media AS

1. QUESTION 2-
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS

2. AS A WHOLE, THE FAMILY ARE REPRESENTED AS
MIDDLE CLASS IN 'GROUNDED'.
Sophie
Sophie is a school girl and is walking on her own from school, showing she is
isolated, lonely and vulnerable. As a teenaged school girl, she has little protection
by herself. This is the way we wanted to represent this character, however some
may also see her as being independent. This shows that school children should
be supervised as they are still young and can be taken advantage of. She is
'scruffy' once she has been taken as her appearance changes. As she is walking
in the street, she is wearing sophisticated clothing; wearing a shirt and skirt.

3. THE PARENTS
Jonathan
This patriarchal nuclear family is representing the traditional family structure.
He is the breadwinner in this setting and is the only breadwinner in the
family. In the title sequence, Jonathan is willing to put himself at risk in order
to try and save his daughter, showing care for his child.
Nicole
Nicole is her mother and is represented as being a middle class traditional
housewife, protecting and taking care of the family and the household.

4. THE MYSTERY CALLER
The audience is unable to identify who this character is as his identity is still
secretive. The audience begin to realise after the phone call that this character is
the antagonist, however the audience do not know the reason why he has taken
revenge. This is the reason why some people may want to continue watching the
film: to see who this person is, what is their background is and what is the
reasoning behind the kidnap.
We could have varied the class differences between the characters,
however as they were represented as a family, to create realism, they
are all part of the same social group.

5. REPRESENTING CHARACTERS: GENDER
The opening title sequence to our thriller challenges the conventions of the genre
to an extent. We have chosen a female character that has been buried alive
and taken. This has challenged the genre as it is expected that the character
that has been buried would be a male rather than a vulnerable girl which was
found out from our thriller questionnaire. In contrast to the gender
representation, you see films such as 'Taken' where a vulnerable teenaged
girl has been kidnapped as they are an easier target and they may also be
used for sexual assault. In the 2010 film 'Taken,' a male character, in this
case her father, will put himself in a number of threatening situations to try
and save his daughter.

6. REPRESENTING CHARACTERS: GENDER
The film 'Buried' used a male actor as the character that was buried. Males are
generally seen as having more aggression in them than females and are
arguably more physical in different types of situations. In their respective
films, this character is represented as the protagonist. The person that is
buried will first try and use their physical strength to get out of the situation, or
they may use their mental strength or knowledge to contact the right people
to let him escape. They may try to track their location or try and contact
certain people that might have more knowledge than himself

7. REPRESENTING CHARACTERS: AGE
As the film industry has a large history and has been running since the 1890’s,
the main plot to the story you may wish to produce is likely to have already
been used by someone else in the past. Bearing this in mind, I wanted to use
the idea of a kidnap storyline which has produced many successful movies in
the past. I had watched movies in the past where a vulnerable teenaged girl
has been kidnapped and i wanted to do further research of how producers
decided to present this plot. Having a younger character that has been taken
will develop the emotional connection between the character and the
audience. In addition the audience's connection with the character may grow
as they will automatically want to put themselves in the situation presented as
if their child has been taken. The audience's feedback all depends on their
reaction.