MEST4 Preliminary exercise: Evaluation

1) Why did you choose this particular recreation and how does it link to your main production?

Because it offered a new challenged to work with mirrors which is something I never got to do last year and I believe learning that skill would be a great tool to use in the actual production later down the road. And with my production relating to James Bond it made perfect sense to recreate a James Bond scene.

2) What difficulties did you face in producing this recreation?

Partner losing my phone number leading to us not being able to book a hotel, being unable to find a white female for a prolonged period of time, only able to film the male scene one day and the female scenes on another day, having to record in two different toilets, unable to obtain a dress, the original female we got a detention and was unable to film on the day and multiple disturbances when recording the scenes.

3) What are the strengths of the production?

I believe that we did accurately recreate the sense shot for shot to the best of our abilities and the editing was great matching the same 30 seconds that we used in the actual James Bond scene also using the same instrumental that was in the scene as well. 

4) What aspects would you look to improve?

Having a better usage of Mise-en-scene with characters not wearing similar clothing in comparison to the scene that we tried to recreate also including props as well because we missed the key part of the scene we James as putting the dress on the door in the first place and same of the cuts could have been more smoother so that the recreation flows better. 

5) What lessons will you take from this process that will help you with your main production?

To be more organised when doing the real linked production with a lot of things going against us it would be better if we planned things out in a more structured way so that less potential things could go wrong if anything at all. 

MEST4 Preliminary Exercise: Recreation

MEST4: Preliminary exercise planning

Script/treatment

Vesper is in the bathroom and begins to do make up

Bond knocks on the door

Vesper: Yes?

Enter Bond

Bond: For you…

Vesper: Something you expect me to wear?

Bond: I need you to look fabulous. So when you kiss me on the neck, the players 

across me will have their mind on your neckline and not their cards. Can you do that for me?

Vesper: I’ll do my best

Bond: Thank you

Exit Bond

Storyboard


Shot list

Shot List
1	Vesper in the bathroom doing her makeup with an over the shoulder shot medium long shot.
2	James Bond knocks and walks into the bathroom and places the dress on the door handle and walks out “For You” Over the shoulder medium close up.
3	Vesper “Something you expect me to wear?” Close Up Over the Shoulder
4	Medium Shot James Bond response to Vesper
5	Over the Shoulder shot medium close up on Vesper “I’ll do my best”
6	James Bond “Thank You” medium shot with him walking out of the bathroom
7	Cuts back to Vesper doing her make up again with a Over the shoulder close up shot.

Mise-en-scene planning

Location:

• E block toilets

Cast:

• Jamie as James Bond
• Madeline as Vesper

Costume:

Jamie:

• Black trousers
• Black rounded shoes
• Black Shirt

Madeline:

• White Crewneck Jumper
• Jeans

Critical Investigation Task #7 - First Draft

Do recent additions to the James Bond franchise such as 'Skyfall' reflect changing representations of women in film?

“You’re a sexist, misogynist, dinosaur."[1]

Skyfall marks the anniversary of the James Bond franchise marking it as the 23rd instalment in the iconic franchise and marking 50th years of James Bond films and it couldn't have been celebrated any better with the film winning an Oscar for best original song and it being held as one of the best James Bond films of all time. But behind all of the action, drama and fast cars lays a foundation of outright sexism that hasn't been properly addressed in the past 50 years of this iconic franchise, ever since Dr No James Bond has hardly evolved as a character since the early 60’s and beyond. Looking at the character in-depth you see a man who only cares about himself and how he doesn't let anyone else in even if he has slept with 55 women in the past 23 films. But due to this James Bond films following a set structure that mirror’s Propp’s film theory on character stereotypes leads to the James Bond character showing no potential to become a character that in the 21st century. But the iconic Bond girl has become an importance in every James Bond film and despite everyone acting ok with this the way James Bond treats them is beyond belittling. But the question is has James Bond shown any progression since Dr No to now in Skyfall with women.

