Question two – How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my film I chose to use a female character in order for the audience to build up sympathy for her, as she is stereotypically weak and helpless.

In the film ‘The Ring’ they used a dark haired teenage female character as the main part in their film. In my film the characters traits are not shown in the opening as she is asleep however the opening scene makes my character seem naive as she is affected by her nightmares. She is also shown to be afraid and unsettled. This is different to the character in the ring because she is shown to have the typical bolshie attitude of a teenage until a little later in the film when she is shown to fear and be scared like my character.

By using a young female character this also allows my intended audience of women between 15 and 24 years of age to relate to the character due to similar characteristics and the common problem of having nightmares.

In both ‘The Ring’ and my film the opening scene takes place in the teenagers bedroom. In both of these it is made clear that this is the setting by the relaxed attitude all characters show there and the bedding that is most commonly that of a teenage girl. Having this setting once again helps the intended audience to relate as this is more than likely where they would spend a lot of their time.

In my film the character is alone in her bedroom making her seem even more at risk and helpless. In ‘The Ring’ the character starts of having a friend with her making her less at risk than my character but as the film progresses the other character disappears allowing the character to be shown as alone, deserted and helpless like my character.

In both of these films the girl is the main role in the film. Stereotypically girls are thought to be Naïve, Helpless, Need protecting, ditsy and innocent. By using a female character these traits are likely to be assumed without the need to show them although in my film there are hints that my character possesses these traits. In ‘The Ring’ the character seems to be more outspoken than a women but possesses the stereotypical traits of a teenager allowing the audience to make assumptions about the character before being certain.

In our film we used little girls to the object that creates fear in our film. The traits stereotypically put upon little girls is innocence and naivety so I used this them as what is scaring the main character to contrast these stereotypes. There costumes suggest they are from a different era as I felt that if they appeared as normal modern children they would not really be scary to anyone.