Question 2

The main thing that is included in our film is a representation of gender. We decided almost immediately that we didn't want to go for the typical damsel in distress for our female character. We wanted females to be represented in a more strong, powerful way. Therefore we used Sophie's character to show females as more powerful than the male characters. She is in charge of all of the males. You can tell this through the dialogue as she instructs them and doesn't ever actually do much work herself. The male characters are looking at her more often than not showing that they either respect or fear her, this reinforces her power. We also often used camera angles like the tilt to reinforce that she is towering over Fraser. This makes Fraser seem vulnerable as she is much stronger than him and he is in her mercy. Even in the drugging scene where Fraser isn't tied up he takes a drink from her when she instructs him to. This shows that even people that aren't under her control take orders from her, through this we see that her power reaches everyone.
Again for the male characters we didn't want to paint them as the typical powerful characters that we are used to seeing males in thrillers play. We wanted Fraser to be very weak and defenseless. One way that we portrayed this is through tying him up and gagging him so that he had no use of any part of his body and he is very vulnerable. To further this the characters around him all have weapons so he is even more defenseless. He is sitting down so the other characters tower over him making him seem as though he is the weakest.

His clothing is casual suggesting that he doesn't fit in with the others who are more powerful than him. The drugging scene furthers his vulnerability because he trusts Sophie and is completely under her control in the situation.
Reece, Joe and Alex all further both of the portrayals of gender that I've chosen to portray. They further the portrayal of a powerful female as they follow Sophie's orders and don't tend to speak unless she speaks to them first. This shows that they are under her control. This also shows the portrayal of male vulnerability because even though they do have some power they don't have as much as Sophie and they are still weak in comparison to her.
I think that both portrayals in my opening are positive. The female breaks the stereotype that females are always weak and defenseless through being in charge and having all of the males respect or fear her. The male representation is positive in a different way. Fraser's character is a very extreme portrayal meaning that it does come across as dangerous. Therefore that could be considered negative. However, it is also positive as in real life men aren't always the most strong, powerful people and it is positive to have a portrayal of that which the audiences can relate to.