To comparison the views and ideologies accurately the need to provide historical context is very important. So when Dr No was released the views on women back in the 1960's where changing "Feminism began to find a voice in society, with movements like Women’s Lib demanding equal pay and opportunity."[2]However during that time it was a controversial view to have with the men fighting back against that view "Women were repeatedly represented shown as housewives, moths, homemakers while men were often represented in situations of authority and dominance..."[3]So it's fair to say that women were progressing but they did have to fight against men's misogynistic view of the world. And this is where the main problem starts for the James Bond franchise the author himself Ian Fleming. He has been famous for his misogynistic views "Ian Fleming hates women and I don't buy into anything to do with that. The Bond films are generally sexist. I don't like anything that descends from a sewer of misogyny."[4]so it's to no surprise that Ian Fleming made James Bond this overbearing hero making him everything Ian Fleming wanted him to be with the author describing Bond as a "Height: 183cm, weight: 76 kilograms; slim build; eyes: blue; hair: black; scar down right cheek and on left shoulder; signs of plastic surgery on back of right hand ..."[5] it was basically Ian Fleming copying and pasting himself into his own book series as the main protagonist as a result that carrying the views and ideologies that Ian Fleming has as well which had a knock on effect on the film series. Ian Fleming had a reputation of being misogynistic and “…sexism of the Bond novels is woven into the fabric of the films they inspired, as the term Bond Girl” [6] he wrote the first 13 book which lead to the first 13 films to be built on the foundation of Ian Fleming's ideology of men superiority. Also another problem that this franchised faced was the timing of when the books where released.

The films started in 1962 with Dr No but the book series started in 1953 back then the stereotypes of men and women where very standard (certain) with the man being the breadwinner who bring in the money and makes the important decisions around the house however the role of the women back then was to cook and clean and to do all of the house work and to basically wait for the man hand and work and to do whatever he wants her to do. Back then this was acceptable for people in that era because women didn't have the power back then in comparison to the amount of power they have now. So when the books came out they picture women as the inferior slave to James Bond's charm and desire and the films also captured accurately what the book try to showcase with extra hint with the male gaze.

Looking at the official first ever James Bond film Dr No, it was made in the 1960's only 4 years after the famous novel written by Ian Fleming. The film was hailed as a masterpiece with reviews like "The James Bond series started in great style with this cleverly conceived dose of sheer escapism that, unlike later episodes, remained true to the essence of Ian Fleming's super-spy novels."[7]and "As well as the girls, guns, gadgets we expect from the typical Bond storyline.”[8] which demonstrates how people still think how great this film was. But at the same time this film follows the character structure theory from Propp's when it comes to some of the key elements of the film for example you have James Bond as the stereotypical white hero, then you have Honey Ryder as the Damsel in Distress, you have Dr No has is a stereotypical foreign villain and you have the black sidekick Quarrel who dies at the end. Now in Dr No to see if we have any progression from Dr No to Skyfall it's important to see how Dr No set the bar for the representation of women in Dr No. In this film is in parts Sexist and in this film gets throughout the film with changes from the book to the big screen with Honey Ryder name changed from Honeychile and how all she did was be a damsel in distress throughout the entire film even if people see Honey Ryder as one of the most iconic film characters of all time due to her introduction ever if James Bond also had sex with Miss Tao during the film for no reason other than to show off the power James Bond has on women and no one has to the power to say no to him. Demonstrates how men still had all of the power in the early 1960's even with they were gaining power James Bond took that ideology and took it back to the stone age with the film clearly being made for white males who want escapism and get lost in the world the Dr No creates. It links back to uses and gratification due to the fact that a lot of people wanted to see themselves in James Bond. They didn't provide him with a strong personality or made him a unrealistic character they made him average male with normal hair would could pass himself as a normal person which is why Personal Identity and Personal Relationships play such a strong part in this film success because of the fact that people could watch the film and see themselves in it. To make a comparison to other character, Sherlock Holmes is an iconic character created by Arthur Conan Doyle of a detective who an out of this world observation skills. The difference between the two characters is that James Bond is relatable and could realistically become him unlike Sherlock Holmes who has a god given gift “His character is glib, ruthlessly cunning, and hopelessly chained to his own cognition.”[9]The problem that is showcases in Dr No is in this quote "Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”[10].To conclude Dr No was a film that portrayed villains as foreign, women as powerless and racial minorities as inferior therefore comparing it to Skyfall will be interesting to see if in 50years Skyfall has progressed from the Propp's Character Theory, every race being portrayed as equals and James Bond actually given a strong character.

"Skyfall, the latest James Bond film, smashed through the $1 billion mark at the box office tonight as it continued its record-breaking showing in cinemas worldwide."[11]

With the 50 years of development Skyfall was released on October 26 in 2012 with Daniel Craig as James Bond with the film getting universal praise with it being compared to Dr No for overall quality and also winning an Oscar for best original soundtrack and it scoring a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomato with reviews like"
It achieves an effective balance between the ever-escalating action sequences that each successive Bond picture apparently demands, fresh use of charismatic talent, and nods to the legacy..."[12] so there is no denying that Skyfall is one of if not the best James Bond film since the original. But looking at the film in depth it suffers from the same problem the Dr No suffers from with the ideology of men being superior to women. I say this because there are many scenes in this film that demonstrates how women still have very little power in comparison to men which makes it worse if comparison the age difference between the films and how women now are represented a lot better in comparison to the 1960's that makes Skyfall even more sexist in comparison to Dr No.

