Mamma Mia Representation Blog Post

 Vanessa Goetz                                                                                         Film of Choice : Mamma Mia 

                                                

    Mamma Mia is a musical romantic comedy film that although came out in 2008 implements representation of a variety of groups, genders, and issues. 

    The main characters of the movie are Sophie and her mother, Donna. The mother-daughter relationship allows the movie to focus on both ague groups being young adults, and middle aged people. The different age groups are crucial to the film as it allows Sophie and Donna to clash occasionally but also shows the loving relationship between them even though they often misunderstand each other. 

Female Representation: 

    This film also focuses mostly on female representation which wasn't as popular at the time. Some of the important female bonds portrayed in the film include Sophies relationship with her mom, Sophies relationship with her friends, and also Donna's relationship with her friends. Although the movie heavily focuses on females it also includes three men to help balance it out ( Sam, Bill, and Harry).

    Although the film is great at balancing genders and represents each one with multiple main characters the film fails to include a diverse workforce in terms of ethnicity. All main characters in the film are shown as Greek white characters. Throughout the film only one darker skinned character is shown this may be due to the fact that there is only a small population of them in Greece. 

    Furthermore, Mamma Mia doesn't fail to represent the LGBT+ community in both of their films. Although not normalized at the time of the release they still made one of the main characters, Harry Bright, gay. Additionally, this isn't given a negative connotation in the film but actually adds to his character. All other relationships shown in the film are heterosexual which is most common.

  Although disabilities and mental illness are not included as part of the film it is made up for with their usage of common issues to help the audience relate to the film. The film acknowledges a family dynamic issue between Sophie and her mother, Donna, who is a single mother left alone trying to manage and support herself. Not only does the film illustrate the mother daughter relationship well but they also capture the struggles and stress it comes with being a single mother. 

    

 

Genre Research Activity-Comedy

 Vanessa Goetz P.8                                                                                             AICE Media Studies 

                                            Friday, November 3rd, 2023

Comedy (#1)

Comedic films are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. 

These films are usually made for the general public without a target audience-this can be limited through the use of G, PG, PG-13 ratings. 

The main purpose of movies in the comedy genre are to provoke enjoyment and entertain the viewers. 

Genre Conventions (#2) - Content 

- Many comedies have a hectic setting with many people around.

Ex. Schools, Offices

This is done as it allows characters to make a fool out of themselves as they are mostly in public 

- Opposite main characters 

Many movies use characters with completely different backgrounds, opinions, and styles to add to the movie and allow for comedy to bounce off their character.

Genre Conventions (#3) - Production

- Aims more towards naturalistic shots

Typically cinematography in comedy tends to use mostly naturalistic shots as in these films we typically grow close ro the character as we see their full personality. Additionally, in comedic films all characters are usually portrayed as equal, if there are 2 main characters one is not more important than the other as they work together. 

-Props 

In comedic films props are usually found to be thee center of many jokes and take much importance. 

Ex. Diary of a Wimpy Kid the prop is the slice of cheese 

Institutional Convenions (#4)

- Cast

Nowadays, people are highly influenced by the cast when deciding whether or not they want o watch a movie. If an actor/actress they know or is well known is acting then they are more likely to watch it. This is one way to market the film to customers without them realizing it.

-Thumbnail

Many comedy films have colorful, silly, and intriguing thumbnails which will catch customers attention. These thumbnails could be hung up in certain places or shown on billboards to market the movie. 

Film Sample #1 

Project X is a movie that was released in 2012 which follows a friend group of boys around for their friends, Thomas Kobb, birthday party in which they throw a massive party and end up wrecking the house. 

This film embodies a comedic movie because all throughout the movie the characters are doing things that are frowned upon and get into problems and get away with it sometimes. The movie is an overall very unusual situation for this group of Boyd to put themselves in as they are part of the "weird" part of their grade and aren't considered popular. As most actions taken we're out of their comfort zone and didn't line up with the characters style, the unusual actions made the movie funny and entertaining to viewers. This films audience was young adults and teens as adults watching the movie may have more conservative opinions about it and not find it comedic. 

Film Sample #2

Ferris Bueller's day off is a movie in which the main character, Ferris Bueller and his two friends try to take a day off from school and have an insanely creative plan to do so. This is also a teen comedy movie. Some of the main parts that bring laughter to the film are when the principle goes to extreme lengths to try and stop Ferris and catch him in the act of skipping school. Ferris' rebellious actions are very entertaining and funny. Because this film follows a very busy and hectic day for the friend group we get to see many scenes in which not only characters are stressed but also getting along and making eachother laugh which is overall funny to the audience. 

Other Movies to Check Out (#7)

Blog Creation

 Blog Creation.                                                                                              Vanessa Goetz P.8

    For my sound project my partner, Chloe Blum, and I created a series of foley sounds putt together with other sounds we found online to create the sounds of a busy restaurant in which a fire forms. These sounds include but aren't limited to yelling, chopping, and even instrumental music. 

My partner Chloe and I went about this project by first brainstorming what our story line should be and what sounds would be incorporated. After various failed story's we decided to work with a restaurant. We learned that various groups in our class were planning on doing the same so we wanted to add something to differentiate our project from the rest. This is when w decided too add a fire to our scenario. 

We decided incorporating a fire would be perfect because it is a natural environment for the fire to happen in and could sound realistic.The fire sounds we found online and added a more chaotic touch by including screams, running footsteps, and glass breaking. 

Chloe and I split up our work in different ways. She would be the one collecting all the sounds that could be found online as well as making half of the foley sounds needed, while I would be editing the project and creating the other half of the folly sounds. 

Overall, I think Chloe and I made a good team and worked efficiently on our project and am happy with the outcome. 

In the following link you will find how we made the foley sounds... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHRCjpd-s8I

Final project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXL4t575Tw8