For evaluation question 2 i will be comparing my main characters, to other main characters in psychological horror genre films.
Orphan
As you can see our protagonist 'Leena Wilkes' can be compared to Isabelle Fuhrman who played 'Esther' in Orphan, this is because they both have the same life background of loosing their mum. They also both have their hair down, but not messy so it covers their face, this hairstyle has connotations of them being normal from the outside but psychologically upset from their brain. Their costume also make them look vulnerable but on the other hand the use of colours are dark connotating they are distressed and upset. You can also see facial expressions really well because of the mid-shot being used in both frames, from these frames you can see that they both look young and quite surprised. Young female protagonists are stereotypically presented as sweet and innocent, we have also used this stereotype because we didn't want to give away our protagonists real identity and characteristics.
Dark Water
The bottom frame represents a flash black that our protagonist had in our main task of her and her mum back in the days when our protagonist 'Leena Wilkes' was about 6 years old. This frame can be compared to a frame from the film called 'Dark Water', their frame is also of Jennifer Connelly 'Dahila' and Ariel Gade 'Ceci' when they were young. Both of these shots represent happiness and vulnerability because the audience can see how it feels like to be with your mum when you are little. The audience are also able to see facial expression, in both frames as you can see they both look happy like a typical mother rand daughter would.
The Ward
The ward is another film our main characters 'Leena Wilkes and 'Maya Stone' can be compared to their main characters who were Amber Heard who played 'Kristen' and Danielle Panabaker who played 'Sarah'. As you can see in both frames they are the typical best friends who are caring for each other. My characters have similar costume to the Ward's characters, but opposite, as you can see the victim in the ward is wearing red which has connotations of blood and death, whereas my victim 'Leena Wilkes' is wearing a dark blue jumper which has connotations of loneliness and distress. On the other hand my protagonists friend 'Maya Stone' is wearing red party wear this was worn to denote she is in a happy romantic mood, whereas the protagonists friend in the ward is wearing a dark blue sleeveless top but is shown to be happy within the frame because her hair and makeup looks fresh. The audience are also able to see how typical both frames are shown because the best friend is the one who always comforts the one who is in trouble at the time, in both frames the 'friend' is comforting the protagonist. This a stereotypical code in all psychological horror genre films.
I am now going to be explaining how i have represented age, gender and ethnicity in my film, and how this compares to the conventions of a horror film.
Age
In my film I have represented the age of my characters through costume, makeup and props, although my characters were the right age, of 16-17 year old, the costume and make up have made them look more categorized for example, I made my protagonist wear a dark blue jumper, jeans and converse, this sort of costume is typical because you would tend to see in horror genre films were the antagonist is young, they would always typically be in a house on their own , wearing relaxed clothes, for example in 'Scream' the antagonist 'Drew Barrymore' is at home wearing a jumper and jeans. Overall teenagers are portrayed as an easy prey for killers because they have the untouchable arrogance and innocence which always seems to get them in problematic situations, they also lack of life experience and wisdom, this statement is portrayed in our film when our protagonist 'Leena Wilkes' lacks her self confidence and thinks someone turned the TV on, when actually she sat on the remote. Our protagonist has clearly not reflected positively because she is already paranoid and just seems everything that is happening is negative and problematic. Teenagers are also portrayed as rebellious in most horror films for example, when they are with friends at home they are fine and happy, but when they are home alone they have massive fears of someone else being in the house with them, like our film we have also used this stereotype because it gives a clearer picture of what the genre is.
Gender
In today's media, we generally see gender as being very stereo-typically presented, for example women/girls being presented as 'object's', mainly sexually and emotionally orientated. In our own film we have also used 'girls' and not boys because girls are typically the main victims in horror genre for example in the films 'The Ward' and 'Scream' they have used girls as the victims because girls are typically emotional and less stronger than men. However in the film 'The Ring' this statement is opposed because the victim is a man and the haunter is a woman. But in the majority of horror films the victim is a woman/girl. Traditionally women are represented in horror films as emotional and in distress and are usually being attacked by the killer because they are emotionally weak and have less power and they need to be rescued and take care of as they are incapable of looking after themselves. The women that we see in horror films tend to vary little in age and appearance, they all tend to be young women who are quite ‘pretty’ or attractive. We have also used younger girls because they have connotations of innocence and vulnerability. It has always been conventional to horror films that the women are supposed to be portrayed as a figure of beauty and innocence whilst the attacker is portrayed as a gruesome heartless killer.
Ethnicity
In most horror films and particularly psychological horror films, there has never been an Asian protagonist, this may be due to the lack of Asian actresses. However in our film every character is Asian, we decided to make a twist instead of using the stereotypical white british protagonist, so the audeince would be more interested in watching something diffrent. In todays society most people think stereotypically of Asians assuming that they are not allowed to certain things in todays society, so are film is also representing that there is no difference between White British and Asian people, they are allowed to do the same things.
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