Analisys of dr who clips
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Martha enters and immediately finds herself in a vulnerable position facing the dominant Master. Shots are framed to emphasize their power dynamic, with the Master towering above Martha. As the Master threatens destruction, a close-up shows Martha's fearful expression as she looks up at him, unable to control the situation. However, a flashback hints that Martha will eventually gain confidence and oppose her initially vulnerable state. In the climax, a long shot captures the battle between the male characters, the Doctor and Master, as the primary focus and source of action, while the women stand by without significant involvement.
Analisys of dr who clips
- 1. This is the initial shot we have of Martha Jones coming face to face with the Master upon her entrance. The use of a low angle shot in the extract immediately highlights this established power struggle between both characters. Martha is emphasised as a character of vulnerability and weakness compared to the Master’s assertive authority and dominance. This is simply shown through the way the Master is towering above Martha indicating who has the upper hand in the situation and reflects the female character being belittled and overshadowed. In relation to the overall representation of gender, the fact that a low angle shot is being used to portray Martha’s lower status is effective at showing how us as the audience are being made to sympathise with her character and view the antagonist in a negative, intimidating light. This initial scene is a representative of Martha’s submissiveness to the master reflecting the traditional value of women in society and how they should obey men and be, essentially, ‘seen and not heard’, shown also through the lack of dialogue. The shot clearly displays a sexualised woman next to the master dressed in red, a colour that connotes beauty. This provokes a misogynist perception of the master as the woman on his left is being utilised only for her appearance, almost as an accessory for the Master. Even though she stands above Martha, displaying the level of power she has, she is stripped of her identity and is still being objectified, showing that the male character is the most dominant character because of his gender.
- 2. As the Master continues to talk down to Martha about his plans and utters the words ‘thousands of ships are said to burn across the universe’, a close up, high angle shot of Martha is used to highlight her fearful emotion and creates a sense of terror as the scene builds to a climax. The fact that she is looking up at the master in dismay reflects a lack of control over the situation and plays on her vulnerable position. It represents her as not being able to deal with the emotions, reflecting women as emotionally weaker as opposed to intellectual. This contradicts the use of ambiguous vocabulary use by the master to belittle Martha at this point, symbolising men as more intelligent. In retrospect, Martha’s quite neutral facial expression foreshadows this sense of fear will not last and that there will eventually be a shift in power.
- 3. The use of a focus pull is used when the master is looking at the countdown clock. It then re-focuses on the Master. This indicated the power he has over time as it descends. This is representative of the male characters adamant superiority. The way the master hovers over this abstract concept of time reflects the complete control he has over everything in this scene. The regained focus indicated that the Master is the most important feature and essentially nothing overrides his control.
- 4. The use of a flashback in terms of editing is effective in his scene at establishing the point in which Martha regains her power in this situation. The colour degrading signifies this flashback enhances the idea of moving back in time. This shows Martha gaining her confidence and opposes her vulnerable pesona we see beforehand. However, during the flashback she is preaching about the doctor, which insinuates that the male character is still underlying the most dominant person and is idolised by Martha. This flashback gives Martha more time to be heard and shows her becoming equally as powerful, if not more, than the Master.
- 5. The use of eye line match allows us as the audience to constantly know what the master is looking at. This is effective at portraying the master as the most significant character as it signifies that, essentially, whoever or whatever he is focusing on should be the focus of our attention also. The fact that we see the master looking at the fearful servants indicates his lack of empathy and, again, reflects his character as cold, deceitful and having power over others emotions.
- 6. This establishing shot reveals the space and distance between the characters as Martha is kneeling before the Master displaying inferiority and vulnerability of her character. However it makes it clear to the audience that the Master is gradually coming down to Martha’s level which could foreshadow his defeat and the power shift that is about to occur. In this shot, the other characters are seen to be extremely distant from the action and this lack of focus on them represents their lack of significance.
- 7. Martha, enters in the background accompanied by two guards which is an immediate sign to the fact that the male has some kind of power over the woman and conforms to a stereotype of the role in society. This sets the tone for the rest of the extract and gives the audience a clear sense of the hierarchy of the characters. The shallow focus blurs out the two guards indicating that even they are not as significant of characters as Martha in this scene, they are always over-shadowing her symbolising the female character’s lack of freedom and escape portraying her as this typical ’damsel in distress’
- 8. A high angle shot is used when we get a first glimpse of the doctor in alien form. This suggests that because he is not in man form, he is perceived as vulnerable and having no control in this situation. His strength and stereotypical conventions of a protagonist is revealed when the doctor is brought back to his normal form of a man which indicated that his masculinity allows him to become empowering and heroic. As an alien, the doctor is trapped in a cage indicating vulnerability and the audience are made to sympathise with him. However when everyone helps to free the doctor, a low angle shot is used as he breaks free to emphasise his power being restored. This however, still shows how men hold the most powerful status in a scene whether that is a protagonist or antagonist.
- 9. This long shot captures the climax and action of the extract as we witness the Mater’s defeat as the doctor is freed. This shot is effective at indicating that the action and intensity of the scene lies between both male characters signifying their importance and how the battle is only made to be dealt with between them. The lack of significance of women in this extract is represented through the woman on the left standing in a seductive red dress. Her lack of involvement in the action and being portrayed as a trophy figure used for her appearance indicates how the action isn’t for women to be involved in and she stands back portraying vulnerability in this dangerous situation.