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Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

     In our thriller film opening, we showed the audience several different social groups. These were a family woman, a teenager, a young family, and a student.

     In the first scene of our thriller, we showed a middle- aged family woman. We showed her age and class several ways. In the Mise en Scene, you see her sleeve as she reaches for the rear view mirror. The costume was chosen to be an everyday, comfortable style, showing her as an ordinary working class family woman, who prioritises comfort for everyday. This shows her as a normal, typical woman. In that particular shot the audience can see her house in the background. From this shot we can see the location, and as it is a typical family house showing her as an ordinary family woman. Our camera work also shows this in the two shot side on to the car. From this we see that it is a family- sized car, in a subtle colour, showing that she is practical rather than flamboyant, from which the audience can infer she is a typical family woman.  This was successful, as the location was well established in the variety of shots used, and the super imposition on the side of car shot meant to audience have time to take in what they are seeing, however, this first murder scene is completed in seven seconds, meaning there is less time for the audience to subconsciously evaluate what they are seeing, so they may not make the assumptions about her character that we intend them to.

     In the second murder, we represent teenagers as being comfortable (almost to the stage of lazy). For example, she is watching the TV, a thing that teens typically do for long periods of time. This shows the audience her age, and the use of Mise en Scene, including her costume, is used too. She is wearing a loose grey shirt and black leggings, comfortable clothes for relaxing in for a long time, showing the audience that she will probably be watching the TV and doing nothing else all day, a behaviour that is commonly associated with 'the lazy teenager' label, which is considered normal. We also gave her a cup of tea as a prop, as the tea is a normal british drink, showing the audience subtly that she is an ordinary person. Also Mise en Scene, her location ( a living room) is a normal place to relax,  especially a comfy sofa, in which the audience will relate to wanting to sit and do nothing else. Our camera work uses mid-shots and long- shots so the viewer is immediately aware of her clothing choices, and using a wide depth of field in the first shot of this scene means the audience are aware of the homely location, so when she sits on the sofa and watches TV it is seen as normal teenage behaviour. We also used slower paced editing, especially in comparison to the opening scene. As the audience will have just seen that scene, this one will seem a lot more relaxed in comparison, showing that teenagers are relaxed, comfortable and lazy. This scenes use of Camera Work and Mise en Scene in particular is used to represent teens as stereotypically lazy.

Saturday 4th April 2015

     In our third scene, we show a young family (a mother and three daughters). We represent age to show that the older we get, the more responsible we get.  this is seen in the Mise en Scene and Camera work, for example, a magazine was used as a prop but the mid- shot of the mother shows her very obviously look up from  her magazine to check on her children, showing that she is consciously responsible for them. However, in the shot of the three children on the roundabout, the audience see that none of them look for their mother's approval, showing that they are carefree, and don't have to worry about being looked after. We also used Editing and Camerawork to show that the Mother is responsible for her children, as we overlapped the second time she looks up and checks on her children with a black and white image of them playing. This shot is more of a close up than the last shot when she checked her children, so the audience can focus on her face more clearly, and in this shot she non- verbally communicates that she is worried for her children after seeing the missing poster. This represents her as a typically caring mother. We also used Mise en Scene in the children's costume. The bright colours were used to connote happiness, and the lack of colour co-ordination shows the audience that they don't care that they don't match, which was another way we showed younger children as carefree. Sound was also used, as we used a sound effect of female children giggling and laughing. We only used this sound effect to make it stand out, to show the audience that these children were having fun, which is juxtaposing to the dark atmosphere we try and create in the other scenes, which shows the audience that children are oblivious to the rest of the world, as they are carefree. Age is successfully represented in this scene, as the Camerawork, Mise en Scene, Editing and Sound all show the mother as a typical caring mother looking after her kids, and the young children just enjoying a trip to the park.

     In the fourth scene we represent students as hardworking. As we show a typical student, we gave the character glasses as part of costume. This is because glasses are stereotypically used to connote cleverness, so the audience will automatically assume that this student is hardworking. Also, Mise en Scene is used in the blocking of the shot, as in the first shot of this scene you see a wide array of items, such as a book, a folder and a work sheet arranged on the desk, showing the audience very obviously that students have to do a lot of work. Also the editing shows is slow paced, making the audience aware that the amount of work will take a long time to do.

Jemma Cotterell Media Studies

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