The document summarizes how a media product represents different social groups through its characters. It introduces a scene where a teenage girl is being watched by a murderer before she is killed, representing how teenage girls can be targeted for being weak and vulnerable. It then contrasts the representation of the female victim character, who is innocent, versus the male murderer character, who has no redeeming qualities. It describes the physical attributes and roles of the three main characters - the tall, evil-looking male murderer; the smaller, innocent-looking female victim; and the victim's male friend. It analyzes how the opening death scene portrays the victim as weak and prioritizing her possessions over escaping.

1. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

2. Our opening scene includes a teenage girl walking through town with her friend. As she walks through town, she is being watched by somebody. I tried to represent this as a classic serial killer scene with the girl being watched right up until the murder happens. I’ve done this in a way so the audience can understand what is going on right up until the murder and it demonstrates how teenage girls are targeted for being weak and vulnerable and it sort of puts a message across for teenage girls to not walk through your local town on your own. The film ‘Taken’ is similar in the way young girls are targeted.Jen fromThe FollowingThe girl from Taken

3. In my thriller, I decided to represent men and women in a slight contrasted way. The girl is seen as a young innocent by passer who is brutally murdered for no reason whereas the man is seen as a dangerous killer who has no good qualities about himself from the first time he appears on screen. I decided it to be this way as it follows conventions of a thriller film but also it can show how easily it is for the man to murder somebody.

4. There are 3 people presented in my film.Murderer – I believed this character had the right attributes for a murderer. He is tall & big and his facial emotions help make him that bit more evil and I thought he was ideal for the role.Victim – This character looks innocent and your typical ‘college girl’ as she has just finished round town with her friend and is just walking back home, also the different in size is also important as she is smaller than the murderer which helps make him look more superior and stronger.Victim’s friend – although he doesn’t play much of a role, his appearance is helpful as it signals, like the girl, a typical college boy look and you can tell they’re friends by the way they are with each other. I thought about having a boyfriend for the victim but came to a conclusion that people might think the boyfriend would follow/walk his girlfriend home so instead we chose the boy to be a friend.

5. There is a death in the opening sequence and this is the girl. It tells us that this person is weak and vulnerable, especially with the way she retaliates when the murderer chases her as she doesn’t seem to fight back and instead tries to run away. Although, the fact that she decides to pick her bag up when she drops it gives of the impression that her possessions are more important than escaping for her own life, even without realising she will be murdered in the first place.