Queer Theory

The study of gay and lesbian cinema started to grow in the 1970's. This was due to the feminist film theory and the disciplines increasing representation of women, racial and ethnic minorities and later gay and lesbian people.Queer cinema is a term used to describe films which are made to show some aspect of gay or lesbian experience.

When gay people are used in films they often fall under one of these categories: the Queen who is a very flamboyant gay man who can be considered a drama queen at times, the drag queen who dresses up as a women but is still a man and the sissie,  a camp person who is not very masculine and is easily scared.

There are two main homosexual stereotypes in 'Mean Girls'. These are the gay guy Damian and the lesbian Janis. Damian is shown as being very feminine and acts more like a girl than a boy.  He has a very feminine walk and also often uses his hands when talking which comes of very dramatic. These are both very old fashioned stereotypes shown in films to represent homosexuals.When Damian is introduced the first thing Damian says is about is Cadys hair. A male wouldn't usually be interested or know about girls hair which makes him seem very feminine. He is also seen in the girls toilets and not the boys to show that he may see him self as more of a girl than a boy.

Another thing which comes of very feminine about him is when Cady asks if anyone owns pink clothes and he says yes. Janis on the other hand says no as she is a lot more butch and not  very feminine at all. Janis is often seen in very dark clothes which goes against the old fashioned stereotype of what women should look like. She also has quite a masculine low voice.

These stereotypes are shown different to other characters in this film. Janis is the only girl in this film who isn't feminine. Most of the other girls are shown in very bright clothes whilst she is dressed all in black with very dark make up and very dark hair to show shes different to the other girls and she doesn't fit in to the the old fashioned female stereotype like the rest do. Damian is shown more as a girl than a boy. He is shown to be friends with other girls, uses the girls toilets and is interested in feminine things like hair.

The issues with these stereotypes are that these stereotypes could come off offensive to many people. Many gay people may not act in this feminine way whilst there may be many straight people who do. Many gay people may not want to be represented as this feminine stereotype and think its summing all gay people up as very wimpy.

Some people may think that these stereotypes are not being used correctly however this film doesn't show homosexuals to be bad people but more good people. This film is also a comedy which jokes about stereotypes in a very lighthearted way. If this film was a drama and there was no comedy elements shown with the stereotyping then it may be seen as very offensive. These rolls also work very well in this film and a lot of the humor is shown around these stereotypes so with out them this film wouldn't be as funny and less interesting.

Scream Opening

Scream Opening

The first five minutes of 'Scream' starts with the the title scream with the text in white on a black background. The font used is a very uneasy rigid font to give an uneasy feel. The sound of a phone ringing is also added at the start of this title and then immediately ends with a loud sound of a knife and then followed by a scream. The font also then goes red to represent blood. This represents that in the film there will be a phone ringing which will be followed by death. The sound of the scream also adds to the title of the film. This opening communicates to the viewer that it is a horror movie using dark colours like black to show darkness which is a fear many people have so is shown throughout all horror films and also the red to represent blood is something shown in all horrors. The scream shows fear which is something shown in all horror films and it is also a female scream as many horror films have a dumb female character.

The film then starts with a shot of a phone. This straight away makes you think of the title sequence of the phone and that you know it is going to end badly. The phone becomes a very iconic part of this film as it is seen throughout the whole film often before death scenes. A girl then picks up the phone. The girl is dressed in very light colours to show the fact that she is innocent and that she has done nothing wrong. She answers the phone the first time to think its a wrong number. The room is seen bright at this point to show at this point nothing bad has happened. After she puts the phone down it rings again. When it rings again the room is shown to be a lot darker which may mean that something bad is about to happen. This again communicates to the viewer that this is a horror by using the darkness and fear of darkness many people have to scare them. You can start to see shadows from the outside starting to creep in to the shot. The girl also starts to show a look of concern on her face. When she picks up the phone the second time the camera angles start to get a little bit more jag-id to maybe make it seem uneasy and not right and how the situation should be.

There are then shots of trees panning down on to a swing. These trees have very sharp branches which is a connotation as they could represent knives. The branches also shot in a position to look like there hanging over the house which the girl is in. This gives the illusion of dominance over the house which represents the girl as it is also brightly coloured like the girls clothes. At the bottom of the tree there is a swing which is swinging. This is indexical as it shows that someone was there swinging on the swing recently so there is defiantly someone around. You also later after this see in the house when the tree is shadowing all the inside of the house and the girl which represents the man coming in to the house.

The girl then starts cooking some popcorn which represents her. She gets more and more scares as the pop corn starts to grow. There are also knives carefully placed in the middle of the room to also give information that there is going to be a stabbing. She also picks up the knife and it makes a very loud and sharp sound that it probably wouldn't in real life to give it the more real feel which makes you focus more on the knife and gives you the hint that knives are important to this film. She also speaks to the man on the film about nightmare on elm street when he says about 'the guy who has knives for figures' When he says the word 'knives' he says it a little bit louder than the other words to single it out so that's the word your mind most focuses on. The room also starts to get darker as this goes on so it gets more eerie.

The man then to the girl 'I want to know who i'm looking at'. As soon as he says this a sound track starts to play with a very haunted feel as you know know something is defiantly going to happen. The girl then runs around the house locking all the doors. She then looks out the window of the door. The window is set out with three bars to make it look like prison bars and like shes trapped in a cell waiting for the man to come. There is then a shot of the door again as shes looking at it. The door is shown with nine different windows with black showing through them. This shows that there is darkness outside and she shouldn't go out there.