Media Evaluation Question 2

1. How doesyour mediaproduct
represent particular social groups?

2. What is a Social Group?
A Social Group is a group of people who interact with
each other and are aware of having something in
common.
Some types of Social Groups are determined by…
•
Gender
•
Race
•
Age
•
Religion
•
Moral Beliefs

3. Stereotypes of a Victim in a thriller film:
 Innocent
 Intelligent
 Strong-willed
 Young
In our film ‘Sole Retribution’, we got our friend Princess Robinson to play
our victim, who was named Erin Wolfe. We decided in our first team
meeting that we wanted to make the victim a female character, as it
would make her more vulnerable and susceptible to an attack. Some
examples of thriller films with females as a victim include 'Kim' in 'Taken
2', 'Shelley' in 'Sin City' and 'Jill' in 'Gone'. We dressed her in normal
clothing, which, combined with the location of a house, made an
‘extraordinary scenario’ happen in a normal location, making the scenario
more eerie and dark. It also made it more thrilling, as it made the
audience believe that this could happen to anybody, including themselves,
putting them on edge. We wanted the character Erin to speak softly, as
she was playing someone young and innocent. However, we also wanted
her to sound startled and stressed, as she felt vulnerable knowing that
someone, who was potentially dangerous and threat to her, had been look
through her house and could potentially still be there.
Social Groups in ‘Sole Retribution’
The Victim

4. We got inspiration for Erin Wolfe from the character 'Jill' in the
thriller film 'Gone.' Jill is normal girl who was kidnapped when she
was younger, which represents the innocence aspect within her.
We wanted to use this in Erin as we felt that this was vital in
making Erin seem vulnerable and susceptible to an attack. The
character of 'Jill' is also strong-willed and intelligent as she pieces
evidence together to prove to the police that her kidnapper is back.
We took inspiration from this and used it as part of Erin's character.
For example, Erin's first instinct was to phone the police and check
upstairs, which implies that she is strong-willed and brave too, as
the 999 operator would not have advised to do this for her own
safety. This shows Erin's determination, which is also another
stereotype of victims in thriller type films.
Social Groups in ‘Sole Retribution’
The Victim

5. For the Villain, we got Becky’s brother, Tom, who we dressed in
dark clothing and a hoodie. We chose for him to wear a black
hoodie because black has connotations of danger, death and
mystery, which are all aspects which are associated with a thriller.
We also wanted to conceal his identity to make the scene more
tense and thrilling, by encouraging the audience to question who
this person is and what he is after. Although his face is visible in
some scenes, we still wanted the audience to question who exactly
he is and what his motives are, which we believed was vital for the
storyline of our film. We wanted him to come across to the
audience as violent and intimidating, and so we used different
camera angles to portray this. For instance, when he shoots Erin
(representing his violent character), we used a POV shot which
showed the villain looking over Erin, which clearly represents his
intimidation and how he is a more powerful character than Erin.
Stereotypes of a Villain in a thriller film:
 Intelligent
 Violent
 Intimidating
POV Shot
Social Groups in ‘Sole Retribution’
The Villain

6. We concluded that we would make the villain in our film a man,
as we thought that it would therefore make the character more
intimidating, powerful and dominant over the victim, which are
all stereotypes for villains in thriller films. We got inspiration
from the character of 'Jackie Boy' from Sin City. He is dressed all
in black, which we thought would also make our character look
more intimidating, and black has connotations of evil and death
– both of which are involved in thriller films. Jackie Boy is also
intimidating, as he is violent and sees himself as being better
than Shelley as he is a man, something that we also wanted our
villain to have in his character. We wanted our villain to come
across an intelligent, much like 'Martin Walker' in the thriller film
'White House Down', as he is the mastermind behind the plan of
the White House takeover. Therefore, we added into the
storyline the villain tearing down evidence from a crime case and
downloading evidence from a memory stick onto a laptop,
meaning that there is no evidence to support this specific case.
This also allows the audience to question who he is and why he
wants to get rid of evidence.
Social Groups in ‘Sole Retribution’
The Villain

7. We concluded that we would make the villain in our film a man,
as we thought that it would therefore make the character more
intimidating, powerful and dominant over the victim, which are
all stereotypes for villains in thriller films. We got inspiration
from the character of 'Jackie Boy' from Sin City. He is dressed all
in black, which we thought would also make our character look
more intimidating, and black has connotations of evil and death
– both of which are involved in thriller films. Jackie Boy is also
intimidating, as he is violent and sees himself as being better
than Shelley as he is a man, something that we also wanted our
villain to have in his character. We wanted our villain to come
across an intelligent, much like 'Martin Walker' in the thriller film
'White House Down', as he is the mastermind behind the plan of
the White House takeover. Therefore, we added into the
storyline the villain tearing down evidence from a crime case and
downloading evidence from a memory stick onto a laptop,
meaning that there is no evidence to support this specific case.
This also allows the audience to question who he is and why he
wants to get rid of evidence.
Social Groups in ‘Sole Retribution’
The Villain