How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In terms of gender, age, class and race, all four social groups are represented within our opening sequence.

Both boys and girls who are between the ages of 14-25 are used in the film opening. We’ve used this age group as it’s around the similar age group of our target audience and we

were able to relate to our own lives. Despite of this, people of an older age can still view this film as it is beneficial in terms

of understanding the lives of young people.

Rather than involving a mixture of ethnicities, we chose to use males and females of black ethnicity which is highly

uncommon in a thriller film. Usually, there are white males and females as the main characters with black characters

throughout the film. The idea of having them as the dominant characters allows people of the same ethnicity to relate to

them accordingly. Yet, it doesn’t disallow other races such as, white, Chinese and Asian (to name a few) to relate to the film

as we are brought up in a multicultural society. Therefore, young people as a whole (age 16-25) can relate to the

situations being presented which in the long run can make them alert of things that can easily happen and aware of

people they choose to associate themselves with. This shows that as well as our film creating thrill for the audience, it is a real eye opener for young people and adults. Overall, working

class people are presented within the opening sequence. However, situations like this can take place in an upper class

and middle class environment. In some ways gender is represented in a stereotypical way, as ‘Shannon’ is portrayed as weak and vulnerable compared to the guys who take her

away who are seen as big, evil and manipulative. This links to the target audience who are between the ages of 16 and 25

whereby it can be common that boys are seen to be in control of situations rather than girls.