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1. H O W D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T R E P R E S E N T
PA R T I C U L A R S O C I A L G R O U P S ?
QUESTION 2

2. The first character through which a representation is established is that of Alex, the protagonist.
Our intended portrayal of his character was to be realistic yet unconventional, displaying a young
man in expression of emotion and fear. In order to construct this representation, we required
Alex to openly express his feelings in the form of a diegetic conversation with his friend, Sophie.
Within this conversation, we scripted Alex to elaborate on his fear and confusion, stemming from
the death of his father and ‘bad’ nature of his brother. Alex’s brother acts as a more
conventional representation of the male gender, displaying apparent power and physical
strength/brutality. The fact that Alex fears becoming this suggests a sense of opposition towards
this stereotype, which arguably creates a more realistic representation.
Alex’s apparent weakness and fear can further be seen on screen. The use of a two shot during
the conversation allows both Alex and Sophie to be within the shot, thus providing audiences
with a visual insight into their body language and interactions. As seen in the image above, Alex
avoids eye contact with his friend, choosing to look down towards the table instead. This
therefore highlights a sense of insecurity and uncertainty which is often repressed within
conventional representations of the male gender. Furthermore, Alex’s actions during the
kidnapping scene emphasise this uncertainty and self-doubt. The use of a close-up shot (as seen
on the left) allows viewers to clearly focus on character emotion – which is, in this case, fear.
Alex then proceeds to continually turn back and forth, deciding between helping his friend and
running away. This juxtaposes his previous interaction with Sophie, wherein the pair appeared to
share a close and supportive friendship. As a result, the act of running away appears out of
character, presenting his selfishness to derive from fear. This is further unconventional of the
Propp ‘hero’, who, in most narrative structures, is expected to rescue the princess in need. This
was noticed by audience members, one of whom stated that men are often expected to “recue
girls”, whereas Alex acts as “a normal person”, who is “scared”.
Overall, I think that this representation was constructed highly effectively. As previously
mentioned, this is due to the level of understanding presented by audience members, who drew
upon the opposition to hyper-masculinity within Alex’s character. This received a positive
response, with respondents stating that the issue is “a huge thing in society to tackle” and that
our production provided “a more accurate depiction”. This arguably opposes Baudrillard’s theory
of hyper-reality, which claims that the media does not represent people or events with realism,
but instead produces a ‘hyper-real’ image which viewers accept to be truth. The fact that male
audience members, however, were able to identify our representation to be a “more accurate
depiction” suggests that we were successful in constructing a representation which validates the
emotions of young men. Furthermore, this supports the uses and gratifications theory,
suggesting that audience members would actively choose to watch our production based on
audience identification – a concept which was relied upon when constructing our representation
of Alex.

3. Our intended representation of Sophie’s character included both stereotypical and non-
stereotypical elements. Though her supportive and nurturing attitude towards Alex is
conventional to the ‘role’ of women, she displays far more strength and maturity than her
male friend, offering him advice from an apparent point of stability. This was picked up
upon by many members of our target audience, who described her representation to
oppose the stereotype. Amongst other responses, it was stated that Sophie “takes
charge”, which “swaps over the roles of gender”. Within planning, we aimed to reverse
the conventional binary opposition between men and women, therefore the recognition
of this by members of our target audience suggests that we were successful in
constructing the representations. This further opposes the ‘male gaze’ theory’, which
states that women are only placed in media texts for the purpose of male pleasure.
Sophie appears on screen both as a support network for Alex, as well as a positive
representation for young female viewers.
It can, however, be argued that women were also represented as vulnerable or
powerless. This is a result of the kidnapping scene, in which Alex’s brother manages to
grab hold of Sophie and, despite her protests, appear to keep hold of her. This is a
conventional representation of women, suggesting that we were not entirely successful in
constructing a non-stereotypical portrayal of women. When interviewed, however, no
audience members drew upon this, and instead all stated that the representations
“challenged stereotypes.” Furthermore, a ‘strong’ representation does not necessarily
mean that a character must be immune to fear or danger – their strength is portrayed
through the manner in which they handle a situation. Sophie can be seen to fight against
her kidnapper rather than call for the help of her male friend, this arguably being an
implication of independence. Furthermore, the extract produced was merely an opening
sequence - Sophie’s actions within the remainder of the film were planned as being to
escape and help Alex, rather then being rescued by him.
Another social group represented through Sophie’s character was that of young people.
This was also intended to be constructed in an unconventional manner, presenting
strength and unity as opposed to laziness or weakness. This representation was
established primarily through the conversation in which, as previously mentioned,
support was offered between two young people.
Overall, I think that we were somewhat successful in constructing our intended
representation of young women. The content and length of an opening sequence
hindered our ability to portray Sophie’s physical strength, and instead only created an
implication of mental strength through the conversation with Alex.

4. The final character through which a representation was created
was that of Alex’s brother. Despite only appearing within the
opening sequence briefly, it can be inferred that Alex deems him
to be a ‘bad’ person, and the cause of his fears/drawings. In this
instance, the representation of young men juxtaposes the
representation which was created through Alex. His brother is
not only described to be ‘bad’; however further kidnaps Sophie
within the extract – this being a stereotypical representation, in
which male strength is asserted.
The representation, however, becomes increasingly complex as it
is implied that the events are solely happening due to Alex’s
drawings. This not only opposes the conventional binary
opposition between good and bad, but was further intended to
arouse questions regarding the motivations of each character,
leaving it unclear as to whether anyone is truly ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
We were, to a certain extent , successful in constructing this.
Evidence of this can be found within audience feedback, wherein
one respondent stated that Alex’s drawings were the villain, and
therefore “the hero created the villain.” Most people, however,
identified Alex to be a clear hero and his brother to be a villain,
this suggesting that we could have established a less direct
opposition between the two. Despite this, the purpose of an
opening sequence is to engage the viewer, and I am confident
that the binary opposition between Alex and his brother will not
only drive the narrative forwards, however could further be
explored within the rest of the plotline.