Evaluation Question: 2

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

Female Representation

In my thriller opening we managed to show only female characters, you could hear a male character however there was no visual of a male character. This will most likely show that this is a mainly female dominated film, however it isn’t, the second main character is a male. However from the 2 minute film opening you can’t tell that it is. In the opening women are represented as the victim and as the villain, this shows how differently women can be shown in media. There are many ways in which women can be portrayed in media products, some examples are:• The love interest• The victim• The psycho• The final girl (the girl that survives until the end)• The femme fataleThe femme fatale is dangerous and powerful, she uses her sexuality as a weapon and is normally portrayed as very sexy and beautiful. She is usually the love interest of the villain.

Usually the female character is just used for sex appeal for the film, to attract more men to come and watch the film. Our film does use some of these stereotypical female roles for our film, mainly being, the victim, femme fatale and the psycho. We show these stereotypes by making it clear that there was a dead female on the floor and the lead female was psychotic, and the femme fatale, this is shown by the fact that she is so calm about the dead body being there, and doesn’t seem to have a reaction to the male screaming.

Male RepresentationIn the opening the male character isn’t seen, however from the screams and the banging on the door, it shows that he is a victim, rather than the normal stereotypical hero. Most male characters in films are shown to be the following:

• The hero (however may have flaws but in the end they overcome this)

• An authority (e.g police, fireman, private investigator etc.)

• They’re smart• Put themselves in danger to protect peopleHowever if they play a villain they are normally:• Smart• Handsome/charming• PsychoticHowever in my film the male character is the victim, he has been made powerless by the female lead. He is heard in the opening of the film screaming, I decided to get him to do this so that it would emphasize how powerless he is. We thought that we could do this so that it would challenge the stereotype of the female being the defenceless character. I thought that this would make it seem more interesting and show the audience that sometimes female characters aren’t always the weak innocent character that they are normally perceived to be.

Other RepresentationsAge

The characters in our thriller are all above 20, however they were being played by actors that are 18. This may prove to be difficult because they would need to seem more mature and look more mature than they actually are. Stereotypes in the media industry about age is that old characters are normally very weak and unable to do anything to help the plot, and are just there to be either comic relief or to make the audience feel upset when they die.

Race/EthnicityIn the opening of our film the characters are all white, however throughout the film there are other characters of other races introduced to the plot. One of the main stereotypes in the thriller/horror genre is that the black male character in a film is the first to die, however my film will stereotype this, as the female black police officer in my film would not only be the one to save the day, but also to survive the longest.

DisabilityIn the opening of my thriller there weren’t any disabled people being represented and unfortunately there isn’t any in the rest of the film. However the stereotypes of disabled people in thrillers is that they are always needing to be rescued.