1. Question 2 -
How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Social Class-
In the opening of our film opening we havetwo characters. Both of these
characters are represented as middle class/upper middle class (C1-A). This is
done by the costumes of the characters such as the suit for the killer character
that is very clearly related to the middle class due to the type of jobs that have
formalwear as a dress code. The costume of the body also portrays Harrietas a
middle class person due to the quite nice looking winter clothes. Having these
characters portrayed as middle class helps relate the characters to a larger
audience as the largest social class is the middle class. Having this social class
relate closely to the largest social class is important in having our audience feel
tense and uncomfortableas they will relate to the characters and feel as if the
things happening could be happening around them in their everyday life. The
social class stereotypeof criminals is usually working class people. In our film we
have challenged the stereotypeby presenting our main characters as middle class
in order to not fall into one of the clichés of films in order to make our film more
interesting.
2. Gender-
The gender of our main character and secondary main character are both male.
This is often the case in films as unfortunately a lot of people become
disinterested in films when they see a female in a lead role (even more so in
Thriller/action films). Having two males as the leads in the film would ensurethat
we would have a larger audience if the film were to be shown. Wehave
challenged the stereotypically loud and powerfulmusic that is used music that
goes along with males. We have used light hearted joyfulmusic when he is
digging which isn’t expected and portrays the killer as quite a quirky person which
adds to the likable killer aspect of our film opening.
Ethnicity-
The ethnicity of both our actors in the film opening are both white. One of the
reasons why, is that the area weare in that is mostly white. Another reason is
that the ethnicity in the UK with the largest percentage is the white ethnicity. This
allows a wider audience to relate to the characters more. Having a white killer is
also slightly challenging the stereotype of criminals generally being part of a
minority ethnicity. This allows our film to stand out more than it would by using
possibly unexpected characters.
Age-
The age of both of the characters arerelatively young in or film opening. One of
the reasons for this is that it is hard to get older actors. However having our
characters being young it would help us appeal to a younger audience who are
not our main demographic so we would be able to get more people to watch the
film. We did try to make the characters look as old as possible. We did this by
having the killer wear a suit which is of coursemorecommon for adults to make
them seem morerealistic.
