Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


There are only two characters introduced in our opening.


The Victim

Victim from Underground

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher from Scream

The stereotypical victim in a slasher film is a Scream Queen. This is usually a blonde, attractive young woman who breaks the moral code and is therefore punished for it. We wanted to challenge this representation to associate it more with our target audience social group of 15-24 year old males. This target audience was the inspiration for this character which we felt would direct their preferred reading of the character to themselves or ordinary people that they know, therefore making them feel as though it could happen to them. This was mainly represented through the clothing - a dark hoodie and jeans. We were also aware that the majority of our target audience had seen Scream, in which Billy Loomis and Stu Macher appear to be ordinary male teenagers but turn out to be the killers. This will hopefully make the audience associate our character with them, creating false expectations.




The Killer

Jigsaw from Saw

The audience only partly get to see the killer in our film opening to create narrative enigma. This was used in Saw and we thought it worked really well. What we did show of the killer was that he was:

• wearing boots - this suggests that he had been out to get a victim and not for social reasons; also suggests it's a male, possibly an older man
• wearing a grey hoodie - this could make the audience think the killer is of the same age as the victim, possible wanting revenge for something



Killer from Underground

• using a large knife for stabbing - this is the most commonly used weapon in a slasher film and doesn't reveal anything specifically about the killers personality

Class and Status

Class and status of the characters is slightly withheld, however it is clear by looking at the victim that he is not working class as his clothes are good quality and he is clean. Working class characters don't usually appeal to an American audience, so this will appeal to them. It is also a representation of our target audience's class and status.

Physical Ability/Disability

Franklin Hardesty from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

It has become normative for characters to be physically able. This makes the film more commercial and it would have been extremely difficult to find an actor with a physical disability. One example of a character who is disabled is Franklin Hardesty from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but we think that adding a disabled character to our opening would have been unnecessary. 

Regional Identity

Location from Underground

We didn't want talking in the opening of our film so we couldn't use accents to connote regional identity. We instead used a rural location to connote the stereotypical British location to an American audience, creating a global appeal for the film. After the snow had melted we thought that we should have added a shot of a large detached house and an extreme long shot of a countryside, but these did not fit in with the footage we already had and like because of the snow.