Daniel's AICE Media Blog: November 2020

Representation in media are the ways in which particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics are portrayed in the media. This is a very important topic to tackle in media as it can provide people to feel a certain way about themselves and others. In this post, I will be discussing how two advertisements use representation and how these representations could affect the people that are viewing them.

1. Axe Advertisement

The Axe body spray advertisement features a hoard of women, all dressed in bikini's, savagely running towards a man spraying himself with Axe body spray. The women in this commercial are all represented as young and beautiful. It features women of multiple skin tones, but they are all skinny and fit. This may make some women feel bad about themselves if they don't look like these women. The women in the advertisement are almost represented as savages, as they are shoving each other and almost competing to get to this man. This almost makes it seem like the advertisement was telling women that they should compete for a man.

The man in this commercial is pictured as confident and happy as he is spraying himself with axe and dozens upon dozens of women are running towards him. This could make some men feel and believe that being surrounded by women will make them happy. This could even cause some men to seek out female attention just to feel good about themselves. The commercial makes it seem like if you use axe spray, women will be coming towards you left and right.

2. H&M Advertisement

The H&M advertisement represents people of all ages, gender, social class, and race. This advertisement could make people feel like no matter who they are, they could look fresh and dress in whatever way they want. It makes people feel like they can be who they want to be and not care about what other people think about the way they dress. This advertisement has a much more positive message about then the axe commercial, as it tells people to be who they are and dress in whatever way they would like to. It represents people of all kinds as dressing in whatever way they want and feeling good about themselves for it.

What Is Action?

An action film is a type of film that is comprised of the protagonist(s) being thrust into a series of events that usually include violence, physical challenges, fighting, rescues, and frantic chases. Action genre is very appealing to many and one of the most popular genres in the movie industry today. Action films provide audiences with a sense of surrealness through the intense and sometimes even superhuman things that the protagonists must perform in the film. This is one of the main reasons that audiences are so intrigued by action films. It provides an entertaining and thrilling movie that could be possible.

Content:

As expected, action films contain a lot of action. They are comprised of many things such as explosions or car chases which serve to provide excitement or thrill to the audience. These films are meant to tell a story through physical action. Action films are very intense in the sense that they include a lot of violence and movement to keep the audience intrigued and wanting to watch more. A typical action movie may include many physical fights and fast paced scenes. These types of films usually include a strong hero or protagonist with some sort of revenge plot which leads the protagonist into a serious of action packed events. In these films you may encounter a training montage and even a final fight leading up to the end of the film.

The revenge plot in action films is typically what fuels the entire film. This gives the protagonist a purpose in the film which leads them to the action packed scenes that action movies include. Action movies include a large amount of fast passed action which is used in order to keep the audience entertained. Explosions, physical fights, car chases, gun fights, races, non-stop motion, and destructive disasters are just a few of the things that action films include in order to keep the audience entertained.

Production Techniques:

Throughout the production, action films include a lot of shaky shots during action sequences. These shaky shots, paired with quick cuts in the editing, help to provide a sense of action and fast paced movement. Action films typically include many close up action shots to with a wide angle camera that truly makes the audience sit up and stay intrigued in the film. These films often include a lot of special effect editing to make the action scene films look as realistic as possible.

Action films typically include a filming location with a lot of space. Due to this, lighting is key in making the production look very well. Very often, the most typical type of lighting used in action films is three-point lighting, used to illuminate the character from the front, back, and side. To pair up with the large amount of action, sounds is also very important in these films. Sounds have to be provided for every punch, bullet shot, or explosion made. The sounds in the film are just as important as the action shots that made.

Marketing:

Though action films are enjoyed by people of all ages, as well as males and females, the target audience for most of these films are 16-25 year old males. The reason for this is because action films typically include large amounts of fast paced scenes, violence, and scenes containing sexual content. This is exactly the type of production that most of these males glorify are are likely to watch.

The posters made for action movies also typically include some sort of action in them, whether it be an explosion in the background or two characters about to fight. This is perfect to attract the target audience as this is typically what many of them are looking for in a film. The actors that play in these action movies also typically help in the marketing scheme of things. An action movie that stars Tom Cruise is likely to have many people watch it because he is one of the most infamous action movie stars.

Samples:

The film "The Fast and the Furious" (2001) is the first movie in the Fast and Furious saga. The movie is about Brian O'Conner, played by Paul Walker, a police officer who goes undercover to infiltrate a group of street racers after a heist occurred on a semi-truck. Brian begins the infiltration into the crew by visiting the Toretto's Market, owned by Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, who happens to be the leader of the street racing crew. The action picks up here after a brawl occurs between Brian, Dominic, and another member of the crew. The movie contains a lot of high speed races and car chases, as well as fights and shoot outs. The film uses scenes like the street races and truck heists to keep the audience interested by showing action. The shoot outs and brawls add to the action as well. Another component of an action film that the movie contained was revenge, as one of the rival street racing leaders killed one of Dominic's crewmates.

The film "Olympus Has Fallen" (2013) is about Mike Banning, played by Gerard Butler, a former Regimental Reconnaissance Company and US Army Special Forces soldier who is now a Secret Service agent assigned as the chief of the U.S. Presidential detail. He is take off the Presidential detail after an incident resulting in the death of the first lady. 18 months later, Banning is in a meeting at the White House with the South Korean Prime Minister when a North Korean terrorist group mounts an air attack on the White House, as well as hundreds of ground mercenaries who kill most of the White House defending workforce. The movie is very high in action with many gun fights as well as physical fights as Barring attempts to save the President and take back the White House from the terrorists.