Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Within my thriller piece, there are two main characters. These first character is Mark, he is the hitman/hostage of the opening sequence. The next character is 'C'. This is the mysterious texter with a hidden identity. Although they are not seen, they have a big role to play.

In the opening sequence, my characters are portrayed and represented in various ways, Mark is a 25 year old male who is first seen at the beginning of the sequence tied up with blood on the side of his eyebrow. He is presumed to be a male hostage. He is wearing a white shirt with black trousers, the shirt is scruffy and dirty, this can signify that he is unprepared and confused as to what is happening behind him, making him look vulnerable, so the audience like him in that moment of time as they believe that he needs help to get out of the situation that he is in. The use of a white shirt can portray pureness and innocence, aswell as good, making him liked by the audience as they momentarily believe that he is a good person, wanting to save him. The black represents evil and darkness, making the audience wary of what is going to happen as they are unsure whether they should trust him or not. So, the clothing can show the audience that he is a mix of good and bad. The role of Mark ends up revealing to the audience that he is a hitman, which clearly shows to the viewers that he has a bad side. So, the audience are left horrified when he reveals his true colours by agreeing to kill an innocent woman. In the sequence, he is shown as a selfish and confused man which makes the viewers question his true motives throughout the thriller. The relationship created between Mark and the audience is strong at the beginning as they feel sympathy for him because they wonder why he is being tied up and what he has done wrong in order for him to be put in this situation. They begin to think about what they would do if they were in the same position as Mark. However, when they see that he has agreed to kill the wife of 'C', their feelings towards him change, they begin to wonder why he is so quick to agree to the task. They feel anger towards him because he is selfish, killing another woman for money rather than facing the consequences that would have occurred if he hadn't agreed to do so.

The last character i will be discussing is the wife of 'C'. The audience never find out her name because it is irrelevant to the story and she doesn't have enough screen time for it to matter to them. The audience do not know her age, however she shown to look young, as she looks 21. This plays with the audiences emotions as the fact that she looks and is young makes her look vulnerable as she is not yet ready to face what is coming. Her youth is seen with the clothing that she wears, she is wearing a cream top with blue jeans showing her purity and innocence. The use of these clothes shows that she is a typical young woman. She is the female victim in my thriller, this means that she is weak and vulnerable looking to the audience, which automatically means they feel sorry for her as they know that she will most likely die. She is seen to be wearing fresh looking makeup and this shows that she isn't expecting what is coming because she has had time to do it without thinking of anything bad happening to her. Also this shows that she is alone alot, so, her and 'C' may not be very close, explaining to the audience why 'C' may not care if his wife is dead or not. In the narrative, she is shown as young and weak, making her look vulnerable, so the audience want to protect her so that her life is saved from the evil that she is faced against.

I believe that my thriller is gender stereotypical as it contains a male killer. This is always seen in thriller films because the men are made out to be stronger than women, making them more capable of killing someone. They also use male killers to represent the use of toughness and dominance as they are in control of their victims life. For example, C, even though the audience do not know if C is male or female, they believe that he is male due to the way that he is acting and the fact that he is being so cruel to this young woman. C is controlling the life of his poor wife as he determines whether she is killed or not. However, the hitman, Mark, also plays a role in this as he decides whether he should kill her or not. Also, the use of the female victim is stereotypical because women are made to look inferior or weaker than men. This is stereotypically used as woman are represented as more the 'taking orders' than 'giving orders', they are portrayed as not having any willpower or determination to do anything for themselves. I have used stereotypical genders so that my thriller can be easily matched to another one.

I believe that the audience can and cannot build a relationship with my characters. I believe that they can build a relationship with Mark as he is quite a young adult, which may appeal to my younger target audience. This is because they can relate to him as they may have been in trouble which is affected their life. It may not have necessarily been as bad as what Mark has been through, but it may be bad enough that they understand why he killed her as he was just trying to get away from the evil antagonist black mailing him orders. At the beginning, the audience feel sympathy for him because he is tied up and confused, however once he agrees to kill the wife, the audience begin to wonder why they felt sympathy for him as well as wonder why he would want to do such a thing.  They also imagine themselves in the same position and know that they wouldn't have agreed to kill the innocent woman, as the audience, mainly women, may think of themselves being in the same shoes as the female victim, and feel horrible as her life was taken from her without her even having the time to defend herself. The audience turn against him due to the things that he's done and therefore want him to get caught by the police, and punished for the crimes that he has committed. As for 'C' it is harder for the audience to build a relationship with him, the audience assume that it is a 'he' as this would be gender stereotypical. The viewers fear him because they are left unsure of what they may do next, because they can't relate to them or even see them, so it is harder for them to feel as though they are in that person's shoes. The viewers never like 'him' because they wonder why he would do such a thing as to want his own wife dead. So, they begin to come up with a list of reasons as to why he may do this, leaving their imaginations to get the best of them. Again, even though the audience do not know who 'he' is, they want 'him' to be caught again by the audience. The wife is liked by the audience because as far as they know she is an innocent victim. When she screams, the audience see this as a warning that she is scared and she knows that she is going to die, which makes the audience feel sympathy towards her as even though they have barely seen her, they want her to be okay. The female victim doesn't get enough screen time for the viewers to build a strong relationship with her, but they do wish that she hadn't died as they would have liked to see more of her and see her defend herself.