Research and Planning 4: Representation of social groups in our opening sequence

Our main characters, Jen (left) and Blake (right)

Our lead male character, Blake, is a strong-willed, determined male character. We wanted him to be a clear signifier of the action genre, as many popular action films have powerful males as the leading character. Examples would include James Bond from the 007 films and Bryan Mills from Taken. However, one of the key aspects of our plot is that unlike typical alpha-male characters like James Bond, Blake is a good man forced into doing bad things to rescue his partner. To make this more believable, we tried to present Blake as a relatable, middle-class man so that the audience could feel sympathy for him. Furthermore, we created this representation because many alpha-male characters can come across as a bit two dimensional: Bond follows the rule of 'kill or be killed'. By making him more adaptable to the role of a regular, middle-class man and an alpha-male killer, it creates more depth for our main character.

Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko
in Quantam of Solace

Whilst Blake is represented somewhat typically of alpha male characters, the female lead character in our sequence is a more challenging of media stereotypes. Jennifer is ex-police just like Blake, but has ended up among thugs and thieves through her hobby of gambling. We wanted to stray from action film stereotypes in which the female character is glamorous and stylish to create a more compelling character who can be portrayed more equally to Blake. We wanted to avoid a scenario in which the purpose of Jennifer's character was to bolster the identity of Blake, which is common in many action films such as Quantam of Solace. Whilst she does provide some character development for Blake, she can still stand as her own character who is equally important to Blake.