QUESTION 2: How does your media

product represent particular social

groups?

Only in Whispers - Evaluation

Casting

W

hen casting for Emily, we knew exactly what we

wanted to see in her character. A character that

influenced our creation would probably be Ellison

Oswalt, the central actor in the film ‘Sinister’, 2012.

Casting

W

hen casting for Emily, we knew exactly what we

wanted to see in her character. A character that

influenced our creation would probably be Ellison

Oswalt, the central actor in the film ‘Sinister’, 2012.

Below is a screen-grab of the character we

eventually casted as Emily. As you can see, we were

inspired by the curiosity of Ellison as he enters the

attic of his own home, and so we attempted to

convey the same excitement through this scene.

W

hilst we had the aid of inspiration, we

also initially had a thorough idea in our

heads of what we wanted her to look

like and how we wanted her to come

across to our audience. We wanted a

high-spirited, zealous brunette with a

great mind-set for adventure. We

couldn’t have found anyone more

perfect to play this role than Emily

Whitford.

Emily

casting

W

hen casting for Megan, we knew exactly what we

wanted to see in her character. A character that

influenced our creation would probably be Katie

Featherston, the central actor in the film

‘Paranormal Activity’, 2007.

casting

W

hen casting for Megan, we knew exactly what we

wanted to see in her character. A character that

influenced our creation would probably be Katie

Featherston, the central actor in the film

‘Paranormal Activity’, 2007.

Below are screen-grabs of the character

we casted as Megan. Evidently, we were

inspired by the concern on (above) Katie’s

face. This is why we attempted to deliver

the same emotion on Megan’s face.

megan

W

hilst we had the aid of inspiration, we also

initially had a thorough idea in our heads of

what we wanted Megan to look like and how we

wanted the audience to react to her. We wanted

a spineless, tentative brunette with an intellectual

mind; effectively the complete opposite of

Emily. We couldn’t have found anyone more

perfect to play this role than Megan Davies.

Social groups

O

ne of the main social groups represented in our film is siblings; the

two main characters are teenage sisters. Again when we casted the two

actresses for our film we wanted to reveal them to be nothing other

than typically ordinary sisters who bicker and disagree, so that in

many cases the audience will be able to relate to the two characters.

The majority of our audience will be working class, and we wanted to

represent the two girls as distinctively English.

Social groups

A

s a group we studied characters who have siblings in films. We also

had shared knowledge due to the fact the three of us each have

siblings of our own. We noticed that it is not uncommon for one

sibling to follow in another’s shadow. We tried to deliver this idea as

much as possible in our production. For instance, we placed Emily

and Megan with a distant composition within our medium two shots

of the two speaking. This reflected their contrasting personalities and

relationship, too.

Social groups

Despite there being a fairly small age gap between the two, we wanted to show how Emily convinces Megan to do pretty much anything. Megan follows Emily into the attic even though she is extremely reluctant, she cannot stand up for herself and feels pressured by her sister. We produced low angle shots for Emily climbing and walking into the attic to invite the audience to appreciate her superiority and leadership.

Social groups

Emily’s dialogue throughout our opening consists of lines such as "don't be such a baby" and "you do this every time" to indicate that Megan is often scared of things Emily wants to do which can be common with siblings, however, we exaggerated this fact by ensuring that the concluding situation allows us sympathise with Megan, who didn’t want to meddle in the first place. Emily also frequently patronises Megan regardless of the fact Megan isn’t a lot younger than her.

Social groups

O

ur costumes for the two characters were nothing exciting or

particularly unusual. This is because we decided it would be a lot more

believable and connote that this is just an ordinary night in a typical

family home to begin with. Traditionally, Ouija boards are dangerous

and not something to be messed with. Therefore when Emily

discovers it and is not at all threatened by the idea it automatically says

to the audience that Emily does not care about consequences, unlike

Megan.

Social groups

W

e used several other props such as the book Megan is reading initially

which may suggest to the audience that Megan is a lot less social than

her sister Emily, who enters the room after frantically snooping

around to find something more ‘exciting’ to do. It may also imply that

Megan is more intellectual. Megan is quite happy to be reading rather

than going up into the attic, “I don’t want to. It’s scary.” board whilst

saying "I don't want to. It's scary." which makes her sound childlike

and perhaps boring in comparison to Emily.