Media Evaluation - Question Two

Question Two – How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents particular social groups of older teenagers. As our thriller is aimed at aged 15 and above we wanted to make sure it was relevant to people our age so they could relate to it.

 From the opening the main character was the protagonist. We chose to have a female protagonist as, in most thrillers, stereotypically females are not as strong as men and have more chance of being hurt or affected as they are shown as the weaker gender. From the image you cannot see the woman’s face which is not shown throughout the whole of the opening, creating tension and mystery, as then it would give away who it is and answer too many of the audience questions. The image on the right is the only mid shot image we see of the woman as the rest of the shots are close ups of the injuries on her body. You can see here she is quite young which makes her more vulnerable again implying she doesn’t have a lot of strength to fight back which again shows lack of power against an antagonist.

Other than her white top and black trousers which are both ripped the white top suggests purity and how she was a young and innocent girl with the black trousers suggesting death. The protagonists costume is important as it creating representation messages for the audience to understand that she was weak compared to her killer. She wore red shoes both of which were shown, one on her foot the other by the door. A dark red implies blood and danger, linking to the blood that is on her top. Red can also be an emotionally intense colour which suggests that this thriller could be about something personal leading to a crime scene including a young girl.

For the woman protagonist we used make up for the injuries, the bruises and blood. We decided to have specific injuries, the bruising around her neck was the first injury shown through the force of the rope implying that the death was painful and she was murdered violently. We saw some small other bruises around her body, some on her arm where she had been grabbed as well on her stomach where she had been punched. We never saw the injuries on her face as her identity would have been shown however the audience did get to see the side of her face a couple of times which gave hints but still could see injury.  We saw an injury on her head with blood running down her face however only again saw the side of her head covered with hair. Other than the make-up we used for the injuries, no other make-up was used as it would not have been realistic.

The camera went around her body to show the injuries close up showing where the injuries were with flashbacks of how she got them at the end. The camera did not show every injury as the crime sub-genre is all about mystery and for the audience to want to carry on watching of how she got those injuries.

The props used on the female protagonist were rope. This prop was important to use as it showed she was out of control of what happened therefore she was powerless compared to the antagonist.

Her shoe was used as a prop when walking into the dark room where she was, it was a significant prop signifying that she was in there so when her friend walked in she knew that she was in there, it was a resemblance of her being in there.

We filmed the protagonist in a dark room on a table; however the rope was tied around her neck connected to tables which lead to the door and up the stairs showing that someone was dominant over her. The dark room emphasised how isolated the place that they were in was. The room was only shown as having one door to go in and out so as the rope went down the stairs it was shown that the location was in a basement or a room that was not used a lot therefore she would be harder to find and it would be unknown. As the room was dark, the  light was difficult to get right so it was clear enough to see what was happening but that it was also dark enough so it looked like it was happening through someone else’s eyes. The light that was used to go around her body was the light on the camera therefore only a small light, but was effective enough as then it did not give too much away about what was happen so every new shot would have been a new injury that the audience would have seen, showing how severe the murder was.

The protagonist here is compared to the victim in ‘Psycho’. She was vulnerable and was dominated by the killer with a hidden identity. Shots were used similarly, close ups on the affected areas, for example at the end of ‘Psycho’ when she is laying on the floor, just like the young girl lying on the table, the camera shots show the importance of the injuries that they have.
Both of the victims are young showing they are weak and would not be able to fight off anyone that attacked them. As well as both being female, they were both shown on their own at the start until we saw the other protagonist come inside the room on the thriller opening, showing they were both on their own when they got attacked. Both protagonists were murdered by a hidden identity, therefore comparing them to each other it had the same set up by them not knowing what was going to happen, as well as the audience knowing what happened to them before they did, for example, the audience saw the killer in ‘Psycho’ come into the shower plus knew the antagonist was in there in the thriller opening, building up tension as they cannot do anything to stop the murder from happening.
 

