The document discusses the representation of social groups in the film opening for "Heart of Innocence". It represents two female characters - a young girl of 5 portrayed in a sinister way to seem superior and manipulative, challenging stereotypes of young girls in horror films. The other is the mother of the girl, searching desperately for her missing child, shown as strong and maternal in her actions without caring about her appearance, challenging stereotypes of women as weak and vulnerable in horror. By not including male characters and portraying the females as capable, it aims to represent women in a more positive light compared to other horror films.

1. Question 2: How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Within ‘Heart of Innocence’ a range of social groups are represented in particular ways.
This question will identify key areas of representation within the film opening and
discuss how they were constructed.
In our piece there are 2 female characters who are represented in different ways. The
first character I am going to talk about is the young girl who is seen sat in a chair at the
end of a dark and dreary corridor. She is a young girl around the age of 5, it is most
common for young girls to feature in psychological horrors, however they are normally
shown as going crazy and evil, in our film we have developed this idea as the girl is
shown in a sinister way but her craziness isn’t actually shown in the film opening.
Normally in horror films the dark lighting which surrounds her connotes that she would
be inferior to the other characters, however in our piece we intended that the dark
lighting would show that she is superior compared to the second female who is around
the age of 25. She is superior as the dark lighting shows that she is sinister and in
control. The zooms which we have used when she is shown on screen emphasizes this
to the audience. As we don’t see her face this adds to the enigma in the beginning of the
piece, this a non-stereotypical representation for real life, however for the genre of
horror this it is very conventional for young girls to be possessed in horror films and the
way she is portrayed in our film is that she is very manipulative, this is not typical for
young girls in reality. The character of the child could be seen as both a negative and
positive representation. Personally I believe that it is both as she superior and in control
but because she is young it contradicts the control. The possession which would be
shown later on in the film helps the audience to accept how she is portrayed. When the
child is shown on screen the same sound motif is played so that the audience build an
association with seeing her and hearing that sound.
The mother in this piece is dressed in pyjamas, this shows that her child going missing is
a shock and all she wants to do is find her. The fact that she dressed in her pyjamas and
running through a woods helplessly displays her maternal instincts of not caring what
she looks like. The handheld shots we have decided to include shows that she is very
emotional is searching for her daughter going heart over her head. This is fairly positive
stereotypical representation of females as it indicates that she is strong and doesn’t care
what the outcome is, she just wants to find her daughter. Her actions and behaviour
challenges the stereotype that women are weak and vulnerable in horror films as she
bravely searches the woods and the derelict house in search of her child. There is no
specific sound motif when the mother is seen, there is just tension building music to
make her situation look worse and her look superior to males. We decided not to have a
sound motif when the mother is shown so that the film opening isn’t interrupted by
several sound motifs. Also it makes the sound motif for the child stand out and it is

2. easier for the audience to recognise when the child is shown on screen. This helps them
to realise that something is going to happen eventually.
Although social status wasn’t a huge part in our film opening we can assume that both
the mother and child were of a middle class status. This helps the target audience to
relate to the situation and follow the story more carefully.
The fact that there are no men in our media product helps represent females in a more
positive light. In other horror films, women are shown as helpless, weak and reliant on
men. After interviewing our target audience there was a general overview that they
wanted to see role reversal, as they didn’t like the stereotypical representation of
women. We wanted to use this idea as we also don’t like how women are shown in
horror films as exposed and inferior to males. The physical ability of the mother shows
that she is able and strong. She is depicted running through the woods in search for her
child. This connotes that she doesn’t need a male figure, she can do it herself.