How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our opening thriller sequence is about a group of teenagers who are trying to survive in a world ravished by unknown monsters. They are filmed in a shed trying to collect weapons to be able to survive. Our media project tried to represent a counter type of the heroes in society as they are normally portrayed as full grown men who save the day. Our heroes are a mixed group that are showed equal in strength and pace. Most close ups are shot of our actress as she prepares weapons, this shows her importance in the group. The scene is made out of 3 characters, two boys and one girl, each of them are searching for weapons. For the use of props we chose to give the male character the weapon. This Represents him as the protector of the group, suggesting that the male should be armed, whilst the female character simply prepares what appears to be a petrol canister. The male is being represented as both practical and protecting, very much adhering to the stereotypes we would usually associate with the male gender within a social group.We were careful with our choice of costumes in that we wanted our thriller to be realistic. The female has no make up and wears practical masculine clothes, representing both genders as equal. For lighting the first time a male character gets introduced his face is lit up and the audience is able to see him properly however when the female is introduced the lighting focusses on the props rather than on her. Through the lighting the male is being represented as more important than the female character.
In terms of shot duration, we were carful when representing our social group of gender so that we include the same amount of shots of both our female and main male character. This represents our gender as equal, he has just as much importance in this scene as her.
Early on in the sequence the only diegetic dialogue comes from the female character, she gives a command to the other male, telling him to ‘shush’. This use of sound instantly represents the female as more dominate, or more in control, representing our social group of female within gender as more powerful, subverting the typical stereotype of men being in charge. However as the sequence continues the male character speaks. Giving a command to the entire group. This second use of diegetic dialogue reverts back to the stereotype of men being in charge and represents the male character as dominate over the female within our represented social group. After we hear the roar of the ‘monster’ off screen, this diegetic sound along with the characters reaction shows that both the male and female characters are equally as scared as each other. Subverting both the expectation that the female will stereotypical typically react more scared than the male, and that the male are also scared In the beginning there is a long shot of the group members entering the shed as there can be a table seen and covered things on the side. Our actors are represented as rough English teenagers, as they are all wearing black hoodies and dark tracksuits.
When representing our age group, we have only included a young group of people. However, we have been careful in how we have represented the age group. In our opening sequence our characters movements are quick, and spaced apart: Suggesting that they are rushed and alone. This adheres to the stereotype of young people needing guidance/help from an older age. We are representing them as independent but careful to show that this seems unnatural. In terms of our shot duration, although we only represent the teenage group within our represented social group, we still show more shots of the older teenagers than the younger one. This use of shot duration suggests that the older you are the more important you are however as they are all in their teen's this only works to a certain point.
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