2.) How does your media product represent particular social group?

Emotional realism is seen through the plot in our sequence. We wanted to create something different from other psychological thrillers. To do this, the sequence had to be focused around the female character. The female character we wanted to portray was someone who is willing to stand up for herself. She is powerful and dominant. She is seeking revenge of the murder of her family which she witnessed at as a young girl and the event define her character. The character is a strong individual who is always in control of a situation.  We wanted to challenge how women are represented in thriller films as vulnerable and weak.

Everything that is happening in the female character's life is due to what happened to her parents when she was younger.

                          she isn't afraid of anything or anyone.

We used just two characters at the start sequence so that the audience can have a real connection with the main characters. The characters we used were a middle age man who is in his early thirties and a teenage girl, about 17 years old. We tried to use real situations that happen in the real world. However, that wasn't very effective as teenagers wouldn’t go out to seek revenge at a very young age.

 Our film focused on this two characters one of which is a teenager and the other one is an adult.

Surface realism is recognisable from the settings. The sequence was shot in an old warehouse “S.S Great Britain Building”. The genre is immediately recognised from the very start of the film when the audience first see a picture of the building. The warehouse has an air of mystery and eeriness in it which would mostly attract teenagers (our film target audience.)

our sequence was filmed in this building.




Technical realism was seen through Mise-En –Scene and editing. The Mise- En- Scene element we used were; colour, costume, setting, framing and props. We used basic clothing that was flexible and relaxing. Rebecca wore a jumper, sports trouser and a pair of trainers. The girls clothing was used to show her attitude to life and the audience could easily identify with her character. The shots were mostly medium shots or eye level shots to replicate a conventional perspective. There was a conversational shot which was used to include our only dialogue “DO YOU REMEMBER ME?” the dialogue was also used through a shot-reverse shot editing. The girl is seen by the audience over the shoulder of the man.

The final Mise- En- Scene element that was used was props. We used a rounder bat as a weapon to show the dangers that are to come. The camera works that were used in the film were high angle on Alistair character which was used to show his vulnerability and a low angle on Rebecca’s camera which shows her power. Other camera setings used were zoom in which was used to show emotion on Rebecca’s character when she said “do you remember me?”
 

 Rebecca's character held a rounders bat for her weapon.








 We used two different genres of soundtrack. In the scenes were the girl is confronting the man, we played songs that are harsh and sharp while for the flash backs, we played a soft song that would show her recovery and power from what she has been through.

However, the social group representation was biased because the questionnaire was distributed to more youths than adults. Even though a number of copies of questionnaires were printed and taken home for parents to answer, about 88 per cent of the answered questionnaire was filled in by students age between 16-19. Therefore our target audience would be mostly teenager as the representation was based on their opinions and perspective. 

 During the filming, we tried to show our film interpretation through camera angles such as high and low angles. We tried to show Rebecca (the girl) from a high angle which would show her superior and Alastair (the man) from a low angle to show his vulnerability. It was very difficult to show the angles because of the difference in height. Alastair is way taller than Rebecca so trying to film him from a high angle as Rebecca’s perspective was difficult.

  

 over the shoulder shot was ued to show that Rebecca is more powerful.

We would have filmed him from a low angle in the shots when he was alone. A scene that would have been good to show his vulnerability in is the shot when he was walking on the street. That would also suggest other dangers to come in the future.

During editing, we decided to focus on the last scene, Rebecca’s (the girl) character. The editing used was over the shoulder shot where the camera zooms into Rebecca’s and then she says “Do you remember me”? This then brings the film to an end.

 
Our film subverts the idea that male characters are usually the villains in a thrillers. Rebecca's character is first seen as an innocent girl who then dramatically changes at the end of the sequence. We did this because we wanted to get a different reaction from our audience. We wanted to challenge the idea that women (especially blond) are weak and vulnerable. Rebecca's character is first introduced in this way and her victim is an older and bigger man. 

An example of a film that uses a young girl as a villain is Hard Candy. The girls is first seen as an innocent vulnerable girl (just like Rebecca's character) driven away by an older man. The audience immediately thinks she is in trouble but at the end, the older man is the victim.