The document discusses the representation of characters in a student film called Target. It describes the main character as a young male killer who struggles with relationships due to a problematic childhood. He is represented as clever but with a dark side and lack of understanding of relationships. The character is created through costume, using a typical young male appearance to seem normal, and silence to appear calm yet psychologically troubled. Stereotypically, he finds excitement and entertainment through killing. Technically, editing, camerawork, lighting and music are used to position the audience to connect with and expect the young male to be the killer as clues are revealed through the opening credits.

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

2. How have you represented the
characters in your film?
 Target uses one main character who is the killer and the story is about a
young male who struggles to understand the way that people can be so close
to each other due to a problematic childhood. It features the killer
throughout the opening sequence and shows the dark side to a young male
and his lack of understanding of relationships. He is represented as a clever
young mind and comes across as if he has been killing for years. Shots of his
eye and the knife connote that he is ready to kill because of his hatred for
relationships. Obviously, this character is represented in a negative light due
to his dark side and is lack of understanding.

3. How did you create the representation
of your character?
 I created the representation of my character by the use of costume and
silence. The young male doesn’t dress as if he is going to kill and he looks like
he’s only new to killing. However, because he remains silent throughout the
opening credits, we can see that he obviously has issues because someone of
this age would tend to talk a lot more and let people know how they are
feeling or what they’re doing. Because the young male doesn’t talk it appears
that he is very calm and that he’s preparing himself for the murder.
Costume of the protagonist

4. Particular stereotypes
 The main character is a typical young male who is struggling with his life.
Mise en Scene and the character’s costume connote that he is only young and
still living at home but he wants to find some excitement in his life and killing
is the way in which he achieves his entertainment.
 This links in with my genre, action / thriller, as the young male is appears to
be like any normal person because of his appearance but actually he has a lot
of psychological issues.

5. How did you position the audience?
 The audience instantly have quite a close connection with the character due
to the types of shots that I chose to use. For example, the extreme close up
of the eyes and hands represent the psychological issues of the killer and that
he is still opening up for people to see the ‘real him’.
 The audience will expect that the young male is going to be the killer because
there is so much focus on him through the opening credits and as the opening
credits go on, more and more clues are given away about the young male and
what he’s doing. At first we see the young male in an extreme close up of his
eye but as the opening credits go on, we can see that he is the killer and he is
preparing himself for the kill.

6. What technical skills helped you construct
representation of your character?
 Editing – when I was editing Target I thought that I would like to use quite
dark shots to show the unbalance of the situation and the emptiness to the
soul of the killer. This is where I used colour correction in some of the shots
such as the extreme long shot of the forest because I wanted the target
audience to understand that the killer didn’t like to associate with people so
he would only kill as the night started to begin. This is where you can see the
sun going down on the horizon and I used a flare to create the effect of the
sun going down because the original shot was quite light in comparison to the
rest of the shots.
 Camera – One of the shots focuses on the fire in the woods which I thought
was quite effective. I filmed this shot a few times to make sure that it
worked and I didn’t go out of focus once the fire was in focus. I also played
around with the depth of field when it came to filming the low angle shot of
the trees and you can see that they are slightly out of focus, again this
creates the unbalance in the situation.

7.  Lighting – lighting played a very important part in Target because of the
way that the killer is shown in the dark. It was quite hard to make sure
that the lighting worked so that the audience could still see the shot.
This is where I started to experiment with use of a torch to see if it made
much of a difference. Fortunately, the torch worked really well and
created a strange effect, especially on the blood on the floor. I also
filmed the shots of the killer walking into the shed using a torch so the
audience could see what he was doing. The shot that follows doesn’t use
a torch because you can see the light of the night and the killer walking
in the shed.
 Music – the music I used played an important part in Target because of
the way that it creates the tension. As the killer prepares his tools the
music becomes faster and this is really effective because it again adds to
the unbalance of the situation. I also edited the music in a programme
that I am familiar with called Audacity. I was able to use this to cut some
of the longer sections out of the music. I also then timed the music so
that some of the credits would appear and disappear on certain beats.
This was very effective towards the end of the opening sequence when
the director credit disappears with the climax of the music.