 The next main character shown in the opening was the antagonist. Like the protagonist the audience didn’t see the antagonist’s whole face, we just saw up to his nose. The reason for doing this was again because of mystery. For the antagonist we chose a tall, broad male to have this role as he looks threatening compared to the protagonist who is the complete opposite, showing how much dominance he has against her. The age was difficult to tell for the protagonist as we did not see him, but you can tell that he is a younger male but no specific age. This is a typical convention in a thriller as a young male would be fit enough to escape from the protagonists as well as blend in as a normal person other than a killer. As it was the opening two minutes we did not want to give a lot away about the characters so by just showing what they did and how they were dressed gave an initial idea about who they were. The status of this man was seen as a high class. He had trousers, shirt and tie as well as a coat on and looked like he was dressed like a business man. A typical killer would be this man, as they wouldn’t look like the typical person to commit a murder as they looked like they were wealthy and had an office job etc, however would look smart and of a higher status as it was related to them being wealthy because of the crimes they have committed. The reason for him dressing like this was because we wanted to challenge the stereotype and make him look like a normal man which would be harder to convince anyone that he was the person that committed this murder.

The camera shots for this character were mostly mid shots. Mid-shots were good to use for this character as the audience kept getting to see what he was wearing which was professional in some ways showing his wealth but confusing the audience of what his reason is for doing this to the young girl. There was a shot of the protagonist standing over the girl showing his dominance to show the audience he was fully aware of what he has done. We got the angles for these types of shots by standing over the body as well as getting as close as we could to the body by making sure it is clear to the audience what part of the body it was. For high angled shots the camera was placed above the body so all of the body could be seen but shown smaller as if someone was dominating it, such as from the antagonist’s point of view. We got low angled shots by the camera being significantly below the body, not many of these shots were used as we didn’t want the body to look like it had a control.

On the antagonist, no make-up was used as there were no features to be shown. It was clear that he had his face out but did not show any other part of his body other than his hand, implying that he was capable enough to not need any weapons or props to hurt the protagonist other than himself implying the strength that he had.
The location that the antagonist was in was the same as the protagonist. Whilst filming, they were never apart therefore him showing protection over what he had done, therefore suggesting to the audience he could regret what he had done or he could be clear therefore making sure no one else finds her to create the sense of the mystery trap.
As identification in this opening was very important the lighting was kept low to show segregation from everyone else. The lighting was used well for the antagonist as he had his face out but the way the camera moved around him was planned so the hood of his coat was covering his eyes from a shadow, showing that he was a secretive person that could hide what he had done.
The antagonist is compared here can be compared to Le Chiffre in James Bond, he has his identity out, which our antagonist challenges that however is still dressed well and looks of a high class but is still dangerous. Both characters are all in black as well as being dangerous to other but secretive about how they carry out their plans without a lot of people knowing how they do it and carries that on throughout the thriller.

Finally the third and last character that was shown was the protagonist’s friend that came in to the room at the end of the scene. She saw what had happened but did not know that the antagonist was still in there as he was guarded about where he went as he was playing a smart game. The role here for the other young girl was the protagonist’s friend. She was a normal looking young teenage girl who made this role seem more vulnerable as she did not know what had happened and she is going to find her friend. Her costume was normal, jeans and a coat to show she is going to find something that was really unexpected. The main shot of this girl was the one on the right where she came through the door following the rope that she has spotted, cleverly placed by the antagonist to make sure someone finds her.  No specific make up was used on her as she is just the friend that tries to help the girl, again blameless like the protagonist. None of her identity was covered as she was an unexpected character to be seen to walk in as the antagonist was not expected to get caught. The camera shots for this character were long shots. The long shots were effective as we could see her reaction and then to see what would happen to her, creating another victim.  We can compare this character to Mary-Jane out of Spiderman as she is a natural character who in which just wants to help people and be there as a friend to someone but always comes off worse just like the protagonist who got injured.