Evaluation 2

Evaluation: Activity Two


Activity 2

Men are represented as powerful and in control in our media product. The character of John is the villain. He’s calling all the shots, holding all the cards and has all the power in the situation. The character of James is seen as the ‘lackey’. Despite this James still has quite a bit of power over the main character due to him having information on how to save Zoe’s, the protagonist, half-sister.
James and John are of two different classes. James is working class while John is middle to upper class. This puts John in a higher and more powerful position to James as he has more connections, money and has had a better life so he knows how to get what he wants, whereas James would have gone to an overpopulated state school which means he wouldn’t have had as good an education as John. His parents wouldn’t be able to help him on his way in life like John’s would have because they wouldn’t have known how or known anyone who would have.
The difference in their power caused by class is shown through John being the one who gives the orders and James being the one to follow them and carry them out. James is the henchman and John is the villain. This is also shown by the hoody that James is seen in which is a stereotypical item of clothing that a teenager would wear.
The camera angles used also helped to illustrate the difference in statues between the two characters. When filming John, the more powerful character, we used a worms eye view which meant that John was looking down on the camera and therefor down on the audience which gave him more power. However when James
was being filmed a birds eye view was used or the camera was on the same level with him which meant the audience was looking down on him or on the same level as him. This meant that when compared to John he had less power and was made to be of a lower status. An example of this would be in ‘Gone In 60 Seconds’ where the younger brother of the main character, Kip Raines, gets involved with the ‘bad guy’, Raymond ‘The Carpenter’ Calitri, and then does the bidding of the villain.
Below are screen grabs demonstrating how the characters of John and James are represented.
(John left James right)

Women are  represented as good and heroic in contrast to men being shown as evil and bad. This is signified by Zoe wearing white. This is a very pure, innocent and honest colour - the audience will understand these connotations. John is seen in red lighting surrounded by dark colours like black. These colours convey danger and instantly show that this character is the villain and isn’t to be trusted.
John’s and Zoe’s characters are both of different ages. Zoe is a teenage (just coming up to her nineteenth birthday) while John is an adult of the age twenty-seven with a job and a lot of money. The difference in their age reflects the positions in their status. John would be of a higher status because he is older and so has more experience and knowledge of the world. Whereas Zoe would be of a lower status because she is younger and could still be considered as innocent in the ways of the world. This is shown by John being the villain and having the power to make Zoe do whatever he wants her to, while Zoe has no other choice but to do as he says.
The character of Zoe was made to seem better and more innocent than the character of John by using a lot of extreme wide shots and having her running and stumbling to make her appear to be more vulnerable whereas when filming John the camera was always steady and he never moved which made him seem more composed and more comfortable with the situation. 
The is also shown in ‘Sucker Punch’ where the character of Sweet Pea is made to do what the villain in the film wants because he is older, has more experience and has far more knowledge of the world than she does, therefore more powerful.
Below are screen grabs that demonstrate this.
(Zoe left John right)

Below is a voice over of the above.
https://soundcloud.com/zoe-scarlett-1/voice-over-act-2