HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

THE VICTIM

A B

C D

Makeup

A SMUDGED MAKEUP Water and cotton pads were used to smudge the girl’s mascara as it would not have remained in its initial condition after what she had been through.

B PALE LIPSAND DARKENED EYES

White translucent powder was dabbed onto her lips and face and purple and red eye shadow around and under the eyes and near the nose.

C FOLIAGE IN HAIR To heighten verisimilitude we put pine needles in her hair.

D MUD Furthering the sense of realism, considering the victim’s body has been pulled out of the lake, I used brown eye shadow mixed with water and applied it by splatting it with the makeup brush or dabbing it on.

It was important to note the SFX makeup for the victim, keeping in mind that the body had been in the lake.

THE ANTAGONIST

Costume and Makeup.

Not much of the antagonist is visible as they are cloaked in a black

rain coat with the hair and face hidden creating a sense of mystery.It is stated by the detectives in the

opening that it’s most likely another one of Arthur Shawcross’ victims

yet this is only the very beginning of the investigation. For this reason

we have tried to keep the costume unisex and make the hands quite

genderless too; applying dirt to the shortly cut fingernails.

THE DETECTIVES

Detective Loki – Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve,2013)

Detective Mills and SomersetSeven (David Fincher,1995)

The character of Mills wears a shirt and tie, v neck jumper and leather jacket. The

leather jacket brings an edgier element to the character contrasting with the more

traditional trench coat of Somerset which in turn shows his experience.

The character of Loki wears a tie-less light blue shirt and a black rain coat.The raincoat infers the weather conditions of the area he is working in.

Rhonda Boney from ‘Gone Girl’ (David Fincher, 2013)

The shirt and blazer show a formality, the character takes her job seriously yet the undone top button infers she’s comfortable in her position.The use of the coffee cup as a prop suggests the difficulty of the job, which requires sharp thinking and working often long hours- a common convention.

A

B

CD

E

F

Costume and PropsA COFFEE An adhesion to the stereotype of police and detectives .

Police are often seen with cups of coffee in genuine feature films.

B,C,D SHIRTBLAZERTROUSERS

The typical attire for a detective is a smart look with dark trousers, normally a blazer or ,for men, commonly a waist coat as well as a shirt.From looking at some female detectives from films like ‘Gone Girl’ we noticed that the top button is usually undone.

E LEATHERJACKET

Here inspiration was taken from detective Mills from Seven, the leather jacket gives a bit more edge to the typically formal look.

F SUNGLASSES

A stereotypical addition to the detective look.- Did not however come to be used with later weather conditions during filming.

Camera angles and shots

A two shot is used when showing the two detectives, conveying familiarity and co-operation yet the space between them may suggest some sort of hidden conflict; perhaps rivalry or a difference in experience?

Makeup and figure expressionism.

The makeup and figure expressionism of the two characters links to their job; the lack of strong makeup shows that there’s no time for unimportant details of such sort whilst the serious expressions highlight that the job is a lot of pressure, building on the sense of verisimilitude.

WOMEN IN MEDIA

‘‘Females comprised 22% of protagonists featured in the top

100 grossing films of 2015.’’We broke the convention of a proportionally more masculine cast with our fully female cast (just for the opening) understandably if we were to make our film into a full feature film more characters would be necessary and male actors would be needed.On average it’s mainly men that play homicide investigators in films, with the only female example I could think of off the top of my head being Rhonda Boney from Gone Girl, and Clarice from Silence of the lambs.

• We do, however, adhere to some gender stereotypes;

The jogger ‘Jenna Todd’ (Cerys Kelly) is the victim, taken and abused by the antagonist. The presentation of women as helpless victims is a re-occurring element in the film industry.

• The female protagonists would be relatable to the female members to our audience while simultaneously not repelling male viewers.

AGE.

For our film we picked the certificate of 15+ keeping in mind that the film would deal with serious themes and include violence and swearing.

Audiences of 15+ would be more likely to empathise with the serious themes we deal with and with the characters who are mainly of an age group over 20.

• It can be seen as stereotypical that the victim in our opening is a young teenager, as teenagers are often portrayed as helpless in media, and a popular target for sexual offences in particular.

The stereotype of a young teenage girl is furthered with the use of costume and props.She is seen carrying a phone, with her headphone in her ears, portraying the view of teenagers as technophiles and often switched off from the world due to the use of phones etc.The necklace shows how young girls attach importance to their appearance and to material objects.

However the stereotype isn’t adhered to through the idea of the girl going out for a run in the woods, stereotypically teenagers are very urbanised and fail to appreciate nature.

Though the conventional vivacity and energy of a young person is portrayed in the activity of a morning run, regular exercise in the early hours of a day shows commitment; something which stereotypically the average teenager lacks- teenagers are often portrayed in media as careless with a lack of organisation.