Q2 – HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA

PROJECT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL

GROUPS?

SOCIAL GROUP In our media product I had a few different social

groups: Teenagers Male Female Nerd Popular Rebel We decided that we wanted to use these social groups

because they are something that most people are able to identify by. As these are dominant stereotypes we are able to make our target audience relate to them due to the stereotypes being something that the target audience will recognise. These stereotypes fit in with our target audience which is 15-25 year olds.

RIKKI

In the thriller genre most female characters are represented as weak people who will be killed of, however sometimes they are shown as strong characters. But stereotypically they are only there as objects which is the male gaze theory as suggested by Laura Mulvey. They are normally very pretty and will wear not a lot of clothes to please the male audiences members.

The main social group that is shown in our project is teenagers. We used both Males and females because we wanted to have a variety and by having both sexes we can appeal to a wider target audience. We decided that because our target audience is both male and females between the ages of 15-25 we need to have our actors in that age range so that our audience are able to relate and connect with the characters.

Rikki is the main character in the production who gets abducted. She is shown as a rebel. We thought this would be the best stereotype for Rikki because rebels aren't stereotypically seen as naïve and this was something we decided that we wanted to challenge. Also we chose a female as the rebel because women aren't shown in this stereotype as much as men, by doing this we are challenging the fact that women can be rebels. This is something that isn’t always done in the thriller genre because women aren’t shown as rebels as much and the antagonist is normally a male who is a bit of a rebel where as we have shown our ‘princess’ as a rebel. In order for us to challenge this we needed to show that rebels aren't just heartless. We thought that to make Rikki look like a rebel she needed to wear dark clothes and hoodies. This would help our target audience to recognise her social group which would in turn help them to understand the character. We looked at how stereotypically rebels are shown and we decided that in order to be able to identify Rikki as a rebel she needed to have dark hair, dark clothes. This is how we decided to represent Rikki. (Picture on the left) Another character who has been shown as a rebel is Jill (Amanda Seyfried in Gone) The two of these characters have some similarities but have some differences.

RIKKI AND JILL

Similarities DifferencesBoth of the characters are wearing dark clothing. Rikki is wearing a dark top with a darker hoody and ill is wearing a dark hoody. This is a key costume in the thriller genre.

Jill is the protagonist in her film whereas Rikki is the person who is kidnapped. In a sense their roles are reversed. Jill is looking for her sister who has been kidnapped and Rikki has been kidnapped. This is a difference in their role that they play in the film.

Both of the characters are white and female.

Jill doesn’t fit the stereotype of rebel as much as Rikki does. Jill has light blonde hair and doesn’t wear a lot of dark make-up whereas Rikki wears dark make-up and has dark hair with one side shaved. This stereotypically shows her as a rebel.

Both of the characters are around the same age group therefore would be able to relate to each other. They both have siblings as well which is something that isn't shown about Rikki in the opening sequence. However she does have a brother and Jill has a sister.

Jill is more brave then Rikki. Rikki is shown as quiet weak because when she is abducted she doesn’t try to get away or when she is talking to the man she knows the consequences but still goes along with it. However Jill is shown as Strong and independent hence why she finds her sister on her own and without the police.

Here I am going to look at the similarities and differences of the two characters:

CONCLUSION Our representation is stereotypical in ways. For example Rikki wears a hoody, which is

stereotypically expected of a rebel. This shows to the audience that she is a rebel. This is a positive representation of the stereotype because it shows that we have followed the stereotype and been able to represent that.

Another example would be that Rikki has dark hair, this isn't necessarily the most needed thing to be seen as a rebel. However we thought that Rikki should have dark hair because most rebels do have dark hair. Because now rebels shave one side of both sides of their head the person we wanted to play Rikki could have that so that we could show the fact that she is a rebel. By having this we haven't challenged the stereotype, however I do feel that the representation of the hair and clothes isn't a negative representation but a positive one. I believe this because we have shown the social group as it should be.

Thirdly we chose to use Rikki as the ‘princess’ because the ’princess’ is usually shown as very weak and naïve which is something that fits Rikki’s character. However the ‘princess’ would not normally be as rebellious as Rikki is. In some ways Rikki fits that character type because she has been taken by the antagonist and will hopefully be saved by the protagonist. Therefore she fits the archetype of that character however with fitting it she also goes against it like I said by the way that she dresses. However her actions show that she needs a strong person to save her. This is something that is shown in the thriller genre however is shown mostly in other genres such as Action.

I feel that we have been effective in the way that we have portrayed Rikki because we had a clear ide of what she felt and how she looked. This helped us to be able to cast the character and also helped us to work out how she would act on screen. I think we have been successful in creating a representation that fits in ways whilst also being an anti-stereotype at the same time. However I do feel that in my opening sequence that Rikki’s personality isn't shown as dominantly as it should be. If I was able to do this task again I would probably try and make it so that the audience is able to know more about Rikki before she is abducted, because at the moment I feel like she just comes in we learn a bit about her the fact that she is talking to a man online and then she disappears and we know nothing more about her. I think that maybe if we had more time we could have shown how she argues with her parents and rebels to try and get their attention. Saying that though I do like the fact that the audience don’t know a lot about the character because it makes it more engaging because they want to find out more about her and all of her secrets and more importantly why the man abducted her and who he is.