The concept of gaze is one that analyses how an audience views, or is intended to view, the people presented. The types of gaze are primarily categorised by who is doing the looking and who controls the gaze (eg. director, camera, lead actor - historically male).
To look; to stare; to gaze - Looking and 'the gaze': Johnathan Schroeder (1998), "to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relatioship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze."
Johnathan Schroeder notes, ' Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view' (Schroeder 1998, 208)
TASK:
Q: How many different types of 'gaze' can there be in a media text?
The spectator's gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person (or animal, or object) in the text
The intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the text (typically depicted in filmic and televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view shot’);
The direct (or extra-diegetic) address to the viewer: the gaze of a person (or quasi-human being) depicted in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer, with associated gestures and postures (in some genres, direct address is studiously avoided);
The look of the camera: the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people (or animals or objects) depicted; less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker or photographer.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze02.html
Q: Who controls the 'gaze' in each case?
In each case the 'gaze' would be controlled by the viewer, as with one of the four looks posed by Ferguson (1983) 'romantic and sexual' the female model presented in the music video poses as a sexual fantasy figure for the audience, which would greatly (and stereotypically) consist of males.
Q: What other power relationships can be defined by the 'gaze' - or who is looking at whom?
Other power relationships could consist of 'gaze' within the parameter of the video itself. For example if a woman/women in the scene are infatuated by a male model within the music video. The gaze that is presented via the models could also translate to the gaze by the audience, which affects the way in which the audience view the characters presented in the video.
Q: How is this expressed in the music videos you have been analysing.
In Carly Rae Jepsen's video 'Call Me Maybe' gaze is presented through Jepsen herself. Her character is head over heels for a male character/model presented. The way in which both characters exchange gaze throughout the duration of the music video creates a sense of fantasy, (not necessarily sexual) mainly being felt by Jepsen herself. When the male character makes eye contact with Jepsen (the 'gazer') she looks away shyly, which you could say subverts Schroeder's 'Gaze theory' giving the male model as 'the gaze' more power. When it is uncovered that the male character is in fact gay the gaze, and the way we as an audience view the character is completely turned on its head - and any superiority felt by the 'gazer' fades away, as does her fantasy to be with the male character.
No comments:
Post a Comment