How does your product represent particular social groups?

1. Task 2- How does your product represent particular social groups?
What social groups are represented in your film (e.g. gender, age, class, ethnicity,
etc.?
Evelyn is represented as a middle class white female teenager, we thought that she
fitted the role well as through research we saw that she is perfect for the
representation of a typical vulnerable girl in supernatural thriller films.
We based Evelyn off of “Carrie White” in the supernatural thriller filmCarrie
released in 2013. It was important to have a female play the role of the possessed
figure as they are stereotypically seen as less likely to be able to defend themselves
against the supernatural powers and therefor more vulnerable to becoming
possessed. The way that she is dressed in the opening sequence shows her middle
class background and because of the way she looks the audience would assume she
is totally innocent, however this is far from the case which is why it is unexpected for
the audience as to why she is the way that she is. We deliberately went against the
traditional conventions of thriller films, stereotypically she would be the one who is
being protected by a stronger male figure from a protagonist. Instead we made her
the protagonist to give the sequence a creepy eerie feel from someone who looks
innocent in fact being the main problem.
To what extent are your character representations typical of your film’s genre?
Compare, with examples from real films.
“Carrie White” who is played by Chloe Moretz in the supernatural filmCarrie
released in 2013 inspired us with character appearance. She plays an innocent role
at the beginning of the film however as the film goes on she becomes the
protagonist and possessed by supernatural powers which challenges the social
stereotypes of females in thriller films.
During the sequence we also used similar body language to present her vulnerability
to the situation they are in, this is shown in the 2 pictures below where Evelyn keeps
here arms and legs close to here body as if to cover herself, in comparison to the
picture of Carrie, this presents her in a very insecure way with a lack of confidence.
This is also typical of thriller films to feature a middle class quite wealthy girl as
they are seen as the most vulnerable yet are able to understand the situation.

2. How have you constructed yourrepresentations through mise en scene,
camerawork, editing and sound?
The majority of our sequence consists of a fast paced montage style of editing,
through research we found that the most common age group that watched
supernatural thriller films was the category of ages 15-24. We felt that it was
important to maintain a fast tempo to keep the constant focus and attention of
the audience, it also helps to entice them in to be keen to watch the rest of the
film. This goes against some of the traditional conventions of opening sequences
as they are normally fairly slow paced to allow the audience to take in the
surroundings and set the tone. However our style of editing does reflect the rest
of the film and set the tone by showing that it is a fast paced action filled thriller.
Comparable info From looking at the table we can see that once again teenagers
and young adults were the most popular age group for going to see a
supernatural thriller/horror with a huge majority of 69%. Supernatural thrillers
tend to appeal more to younger adults as they are looking for a thrill. The
amount of male and females going to see the film was closely split showing that
supernatural thrillers don’t favor either gender. From research we also found
that the most common social class going to view supernatural thriller was
middle class, this can also be seen in the table above with 48% of viewer being
from a middle class background going to watch Insidious. Because of this we
dressed Evelyn in a middle class looking outfit for the opening sequence to help
more viewers relate to the character of Evelyn.
Sound plays a very important role during our opening sequence, we have used
both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The diegetic sound is the voices of Issy
who plays Tracey, the new care worker and Emily who plays Evelyn. Our non-
diegetic sound is a range of sound effects built upon each other. Examples of
sound effects we used are church bells, howling wind and sharp crashing
noises to create a spooky soundtrack to fit our supernatural thriller genre. Our
soundtrack is inspired by the use of sound in the opening sequence to the thriller
film Arlington Road, we have used a layering effect of various different eerie and

3. spooky sounds to create a sharp and distorted tone.
We featured a lot of close up camera work to give the sequence a mysterious feel
and not give too much away as well as featuring a lot of movement of the
characters themselves. This was done to maintain a high tempo and keep the
audience on their seat anticipating what is going to come next.