Evaluation Activity 2: How are characters represented particular social groups

Protagonists

Holly in our movie and Bella Swan in ‘Twilight’ are similar in the way that they go against Propp's character theory of the protagonist being 'girly' damsel in distress figure relying on a (male) hero to save her and instead they show a resourceful and independent character. They know what they want in life and won’t rest until they achieve it, in Bella’s case however that is to become a vampire whereas Holly’s would simply have been to finish college and go to university and get a job, until she is kidnapped.

Bella shows her independence at the beginning of the movie as she made the courageous decision to move to her father’s home, Holly shows her independence straight away by being home alone. Having strong, powerful women characters add a sense of diversity to the film instead of the usual weak female and this is becoming more and more popular for example, Bella in ‘Twilight’, Katniss in ‘The Hunger Games’ and Tris in ‘Divergent’.

Each of these women connotes their power through what they wear, they do not wear pretty dresses and skirts, and they tend to wear jeans or in some cases combat clothes which are more functional and action oriented. This is why we decided to dress Holly in a hooded jacket and army printed jeans.

We also decided to show Holly’s boyish character through the semiotics of her bedroom, which in actual fact is our friends brother's room, we decided to use this room for Holly because of the football themed layout and the blue wall, the colour blue is usually associated with boys whereas the colour pink is connected to girls and also only boys tend to be football fans and the fact that she is a fan of football further connotes her 'tomboyish' personality; it also suggests that she has a close relationship with her father as they would go and watch the matches together.

Villains

The Villain in our movie and the Villain in ‘Ils’ (Them) are quite similar in the way that they are both manipulative intruders who invade a house but remain unknown to the victims and the audience. We feel that this creates more suspense to the audience but also leaves them unsure throughout the movie which adds tension and is a common theme in thrillers.

In movies where you know the villain you may become to feel sympathetic towards them and understand why they are doing what they are doing whereas if you don’t know much about the villain they may seem more frightening, mysterious and powerful to the audience.