Question 2

The

Foreshadowing

Charlie Brooker

SOCIAL GROUPS

All characters in which appear within our opening sequence are of young, white and British origin. We didn’t have an intentional aim of excluding other ethnic groups, we just happened to all be of the same origin.

All of our protagonists are females as they are socially constructed to be weak and vulnerable. Therefore, in portraying females in this way, we are fulfilling the dominant ideology society has of young females. We show how they are idle enough to convince themselves that they are independent and convey how they are naïve as to the dangers of being alone.

REPRESENTATION

The females who are murdered are represented in a negative way to a certain extent. Three of the girls appear innocently walking through a tunnel, an alleyway and sitting on a swing at an abandoned park. An audience therefore make a value judgement about them and label the girls as being ignorant with their oblivious attitude to their exposure withinwider society. Alternatively, our lead female character Jane is represented positively with the use of dark clothing. With our choice of costume, Jane is connoting an emergent ideology, in that she is challenging the dominant ideology of stereotypical teenage girls.

We used the concept of the final girl within our opening (as we were an all girl group) and represented this with the use of the main female character foreseeing her friends deaths. With the main female character having a psychological disorder, she is challenging the residual ideology of individuals with mental disorders as they are usually marginalised within horror openings. Whereas, we provide her with the most screen prevalence and position the audience with her at all times.

Picture of me at the bus

stop with a shocked face

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

We positioned the protagonist so that she was sitting down and positioned the antagonist so that he was standing up. In doing this, it enforced a sense of status and value on each character, in that the antagonist is to be seen as more dominant. We constructed our scene like this due to binary opposition, with the male being ideologically constructed to be strong and pose as a threat. Further conforming to the dominant ideology of patriarchy, in that men have more power over women.However, reaction shots position them both at the same level. This is contributing to the idea that he is her alter ego.

By adding sound of the jingle of bells every time the murderer appeared, it gave him a negative absence, in communicating to the audience that he is the antagonist.

Picture of reaction shots, my face at bus stop and max standing on the opposite side of the road.

With the use of close up shots on the main female characters face, it gave her a positive presence, in forcing the audience to feel sympathetic towards her and feel her fear.

MACRO ISSUES

Our film opening serves to reinforce dominant ideologies of particular social groups such as young teenage girls.

We challenge the status of people with mental disorders by giving them screen prevalence and making them appear more dominant to a horror film storyline.

We reinforce a patriarchal society and the dominant ideology that men are stronger and more powerful then women.