Representation of Social Groups in Our Media Product

 Representation of Gender in our Opening Sequence

We originally did not want to follow too many genre conventions for our film to be classed as a stereotypical psychological thriller. The reason for this was so that our film had a sense of originality about it.

However it is stereotypical to have a psychological thriller based around a male villain and a female victim, which is what we have gone for. Therefore our representations may be more conventional than we hoped for.

This is because it was harder than we expected to be original while conveying a clear narrative. Using stereotypes operates as a kind of short cut to signposting what the set up is to the audience.

Patterns of media representation probably result more from the need to tell an effective story quickly than social considerations. This does not mean that repreated stereotypes are not potentially harmful (Pickering). Repeating the idea that men are stronger than women and can use their strength to overpower them is not a choice we would have made if we were not thinking primarily of telling a story everyone can identify with.

 

It is not moral, but because this stereotype is so common and accepted, it does make our film more believable and tense, which is the mood we wanted.

Right from the beginning of our film, we see the relationship with the sisters as being quite close and we know that they are sisters because of the use of dialogue - hopefully this represents women more positively.

It is very stereotypical for a psychological thriller to be based around a family, mainly focusing on siblings. This is what our film does, because family ties mean the idea of one character spending their life searching for the other seems more plausible.

Sister are represented in two kinds of way through media, for example the way that they are represented in the film ‘Ten Things I hate About You’ is negative (competition, a threat). this is done to create comedy as this is the genre of the film. The sisters are also represented in a negative way in the TV show ‘Friends' for the same reason.

 

Our representation is positive - sisters that are close and will do anything for each other. For the representation to work we had to make sure that we cast the sisters so that they looked similar, in order to make it apparent to the audience that they were sisters. The dialogue that was used was constructed to show a realistic but affecgtionate relationship. 

Soap Representation of Sister

  

Our Representation of Sisters

'Friends' Representation of Sisters

'10 Things I Hate About You' representation of sisters

 

• When considering our kidnapper our representation has ended up a stereotypical kidnapper that you would normally find in stereotypical physiological thrillers - stronger, aggressive male. This is potentially negative stereotyping for both men (violent) and women (vulnerable, victim).

• When casting our kidnapper we had to think about who would fit the role best. We decided to cast Georgina’s brother (Wayne) as he was quite tall, had a strong build, in order to give the effect that he could kidnap Georgina.

• We used mise-en-scène to create a recognisable look about our kidnapper. He was dressed in a black hoodie and dark jeans order to give him a mysterious look. When deciding how he would wear his hoodie we decided that he would have his hood up so that the audience would not clearly see his face.

• This works for us as we want to scare the audience if possible. However we could be accused of negatively stereotyping men here.

• A similar representation is used in TV programmes such as ‘Criminal Minds’.

Our Representation of male kidnappers

TV Representation of male kidnapper

'Criminal Minds' Representation of male kidnappers

• It is quite common for the setting of a psychological thrillers to be a family home that has a very cosy feel to it. The lighting in the house is very natural and very bright - creates idea that something can happen even where you feel safest.


• When choosing the location of our film we had to think about the key aspects of a setting of a psychological thriller. This included the thought about what sort of rooms the sisters had and the links we could make with the characters with the setting.

• Using ‘Criminal Minds’ as inspiration we can see that when a kidnapping has taken place the location of it is a normal family house hold.

Media Representation of a location

Our Representation of  a Kidnapping Location

'Criminal Minds' Representation of Location

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