EVALUATION QUESTION 2

Kieran Panchal

How does your media product represent different social groups?

A social group is defined as "a collection of people who share similar characteristics and a sense of unity."

Although we only present two different character types in Captive, each of them represent different social groups in different ways, whether it's by the way that they dress or by the way that they act.

Introduction

The protagonist in our film, Captive, is a male of around 20 years old. On the whole, we conformed to the stereotypes of males of this age group in many ways. We done this by giving the character certain attributes that may reflect social groups attached to those of his demographic. Firstly, we represented him as being mischevious and showing signs of delinquency. This is mostly apparent when we notice that he travels past a 'No Tresspassing - Risk of Injury' sign, before looking closely at it. This indicates that he is willing to break laws and rules to satisfy his own needs, but also represents the character as being couragous as he is not disheartened even though he is placing himself in a dangerous environment.

Male Adolescent

Other characteristics of our protagonist also conform to the stereotypes of youth. A second example of this was when he uses vulgarisms, as he reaches a realisation and understanding of his situation at 1 minute 36. Here, he says "where the fuck am i?", illustrating his colloquial/informal sociolect, which would be seen as typical amongst teenagers. Furthermore this also reinforces the way youths can be seen as discourtious, however his circumstances may justify his foul language use, as many people would act similarly if placed in such a situation.

Male Adolescent

The location that we chose as the main setting for our film opening, a derelict redoubt fort shows evidence of human activity and presence extensively. This is mostly noticable by the way that the location has been vandalised, due to the appearance of graffiti, shattered glass and litter. The fact that these are present in the scene shows that the area attracts people of a criminal nature, and the fact that our protagonist has chosen to enter the area suggests that those who may be responsible for this damage may be of similar social demographic to him. This shows that the youth have tried to take ownership of the property.

Location

The female antagonist in our film opening is a character who is assumed to be aged around 12 or 13, although she is played by an older actress. On the whole, I wouldn't feel that this character is typical of those of her age group and gender in society, for many reasons. Firstly, in society, those similar to her would unlikely be seen in surroundings such as hers. Whereas our antagonist is seen in a 'dangerous' location, again shown by the 'No Tresspassing' sign. This may be because she doesn't have the family or people responsible for her wellbeing that other females of this age may have (ie parents). The way that she doesnt conform in this way however, suggests that something is out of the ordinary, as an audience may not expect a character of this age and gender to play a villain. This means that our product represents females as resilient and equally villainous to males.

Young Female

Although our young female character challenges many of the stereotypes of young females, as aforementioned. We also represented her in other ways, which would conform to the steretypes of this social group. The main way that we have done this is by showing the character's attachment to her toy doll, which appears with her in her hands in every shot that she is shown. This reinforces her young age whilst representing her loneliness and need to be comforted.

Young Female

To summarise, Captive represents social groups in a variety of different ways. Generally, the teenage male character conforms to most stereotypes of youths of this gender, due to his use of vulgarisms and his presence in a prohibited location, showing his rebellious outlook.

On the other hand, our young female character mostly does not conform to the stereotypes of these social groups, as it would not be presumed that somebody of this age and gender would be present in a forbidden area as she is. However, she is presented showing that she is still in touch with her childhood comforts due the doll that is in her posession.

Conclusion