Week 8: Advertising Post

I had a lot of thoughts about this week�s assignments, and decided to go with what I know really well right now: Running. I took a look at my Runners World magazine, which I feel is geared towards women runners, and found a lot of topics I could explore. But I focused only on one. Looking at the ads throughout this magazine made me realize they make exercise and running look easy, effortless and graceful. After having a bad running week myself, I was kind of upset they portrayed running in this manner. For anyone who has trained for a marathon, or tried to, we know this is not an easy task. The magazine itself was filled with ads that consisted of exercising, running, energy bars, and upcoming marathon dates.
I was surprised to see that most of the ads in Runners World consisted of men. I was also taken back that when they portrayed men they showed all of their muscles making them look fabulous, but when woman were used in the ads, they only showed their faces and if their bodies were used their muscles were not defined.
One ad that stuck out to me was for a drink called Myoplex. It showed a much defined, toned, young man running with a stamped of beautiful horses. The man was labeled as �the workhorse� and the caption read, �Charge through the stampede.� He looked as if he was putting no effort forth and that running is easy. Yeah right, like drinking Myolplex is going to put you into the same category as a horse.
The ad that I made shows what running really entails. Enjoy.

http://www.jumpcut.com/create/edit?movie_id=11384BC0DB3D11DB95EC000423CF4092

Week 7: Genre Analysis Post

Romantic Comedy Genre
I admit it wholeheartedly, I am a complete sucker for romantic comedies. Movies such as Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing, Notting Hill, How to lose a guy in 10 days, What Women Want, She’s All That, and Love Actually are movies that I am attracted to and actually ENJOY watching. After a hard weeks work, there is nothing better than curling up on my couch with my dog, Lily, and tuning in to mindless love stories that leave me laughing, crying and sometimes doing both.
So why do I find myself wanting to watch more of this type of genre? Because I love the happy endings, the actors, the fairytale love stories and the good feelings I have after watching them. Call me a sap, but it doesn’t get much better than this.

Prototypical Roles
Men- Muscular, beautiful, wealthy, popular, athletic, great hair, powerful
These men usually aren’t looking for a relationship but often find themselves falling in love with a woman that is usually not their typical date.
Woman- skinny, naturally beautiful and then they go through a make over that makes them absolutely stunning, middle class, work for men, looking for love in all the wrong places, have been hurt by a past lover, fall in love hard and fast, let the men make the decisions.
**In more of the recent romantic comedies, the roles can be reversed. For example, in Notting Hill, you see Julie Robert’s character follow the prototypical role that males usually follow and Hugh Grant character takes on the woman’s role.

Setting
The setting varies in these movies. They seem to follow the theme of big city, but can also be seen in smaller cities as well. Most of the romance comedies revolve around an office or workplace.

Imagery and symbols
I wasn’t able to put my finger on imagery or symbols that remained consistent through the majority of romantic comedies. (This was hard for me to find out- I will ask my group members about this one!)
Imagery- woman are beautiful, men are beautiful
Symbols- type of music being played- usually meaningful lyrics.

Typical Storylines The typical plot for a romance comedy follows a simple structure.
Single man- single woman. They unexpectedly meet- coffee shops, books stores, walking down Rodeo Drive, work. Something is holding one of them back- scared to be in a relationship, ego, selfishness, married, money, age. A lot of roadblocks seem to present themselves throughout the course of the movie (the twist)- a past lover, fame, work schedule, different socio-economic class. They have romantic dates- fancy restaurants, candles, flowers, fancy parties, and the men wine and dine the woman, love notes. They breakup or leave each other. They realize they are miserable and can’t live without each other. They fall in love, resolve all of the roadblocks, and live happily ever after.

Values Expressed
Love is easy
Love will always work out
Fairy tale endings always happen
Your perfect guy will just fall into your lap when you least expect it
Love will make you happy

I think these movies are produced for a many reasons, but the three the hit home for me are as stated:
1. They allow me to have a good cry- tears are inevitable during these movies as cheesy as they can be.
2. They allow the men in my life-and in the world- to realize what we think romance is.
3. And possibly the most important, they allow me to escape the real world and experience the fairy tale ending I know will never actually be reality for me and the thousands of other woman in the world