Gravity FOCUS FILM

http://www.indiewire.com/2013/07/alfonso-cuaron-defends-having-female-lead-in-gravity-208712/


This article explains how the director of this film was very brave for selecting a female lead role, and gives evidence of people saying "Well, we should change it to a male lead..."


The article also goes on to explain how Sandra Bullock thought it was risky to have a female lead, however wanted and hoped for this to become the 'norm'.


Although there is a use of a strong female lead in Gravity, it can also be a way of studios using female leads as they know that females can bring in a new type of audiences, which obviously results in making more money.

My Survey

I decided to carry out my own survey on SurveyMonkey.com. This enabled me to gather evidence to support my investigation about strong female characters in US contemporary films. I ask 7 questions which were:


1) Can you name 5 films with a strong female lead role off the top of your head?


2) Would you be more willing to see a film with a female or male protagonist?


3) Are you interested in watching films with mostly female characters/strong feminist
themes?


4) Do you feel that women are misrepresented in films? If so, why?


5) Have you seen any of the following films: The Silence of The Lambs, Room & Ghostbusters (2016)?


6) If you have seen any of those 3 films, do you believe that they have strong female leads that break the stereotypical female character role in film?


7) Do you believe that there should be more films that break the stereotypical female character in films today?


Carrying out this survey has really helped me gather evidence which supports my key topic which is relevant to the lack of strong female characters in US contemporary films and how people agree there should be more films like my focus films: Gravity, Room & Ghostbusters (2016).

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/08/geena-davis-predicts-historic-rise-in-number-of-female-film-characters



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAJvfsOCkG0

Top find of the week 2

Emma Watson makes a stand about gender equality!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/24/watch-emma-watson-calls-for-gender-equality-during-un-speech-in/


This article shows the speech that Emma Watson made of Friday. This piece of secondary research could be a option to use as it shows a very famous female actress from films such as: Harry Potter making many speeches about gender equality. This also shows how women in the industry believe that these stereotypical moulds in film roles should be broken more often. 

Logging research (Update)

Top find of the week

Top Find:

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/sep/17/being-cute-mara-wilson-growing-up-hollywood?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=fb_a-film_b-gdnfilm#link_time=1474100279

This source is about Mara Wilson who played the 'cute little girl' in Matilda and also in Mrs Doubtfire. This article explores the ways in which female lead roles can be affected due to certain changes. For example: as soon as Mara hit puberty and got older, she was no longer known as that cute little girl from Matlida, instead she recieved less call backs and no one was interested in her playing a good role.

This source helps me with my SSRP because it relates to how female leads can differ deending on how you look or what age you are. This then contributes to the reasoning of why there are a lack of female lead roles in popular US films. However, I will use films such as: Ghostbusters, Room and Bridesmaids to show how using female lead roles is a positive thing, although it recieves a lot of controversy. 


Top Tip: 

I found using books for my secondary research really helped me gain information about female roles in the past, allowing me to contrast the female roles in US popular films now. My focus films help me show eveidence of how there are more films today trying to give different representations of women in female lead roles today, for example: giving females a stronger character, rather than your typical damsel in distress.

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/sep/17/being-cute-mara-wilson-growing-up-hollywood?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=fb_a-film_b-gdnfilm#link_time=1474100279

This source is about the girl who played Matilda and showing what it was like to grow up in the hollywood film industry for her. As soon as she hit puberty and got older in the public eye, the call backs became less and suddenly she was not known as that 'cute girl' in Matilda or Mrs Doubtfire anymore. 

Context of my SSRP: Gender

Focus films: The film Gravity with a strong female lead role, played by Sandra Bullock is a recent positive representation of women in todays film industry. Along with films such as: Ghostbusters and Room also present more female lead roles than male, which can be contrasted against past films such as: The Usual Suspects, with a lack of female lead roles or even just normal roles within the film. 

Strong Female Characters in Contemporary US Cinema

I am now focusing on strong female characters and how they are represented in todays popular films. My focus films are: The Silence of the Lambs, Room and Ghostbusters. These films are useful because they break the stereotypical norms for a female character in film.

 

The selected context in my SSRP is Gender, this is because I am exploring female lead roles in popular US films and how these female characters are represented and breaking the stereotypical norms. Gender will be my key area of research as I will be comparing how my focus films break the boundaries of the typical female character compared to your damsel in distress. I will also look into the controversy of female leads in film, for example: Ghostbusters and how audiences were shocked at the high quantity of female lead roles.