Georgie Gikas

A2 Media Evaluation
For my A2 media investigation I looked at the changes in the representation of
women throughout the Bond film franchise. I looked into the historical portrayal
of women in Bond franchise, from its inception until the most recent production;
Skyfall. It was evident that in the films themselves women were portrayed in a
very specific way, for example, the choice of name of the characters, the
dialogue, their costumes and their looks. In addition to this they are often
portrayed as the femme fatale, the enticement or the victim.
My production was influenced by the information I gathered and although I
noticed how sexualized women were, I still decided to conform to the codes and
conventions associated with Bond. I produced a DVD cover, teaser poster and a
theatrical poster for a made up Bond film; Risico. Throughout my investigation I
referred back to Laura Mulveys theory of the Male gaze, where woman are
present in media for men to look at. IN the case of my Bond film posters and DVD
cover I reversed the roles and placed Bond in a way that could entice a female
gaze
The models I decided to use for my Bond posters and DVD cover were Malchus
and Natasha Hilton. I decided to use these actors due to their ethnicity and the
speculation that the next Bond actor will be Idris Elba who is also black. The
tagline I used on both the teaser and theatrical poster was Bond is Black as
apposed to Bond is Back.
The
Casino
Royale
film
poster
influenced my DVD cover, the silhouette
of the girl with the city backdrop
inspired me to do something similar
with the Colosseum in the background
(iconography) of my silhouette. I also
included Bonds signature Aston Martin
to incorporate the gadgets that are
associated with Bond. On the back of
the
DVD
cover also
incorporated a photo that is a similar pose to Bond
in Skyfall. I used this photo on the back of my DVD
cover along with the strip secondary images
because I felt that it separated my blurb from
credit bloc and film industry information. The pose
is an action shot which embodies Bonds persona.
The secondary images are used to give the audience an insight into what the film
is about. The blurb on the back was adapted from the summary of the short
story Risico in Ian Flemings book For Your Eyes Only.
For my teaser poster I used a similar image to the one used in teaser poster for
Goldeneye. I felt like this was a good image to use as it shows the chemistry
between the two models, which is something that Bond must have with all the
Bond girls. I also chose the simplistic design due to the fact that it is a teaser
poster and only limited information is displayed. The L in Bond is Black is in
black because that is the letter that has been added to the original tagline. The

Georgie Gikas
body positioning of the women is very
sexualized, but unlike other photos its is Bond
all over the Bond girl, not her over Bond. By
positioning the women in that way I have
conformed to the codes and conventions of a
typical Bond poster. I put a bullet through the
O to give a hint of danger and also add
excitement to the poster which is otherwise
lacking.
My theatrical poster only has a picture
with Bond, I chose not to include the Bond girl because
I wanted stick to a classic Bond poster. The gun barrel
effect has been used time and time again but I used
a similar effect to that in Skyfall. This image is iconic to the
franchise and easily recognizable to the target audience. Again,
I changed the tagline from Bond is Back to Bond is Black, I
kept the L in black with all the other letters in white for
the same reason as I did for the teaser poster.
In conclusion, I have come to realise that women through
the Bond franchise are overtly sexualised, although as the film catalogue
progresses they have more substantial roles within the films. I decided to not
stray from the stereotypical representation from women when producing my
posters and DVD covers, this is because I feel that the reputation of women has
become such a stereotype of the films that changing what is expected of the
films would not would not attract the existing Bond audience and it would be
risky to move away from the guarantee of a packed cinema.