Break Free

Break Free

'Break Free' is a short film that I found on YouTube while researching our theme of stereotypes. The film was written, produced by and stared Ruby Rose. She is a major figure people look up to when dealing with stereotypes and gender issues. In the description of the film she simply wrote "A short film about gender roles, Trans and what it's like to have an identity the deviates from the status quo." 

The short film 'Break Free' fits into the Personal View category as it was made solely by Ruby Rose, about problems she faces in society. During the film we see her transform from what society sees as a beautiful young girl with the long blonde hair, into a more masculine version of herself. The film focuses on her views as an individual about societies rules on gender stereotypes and how they should be broken.

The film takes on a linear structure, starting with Ruby's stereotypical female getting ready for presumably a night out, then going through her phases of transformation, to finally being happy with the person she becomes. 

At the beginning of the film a hand held shot is used to show her getting ready for what we presume is a night out. She is putting on her heeled boots, checking her hand bag and painting her nails. The hand held shot used here gives us a slightly shaky shot which to me is interpreted as her insecurity as this is not who she really is. 
From this we see Ruby in the mirror. She has long blonde hair and seems to be brushing it contently. She continues to get ready applying make up such as mascara and lipstick.


This is a stereotypical girl thing to do. Spending time doing makeup and hair to look good for this night out ready to impress. "When they do make it onto the silver or small screen, their portrayals can undermine their presence by being hyper-attractive" This quote from "https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/GDIGM_Gender_Stereotypes.pdf" fully supports the idea that females in film and media are often stereotyped as beautiful and making the effort to look pretty in order to impress others, stereotypically the opposite sex. This can be backed up further, with a quote from the same article, " the need for a shift: away from creating females as adornment, excitement, or with inclination to romance as the main or exclusive personality trait or motivator."


After that the mood shifts. We are directly shown a pair of scissors on the side of the sink. This is where the transformation begins. Where Ruby decided to defy the gender stereotypes society has set for her. The first step is to cut her hair. 
















After that we jump cut to her hair being extremely short in what you would typically call a male style. She has transformed from blonde to brunette and looks happier within herself, as she smiles proudly into the mirror.
Ruby then gets into the bath to show her true self by washing off the makeup that is covering up her tattoos.

 


In order to become herself she removes her makeup including her eyelashes, lipstick and the nail polish we saw her putting on earlier. Taking it all off and becoming natural is rarely seen in girls these days. They often believe that they have to wear makeup and look their best in order to leave the house.  





Ruby then begins to tape up her breasts and proceeds to dress in what we would stereo-typically assume is male clothing, wearing black jeans, a masculine shirt and a blazer. This is Ruby's transformation to defy the gender roles set in society. The message she wants people to receive is clear throughout the 5 minute film. Be who you are, whatever that is. 



The film defies gender stereotypes through mixing up the "groups" we perceive people to belong to. "Understood as simply structured and stable mental images of individuals belonging to certain groups - ideas rooted in everyday cultural consciousness and therefore conditionalised - stereotypes obviously serve as important reference points for the creation of fictional characters." (Film and stereotype a challenge for cinema and theory, page 43) This implies that we look to society and the "groups" we select and add people into in order to create characters and give them specific traits. This is what Ruby is trying to avoid through creating her own character. Someone that fits to her beliefs. 


'Break Free' gave us inspiration for our 1-2 minute film, but mainly for our 5-10 minute. 
The use of outfits included in this film, used to represent the different sides of Ruby gave us the idea to use outfits to represent different stereotypes. Ruby is in a dress at the beginning of this film while she's representing a 'traditional girl'. However; is wearing jeans, a shirt and a blazer when associating more masculine. From this we came up with a list of stereotypes, such as an athlete, a scientists, and nerds etc.. and came up with corresponding outfits. 
Hollis Frampton's; Nostalgia (1971) gave us the idea to create photographs of a woman in each of theses stereotypical outfits and burn each photograph. Giving the effect of burning away societies stereotypes, implying that anyone can be anything. 

For the 5-10 minute film we took different aspects from Ruby Rose's 'Break Free'. The scene of Ruby applying her make up in the mirror gave us the idea to set up our film as a make up tutorial video. As Ruby transforms into a more masculine character by the end of the film we decided that having a male applying make up may be more effective, as it defies gender roles and stereotypes even more. For the sound element we decided to add a voice over as if the man was creating a YouTube tutorial, however, the voice wouldn't be his, it would be female. This gives the effect that something is wrong as his mouth is moving but there is a female voice that doesn't match what he appears to be saying throughout the film. This is also used in 'Break Free' as towards the end of the film we see Ruby talking/shouting at the camera but we cannot tell what is being said as there is no audio, just the music that has been played throughout. 

The Mask (2015) developed our idea further as it switches between people smiling and frowning. This gave us the idea the 'glitch' between the male applying make up and the female removing/smudging it. This implies two different emotions, reversed to how you would naturally view them. 

Ruby Rose's short film 'Break Free' is the most relevant to our two films, 'Reflection' and 'Diverge' as it's main theme is stereotypes. We are looking at stereotypes as a main theme connecting 'Reflection' and 'Diverge' and hoping they provide a message about stereotypes within society. 'Break Free' also gives a message about stereotypes but also about gender roles in society which I believe our 5-10 minute film 'Diverge' also touches on. 




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