The document discusses several film theories including auteur theory, which argues that a director's films reflect their artistic vision. It provides Edgar Wright as an example of an auteur due to his consistent visual themes. Reception theory is explained as how audiences interpret creative works based on their own social contexts. The male gaze theory proposes that women are presented in media primarily for the erotic pleasure of male viewers. Megan Fox's role in Transformers is analyzed as an example of being subjected to the male gaze through over-sexualization.

1. RESEARCH – ESSAY
Millie Southall

2. AuteurTheory
• AuteurTheory is a way of looking at films that state that the director is the
“author” of a film.The Auteur theory argues that a film is a reflection of the
director’s artistic vision; so, a movie directed by a given filmmaker will have
recognizable, recurring themes and visual queues that inform the audience who
the director is and shows a consistent artistic identity throughout that director’s
filmography.

3. EdgarWright
• In the cornetto trilogy EdgarWright uses recurring visual themes and visual
queues which makes the movies recognizable as his own style therefore people
will recognize that style as his.This makes his a very noticeable auteur.

4. ReceptionTheory
The reception theory concept points out that, a movie, book, or game events
though it has none/some inherent meaning, the audience who watch them or
experience it make a meaning.The audience comes into an understanding of the
happenings of the text or screen.
• The audience receives the creative work done and perceives to its content in
either similar or different.The meaning of the message can change in the way
they see it fit according to their social context.
• Encoding –The encoded messages usually contains shared rules and symbols
common with other people. So the (encoder) sender has to think how the receiver
will perceive the message.
• Decoding – Decoding would be a successful deliver only if the message sent by the
encoder is understood completely to its content as it was intended.

5. The Hypodermic Needle theory
• The Hypodermic NeedleTheory is a linear communication theory which suggests
that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. It
suggests that we’re all the same and we all respond to media messages in the
same way.

6. The Male gaze (Laura Mulvey)
• “The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure… with
[her] appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact.” – Mulvey
• A manner of treating women's bodies as objects to be surveyed, which is
associated by feminists with hegemonic masculinity, both in everyday social
interaction and in relation to their representation in visual media

7. Megan Fox -Transformers
InTransformers Megan Fox is used
predominantly for the male gaze.The film
is targeted towards men, and she is never
covered up. Her actions and the way she is
positioned is always over sexualised.

8. Male Gaze
• "According to Mulvey, mainstream film satisfies especially the male spectator by projecting his
desires onto the screen. Women are regarded as objects of fetishist display for the male viewer's
pleasure. Fundamentally, a woman presented on screen should be very erotic, so that she attracts
the spectators attention"
• From this I have learned that mainstream media like Hollywood will reveal women's bodies for
male viewership. Women in mainstream media are like objects used only for men's visual pleasure.

9. Male Gaze
• From this quote I have learned that Hollywood follows
male gaze theory because they follow the stereotype of
an active male and a passive female.
• I learned from this that the onlooker is not necessarily
male, but to activate this gaze to an objectified female
subconsciously puts us in a "masculine" position.
• “the gaze is not necessarily male, but to own and activate
the gaze, given our language and the structure of the
unconscious, is to be in the “masculine” position.

10. Michael Bay
• Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast
cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosions.
• He has won 9 awards for transformers including the MTV award for best movie.
• US actress Megan Fox has defended film director Michael Bay after a 2009 interview where she described an encounter with him
resurfaced online.
• The interview showed Fox describe how Bay got her to "dance underneath a waterfall" in a bikini when she was 15 years old, for the film
Bad Boys II. SomeTwitter users said Bay, who later directed Fox in twoTransformer films, had "sexualised" her as a teenager. But Fox
said she was "never assaulted or preyed upon" sexually.
•

11. SceneAnalysis
In this scene Sam gives Mikaela a lift hoe but his car "breaks down"
on the journey, which was his car trying to set him up with her.When
they pull over and fix the car, she is bent over the hood of the car
with almost no clothes on.This is one of the first examples of male
gaze in the film.This is male gaze because Sam is watching her the
etire time and this entire scene is over sexualised which is how he
sees her. Its also an example of male gaze because this is a car film
Which is targeted at men so this megan fox scene is to please men
visually.

12. Bibliography
• Indie Film Hussle. (2021).What isAuteurTheory? – Definition and Examples.Available:
https://indiefilmhustle.com/auteur-theroy/. Last accessed 09/09/2021
• n.d. ReceptionTheory. Available: https://www.communicationtheory.org/reception-theory/. Last
accessed 09/09/2021.
• Lamb, B.THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLETHEORY.Available: https://lessonbucket.com/media-in-
minutes/the-hypodermic-needle-theory/. Last accessed 09/09/2021.
• n.d. Male Gaze. Available:
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100128610. Last accessed
09/09/2021.
• Hein, C (2008). Laura Mulvey,Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. : GRINVerlag. p3-4.
• Newman, B (1990). The situation of the Looker-on. : Cambridge University. p1029-1041.