AS Evaluation Question 2

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my group narrative’s for my opening sequence, I included 3 main characters, but two of them could be played by the same person. One being the little sister, Annie, aged 10 who is mixed race. Annie is the little sister of the next character Ayesha. They are very close which is shown through the flashbacks in the clip. Her purpose to the narrative is the victim. She is portrayed as being innocent through her body language and facial expressions making her look sad and lonely. This character appeals to the audience because of the way she is portrayed. She looks lonely and sad which will make the audience believe she is innocent and so may be the victim. This is made clear through the use of high angled shots when portraying the little girl. They will therefore sympathize with her, which will mean they are emotionally attached to her throughout the clip. By presenting her in everyday, young clothes such as the pink dress and the pink scarf, it shows her youth, meaning anyone who is a parent or has young friends etc will be able to relate to the little girl, making our thriller seem more realistic. In thrillers, the victim is stereotypically always a female, and so by using a female in my thriller, makes it clearer to the audience that she is the victim. Females are stereotypically used as they are generally the weaker sex and come across more vulnerable than men and vulnerability in a victim leaves the audience feeling on edge and creates empathy.

Another main character in my film is the older sister Ayesha, 16 years old, female. Her purpose to the narrative is to help confuse the audience. They will begin liking her as she is close to her little sister, but as the narrative develops and the audience discovers that she may be the killer, the viewers may feel a sense of hatred or anger towards her due to the betrayal towards her sister. She is used to help create and enigma which is conventional to thrillers as it leaves the audience unsure of what has happened and so they question it and continue to watch to see what happens. Teenagers of a similar age will be able to relate to this character and how she may feel, such as if they have a younger sister then they too may have experiences of the arguments siblings share. They may also sympathize with her when we see her place the rose down as viewers will never want to lose their little sister, no matter how much they argue, and so will connect very easily with the character.

The final character included is the killer who is either unknown, or the same character, Ayesha. The age, gender and race of the killer is unknown but with the possibility of it being Ayesha. If it is not the older sister then the audience are unaware know who he/she is as their identity is kept hidden. This creates an enigma which is very conventional to the thriller genre as it makes them eager to know who the killer is which keeps them engaged with the clip. The purpose to the narrative the killer has is to make the audience feel uncomfortable and should be responsible for creating all of the bad emotions the audience feel. This creates shock and surprise when we find out that the killer could be the older sister. The views should struggle to accept this as they thought they were two different people, which creates a sense of confusion. 

The victim - Little girl - Yasmin/Annie

The killer (Hidden identity-just showing gloves or arms)

The older sister - Ayesha - Could possibly be the killer