QUESTION 2: HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

By Kirsty Allen.

What representation has my thriller undertaken?Gender and Age:

The social media element we have represented in our thriller opening is gender and age as most of our inspiration had stereotypical views of age and gender.Gender: within film and overall society it is clear to identify the differences between male and female, with a few keywords and characteristics. MALE: For example the male will always be represented as having a powerful authority, a dominant and strong stature. FEMALE: Then compared to males females are represented to be very elegant and usually seen as a damsel in distress i.e. Being weak, vulnerable and insecure.

AGE: Age can be represented in a various amount of different ways, the main key ages that are identified and usually compared is the youth and the old. As they are so different it is easier to distinguish the differences of the two through key words and physicality.YOUTH : The youth of today are often described as being very lazy and rude, not in touch with human nature and are more intrigued in technology, However, the youth also can be described as being sociable and adventurous.OLD: Whereas the old are polar opposites and are seen as being more wise, sweet and also very lonely. On the other hand the older individual can be described as being very grumpy which is a characteristic of youth also, therefore meaning there are some similarities.

How do we show the representations of the social group Gender?

Also we had been able to show a clear and precise difference between the male and female gender, even though we only had two shots of the male character it was clear that he had a strong stature and a powerful presence. This represents the stereotypical gender type of the male as I had wanted the male character to be seen scary and threatening. It can also been that the young girl is being controlled by the male character as she is frightened and starts to run away.

Within our thriller film we had viewed the young girl as a stereotypical female as the shots of the girl were mainly of her being scared and vulnerable, I had made her the main character because females are shown the weaker character. An example of this would be example when the young girl is running from the male character showing not only that she is scared but that the male character has more dominance than her. There other examples one being when she lets go of the balloon, letting go of the balloon connotes shock and disbelief and that she is venerable. Lastly females can be described as being over emotional, this is definitely show throughout the thriller opening the close up shot shows this.

How do we show the representations of the social group Age ?

Both characters were reasonably young, except the female character was of a younger age mainly in her teens. I believe that we didn’t use the stereotypical vie for the main female character as I thought it would be a new and unique way of looking at youth and could possibly interest the audience member that little bit more. We had shown the young female to be quiet and timid and liking her own personal space these characteristics aren’t the usual keywords used to describe the youth. However I did feel It was crucial to include some key words used to describe the young female, such as: Adventurous, as she was intrigued by the balloon and pulling it off the trees it shows her independence and shows that she is adventurous.However with the male character we had used the physicality of appearance to distinguish his age, for example the way he dressed, we had used the stereotypical look that most young boys wear: dark hoodies and tracksuit bottoms. This showed that he was young and dangerous because of the colour of his clothes.

AGEGENDER

Pink Bow, supports the stereotypical girl as girls are usually associated with the colour pink.

Running also supports the stereotypical girl as she when she is running it shows she is vulnerable .

The close up of her face and the letting go of the balloon shows she is an emotional character which again is associated with a stereotypical female.

Balloon shows the innocence within the character and resembles that she is young, representing youth.

The way she acts, e.g. playing hopscotch skipping etc... Shows she is outgoing and a happy person which isn’t the stereo typical representation of youth as they are usually shown as being rude and grumpy.

These shots show how she is adventurous by looking and having the courage to go to the balloon. This is a stereotypical view of youth .

This shows the dominance of the male character compared to the female character, it also represent gender as you wouldn’t see an old individual wearing this attire

The different shots that represent the different social groups

The different shots that represent the different social groups

TARGET AUDIENCE:

With the character being a young female it was purely because the feedback I had gotten from my target audience was that the girls liked thriller movies more than the boys did the ratio was roughly girls: 5 boys: 2, with this said I thought that appealing to my audience was crucial as making it identifiable for them would attracted a larger audience. Also by making the main character of a younger age would attract the older audience member as it would make most male and female have maternal and paternal instincts making them more intrigued as to what happens to the young vulnerable character. In conclusion my media thriller opening represents the social group of age and gender as the characters within my thriller have highlighted these main social groups and would have had the most impact on how the thriller opening would have been perceived.

WHY CHOOSE THIS SPECIFIC STORY LINE?

I have chosen this story line because the rate of kidnappings and trafficking have recently been very high, I feel that by making this thriller opening it will help raise awareness of what is happening around the world and hopefully will help individuals realise that it is a very serious crime.