Question Two

In our media product we focused on various representations such as gender and age when it came to Zac. In this question, I have compared him to other characters similar to him but also explained how Zac does or does not follow or go against the typical representation.

GENDER: 

I have made a character profile of Zac to explain the typical representation of gender:

This profile compares him to another, similar character - Simon James, and also explains why he goes against the typical representation of his gender.


AGE:

Typical representation of a boy of Zac's age: 

Some would be portrayed as going out to parties and being around their friends a lot. They could be seen as immature and to not be serious about much.

Zac goes against this representation of age as he doesn't appear to have many, if any, friends and is shown to live a very isolated lifestyle. 

Another representation of age is the 'geeky' type of boy. Not many boys pictured above would also be pictured studying in most media products. This shows a big contrast in two different representations of the same age group.

Zac supports this representation and goes against it at the same time as he looks like he is interested in academics as he is reading a book about psychology in the beginning of our film. He goes against it however as it is not clear that this is actually what he is doing, he is not shown to be at university.


An example of a representation in a real media product: 

This is a character, Lucas, from the television series Pretty Little Liars. Although this is not a film, it represents age in a similar way to our media product.

Lucas is portrayed as being geeky and shy, into school and extra-curricular activities such as the Yearbook club. He is shy and not good at confessing how he really feels.

This is similar to Zac as he is extremely shy and timid and will not readily talk to anyone else. This could show how he fits the 'geeky' representation of a young adult.  

This is Caleb, another character from Pretty Little Liars. In the series, Lucas sees Caleb as an enemy due to them liking the same girl.

Caleb is manly, handsome and often gets himself into trouble. This is similar to the very first representation of age I described.

This is similar to Zac and Zabel as Zac sees Zabel as a threat to his freedom. This fits the representation of age that the more popular, mischievous boys are superior and more powerful than the geekier, more intelligent and shy characters.