In the opening chase scene you have James Bond chasing an unnamed hit man how is carrying a very important macguffin for later on in the film and you have Eve a black female supporting Bond as his equal. Firstly portraying Eve as a equal to Bond was very refreshing to see a women playing such a key part in an action scene" Girls can be athletic. Guys can have feelings. Girls can be smart. Guys can be creative. And vice versa. Gender is specific only to your reproductive organs (and sometimes not even to those), not your interest, likes, dislikes, goals, and ambitions.” [13]but it all goes downhill from here where in the end of the opening scene you have James Bond in a hand to hand combat on a speeding train and Eve hasn't got a clear shot. Now this scene contains the two main female characters in Eve and M both making a very important mistake which leads to both characters starting their individual downfalls with M forcing Eve to take the shoot even if there was a high chance of Eve killing Bond in the first place which is what happened. This lead to Eve quitting field work even if she did everything right to that point and was forced against her will to take the shoot even if she said "I can't I may hit Bond" [14] and effectively became a messenger with James Bond commenting "Ain't you a little overqualified to be delivering messages” [15] and M forcing her to do it as the head of the MI6 department. When it comes the M she created this villain in the first place with Raoul Silva who was a world class hacker in the MI6 and M released him due to him hacking the Chinese Government over they threatened the UK, Raoul was simply doing something for the greater good of the United Kingdom. Instead M shows more poor judgment and released one of the most dangerous men on the planet with no guidance or control. Which only lead to her entire department being threatened to be shut down due to her poor judgement and lack of a need of the department in the first place. No surprise that in Spectre they still threatened to shut down MI6 because they didn't prove them wrong anything they proved the government right because in Skyfall Raoul Silva is a villain that was created by MI6. This doesn't even include one of the worst Bond Girls of all time with Sévérine with her only appearing in a few scenes before James Bond pointlessly sleeps with her and then a few scenes later she was shot dead that's it there was no connection between the characters and not even James Bond acted like he even cared about her playing her off comparing to a drink. "After Bond comes face to face with the film’s villain, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), Sévérine is bound and Bond is challenged to shoot a glass of scotch off her head. Bond misses, but Silva shoots and kills her. Bond then glibly comments that her demise is merely a "waste of good scotch." This was unpalatable, and I could sense it in the shifting of some of my neighbours in the theatre."[16]Also after he says that he kills every single guard in the area which makes no sense because if he could have done that why didn't he do it before Severine was shot and Sliva killer her just to make a point to James Bond that not even James Bond cares about ever so her death which makes her role in this film completely  worthless and her only purpose was to be a Macguffin for the plot and due to it being a James Bond film it had to have a Bond girl in once again beat over the point that James Bond is smooth with the ladies even if the audience already know this and the need for a Bond girl declines with every film. In this film every women in Skyfall is now worse off since the start to the end with M death, Eve quitting field work, Severine death and Bond's wife abandoned when he decided to go back to MI6. However M's death was a brilliant representation of women and how they are equal to men because in the past three films since the reboot they were changing her character to make her less powerful "Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, M's initial strength, which I argue comes to defying attempts to categorize her, disappears and replaced with uncertainty about herself.".[17] But in her death scene you can see her actively helping James Bond to set up his old house with traps and proving more than emotional support which is what the majority of Bond girls only do in the first place and when she dies you can see the genuine emotion coming from James Bond in that scene unlike the death of Severine. To conclude I believe we have regressed from the 1960's and Dr No due to the fact that modern day media allows more and more people to have their voice heard but no female has decided to take a real stand against the James Bond franchise. It was different back in the 1960's because of the fact that they were just starting to find their feet but it was still a man's world “Women are denied a viewpoint...” and they still had more of a impact stopping James Bond in comparison to the modern day. For example when James Bond first came out (The book series) there was uproar of women standing up against this book calling it "Sex, Snobbery and Sadism" [18], "Fleming's Deadly Sin" [19] and "Junk Bond" [20] and these are all from newspapers when the books where released back in the 1950's so why has the outcry stopped. It can be strongly argued that believe that it comes down to what do women want because they have chosen to ignore all the misogyny with review about Skyfall from women saying "With wry geriatric jokes, a plot that strikes 007 right where he lives and even some throwback gadgets, Skyfall gives James Bond a delightfully retro reboot." that has come from this franchise for no reason at all for example when Avengers Age of Ultron came out there was weeks of hate coming from women talking about how the film portrays Black Widow as a slut and decided to boycott the film entirely so it can be strongly argued that all comes down to if women want to challenge one of the biggest movie franchises of all time. But linking back to the question it can be strongly argued that we have regressed from the 1960's  due to the fact that people now have more opportunities to get their opinion across to the public but they decided to say nothing in comparison to people in the 1960's who at least tried to fight against this movie franchise.

