Critical Investigation Task #3: Historical text analysis and research

By 'historical' we mean anything pre-2000 but the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or even 80s might be more fruitful because they pre-date many of the important changes that have occurred more recently (such as the gains for women as a result of feminism; or greater equality for ethnic minorities now that we are - arguably - a more inclusive and multi-cultural society; or the ground-breaking developments in new media/digital technology). 

The purpose here is to be able to demonstrate...

• how society and the issue you are investigating has changed over the years and how these changes are reflected in different media texts, or - to put it another way...
• how popular culture reflects the 'spirit of the age' or Zeitgeist

Ideally, you will watch at least one film/TV programme/video game/music video from the past, make notes on it and research it in Media/Film Studies textbooks and on the internet. The best option is to watch/play the whole text on DVD/online or otherwise you might be able to see extracts on YouTube. Answer the following questions:

• How is it similar/different to your main text?
• How does this show how the genre/society/issue has changed?

Through this you will become aware of developments in the genre you are researching. This task is designed to make sure you have a range of texts to refer to in your critical investigation essay (you'll need at least five including your main text and the historical text you analyse in this task). Remember: you should be able to link them to the wider contexts that were/are present at the time. It's also worth noting that you will be rewarded for considering your topic across different platforms.

If you can't get hold of an original copy of the text it's not the end of the world - you will be stuck doing secondary research. Just make sure you do plenty of it and find out information from a few different sources.

As ever, list your historical text(s), research, textual analysis and links/bibliography in a detailed blog post (or simply add to your ongoing Notes and Quotes post).



Historical Text Analysis: (0.13s - 1m.50s)

This scene is a fight scene of Phoebe, Piper and Cole against mythical creatures. 

There seems to be a disequilibrium (todorov) as the scene begins when we see smoke coming out of the garage and the 3 characters in the scene (Phoebe, Piper and Cole) seem to look puzzled. The disequilibrium continues as the fight scene starts and carries on up until the creatures disappear. There is an Alternative representation of women in this scene as instead of being shown as weak the girls are shown as strong and able to put up a fight for themselves which challenges the traditional 
The scene goes against Berger's ways of seeing as instead of 'men act and women appear' as in this scene the 2 female characters are fighting the creatures while the man is standing on the side and watching.

Mise-en-scene.
Costume - The outfits worn by the characters seem to look quite outdated and modest. Both girls, Phoebe and Piper, are covered with their clothing. This could be down to the fact of the trends for clothes back when this was filmed may have been in style or it could be due to how society allowed women to dress - compared to pretty little liars, the costumes are more modest in charmed, maybe because they are much older. However, in PLL there is more freedom in terms on clothing as they seem to be wearing quite inappropriate clothing in unsuitable situations.  
Lighting - In this clip, the use of high-key lighting provides a more realistic feel of a sunny day by using more filler lights. 
Actors facial expressions - at the start of the scene, Piper's eyebrows are furrowed which shows a sense of confusion as she uses gestures to point at the smoke coming out of the garage. The gestures play a vital part in Charmed as the girls use them to control their powers. the strength of the gesture seems to vary depending on what they need to use their spells for. when the creature comes for piper, her facial expressions seem shocked as her eyes become wide and her mouth suddenly opens before she ducks down.
Make-up - they have light natural make up on. 
Settings - Seems to be a abandoned area, warehouse or garage from which 3 creatures emerge. this disequilibrium notifies us of a potential fight scene as there is an action code presented (barthes).
There is also a binary opposition (levi-strauss) in the scene of 'good vs' evil'. This is presented between the mythical creatures and the main characters who are trying to fight them off.

At the end of the fight when the creatures have the upperhand, Cole (the male), saves the girl which shows reinforces the traditional stereotypes that woment still rely on a man to protect them if worse comes to worse.