Question 2 for my AS Media evaluations of my thriller opening sequence.

1. Evaluation - Question 2
- How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
CHLOE MAR-GERRISON

2. Social Groups
 In our final piece Izzy and I chose to revolve our narrative around teenagers and
young adults, as these social groups are the main target audience for the thriller
genre, so we chose teenagers to star in our thriller in order to appeal to this target
audience.
 The two main characters in our sequence are aged between 16 and 17, which is a
common age among thriller target audiences. We also chose a variety of
teenagers to do our whispery voiceovers and surveyed multiple students at
college to give us feedback on our original draft so we could incorporate their
ideas and criticisms into our final piece in order to ensure our final product
appealed to our audience.

3. How are these social groups represented?
- Mise En Scene
 We reinforced the theme of young adults and teenagers by representing this social
group through Mise-En-Scene. The female character was featured wearing a black mini
skirt (however this wasn’t visible in the footage) and a cropped jumper with tights and
heeled ankle boots, as this is a stereotypical “girly” outfit for a teenage girl.
 The male character was featured wearing clothing that accentuated his anonymous
persona, however we also incorporated stereotypical clothes that young males wear.
Matt was shown wearing dark grey skinny jeans, Nike trainers and a black hoodie over
the top of a plain white top (not visible in the footage). We believed this would be a
good outfit to use as the hoodie covered his face and torso so it was difficult to make
out his features, but as these items of clothing are also common among teenagers and
young males it was appropriate for both the thriller genre and our target audience.

4. How are these social groups represented?
- Camera Angles
 The male character is represented as being the powerfully dominant character in
the sequence, as he is frequently featured at low angle camera shots, creating the
illusion that he is looming over the camera and is in a position of authority and
power as he is physically above the other characters.
 The female character is represented as vulnerable and a typically vain teenage girl
as she is surrounded by beauty products in her bedroom, and is featured in
multiple close up shots applying makeup throughout the beginning of the
sequence and brushing out her hair which creates the impression of vanity. The
close up shots also highlight her fear as she answers the anonymous phone call,
and highlights that she is vulnerable.

5. What messages did you hope the audience
would understand from your representations?
 Izzy and I were hoping to achieve a mysterious and tense atmosphere which our
target audience would pick up on from our use of props, sound and camera
angles, and would empathise with the characters in the sequence as our target
audience are of a similar age to the actors and actresses featured in our film.