How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender• In our opening thriller sequence, we had a male antagonist and a female antagonist.

The reason for having a male antagonist character was to portray how men stereotypically can have more power and control over women, and so we wanted our character in this particular storyline to be almost manipulative towards women. In order to portray his authority and importance to the narrative, we ensured he had the most screen time, as our opening sequence was heavily revolved around the role of this particular character and his obsession with girls. We also ensured to imply his role of authority and power through the use of camera angles and the way he looks at the photos on the wall, and we enforced this through the use of flashbacks. We incorporated low angle shots to give the audience the impression that he has hierarchy and status, making them feel intimidated by the character, reflecting the stereotypical views of society of men having more status and authority than women.

• The female antagonist is only shown on a photo and so doesn't have much screen time at all. Often in films, according to Laura Mulvey, women are presented as sexual victims in the 'male gaze' and so are often casted as these characters and not a main character, which is exactly what we portrayed in our opening thriller sequence.

Class/Status • The class that our main antagonist represents is a middle class status. This is

because our character's occupation is a maths tutor and so would be on an average salary and is shown through his attire and the fact that he can afford to accessorize with clothing such as a watch, smart clothing and a tie. As well as this, his smart attire isn’t really what maths tutors wear in their own house and so this is deemed as strange by the audience. The unusual socks our actor is wearing really contrasts with his smart attire because the audience then wonder as to who he is dressing up for, but why wear unusual socks and have the sleeves rolled up? Our character also represents the fact that what many people consider 'normal' in public, that many people can be very different behind closed doors, for example Oliver appears to be a normal man, but in his room, it is suggested that he is a psychopath with a strange obsession for raping and murdering girls but also the OCD aspect of everything being tidy, which isn't typical for someone of this age and class, which adds to the mystery and narrative enigma for our opening thriller sequence. The eerie non diegetic music represents our character and being abnormal and slightly scary adding tension for the audience as they don’t know what will happen throughout each part of the narrative, and so the sound used really emphasises this.

Age• According to statistics, the thriller gender is

mainly aimed at 15-25 year olds. This means that the conventions we used had to appeal to this age bracket, but also ensure that our opening thriller sequence would appeal to other audiences in order to broaden our target market. However, our character does challenge stereotypes of older males victimising older women, and could also highlight and raise awareness of domestic violence and abuse. 

• The house setting adds to the representation of our character being middle class. This is shown through the normal family home where the narrative is set, particularly when he is walking down the stairs, where we can also see photos of his family on the wall, making the audience wonder what happened to him . The audience can see that he lives in a nice house, and it would be reasonably priced, suggesting the normal lifestyle he should use. The props on the desk are laid in a very neat fashion to suggest to the audience that our character is mentally impaired, perhaps with an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The photos on the wall, as well as the anti depressants and other tablets in the cupboard help to emphasise the fact that our character isn’t mentally stable, suggesting this could affect the way he is with girls. Another prop, such as the watch, clearly suggests he schedules everything down to the second, again emphasising his condition.

Props/Setting

Sexuality • Even though we didn't clearly distinguish our

character’s sexuality it is suggested throughout the narrative that he is straight, which is suggested through his clear obsession with girls. Without realising, we have signified a clearly straight character who becomes satisfied by harassment towards girls, which is shown through the close up shots of the antagonist stroking the protagonists face, and also shown through the skilful editing of flashbacks through one scene of the narrative.