Evaluation - Question 2

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

Characters are important because they are there to tell the story and progress the narrative. If there were no characters then it would be difficult to tell a story. They are also important because they help the audience build relationships. If the audience aren't able to do this then they won't want to watch the rest of the film as they will be bored.

Our victim is represented as a young female. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it shows that she is weak, innocent and vulnerable. This helps the audience build a relationship with her because as soon as they see her, they know she is the victim so know something bad is going to happen to her. We chose the victim to be 17 years old as we knew it would help the target audience relate to her. As the target audience are aged between 15 and 18, it helps them build a relationship with the female victim as it becomes more realistic meaning that they are able to imagine it happening to themselves as well. Therefore, it builds up the suspense of the film as it becomes scarier for the audience to watch. Also, by the victim wearing white, we were able to show her purity and innocence. This helps the audience build a relationship with the victim as they know she hasn't done anything wrong to deserve to die. As the victim still goes to school, it proves that she is clever and wants to get somewhere in life. Therefore, the audience build up hate towards the antagonist because they do not understand why he would want to murder an innocent, young girl.

We have represented the antagonist as someone that wants to keep his identity hidden. He does this by having make up laid out on the dressing table to confuse the audience and make them think that the antagonist is female. This tells the audience that the antagonist is either female or hiding a massive secret about his past or who he really wants to be. Also, he hides his identity by wearing a clown mask. This creates an enigma for the audience so they will stay engaged within the rest of the film to find out who the antagonist really is. The antagonist wears an all black tracksuit. The black represents mystery, power, darkness and death which makes it a conventional colour to the thriller genre because these different representations make the audience fear the antagonist. This also shows the audience that he is a much more dominant character but is a lot more dangerous as well. This helps the audience build a negative relationship with the antagonist as they know he is going to do something bad but it also makes the audience stay engaged within the thriller film as they want to know what he will do.

The genders of the characters are stereotypical. One reason for this is because the victim is female which the audience would expect as it shows the vulnerability and weakness of a victim. Secondly, even though the audience is confused as to whether the antagonist is male or female, he is actually male making him a stereotypical character. By having a male antagonist, it shows that he is a lot stronger and a much more dominant character. This means that he has more power over the victim and will always win.