1. 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.