I've had very limited access to computers over the summer so I'm just going to put all of my diary entries here..
6th July
Initial thoughts
My first ideas for my COP proposal were born from a love of film, my first thoughts were whether a few individuals had the ability to mould and shape a culture - thinking about the big individuals here: Walt Disney, Hayoa Miyazaki, Wes Anderson, Stanley Kubrick.
and thinking about whether these individuals had a social responsibility to challenge the norms of society through their work. The problem I'm having is relating it to the question I picked 'To What Extent does social responsibility impact the role and function of illustration" to the point where I'm now doubting whether this is the right route to go down. Does it relate enough to COP 2?
10th July
Have decided to continue ideas for the time being, it needs to be more of an extension rather than a separate investigation. Should I extend my research into representation in cinema, as Artificial Intelligence and it's representation was my main focus in COP 2 and it might have more valuable texts focused on it. Should I look into Hollywood's white washing attitude and explore/analyse the white heterosexual male dominance in cinema, focusing on particular genre??? Where are the black actors at the Oscars? Where are the Gay/Trans actors? Where are the female leading roles??
Books I've taken out from the library: Xmen Philosophy (because the whole concept behind xmen is gay and racial supression) and 500 Cult Films.
30th July
Ive taken out more books from the library as the more I watch films the more I am beginning to see white males everywhere?! Ive delibrately taken out 2 that focus on black cinema and womens role in cinema? I feel like at this point I need to be thinking about a genre to focus on, for example, the representation of females and black actors in action movies. I've recently watched Jurrasic World where the female is nothing more than a romantic pawn for her male co star, prancing around in heels and only once really saving him. Why is she a damsel in distress and he isnt?
It's probably too much to include gay rights within my analysis but as a side note, I did look into some films that my gay co-workers mentioned I look into when I mentioned what I was looking into. Films such as "The Imitation Game" where a straight white male was cast as Alan Turing who was one of the fore fathers of technology, yet the actor was not gay himself. Was this simply because coming out as gay in Hollywood is a massive no no?
As well as this the film glazes over the fact his was castrated for his sexuality despite his outstanding contribution to society and how his sexuality often was the source of his sorrow in that time period.
I also looked into Stonewall (the film) as that was something hollywood chose to whitewash, the person that started the rebellion was a famous black drag queen NOT a white male? so why did they make that decision? is there any sense behind these castings?
