components but what characterizes film musicals as a genre is the utilization of music scores, songs, and dance choreography to help the plot of the film progress faster and more effectively than if the only form of communication between the audience and the characters was dialogue. Dialogue is still used in musicals but the saying "music speaks when words can not" is definitely a concept that musicals have adapted. In musical films there is usually a main character that is going through turmoil or is trying to discover their purpose in life/ waiting to have their purpose revealed to them at the beginning of the musical and by the end of the film, the audience has witnessed their issue be resolved after numerous songs and over the top dance numbers.

Example: Annie. Annie is a mistreated orphan that wishes she had parents and by the end of the film she is adopted and is given a family.

Most musical films incorporate a song about the dreams and wishes of a character within the film and this song pretty much lets us know that the entire musical is based around that wish or dream the character has. Musicals obviously incorporate a large amount of music and singing in their productions but there's usually a song from that musical that is easily recognizable by people who haven't even watched the film. The music associated with that musical can be so popular that you don't even have to see the film to know that it comes from that specific musical.

Example: Frozen. The song "Let It Go" has become one of the most easily identifiable songs from a musical film.

Dance choreography is another important element of the production of a musical. Dance numbers in musicals visually tell a story while the characters are singing. The movement of the characters on screen and the choreography that they are doing directly correlates with the song being sung and the message, tone, or story that is trying to be expressed at that specific moment.

Example: Newsies. A group of homeless orphan newspaper boys in New York City sing and dance about going on strike after the newspaper companies raise the prices and they can't make any profit.

Production Techniques

Musicals are classified as an escapist genre that ranges from realistic to dreamlike so all age groups are able to enjoy musicals. The musical aspect of this genre is something that institutions promoting musicals count on to help sell box office tickets and make a profit off of these films. The music soundtrack also helps the directors pique the interest of the age group or other demographic they are trying to appeal to through ads and commercials and keep them coming back. Mise-en-scene is probably the most important aspect of a musical besides the actual music. Production designers have the responsibility of making the film come to life and be believable enough to the viewer.

Time period and character development are factors of musical films that need to be taken into consideration when it involves costuming. With the right costume, costume designers will be able to encapsulate a character's social status, role in the film, etc. without having to verbally reveal it.

Color and lighting are extremely important in the production of musical films because the feeling that the scene is trying to evoke from the audience can not be achieved with only a song being sung or a massive dance number. The emotion at that moment on screen has to match cohesively with the visuals being presented in order for the audience to fully comprehend the intention of the actions being done. A lot of time is put into the positioning, movement, and the amount of lighting a specific scene or number in the film will display.

Example: Chicago. While the main characters are explaining how they murdered their husbands to their fellow prisoners through the song "Cell Block Tango", the manipulation of the lighting to create shadows and spotlights creates a very mysterious and edgy vibe as well as the contrast of the vibrant red that is used to represent the blood of their victims.

Set design and location are important to the realisticness of the film. Set designers are extremely meticulous about how they will build the sets, which props are utilized in scenes and any effects that need to be incorporated to make the film believable.

Example: Aladdin. The production of this film depended on intricate set designs to make the audience believe Will Smith’s character “the genie” was real through CGI, feel like they were on a magic flying carpet ride and like they were in Agrabah (the setting of the movie)

The Greatest Showman (2017) made a bold statement by making the opening scene an over the top musical number without using any dialogue to introduce the main characters or the plot of the film to the viewer. The time period of this movie is set in the 1800s and is following the main character P.T. Barnum through his early life and his adult life where his career takes off as the leader of a circus. He was poor as a child and had big dreams that he followed intently and throughout the duration of the movie you can see through costume design how his character developed from a low-class man to a well-established businessman. Many of the other main characters like the bearded lady and the “smallest man on earth” had drastic costume changes in this film and that was done to make the audience aware of the character's new social status. He brought together a large group of outcasts and helped them celebrate their uniqueness and be unapologetic about who they were through the acts they were apart of in the circus. The singing and dancing throughout encouraged the characters and the viewers to be themselves and keep believing even if others think you’re crazy for doing so.

Into the woods (2014) relies heavily on music to help the movie progress. The director decided to introduce the main characters and what each of them desired most through a 15-minute score prologue written and composed by Stephen Sondheim. This film also merges the stories of multiple fairy tales while still keeping the story line straightforward. The blueish coloring of the woods creates a gloomy and bleak atmosphere created by one of the main antagonists, the witch. The lighter shading of the scenes when the characters are out of the woods gives a more hopeful and lively feeling. The integration of reality and fantasy in this film had to be done in a very careful way so that one wasn't overpowering the other. Scenes were filmed in actual woods to make it look more realistic to the audience but there was also a massive sound stage created in Shepperton Studios in England in order to control the filming environment. The woods were a critical part of the story because the woods represented a scary path that people may need to take some time in their lives. The wood was also a common setting for the characters to meet and interact with each other.

Other musical films:

HAIRSPRAY (2007)

SHANKMAN