By Jumana Ismail

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Whilst filming our opening sequence, it was important to see how are characters would influence particular social groups including:

- Class- Race- Age- Gender

Class is not very clear in my opening sequence as the characters are all dressed in scary outfits which allows the audience to focus on them more as a character rather than their class.

However, the protagonist is dressed in very scruffy and plain clothing which suggests she is more of a working class character.

The antagonist, who appears at the end of the opening sequence is dressed in a long black expensive looking coat which may indicate that she is from a Upper class family. The fact that she is the villain may indicate that she is from a higher class than the protagonist, as people with more money in society are usually represented as people with higher power.

Antagonist. Represented as a middle class character.

Protagonist. Represented as working class.

Representing different people from different class’s is vital in my opening sequence as it allows a more varied audience to watch my opening sequence and attracts people from different class’s, as well as prevent anyone in my audience to feel left out.

Class

The Hero that we see throughout the opening sequence reading out the letter she received is shown wearing decent looking clothing in an average sized house with classy furniture. This may indicate that she is middle classed. Class is vital in horror movies as in almost all of the opening sequences I analysed, it was clear to the audience what the Class of the characters was.

For example, in the opening sequence of ‘The Woman in Black’, it is clear to the audience that the three young girls are from a upper class family due to the way they are dressed, the size of the house which is emphasised through the long and wide shots, and the ‘classy’ props.

It is clear that the Hero is middle class due to her outfit and the chair she is sitting on, as it looks very ordinary, however not cheap.

Class (continued)

The race of the social group I am representing in most of my opening sequence is British white. As my opening sequence is British and is set in the UK, having British/white characters would fulfil the conventions of British horrors. In most of the horror opening sequences I have analysed, I realised that the protagonist tends to be white. For example, this is shown in ‘Insidious’, in which the protagonist is a young white boy. Additionally, the protagonists in ‘The Woman in Black’ and ‘The Ring’ are also white.

However, the antagonist is of Brazilian race, which means she has a darker skin colour. The fact that my antagonist is off a different race also matches the stereotypical portrayals of the villains being ‘outsiders’.

However, to go against the conventions of horror movies, the Hero that acted out in my opening sequence was also from a European race. This also goes against the stereotype of people from the same race helping each other just because they are from the same race. For example, the media represents the Latino community in the US as very ‘close’ and ‘together’ and therefore take care of each other. The Villain has a

darker complexion in order to emphasise on the difference between this character and the protagonist.

Race

In my opening sequence, protagonist is ‘white’ which conforms with typical representations of protagonists in horror movies.

In my opening sequence, Hero is of European race. Although we can tell from her accent that she is not from Britain, she still saves the protagonist who is suffering, as she turns out to be the protagonists mother who lived abroad for many years, however people thought she had died.

The representation of Age is very common in the media. Our groups opening sequence has a target audience between the age of 16-25, as according to my planning and research, I thought that teenagers are more attracted to horror movies. Therefore the certification of my film is a 15.

The protagonist in my opening sequence is dressed and acts differently in two different scenes in order to show the difference between her present self, and her character in the past. In the 1st scene, the protagonist is dressed in very plain dark clothing with dark makeup in order to make her look older. This would therefore attract older audiences, particularly females. However, in the flash back scene, the protagonist is dressed in a short bright dress, with her hair in pig tails. This is to highlight the fact that she is remembering the past, as she dressed like this to look like a young girl.

Additionally, the fact that our film is targeted to be audience above the age of 16 is because our story line is very complex. We wanted to leave the audience trying to work out a mystery and thinking carefully about the rest of the movie.

Age

In my opening sequence, I have only included female characters, as I thought to go with the typical conventions of a horror movie. In most horror movies, there tends to be a female protagonists who end up becoming the ‘final girl’.

Although the media in general represents female characters as ‘weaker’ and more ‘emotional’, female protagonist are represented in a positive way in most horror movies, as they come across as more active. Many female characters are seen as even the hero's or characters that save the day.

Therefore, in my opening sequence, both my protagonist, and the hero are females. The female protagonist will become the final girl.

I did not include any males in my opening sequence as the characters I included were the characters with the most significance. As a group we felt that we did not need to include a male character as we wanted to portray the different types of woman we see in the media, particularly in horror films.

Women in the media are represented in many ways, some female protagonists as weak and helpless, and some are represented as strong and powerful. As my group are all females, we thought to show both types of representations in our opening sequence. we represented our female protagonist as weak and helpless as she was possessed and had no control over herself. However, we portrayed the female antagonist that the audience see’s in the last scene as powerful and fearless. Finally, the female hero in our opening sequence is portrayed as helpful, wise and strong minded as she is willing to help the female protagonist out. By portraying her helping out another female, reflects on the issues raised everyday in the media about how women help each other out and may even encourage it, as well as enjoying the movie.

Gender

A long shot showing the female protagonist. She is

dressed in a dark and gloomy outfit with very dark make-up to either show that

she is a victim or an evil person. This keep the audience in mystery.

This is a mid-shot on the female antagonists face. She is dressed

in dark clothing and dark makeup, however, it is clear to the audience that she is the evil character due to her coat and the use of music that is played

when the audience is introduced to this character.

A long shot on the female hero. The

audience can tell that she is not evil due to

what she is wearing. The white top emphasises on

her purity.