HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT PRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?ANNIE PARTRIDGE – BURFORD SCHOOL MEDIA STUDIES

CHARACTERS.

I only have white actors in my film (which was not intentional) and they are both quite young. I did this to imply that mainly young people are in more danger and that they can be targeted somewhat easily because of their lack of experiences, as people tend to believe that young people are much more vulnerable.

LOCATION.

I chose to film the opening of my thriller in an empty field to represent those viewers who may feel lonely, and to show that those viewers are not the only ones who experience emotions of loneliness and that they are not alone. This possibly didn’t quite work as well as it wanted it to as the natural lighting in the shot suggests that it is a happy and hopeful image, therefore I know that maybe filming in a darker place could have represented more emptiness.

LOCATION … CONTINUED.

I didn’t film inside because more can happen outside and people are more vulnerable to danger when outside. Being inside gives a sense of security and safety, however my character is meant to be in danger and in a lack of security which is represented by the location. This contrasts to the symbolism of nature and being pure and healthy, as the atmosphere is artificial and dangerous/mysterious.

The symbolism of the green and brown colours additionally give a sense of nature, but furthermore contrast to the dark colour of the girl’s clothing which connotes evil and mystery.

LOCATION … CONTINUED.

Furthermore, the location of the park represents children as playful and happy the majority of the time. This contrasts to the present when the girl is sad and lonely, telling the audience that even though she is a child who is expecting to be joyful and playful, she is miserable and isolated.

The idea that she is playing on the equipment in the memories could also reflect the fact that whoever/whatever took her mother away from her is playing with her emotions, as too is the mysterious man at the end of the opening of my thriller.

LOCATION … CONTINUED.

Additionally, the inside of the run-down asylum subverts the earlier implication that being inside gives a sense of security and safety. It foreshadows the fact that she is in danger and that she can no longer go back to safety as she already thinks that she is in safety, which therefore creates sympathy within the audience.

The audience knows that she is in danger because of the sounds of the ghostly whispers when she gets closer to the other door in the room.

LIGHTING.

The lighting and colours in my opening seem quite grey and blue, and additionally fairly bright. The grey and blue colours represent the isolation and sadness of my main character, suggesting that she is in a grey place in her life and that there is no hope, furthermore representing those in society, mainly within the younger years of my target audience, who feel lonely.

The brightness of the shots suggests that the character is very exposed, especially to danger; this could be either an emotional or physical danger that she vulnerable to, therefore showing that young girls are usually quite vulnerable, especially to men.

COSTUMES.

Additionally, both of my characters are wearing dark costumes. In terms of the young child, the dark shirt and skirt suggests that she (and youth) is in danger, and suggests the fact that the mysterious man is going to become overpowering and in complete control over her; it also suggests her emotional loss and the emptiness that she is feeling inside.

In terms of her mother, the darkness of her coat suggests her later disappearance and that she was always in danger even when the child and the mother were playing in the park together within the memory scenes, implying that someone was watching them while they were playing.

CAMERA WORK.

The close-up of the final shot shows how alert the mysterious man was and how he knew that the girl was moving towards him, and he didn’t need to visually see her in order to be aware of this, showing the mysterious man’s ultimate control over her and the girl’s lack of power.

This represents slightly older people as more alert and more ominous to other peoples’ actions, and they carefully think things through.

It also represents youth as not being aware of problems and safety, stressing that young people need to be more cautious, especially when talking to a stranger.