Summer Research Project

The Proposal, Anne Fletcher (2009)
Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds


Media Representations

Protagonist Bullock, is represented as breaking the stereotypical ideologies of women, by being portrayed as a hardoworking, career focussed woman. Which is enhanced by having a male assistant, which is usually thought of as a woman's role.

The representation if not neither fair, nor accurate, as it is at an extreme, that may not reflect the life of the everyday people who will be watching the text.


Media Language and Forms

The denotation of meaning in this text is that the protagonist is a selfish yet harworking woman who only looks out for herself in life, thus taking advantage of her employees and not caring about thier personal lives. Also, that the marriage of Bullock and Reynolds is that of conveienice to the protagonist in order for her to stay in the country.
Whereas the connotation of this, is that Bullocks charcter actually is not as selfish and hardfaced as she comes across but has had occurances in life that has made her this way. Also, that in this case Bullocks character may have had feelings for her secretary (Reynolds) all along, and is not only using him out of conveinience.
The significance of the connotation is that, it is unusual for the audeince to dislike the protagonist, and if this were to happen, the audience may not enjoy the film as they should.
The protagonist rarely smiles at the beginning of the text, and is usually shown to be frowning in the close-ups used of the character.
Setting at the beginning of the films consists of a well built up area, using a high amount of medium shots portraying how uptight and busy the life of the protagonists is. Yet towards the middle and end of the film, the setting is of a country-side like area, where there is a lot of space connoting the relaxation of the protagonist and ability to start opening up as a person.


Narrative

The film has a linear narrative, with, at the beginning has numeruous action codes, urging the audience to carry on watching the film.
Thw villain of the film (Bullock) is created through the fast pace of editing, when she is entering a room, creating panic, connoting that she is in control.


Genre

The genre of the text belongs to a hybrid, consisting of comedy, romance and drama. Typical of the romance genre, the couple generally despise eachother at the beginning, then grow to love eachother through the course of the narrative, due to findings of common grounds or realisation of one character having what the other doesnt. The film fulfills audiences expectations considering generic expectations. Although in some cases within the narrative it deviates from the charactersistics of the genre by


Media Audeinces

The text is aimed at primarily a predeominantly female audience aged between 15-25. This audience seems suitable due to the change in society regarding the role of women in the workplace.