How we represented social groups within our A-Level production of a Sci-Fi Drama

1. Representing Social Groups

2. Representing Our Protagonist
Planning our protagonist was very important as the narrative
focuses especially around him, due to the mysterious nature
of the antagonist and the desolated state of the environment.
We tried to add a sense of realism by making our protagonist
stereotypically ill-fitted for his new found situation.

3. Using CRAGS to develop our Protagonist
• Class: We decided to use a middle class character, as stereotypically, someone from this class is less likely
to be exposed to extreme conditions, but would also be easier for the audience to empathize with.
• Race: we made our character white, following the stereotype of a white protagonist. We thought about using
a protagonist from a different race, should as was done in I am Legend, the Sci-Fi production in which Will
Smith played a black protagonist, but we decided against this as a white protagonist seemed less fitting to
their surroundings.
•
Age: we decided to make our character young, aged between eighteen and twenty five, again, to show their
ill-fitting to their new surrounding.
•
Gender: We wanted to use a male protagonist, as males are stereotypically stronger than females, and we
felt our character had to connote some power at least, rather than being completely helpless. We did this to
connote that our protagonist is an underdog, rather than just a lost cause.
•
Sexuality: we chose to make our character straight, as his end goal is finding his wife. We decided that
giving the protagonist a partner of the opposite sex would help the audience empathize and understands a lot
easier than they could if a same sex partner had been introduced.

4. Constructionist Theory
We implemented the constructionist theory when planning our production. This theory
states that a production is made up of three things:
Truth
There is always some form of truth in a scenario, this may be the way a character
reacts to something, or the situation a character finds themselves in.
The Opinion of the Producer
There will always be some insight from the producer of the production, for example, if
the producer sees women as weak, they will create a weak female character.
Context of Time
This is to make sure the production takes place over a realistic time period.

5. Applying This Theory
We took on board and used elements of this theory in our own production. We felt this
would be an appropriate theory to apply to give our production greater depth.
Truth
Our protagonist reacts to his new found situation in a realistic way which the audience
could relate to, and could see themselves reacting in a similar way. This helps the
audience to relate to the protagonist and therefore be effected more when
something happens to him.
Opinion of the Producer
Our own opinions were based on how we presented our protagonist, and mainly their
gender. We decided on a male protagonist, as we believe that a male would
connote more power than a female protagonist would.
Context of Time
The context of time is important as the believability of the production is reliant on it.
Because of this, we made sure our protagonist had things such as a food source to
allow for their survival.

6. Exploring Stereotypes
Mainly in our production we tried to avoid stereotypes to prevent being
cliché, but several stereotypes were used in our production in order
to help the audience further relate to our protagonist.
Stereotypes also help believability in our production, as we can present
characters in the way in which our audience would expect to see
them presented.

7. Stereotypes within our Production
We chose for our character to be male in order to follow the stereotype that men are
stronger than women, and therefore making our protagonist seem more fitting for
the situation he finds himself in. On the other hand, we went against this stereotype
by choosing an actor who wasn’t particularly heroic or muscular, to show how
unusual their new situation is.
We also used a large mysterious organisation as our antagonist, following the
stereotypical view of a Sci-Fi villain, helping the audience to feel greater distaste
towards the antagonist, and to support the protagonist in his quest.