Evaluation Activity 2 (Ciara - 4354)

EVALUATION 2-

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PATRICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

The social groups presented in our opening are two 17 year olds; a female protagonist, and a female antagonist.

Because both our protagonist and antagonist are the same age it adds a sense of mystery and concern, which are generic conventions of a thriller. We purposefully choose characters that are the same age as our target audience so the audience feel like they can relate to them.

CHARACTER 1- the protagonist

Our protagonist conforms to their stereotype as she is presented as weak and vulnerable. This is shown through her facial expressions, for example the close up of her face when she is scared, which highlights her vulnerability. The use of Louise’s costume also conforms to the stereotype of a 17 year old girl. She is wearing jeans, trainers and a jacket, which is a common casual outfit choice for a female of that age. Like in this scene, the females are often young bubble blondes. This makes the audience care about the victim more than they would if the victim was an older male and they end up more engrossed in the film which raises tension and suspense, and having the audience care for the characters is an effective way of doing this.

                                   

CHARACTER 2- the antagonist

The common connotations around stalkers is that they are strong and threatening males who are possibly violent. However, we decide to challenge this stereotype and have our stalker (antagonist) as a female character. The reason behind our choice is that we believe it would interest people due to its different outlook and entice people to watch it. The reason as to why she is a girl is revealed in the plot if we were to make the entire film, corresponding to our opening.

We used a knife as a prop to indicate the threat of this stalker. We gathered this idea from the ‘Scream’ movie, whereby the antagonist is also dressed fully in black and uses a knife in certain scenes.

COSTUME COMPARISON:

Since our protagonist is a white female, it adds a sense of innocence and the clothes highlight her femininity as she is y oung, fashionable and girly. The costume conforms to a female character very well as it highlights her as being young, pretty and fashionable, like the characters in these photographs from real movie products (left: 'LOL') 

Although we challenged the stereotype of a male victim by using a female character, we decided it would work best to follow the stereotype of the all black costume, and the typical hood up. This worked well as it created mystery and suspense, as the audience weren’t shown the face of the antagonist. This is done in many thriller films, for instance ‘Scream’. (right)