Evaluation Question 2

'How does your media product represent particular social groups?'
Our film opening represents many social groups, and also subvert some archetypes. For example, the female in our film opening is not the typical vulnerable woman on a walk on her own in the woods- she subverts the archetype of a stereotypical woman by wearing jeans rather than a dress, and her hair is short and she is on her own on a walk.

The man in our film also subverts the archetype in some ways as well- in the area that we filmed, you would normally expect quite well-spoken individuals, who are dressed quite well. Our character has all dark clothes on including a hooded jacket, and he has overgrown hair which doesn't fit the stereotype at all. The lighting is quite low-key, which fits the archetype of our film opening quite well because most psychological horrors are filmed in a dark location.The make-up used was conventional of our genre, quite subtle and we didn't use anything over-the-top such as fake blood, which would lead our audience to think they were watching a gory horror rather than a psychological horror.

Our opening follows the stereotype of a middle-class area, because the background shows very nicely built cottages and quiet surroundings. The characters are fairly conventional- we did research into typical horror openings and they mainly consist of the antagonist (the attacker) and the protagonist (the victim). We have done this through the male being the antagonist and the female being the protagonist, which again goes along with stereotypes because females are stereotypically more vulnerable than men. Usually, the victim in a horror opening will be a female to show vulnerability and we believe we have done this quite well. This is done because teenagers are generally fairly naive and this allows the target audience to identify with the attacker. The teenager being young signifies her being more prone to be picked on and therefore fits the conventions of a typical horror opening. As me and Hannah are both teenagers, we understand the archetypal and stereotypical traits that come along with being a teenager, which therefore helped when constructing this opening and trying to make it fit with the conventions of a typical horror opening.

These characters are easily recognizable as teenagers due to what they are wearing (hoodies and jeans). Due to our female character being naive and irresponsible, the stereotypical negative stereotype towards teenagers helps to hint toward the fact that she is going to get herself in danger, and this in turn builds suspense and helps to attract a larger target audience. This then eventually helps to get more money when it comes to the final film making money in a cinema. The costumes of the characters suggest that they originate from a certain class, which is a lower class. This is because conventionally, teenagers wearing things such as hooded jackets and tracksuit bottoms are associated with those of a lower class descent. These costumes have connotations of practicality, which is what the character would have wanted if he would be in the knowledge if he is going to be running after someone he is about to kill.