Evaluation Question 2:How does your media product

represent particular social groups?

Our Character• Our main character was played by Max Mayo-Dell, a 17 year old male. • We aimed to make our character look like a typical teenage male, tall and slim, dressed in modern typical clothing, consisting of a patterned sweatshirt, black jeans and trainers.• This look could be comparable to the character of Donnie Darko, from the thriller film Donnie Darko.

How are social groups represented?• Age (Teens) - Teens can be seen as quite irrational, reckless, vulnerable, violent and unstable.

This made a teenager an ideal character for our thriller opening, as although he can be seen as normal, he can also be violent and unstable, conforming to the stereotypes of teenagers. In our thriller opening we wanted to convey that teenagers can be violent and reckless, however we also wanted to convey that they can be vulnerable and susceptible to stress and mental disorders, leading to our character being psychotic. We also tried to convey the stereotype of teens being associated with violence, gang culture and knives by having out character commit a murder with the knife, which he seems to play with throughout the opening, suggesting that violence is just a game to him.

How are social groups represented?• Males – Males are stereotypically seen as more violent, stronger and aggressive compared to

females, leading to males seeming more dominant. We conformed to this stereotype in our thriller opening by having our male character commit a murder within the first 2 minutes. However we also challenged the convention of men being strong and violent, by giving our character elements of being weak and vulnerable, which is connoted by the tear he shed.

Tear

How are social groups represented?

Females – Females are stereotypically seen as being weak and vulnerable, and in need of protection. We have conformed to this stereotype by having a female that has been killed within our thriller opening.

How does this link to our target audience?

• The age range that we have represented within our thriller opening is around the same age as our target audience, making the film more attractive to our target audience due to cultural similarities such as clothing and hair styles. The audience may be able to relate with our character more at times, which may add a depth of realism, such as the stress he is suffering from.

Typical teenage male modern clothing and hair style.