Evaluation - Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product focuses on a few certain social groups. This includes young males and soldiers currently in the war, over-protective mothers and news reporters.

Characters commonly associated with the thriller genre would be the male villain and killer. An example is Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), a young male psychological affected and killing people dressed as his dead mother. The main character in our opening sequence is:

• White, British male
• Young, aged 24 years old
• Occupation – recent ex soldier in the Iraq War
• Still obsessed with the war – get the sense that he hasn’t left his experience behind and has affected him irreversibly. This is shown in the fact that he still dresses in army clothes, has photos related to it and refers to the war during phone conversation.
• He appears normal, but is mentally unstable
• We are made aware from the opening sequence that this man was originally a hero in the eyes of society as he had recently taken part in the Iraq war and received a war medal. However, the audience soon find out later on in the film that his fellow soldiers let him down by deserting him during a battle and leaving him to die. This experience has made him revengeful and now this hero has a twisted mind and it’s his participation and experience in the war that has turned him into this villain. This is therefore breaking conventions and exposing the darker side of the war and its negative effects that can effect one’s mental health

Other social groups that are represented are the stereotypical, over-protective mothers. This is shown in the protagonist’s responses in the phone conversation. We are made aware that the mother is anxious about her son’s safety due to the recent killings and the pattern forming from this of war soldiers being murdered. Her anxiety and concern is a complete contrast to the killers as she is unaware that it is in fact her own son committing these crimes.

During our search for someone to do the voice over for the news report on the television, we had to take a lot of factors into consideration. The person had to represent and be similar to real news reporters. We made a decision to use a man’s voice as we wanted the story to sound as serious, intense and powerful as possible. In order for the person to be suitable for the role, they had to be able to speak as clearly and as comprehensible as possible, with no comical effect.

Setting:
We chose to place our main character in an ordinary house in the suburbs of London. It’s not overly-furnished and appears completely average to reinforce the image of a single, middle-class man that lives alone and therefore adds to the realism.

Overall I think our film opening sequence represents particular social groups effectively and therefore appeals to people, especially those who belong to these social groups.