This document discusses how thrillers represent social groups through different interpretations based on factors like age, gender, social class and ethnicity. It also discusses how a director constructs meaning through techniques like selection, construction and presentation of scenes, as well as character representations. The document then analyzes representations of men and women in thrillers generally and how the writer's own thriller subverts typical gender roles by having adolescent girls in atypical villain and victim roles.

1. Evaluation question 2

2. How does you thriller represent particular social
groups?

3. Versions of reality
• Different social groups may have different interpretations of what they are
watching. They may also have different views on the things that they may see
in the film. This may be because of their age, gender, social class or ethnicity.
• These views may be different to those that the writer/director had in mind
and they may find it hard to get their side of the story over.
• Also different social groups may have different views on whether or not the
film is realistic. Even is the director is trying to get a realistic feel across to
the viewer they may not be able to due to the viewers particular social group.

4. Versions of reality are chosen through the
process of…..
• Selection-This is when the most important parts of the story are picked out.
These may be chosen from a wide range of options.
• Construction-This when the camera angles and shots are chosen, this is also
when the mise-en-scene is chosen. This is when the soundtrack is chosen.
• Presentation-This is what draws the attention of the viewer. This is what
creates meaning for the audience and where they figure out what is
important or not.

5. Preferred meaning
• A preferred meaning is the meaning of the film that the director wants to get
across to their audience. They do this by using many different techniques
that include mise-en-scene. For example: They could use this by showing that
the thriller is set in the past by using selected clothing. E.g. In Charles
Dickon's ‘great expectations’

6. Preferred meaning
• A media text could be understood in many different ways by different audiences.
• When someone makes a film they have a preferred meaning to it. This means that
they have in mind a way they want it to be understood.-The message they want to
get across to their audience.
• This preferred meaning may be effected by someone's age/ethnicity/gender if they
may have a different view on something because of one of those things.
• Some people just like to have their own meaning to the film because that’s what film
is good for.

7. Character representation in thrillers
• In thrillers the same kind of characters re appear all the time.
• There will be a hero and a villain. At the beginning of the thriller the characters that
play these roles may not be so clear to the viewer but they will be by the end.
• Hitchcock said that villains should ‘be normal and look attractive’ then the rest of
the characters will know that they are the villains and neither will the audience which
makes it more thrilling for them.
• There are many different types of villains which include murders and psyncopaths.

8. Character representations
• Characters in thrillers can be represented in many different ways. For
example: Through the social groups that they may be part of due to their
age, gender, social class and ethnicity.

9. Men in thrillers….
• In thrillers both the villain and the hero and normally played by a male. This may be as
they are seen as the stronger sex.
• The hero may be a detective, policeman, a commoner or private investigator.
• These can be shown through different camera angles which make them seem this way.
For example: A shot may be taken from a low angle to make the man seem taller and in
control of the situation.
• Sound can also be used to show that the men are the heroes in the thrillers. For
example: Big, loud triumphant music could be used.

10. Women in thrillers…..
• The woman in thrillers are normally the damsel in distress or the one that needs help.
• They are normally the victim.
• For example: In the thriller Dream House the victims are the wife and the two daughters.
• The women is always the one that seems to need help.
• More recently women have had the more prominent part in thrillers.
• A technical area that is used to show that women are the weaker characters in thrillers by
using high cameras to make them seem small and timid.

11. Gender roles in my thriller……
• The characters in my thriller goes against the typical role that are played by both men and
women.
• The main characters are played by adolescents. The characters that they play are the villains
and the victim.
• In my thriller both the victim and the villains are played by adolescent girls. In our thriller
the girls are represented both timid and cunning. This is done through the style of the
music. For example: At the beginning when we only see Luna the music is quite calm and
collective but with a slight on edge feel to it. When the shots start cutting between Luna and
the sisters a drum beat comes in that suggests that something bad is going to happen. This
is also supported by the shot that you see when the drum beat comes in and it’s a close up
of Luna filing her nails to a match being lit.

12. My thriller……
• Selection-This is when as a group we worked together to decide what message we wanted to
get across to the audience.-What the main storyline is. –What we want to get across to the
audience: ‘There is a new girl and she wants to joins a soriety but it all goes wrong’.
• Construction- In this section we decided what camera angles we wanted to have.-As a group
we decided that we wanted a lot of close ups of Luna and the sisters getting ready-we
wanted the audience to be able to see the differences between them getting ready. We also
wanted the soundtrack to sound quite innocent but then build up as the opening gets going.
• Presentation-To engage the viewer we added the soundtrack to the footage and gave it
transitions and titles. We show the audience what is important by using the close ups.