Question 2:
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Gender
Our thriller conforms to the stereotype that the man is the stalker and the woman is the sort of victim or the pray.
She isn't really a femme fatale and this is challenging the idea that women in thrillers tend to either only be a femme fatales or irrelevant characters, because thriller films and altogether the media nowadays are ruled by men mostly.
A good example for this is Eve in Once Upon a Time in America. She is the victim of the law when she is shot by the corrupt police officers who are actually seeking to kill/catch her gangster lover.
Another good example is Josh's girlfriend in Animal Kingdom, who is killed by Pope, J's uncle, who then carries out her corpse lays it down to rot in the garden, so as to hide her death.
The stereotype of dominant men which is reflected upon in our thriller is originally influenced by Norman Bates in 'Pyscho'.
He is also shown in a predatory, animalistic role as he preys on Marion Crane, 'Crane' being a type of bird.
Other than in all these examples, in our thriller, the girl is not objectified or glamourised because she is mainly completely covered, but she still seems unable to shake off the behaviour of her stalker, which means there must be some deeper reason for his obsession.
Social class
The first time you see the girl, in the scene when she's walking along the beach, you could think that, based on her costume and the situation, she could be from the working class.
Maybe also because she's at the beach on a morning, meaning maybe she doesn't go to school?
or maybe she's on the beach thinking about/trying to run away from some criminal act he's done?
But then the second environment you see her in, she's well dressed and looks quite sophisticated walking into the library after which you then see her sitting at a computer in what the audience could suspect is either an ordinary library or a school/university library- either way, you can assume that she's in education. The location and the atmosphere reflect her in a slightly more middle class social situation.
The region
Our thriller shows Norfolk's beautiful coast in quite a melancholic/mysterious atmosphere.
Mood of the time
I think our story taps into the Zeitgeist of contemporary Britain by showing how new technologies are influencing the youth's lives more and more.
The storyline shows a young man stalking a teenage girl through the internet and he contacts her via e-mail, which is a very modern and new method, but for us teenagers by now completely habitual.
Pretty much every teenager in Britain has access to the internet nowadays and young people are expected to have an e-mail address or even a Facebook account, so this could happen to anyone.
It's amazing how much information any stranger can access about one specific person purely through their virtual internet existence on Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Email etc.
This is why i think our thriller would appeal to most teenagers, because it is such a easily possible situation.
Reflecting basic understanding of representation of gender. Reflections on how your film production represents the way young people communicate is interesting. Do note that in paragraph one you focus on how it is in the media that young women are stereotyped and objectified, and in thriller films tend to be victims, for example Eve in Once Upon a Time in America where she is the victim of the law and is gunned down by corrupt police officers who are after her gangster lover; Marion in Psycho who is the victim of Norman Bates psychosis; Josh's girlfriend in Animal Kingdom who is murdered by Josh's Uncle Pope.
ReplyDeleteYou do need to reference research here.
You could make the point that in your production the main character is not objectified or glamorised because she is completely covered but she seems unable to shake off the unremitting obsessive behaviour of her stalker.