Representation of; Gender, Age, Ethnicity and Mental Illness

1. Representation
In our opening sequence ‘Unknown’

2. Gender - Vulnerability
The main character in our opening sequence is a young woman in her early twenties.
She has been represented as vulnerable in our title sequence, which is a conventional
trait for females in media. The most common role a woman will play in a narrative is
the ‘Princess’ that needs to be saved, which is one of the 8 of Vladimir Propp’s main
characters. The main way in which we have represented this character as vulnerable is
through the narrative, in which she is kidnapped and overpowered by a male character.
We showed this difference in physical strength when the male character grabs the
female character by the hair and pulls her head backwards viciously.
Another way in which we represented our female character as
vulnerable was by making her seem oblivious. We achieved this
through a combination of camera work and character placing.
For example, when she is working in her office, she is completely
unaware of the man watching her through her window. We
thought that a medium long shot would be effective in framing
both characters, however we could have used the empty space in
a more creative way. Perhaps by placing some credits there.
However, despite these ways in which we reinforced the stereotype of female vulnerability, we also challenged some of
the conventions. The main example is that our female lead is in charge of her own work, made evident by the lack of
co-workers and in the fact that she leaves the office by herself. In the UK, only 35% of senior management roles are
held by women. By not giving our main character a clear male manager, we are challenging this stereotype.

3. Gender – Female Sexualisation
Something this is extremely common in the media industry is the over-sexualisation
of women. Laura Mulvey, a British film theorist, says that films are viewed from the
perspective of a heterosexual male. This means that women are often shown
wearing considerably less clothing than their male co-stars and are, overall, used as
a mechanism to enthral heterosexual male viewers. The picture on the left is from
an article in 2013 by the New York Film Academy. It shows some of the statistics
regarding women in the top films from 2007-2012.
Although it was not
originally our intention, our
main female character can
be viewed as being
sexualised, especially in
comparison to the male
character. Her clothing is
more revealing than the
male character’s, as her
clothes are shorter and
tighter. In comparison, the
male lead wears baggy
clothes that mask his figure.
Another way I which the viewer
may be ‘forced’ to watch the
film through the eye of a
heterosexual male is through
our use of camerawork. In one
scene, the female character
walks away from the camera
and past the male character. As
there are no dialogue or credits
in the frame, the audience will
watch the female character.

4. Ethnicity and Race
In our opening sequence, neither the protagonist nor the
antagonist are white. This challenges the conventions in
media for casting actors. Although we did not purposefully
make this decision in order to defy the stereotypes of white
leads in films, we did aim to prove that the an actor’s skin
colour doesn’t affect their performance ability.
The main reason why the hero is conventionally a white
American or British male, is that this used to be the main
target audience for most films. However, both the target
audience and the actual cast/production team in media has
became more diverse in the past decades.
However, towards the very end of our opening sequence
there is a plot twist, in which we find out that anther person is
also responsible for kidnapping the main character. As this
person is white, and they hold power over the female black
lead, it supports the stereotype that white actors play larger,
more powerful roles in film. On the other hand, the fact that
the villain is white subverts from conventions in media as the
villain is stereotypically foreign.

5. Age and Mental Illness
The general age range of the characters in our opening sequence is early twenties. Although
this is an overly important factor of our film, it is suitable for the behaviour of the
characters. The female lead, Michelle, is constantly seen on her phone, which is very
common for younger people. In fact, she is unaware of the person waiting for her in the
back seat of her car due to being distracted by her phone. She is also seen answering her
phone during work, discussing with, presumably, a friend about going out.
Even though we do not explicitly state that
the antagonist has a mental illness, the
obvious signs of obsession and erratic
behaviour are very clear indications. Statistics
show that the age group of our characters are
highly likely to be affected by a mental illness.
Early 20s are the most common onsets for
major depression, manic episodes and
schizophrenia. Although not written into the
narrative, a combination of mental issues are
clearly what drive the male antagonist to go
to such extreme and irrational lengths