G321 Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent par ticular social groups?
Gender: ■ In films, women are usually given roles that involve men overpowering them, roles that kept women challenging men for power are most common along with roles that show them as sexual objects. My film discards these stereotypical roles as the film I made contains an all-female cast. This leads to there only being a representation of the female gender in my film. Thrillers often begin with female representations as it can make them look powerful to begin with and then as soon as a male character comes in, all power is lost and the female becomes weak and isolated. This can be seen in Once Upon a Time in America when Eve is alone in her room. Since she has her a stable place to live and a safe place to be we expect her to be quite powerful, however as soon as males enter the room all of her power and stability is lost in seconds. ■ My film represents females as very strong and independent yet also has Lilly conforming to the stereotype that women are weak. Since there are two stronger characters who are both confident and independent we can see it is likely that their personalities will clash and there will be trouble between them. Some may argue that our film is aimed only to an audience of teenage girls however since a very real issue is covered that affects all genders, it can be relatable and suitable for both genders. ■ There are two main stereotypical characters: Rhiannon and Kyra. Kyra is presented as a villain and a stalker which makes her seem dangerous and the audience quickly learn that she should not be messed with. Kyra’s role could be argued to involve masculine characteristics since it’s typically males who are villains in films. Rhiannon is presented as a weak, targeted, vulnerable teenage girl. This character is also lightly portrayed for Lilly too since the audience would sympathise with the characters because of the danger and suicide.
Age: ■ My thriller production cast contains three 17 year old girls. We decided to use a young cast as we wanted our thriller to be targeted at people of a similar age. From using characters that were a similar age it allowed us to use our own experiences and personalities to create a more realistic perception of teenage life. By including only teenagers in the opening to our thriller, it gives people a clear understanding of the target audience from the very beginning. This means that those who it is meant for are likely to continue watching as they have the understanding they may be able to relate to the film in a particular way. On the other hand it means those watching that are of a different age to the targeted age range are more likely to stop watching. Due to this factor, if this film was to be distributed in cinemas it is likely that it would not have a very large audience unless it was a very exciting and gripping film. Kyra was made out to be a very powerful, dangerous and threatening character however, due to her only being 17 we were limited with how we were able to portray this. In a typical thriller older characters, usually with a history of violence, are used to show them as a threat. For example, Billy and Jason in Essex Boys. Due to having this reputation and having more chance of being able to get hold of weapons, it makes it more realistic for these older characters to portray violence through the use of using these weapons. However, since Charley/Kyra is only 17 it would have been very unrealistic if she was to use a powerful weapon to seek revenge. ■ The use of technology within our film is also a new and more modern feature of films. Since technology is developing all of the time, the use of it is increasing too, particularly with young people. This is a stereotype which is associated with the younger generation and therefore this stereotype is used within our production as it presents young people as very unsociable. ■ Our production touches upon subjects such as crime and violence. Crime and violence is most often associated with youths and young people in Britain. My group looked at an article which talks about the effects cyber bullying had on individuals in 2015. We found this article very relevant and shocking and therefore our characters were strongly presented to reinforce the idea of how youths are represented in this way. ■ The article: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/09/internet-trolling-teenagers-online-abuse-hate-cyberbullying
Ethnicity â– Our production uses three White-British females, however this is not really an important aspect of how my film represents social groups. This is because I believe that casting an individual with any ethnicity would have still left us with the same outcome of the film. â– Through filming in Britain and using white actors, it could potentially create appeal for other nationalities as they may be interested/intrigued in Britain as it is typically presented. â–
I believe that the ethnicity of the characters is the least important factor, and instead strongly represents young people and gender.