1. By Kate Harrold
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
2. A Social Group is a group of people who interact with each other
because they have something in common. For example, social
groups can be determined by: race, gender, age, religion,
sexuality or moral beliefs.
WHAT IS A SOCIAL GROUP?
3. FEMALE VICTIM
INNOCENT, HELPLESS, VULNERABLE, INTUITIVE
The character of the female victim in the opening of our thriller is very similar to the
character of ‘Kim’ from the thriller ‘Taken’. We took inspiration from this character and
incorporated it into our narrative. In ‘Taken’, Kim commits an act of heroism before she falls
victim to the villain. She does this by describing the identity of the villain to her dad on the
phone before she is kidnapped. Similarly, the character of Jen in our thriller begins to film
the gang’s conversation on her phone before she is discovered and killed. This is her act of
heroism. The heroic actions of both characters are vital to the rest of the narrative as they
act as a catalyst and fuel the rest of the film’s events.
The character of Kim wears bright child like clothes with minimal make-up. We used this
look on our own character of Jen to show her innocence. We achieved this by having her
wear a coloured scarf and a white top. The association of the colour white with the hero is a
code and convention of the thriller genre as it represents good in the fight of good vs evil. By
having Jen wear ordinary clothes, it shows that she is a normal girl who is thrust into an
extraordinary situation. This gives the audience the impression that she is helpless which,
again is an idea we took from the character of Kim. This is because it makes the audience
more engaged as they fear for the character as they are unsure as to whether she stands a
chance. Jen also wears very little make-up which also shows her vulnerability.
We also took inspiration from the props used. As I earlier said, both characters use a mobile
phone in their act of heroism. We really liked this idea as the phone is the only weapon
these victims have. This allowed us to capture the bravery of the character as it shows that
even in desperate situations, they managed to find a way to be a heroine.
The vulnerability of the female victim is also shown through the
camera angles we chose. We included high angled shots when
she believes she has escaped the gang as these made our
character seem small and helpless which are traits we
definitely wanted to include to ensure we had created a
convincing and accurate character. We got this idea from the
character of Shellie in Sin City as she is also a female vicitim.
We also used point of view shots as these put the audience in
the characters position and would therefore help them
understand the fear that the character is feeling.
Although the lighting of our thriller overall is low key, the shots
of the female victim are slightly lighter to again, associate her
with the side of good.
We represented this social group by taking inspiration from the
body language and facial expressions of the character Kim. In
Taken, she uses terrified expressions and her body language is
very nervous and shaky to show how scared she is. We used
this with our character by showing the terror on her face when
she tries to escape the gang members. We also made Jen’s
body language frantic when she momentarily thinks she has
got away by having her constantly look around whilst her hands
are quite shaky as she tries to remove the SD card. This is also
similar to the behaviour of the bride character in the opening of
Kill Bill who is also scared because of the presence of the
villain.
4. GANG MEMBERS
THREATENING, MENACING, EVIL, SERIOUS
We have also used the social group of gang members in our opening. For this group, we took
inspiration from the thriller ‘Sin City’ and the group of gang members led by ‘Jackie Boy’.
The gang members in Sin City all wear dark coloured clothing as it is a code and convention of the
thriller genre for the villain to wear the colour black. We used this in our opening as black shows
that the gang members are on the side of evil and it contrasts the innocence of the hero. This can
also be seen in other popular thrillers such as on the character of ‘Castor Troy’ in Face Off.
We also used low key lighting in the shots of the gang members as this creates shadows which
are also a code and convention of the thriller genre. It makes them appear more mysterious and
menacing.
We also took inspiration from the setting used in the scenes of the gang members in Sin City. As
seen in the picture, they are standing in a narrow dark corridor. Our thriller opening takes place
outside so, we decided to set it in a narrow alley. We thought this helped represent them as a
social group as shows the threat of the gang due to their secrecy. It also gives the audience the
sense of feeling trapped which puts them in the female victim’s position.
The body language of the gang in Sin City is very laid back and slouched which emphasizes how
menacing they are as they don’t seem to care about the bad things that they are doing. We
incorporated this into our characters by having them stand quite relaxed and nonchalant to show
their casual look. A similar approach was taken with facial expressions as the gang members in
Sin City once again, do not seem phased by what they are doing so we did this on our own
characters. We also made sure their facial expression was fairly serious as we wanted to show
how violent and reckless they were. This is also demonstrated in the opening of Kill Bill where they
character of Bill seems to have no resentment when shooting the female character.
The voices of gang members are often very steely as we researched in Sin City. This shows their
focus and therefore threat so we made sure the actors playing our gang members spoke in a way
which made them seem a convincing threat to the victim. The music also emulated their presence
as it becomes were tense and driven by a drum beat when the gang members enter to show their
omnipotent presence.
Our gang mirrors the gang in Sin City narratively as they both pose a threat to a female victim by
wreaking havoc. This was useful in representing them as a social group as it shows the audience
that they are on the side of evil.
Finally, we used low angled camera shots as these made the gang members look powerful and
threatening as it emphasizes their height and therefore presence. This would help the audience
understand the female character’s fear of them. We took this idea from the beginning of Casino
Royale as when the villain first appears on screen, a low angled shot is used.
