Evaluation question 2
- 1. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The main character was me and being a young girl, it was awfully typical that the victim was a female something that is becoming the ‘norm’ in horror films. This is due to how females are often referred to as ‘nurturers’ in context of them being ‘child bearers’ therefore it has become a misconception that females are the weaker sex which subsequently makes the an easier target in a horror film. In our opening sequence, we used this as an advantage because it would be an almost instant ‘hit’ with the consumers as they would be able make the link between female = Victim. Another aspect that I thought would be key was ‘male gaze’ as young teenage females especially, can feel a certain way towards how the ‘damsel in distress’ act and how it represents females. Whereas some guys might like the idea of a young short female being corned by a tall man, like I was.
- 2. The picture above shows Drew Barrymore, from ‘scream’. She is another example of the young females being used in horror films. She and my character share similar attributes; being completely innocent and there doesn’t appear to be a reason for why we were murdered. Furthermore, in our opening sequence I was chosen as the victim because I am the smallest and youngest. On the contrary to ‘scream’ my character profile was shown by utilising social networking sites like Facebook. The other character, the stalker/killer is a mysterious character as in our film opening we do not reveal any information about him. I acquired the inspiration from horror films that I’ve watched like ‘Saw’ and ‘Halloween’ as the identity of the killer or ‘bad guy’ was not discovered by the audience. It was a group decision to use an adult male because they are often associated being tough and more menacing- in the context of a horror- to the consumers. The picture on the below is of the character Michael Myers from the ‘Halloween’ films. He is a key model of the men in horror movies that have their identity hidden. Where Michael wears a mask throughout all of the films, we chose to have our male character seen to the audience and to my character as we felt that it would be more chilling because he was clothed in jeans and a jacket; the norm for
- 3. a winter day. Overall I think that our opening sequence conforms to most conventions of the horror genre, although, in my opinion it does breach a little bit over to the thriller genre.