This document discusses how various social groups are represented in the media product. It summarizes the representation of the victim, antagonist, detectives, and women. The victim, a teenage girl, adheres to stereotypes as a helpless target portrayed through her smudged makeup and foliage in her hair. The antagonist is kept intentionally ambiguous. The detectives are portrayed based on realistic film conventions for their attire, props, and expressions. While women make up a small percentage of protagonists typically, this media product has an all-female cast for the opening to break conventions. It aims to represent groups in a thoughtful manner while being aware of potential stereotypes.

1. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

2. THE VICTIM

3. A B
C D

4. Makeup
A SMUDGED MAKEUP Water and cotton pads were used to smudge the girl’s
mascara as it would not have remained in its initial
condition after what she had been through.
B PALE LIPS
AND DARKENED EYES
White translucent powder was dabbed onto her lips
and face and purple and red eye shadow around and
under the eyes and near the nose.
C FOLIAGE IN HAIR To heighten verisimilitude we put pine needles in her
hair.
D MUD Furthering the sense of realism, considering the
victim’s body has been pulled out of the lake, I used
brown eye shadow mixed with water and applied it by
splatting it with the makeup brush or dabbing it on.
It was important to note the SFX makeup for the victim, keeping in mind
that the body had been in the lake.

5. THE ANTAGONIST

6. CostumeandMakeup.
Not much of the antagonist is
visible as they are cloaked in a black
rain coat with the hair and face
hidden creating a sense of mystery.
It is stated by the detectives in the
opening that it’s most likely
another one of Arthur Shawcross’
victims yet this is only the very
beginning of the investigation. For
this reason we have tried to keep
the costume unisex and make the
hands quite genderless too;
applying dirt to the shortly cut
fingernails.

7. THE DETECTIVES

8. Detective Loki –
Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve,2013)
Detective Mills and Somerset
Seven (David Fincher,1995)
The character of Mills wears a shirt and tie,
v neck jumper and leather jacket. The
leather jacket brings an edgier element to
the character contrasting with the more
traditional trench coat of Somerset which in
turn shows his experience.
The character of Loki wears a tie-less light blue
shirt and a black rain coat.
The raincoat infers the weather conditions of the
area he is working in.

9. Rhonda Boney from ‘Gone
Girl’ (David Fincher, 2013)
The shirt and blazer show a formality, the character
takes her job seriously yet the undone top button
infers she’s comfortable in her position.
The use of the coffee cup as a prop suggests the
difficulty of the job, which requires sharp thinking
and working often long hours- a common
convention.

10. A
B
C
D
E
F

11. Costume and Props
A COFFEE An adhesion to the stereotype of police and detectives .
Police are often seen with cups of coffee in genuine
feature films.
B,C,D SHIRT
BLAZER
TROUSERS
The typical attire for a detective is a smart look with dark
trousers, normally a blazer or ,for men, commonly a waist
coat as well as a shirt.
From looking at some female detectives from films like
‘Gone Girl’ we noticed that the top button is usually
undone.
E LEATHER
JACKET
Here inspiration was taken from detective Mills from
Seven, the leather jacket gives a bit more edge to the
typically formal look.
F SUNGLASSE
S
A stereotypical addition to the detective look.- Did not
however come to be used with later weather conditions
during filming.

12. Camera angles
and shots
A two shot is used
when showing the
two detectives,
conveying
familiarity and co-
operation yet the
space between
them may suggest
some sort of hidden
conflict; perhaps
rivalry or a
difference in
experience?

13. Makeup and
figure
expressionism.
The makeup and figure
expressionism of the
two characters links to
their job; the lack of
strong makeup shows
that there’s no time for
unimportant details of
such sort whilst the
serious expressions
highlight that the job is
a lot of pressure,
building on the sense of
verisimilitude.

14. WOMEN IN MEDIA

15. ‘‘Females comprised 22% of protagonists featured in the top
100 grossing films of 2015.’’
We broke the convention of a proportionally more masculine
cast with our fully female cast (just for the opening)
understandably if we were to make our film into a full feature
film more characters would be necessary and male actors would
be needed.
On average it’s mainly men that play homicide investigators in
films, with the only female example I could think of off the top
of my head being Rhonda Boney from Gone Girl, and Clarice
from Silence of the lambs.

16. • We do, however, adhere to some gender stereotypes;
The jogger ‘Jenna Todd’ (Cerys Kelly) is the victim, taken and
abused by the antagonist. The presentation of women as
helpless victims is a re-occurring element in the film industry.

17. • The female protagonists would be relatable to the female
members to our audience while simultaneously not repelling
male viewers.

18. AGE.

19. For our film we picked the certificate of 15+ keeping in mind that the film
would deal with serious themes and include violence and swearing.
Audiences of 15+ would be more likely to empathise with the serious themes
we deal with and with the characters who are mainly of an age group over 20.

20. • It can be seen as stereotypical that the victim in our opening is a
young teenager, as teenagers are often portrayed as helpless in
media, and a popular target for sexual offences in particular.
The stereotype of a young teenage
girl is furthered with the use of
costume and props.
She is seen carrying a phone, with
her headphone in her ears,
portraying the view of teenagers as
technophiles and often switched off
from the world due to the use of
phones etc.
The necklace shows how young girls
attach importance to their
appearance and to material objects.

21. However the stereotype isn’t adhered to through the idea of the girl
going out for a run in the woods, stereotypically teenagers are very
urbanised and fail to appreciate nature.
Though the conventional vivacity and energy of a young person is
portrayed in the activity of a morning run, regular exercise in the early
hours of a day shows commitment; something which stereotypically
the average teenager lacks- teenagers are often portrayed in media as
careless with a lack of organisation.