Work Cited

Books

Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2002). The media student's book (3.rd ed.). London: Taylor & Francis Books

Ian Fleming, From Russia with Love 1957

Lisa Funnell, For Her Eyes Only 2012

A Work in Progress: A Memoir 2015

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf 1929

Academic Papers

Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage.

Bidisha, writer of Venetian Masters

Newspaper Headline X3

Internet with details

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/9771918/Skyfall-most-successful-James-Bond-film-tops-1bn-at-global-box-office.html

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/but-not-simpler/why-you-should-envy-but-not-worship-sherlock-holmes/

http://www.radiotimes.com/film/j744z/drno?ref=Article.Tag

https://tribecafilm.com/stories/spectre-james-bond-movie-franchise-daniel-craig-misogyny-feminist-acceptance-feminism-lea-seydoux-bellucci

TV / Film with Details

“You’re a sexist, misogynist, dinosaur" M, on James Bond, played by Dame Judi Dench, in her first Bond film, Goldeneye.

Skyfall 2012 Sam Mendes "Ain't you a little overqualified to be delivering messages”

Work Consulted

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/23/daniel-craig-james-bond-misogynist

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/james-bond-is-a-very-lonely-sexist-misogynist-says-daniel-craig-10480576.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/04/carole-cadwalladr-james-bond-sexism-bbc

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7694801.stm

http://www.existentialennui.com/2010/10/is-ian-flemings-james-bond-really.html

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/s/bond-movie-fix-one-biggest-183002402.html?nf=1

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/338817-bond-24-megathread-spectre/page-8

http://www.devon-cornwall-film.co.uk/2015/10/31/james-bond-misogynist-dinosaur/

https://tribecafilm.com/stories/spectre-james-bond-movie-franchise-daniel-craig-misogyny-feminist-acceptance-feminism-lea-seydoux-bellucci

---

[1]“You’re a sexist, misogynist, dinosaur" M, on James Bond, played by Dame Judi Dench, in her first Bond film, Goldeneye.

[2]Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage.

[3]Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2002). The media student's book (3.rd ed.). London: Taylor & Francis Books

[4]Bidisha, writer of Venetian Masters

[5]Ian Fleming, From Russia with Love 1957

[6]Lisa Funnell, For Her Eyes Only 2012 p246

[7]http://www.radiotimes.com/film/j744z/dr-no?ref=Article.Tag

[8]Lisa Funnell, For Her Eyes Only 2012

[9]http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/but-not-simpler/why-you-should-envy-but-not-worship-sherlock-holmes/

[10]A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf 1929

[11]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/9771918/Skyfall-most-successful-James-Bond-film-tops-1bn-at-global-box-office.html

[12] http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall/

[13]A Work in Progress: A Memoir 2015

[14]Skyfall 2012 Sam Mendes "I can't I may hit Bond"

[15]Skyfall 2012 Sam Mendes "Ain't you a little overqualified to be delivering messages”

[16]https://tribecafilm.com/stories/spectre-james-bond-movie-franchise-daniel-craig-misogyny-feminist-acceptance-feminism-lea-seydoux-bellucci

[17]Lisa Funnell, For Her Eyes Only 2012

[18]Newspaper Headline

[19]Newspaper Headline

[20]Newspaper Headline

Critical Investigation Task #5 - Introduction

Skyfall marks the anniversary of James Bond marking it as the 23^rd instalment in the iconic franchise and marking 50^th years of James Bond films and it couldn’t have been celebrated any better with the film winning an Oscar for best original song and it being held as one of the best James Bond films of all time. But behind all of the action, drama and fast cars lays a foundation of outright sexism that hasn’t been properly addressed in the past 50 years of this iconic franchise, ever since Dr No James Bond has hardly evolved as a character since the early 60’s and beyond. Looking at the character in-depth you see a man who only cares about himself and how he doesn’t let anyone else in even if he has slept with 55 women in the past 23 films. But due to this James Bond films following a set structure that mirror’s Propp’s film theory on character stereotypes leads to the James Bond character showing no potential to become a character that in the 21^st century. But the iconic Bond girl has become an importance in every James Bond film and despite everyone acting ok with this the way James Bond treats them is beyond belittling. But the question is has James Bond shown any progression since Dr No to now in Skyfall with women.