Evaluation Question 2 (Resubmission)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 The groups represented in our film are the working class, and ethnic minorities. We have a female protagonist in our psychological thriller; even though this is a convention of psychological thrillers it isn’t familiar to see a female lead character across the every genre of the film industry. Regardless, overall our female protagonist still plays up to the conventions of female’s representation within the media today. She is still dominated by a man, and even though she is the heroine, she is still interpreted as a victim.  This is shown through the many shots where she is running away from someone (the antagonist). Within the thriller opening she is seen doing domestic tasks around the house, that again, show how she fits the general gender stereotype of females being housewives.

The antagonist also integrates with the typical conventions represented in the media. This male portrays the stereotype of a man who is aggressive towards women and is the dominant figure in the relationship. Men are often shown as violent and tough; this is reflected in the media by many characters such as Al Pacino, Tony Montana, The Terminator, Rocky Balboa, Rambo and James Bond. The difference between the antagonist and these male characters is their cause and how the audience views them. Unlike my character those characters are shot in a way where they become likable and relatable to the audience. Whereas my antagonist is tainted in a way that he becomes hated by the audience, as they view the thriller through the eyes of protagonist.

Using an actor from an ethnic minority comes with the stereotypes where black males are often misinterpreted in the media with negative and violent roles as villains, and criminals. When creating the plot of the thriller we weren’t intending to portray ethnic stereotypes at all as we didn’t have a specific ethnicity in mind for our characters. We chose those who were available and suitable with the skills for the roles. However, we later realised the use of diversity may attract our audience as we wanted to reflect the familiarity of the multicultural London life.