y

2. The particular social group represented in our film opening
Teenagers, all characters shown in the film opening are
teenagers played by teenagers. However unlike most horror
franchise we did not choose to sexualise this particular social
group, for example Paris Hilton’s performance in the House
Of Wax.
Ms Hilton was blatantly placed in this film as an object for sex
appeal. Playing the typical role of the hot blonde, far from a
virgin, who dies first. She spends around half of her short
time on camera stripping, giving strong evidence to Laura
Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze. The male gaze is a
concept coined by feminist and film critic Laura Mulvey. It
refers to the way visual arts are structured around a
masculine viewer. It describes the tendency in visual culture
to depict the world and women from a masculine point of view
and in terms of men's attitudes.
We have decided not add any female characters to our film
opening, challenging the conventions of real media products
which often use them for sex appeal.

3. In contrast, we represented our teenager in a much more modest
costume, not stereotypical of this particular social group. There is
zero sexualising of this character, no scenes were purposefully
placed into our film opening to create any sense of a sexual
tension regarding this character or any others. We challenged the
stereotypes that teenagers are sexually active, drinkers and drug
takers as none are expressed throughout our film opening.
However we did represent teenagers in casual very casual and
comfortable clothing, this could provoke stereotypes of them being
lazy and scruffy but it could also help the target audience to better
connect with the character because he wears the same style of
clothing. So we decided to risk creating a negative lazy
representation in order to connect with the target audience which
we believe is more important and will pay off.
Our character is represented differently to other male victims of his social group in horror
films. In other media products such characters are represented as very physically fit,
camerawork will often be used to show this when they are getting changed. For example
in the Cabin In The Woods, This character here is shown getting changed in front of a
mirror. This has nothing to do with the storyline so it is clear that this is placed in the film
for sex appeal to keep the audiences attention.