Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
1. QUESTION 2: HOW DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
Millan Panchal
The clear social group in our production is based on the
victims of bullying and how it can have serious
consequences.
2. AGE
Teenagers are usually portrayed in thrillers as being quite naïve and
insecure. This is shown through the camera shots and angles we used.
For example, when the character Eric was in his room, he was placed in
the corner and we used a high angle close up to connote to the audience
that he has been pushed away and can only express his thoughts
through pen and paper in his bedroom.
We also used props such as a cigarette which represents the rebellious
act that an audience would expect from a typical teenager in a media
product. However, in our media product Eric uses the cigarette as a way
to calm his nerves and ‘get away from it all’.
We chose to implement this representation of him, as we wanted defy
the convention of the typical young teenager in a thriller and present
Eric as a character who would do this rebellious act despite not really
wanting to.
3. Gender
In thriller films, it is usually a woman that is victimised and
treated badly, however we juxtaposed the role of power
between them to show that it is the male character who is
mistreated, potentially by a female.
No female characters appear in the opening of ‘Columbine’
however, it could be implied that a female character too
has had a negative impact on Eric and Dylan as in the
narrative, we understand that they have been badly bullied,
but don’t know who by.
A lot of the camera shots used shows Eric either on the
edge of the frame or in the centre of the screen
representing that he is isolated from society and isn’t
standing out which is how male characters are usually
represented as in thriller films.