Representation of Taken 

The representation of gender in Taken reinforces traditional gender stereotypes. Liam Neeson plays the stereotypical male American action hero. He is robust, brave and intelligent in trying to figure out where his daughter is kept hostage. From his incredible skills he manages to rescue his innocent daughter and is able to put an end to the group that took his daughter. These are typical qualities associated with men in action films. The female character in the trailer lacks strength and intelligence; this supports stereotypes. From this it shows that in terrible and dangerous situations, females are useless and vulnerable when it comes to surviving or saving someone. This is quite sexist and shows a bad representation of women but is very common in Hollywood action movies. The representation of Eastern- Europeans in Taken reinforces stereotypes. Albanian people are the human-traffickers in Taken also known as Eastern-Europeans. Stereotypes would think that Albanian people are heinous and vile because they acted as the antagonists and did bad things. In Hollywood films foreigners are also the villains to show that Americans are allows the protagonists and this movie clearly exhibits this by putting a bad example on Albanians and a good example on Americans. Stereotypes will comment on that by saying all Albanians are bad. This shows a bad representation towards Eastern-European but is typical in a Hollywood movie.

The central image dominates the whole film poster and relates to the narrative plot. I have noticed that most posters use the central image to link with their audience interests. I have focused on my hero and villain which is shown in the poster. The central image also includes of weapons to attract the people that are compelled in crime. the characters are back to back to show whose more superior. The Title in this poster is prominent and is placed underneath the waist of both characters, this makes the face and weapons visible to the audience showing their conflict and hatred. Beneath the title lays the tagline which is ' Would you seek revenge for your father '. This would question the audience and engage them to watch it and find the answer to it. The tagline will leave the audience speechless and excited to find the answer. Another key convention is the release date. The release date is situated below the tagline. The audience will immediately respond to the release date as that is the most effective convention in a poster which allows the audience to look forward to that day.       

My genre of my film is crime thriller but there is an element of the horror genre because the background looks dark and eerie. I have signified my genre using dark colours and weapons as they are commonly used in crime thriller films. The dark colours of the background portrays to my audience that this is a crime thriller because most crime films are set in dull places. looking at the poster, the audience will figure out who the protagonist (hero) and the antagonist(in this case its the murderer). Mostly every crime thriller film has a killer therefore, the target audience will know the genre by seeing the two characters. the formal and informal clothes suggests that one of them is a killer and the other is a hero. This is included in other films of the same genre.   

' The producers of Sin City ' is located at the top of the poster. This will draw more audiences that are interested in seeing a similar film as Sin City. The reviews will attract more audience as it has good positive views. one of the reviews was said by a well known actor named Liam Neeson. The audience will be encouraged to watch the film by Liam Neeson as he is amazing him self therefore, the reviews will sell the film much quicker from the positive audience towards this movie. The production company Dimension Films, is well known for its good crime movies so the audience can tell that this will be an amazing crime film following its production company's footsteps. 

There is synergy between my storyboard and the poster for example the main character in the central image is included in my storyboard. Another example is that the institutional logo is introduced first in my storyboard which shows it's very important during the trailer. I have also mentioned the tagline both in poster and storyboard. i have used it in two parts of the storyboard to create tension and suspense for the audience.It was vital for the release date to be both included in poster and storyboard because the audience would not know when to look forward too. The title is another synergy and is equally important to the release date because the audience would not be able to spread the word without knowing the name.

 BBC Bitesize page on the key concept of Representation 

I have left one of the characters face exposed to show the audience that the protagonist is Asian. This will come as surprise to the audience as they are not familiar with Asians being in a Hollywood film so people may expect something different than usual movies. The characters  are 18 or over which will attract more audience that 18 or over because they are more keened in watching movies that are the same age as them or older. The characters in this movie are equally matched between the genders therefore, the movie may attract the audience that both male and female.