How does your media product represent particular social groups?

“My film is aimed at an audience of both male and female teens between the ages of 15-18. even though this is my main target audience, all ages are welcome”.

By Lucy Froud

How are my actors posed & dressed

I believe that both of my characters are dressed appropriately to represent their social groupings. When choosing the costumes for my characters I researched other horror movies that have typical outfits for the specific ages featured in my film. In my research I looked for the representation of colour and based my characters costumes around this.

The first social grouping we are introduced to is the young girl. She is dressed in a pink and black fluffy onesie with her hair down. This conforms to other young girls her age as they tend to be associated with pink and soft things. The young character behaves as any other normal young child would; playing with her doll, being mischievous, giggling etc… I chose all of these specific behaviours, costumes and props to conform to a general stereotype of a young girl not only in a horror movie but in real life as well. By doing this it allowed any older audiences to connect to the film if they happen to have a young daughter themselves.

The second social grouping represented in my film opening is more suited to the target audience. The older sister plays a character of 19 years old which just falls outside the bracket however people aged 19 are still likely to watch a horror film. She is dressed in a casual T-shirt, cardigan and jeans. Most teenagers where this style nowadays and therefore it is a good representation of the generation. The older sister behaves in a way in which most 19 year old females would. She looks after her younger sister in a loving and caring way as the parents are clearly out for the night. I believe that this is a good representation of this generation as people with younger siblings will be able to connect with the character.

Overall I believe that I have conformed to the stereotypes of the particular ages in my film and I believe that when watching my film the target audience will be able to connect with the characters.

How has mise-en-scene represented social groupings?The use of mise-en-scene in my film opening can help to represent the social groupings.

The first shot is a birds eye view of the young girl, thus making her appear small and as if someone is looking down on her. The camera then begins to spin as it moves closer to the young girl, thus making her appear larger but still small as she can sit cross legged comfortably in a medium close up shot. The fact that the camera spins can represent the way in which children are ‘crazy’ they never just go back or fourth but like to make each journey lengthened. I have made this particular piece of the film slow motion to represent the way in which children are in their own world almost as if time moves slowly when they are playing with their toys. In other parts of the film there are single cuts to show the way in which children can just appear out of no where and get from one place to another in no time. In the film opening ‘Insidious’ is similar to my film opening in the sense that the camera starts at a birds eye view shot of a young boy in bed and then spins down and pans various things around the room slowly. This shows that I have chosen to stick to conventions of a horror film that use young children so that viewers of other horror movies can relate.

When representing the older social grouping I decided to use different camera angles such as low angle shots to make the character appear bigger such as when she is tucking the young girl into bed (as in real life this shows authority of the older figure). I also decided to use close ups to show facial expressions which most teenagers can relate to when they have heard something ‘creepy’ in their home. The pace of the film picks up when the older character enters the room to show that young people have energy but then slows down again toward the end to show her being precautious when moving toward the young girls bedroom.

Conforming/challenging conventions of a horror

All in all I believe that my social groupings within my film opening conform to the conventions of a horror movie. this being because my target audience can relate to my product as they almost know what to expect of the characters as they have seen them in other horror movies. For example, children usually always live, teens usually get into some kind of trouble and most of the time the parents survive and manage to conceal the evil. In my film we know that the parents will ‘be back soon’ and therefore can predict that something may happen to the older sister whilst they are away.

The social groupings within my film not only conform to those in other horror films but also conform to those within my target audience. People viewing my film will be able to put themselves in the characters shoes. For example, the older end of my target audience such as, a mother figure, older sibling or carer will be able to place themselves in the shoes of the older sister as they may have had to babysit in a ‘creepy’ house before. The younger end of my target audience may also be able to relate to the young girl as they may have memories from having an imaginary friend.