Evaluation - Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

     
We chose the characters in our media film opening to try and represent particular groups. We did this by using particular costumes, lighting and personalities. Other things can come into play when representing particular social groups such as gender, age, role, status, class and ethnicity.

This picture is of one of the main characters in our thriller opening. Here we are trying to make him look like the victim. To do this we have used a mid-shot with a high-angled shot to make it look like the camera is looking down on him therefore showing vulnerability. As well as being in a lower position to the camera the effect of him being sat down in a ‘lower’ position than the other character helps to show this vulnerability too. We chose the characters to be male because this is the most likely gender to be getting involved in gangster-kidnaps like this one. We also felt that Cullum would be better for playing this role as we thought that Ryan was better at taking a commanding role and that Callum’s composition within the shot worked better. I feel that the costume and the appearance we tried to convey on this character helps to show this victim type role and shows the vulnerability of the character. As well as this the location also helps, this is because it helps to define the characters and can show whether they are in potential danger or not, as well as this it looks really rough and therefore makes  the area look gloomy and dark and therefore helps to represent the typical conventions and mise-en-scene of a gangster thriller.
 

An example of a real film where this effect has been achieved was in the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall. This can be seen because they are both sitting down in a chair with their hands ties behind their backs. They are also both wearing very similar costumes and can therefore relate to each other quite well.
 

The other key character in our thriller film opening needed to be shown as a villain.

Again for this character we used the traditional gangster-style costume along with the gangster hat which could show that this character is more ‘in charge’ than the other character as he doesn’t have a hat. We can clearly see that this character is looking down on the other character therefore showing this villain type role he is playing. Again we used the male gender to play this role as we felt that it showed more dominance than a female actor, especially in the fact that the person who is kidnapped is a male. This is a slightly low angled shot which also helps to show this self-importance and dominance over everything else. This shot is also a point of view shot of Callum who is sat down in the chair. This is to show what he sees when the bag is removed. This character uses a gun for a prop in our thriller opening which shows that he means business and may be hard to deal with if someone were to get in trouble with him.

This representation can be found in many different thriller movies as there is often a villain that takes on this role however they often get their comeuppance. The film No Country for Old Men has a villain where we see the same kind of style to the one in our thriller opening. The mise-en-scene is also similar as the lighting is dark, there is no dialogue and the framing and composition of the shot is also similar. Also it is especially true when looking at the camera angle and shots as we can see that a lot of the shots are on a slight low angle.