Evaluation Q2 - Representations

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In media, there are 7 key areas of representation which can be analysed and applied to productions. 


Here is a written version of my answer:

AGE:

All the characters in our media production are teenagers, including the killer. The age of the characters attracts the target audience of 15-24 year old's, as they can relate to the emotions and feelings expressed by the teenagers on screen. The clothes they are wearing also anchor their age, as they're typical trendy clothes that you would expect a teenager of their age to wear. A typical slasher film convention is that the adults and authority figures are useless and do not help in any of the situations that arise. This convention is portrayed in our film, when the scream queens father does not answer his phone, signifying he is useless. The final girl is portrayed as the innocent and sensible character of the group, which signifies she is the leader of the group, and that, like the stereotypical final girl, she will eventually defeat the killer using her intelligence and intuition. The jock of the group comes across as the one who has a lazy and rude attitude towards his peers, especially his girlfriend (the scream queen). Similar to the jock, the scream queen also has a negative attitude towards the situation, and ends up being separated from the group as she decides to leave before they reach their destination. The jock and scream queen are both binary opposites of the final girls attitude, which is positive and enthusiastic. 

GENDER:
Gender comes across strongly using binary opposites in our production. The scream queen and killer are binary opposites. The scream queen fits the stereotype of her role, as she is wearing a low cut vest top, and has long blonde hair. As well as this, she is emotional and weak which is signified by being the first victim out of the group. The killer is the binary opposite of this, because they portray no emotion. Although narrative enigma is used, it is still clear that there is an element of psychopathy revolving around the killer. The killer also portrays strength and power as he succeeds at killing the scream queen. As well as the killer, there are binary opposites between the scream queen and final girl. Carole Clover's theory of the final girl and feminism in slasher films explains how the final girl takes the lead role as she has more masculine attributes which are signified by her body being covered up. Our final girl follows this theory.

SEXUALITY:
To reinforce a normative representation to the audience, we chose for all the characters to be heterosexual. This is signified in our production with the scream queen and jock, by having them walk together at the back of the group and by having a photo of the couple on the background of the scream queens phone. 

PHYSICAL ABILITY/DISABILITY:
In our production, again we are reinforcing a normative representation to the audience as all the characters are physically able. This was done because the group are walking in woods, so having a disabled character would have made the situation less realistic.

REGIONAL IDENTITY:
Because our film is set in West Yorkshire, all the characters have a Yorkshire accent. They use typical teenage 'slang' language which attracts the target young adult audience. Because the production is set in Yorkshire, it is set in a very rural area to anchor the region.

SOCIAL CLASS AND STATUS:
All the characters in our production are of a working/middle class. They speak the same, and do not dress outrageously different to each other, so they do not look different enough to class them as a different social status. The target audience is also middle and working class, which helps the audience easily realte to the characters.

ETHNICITY:
All the characters are white British, so there is no cultural diversity. There are very few slasher films with a culturally diverse cast, however Prom Night (Nelson McCormick, 2008) challenges this.