Evaluation Question 2

"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

Upon analysing the characters in our film opening, you can see they are both very different.

Our victim:

• Fairly short.
• Tough looking - shaven head.
• 18-20's.
• Wears a "hoodie" and jeans.

He is a typical British youth, nothing makes him stand out from anyone else - not much to his mis-en-scene. He is normal and could represent anyone.

Our Villain:

• Very tall.
• Tough-looking.
• Messy, long hair.
• 20-30's.
• Wears a long, dark coat.

In many ways, our villain is a normal looking man on the outside - his dress is almost work-like. Like the victim, he too could represent anyone in the outside world, simply with more years and more experience than teenagers to young adults i.e. the victim.

The difference between the two is in their characters. The victim's character is not obvious, but we know he has some guts as he tries to find out more about his horrible situation, despite the tremble in his voice. He does what many other men his age would do; assess the situation, try and retain some control and show they are not scared when they really are (seen with the alpha-male characters in 'Saw', who act "hard" but cannot take the life-and-death situation - see image below). This attitude is always seen in Britian with young men standing up to authorities and always wanting the power. Put many of these men in this situation and they may struggle to find their fearless masculine side when they really need it. Panic or loss of control could result in death, and it is this that our victim is finding difficult to grasp. He ends up provoking the wrath of his killer with too many questions, who forces him to sleep. A different, calmer approach may have lead to more answers, or maybe even his safety.

Our villain has an arcetypical character with more depth. On the outside he could represent anyone, but on the inside he can only really represent very few people. He shows friendliness but can switch at any moment. He swings from calm to angry very quickly and his feelings are very up and down - he seems to be driven by confused emotions. This kind of bi-polar character has developed in many people in the real world with mental illnesses focused on anxiety and anger (e.g. Paul Gascoigne). These often stem from past experiences, so the same could be the case for our villain - it is not yet known. He could represent these misunderstood people as it is not always obvious what they are feeling, it cuts them deep down on the inside and often drives them to insanity and to do dreadful things such as murder. Particular examples of this kind of mentally ill character are 'The Joker' in 'The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)' (see image below) and the schizophrenic character of 'Norman Bates' in 'Psycho'. I have read how people build up depression inside and often they just want to release their anger on the world, on the normal people living normal lives - so this is where our victim comes in. Without representing a particular social group, our film more represents the misunderstood individuals who do not believe they are like the rest of the world or have a place. They may just want to prove a point to relieve the stresses they have built up inside them.

Another point is that the killer is acting. He shows kindness and hospitality as would a worker at a hotel or shop. He insists on getting his victim a drink of water because he looks dizzy and keeps telling him everything is going to be ok. It is as if the killer paints on this picture of him being a civilised human to mask his internal rage. He treats the whole situation as if he is a hotel owner making 'reservations' for his victims as if it is the only way he can remind himself he is a normal person - it is how he deals with his emotions until he gets too angry (similar to how 'Norman Bates in 'Psycho' comforts himself by acting as his mother almost as if it has become a part of him - see image below).

Specific thing we did to construct these representations:

• Focused on very normal clothes and make up of characters - their mis-en-scene always represented that of any normal person.
• Inserted many questions into the victims script to highlight his confusion and terror, encouraging his representation of young British men in such a situation e.g. "where am i? what am i doing here?!"
• Made music rise and fall with the killers emotions to highlight his calm state of mind and sudden anger, so his mood switches are extremely clear.
• Clever script writing for the villain, with subtle hints at hotel-like vocabulary e.g. "we try to accomodate all of our guests as best we can".
• Positioned the killer to have complete control over his victim, taking up the bigger spaces in most scenes and being tall and imposing (we specifically chose a really tall and really short actor to fit these parts) - we can see who is in control and how the killer is exploiting this control - it makes us think of revenge because he is grasping hold of this power.

This brings us onto themes our film opening portrays:

• Revenge.
• Violence.
• Life and death.

They are all very sombre issues but are actually seen in every day life. Revenge is a big factor in sports or relationships and is something we all experience. Violence can be seen all the time in gang-violence or in wars elsewhere in the world - we see it all the time on the news. Upon encountering such things we also encounter life-or-death situations (though we might not have thought to deeply about such a saddening theme). With all these themes, it is only when we are faced with them personally that it will affect us. Maybe we are not so much unlike the killer after all, maybe humans are all the same, and it is only their experiences and learnings that determine how they deal with their feelings. Of course the audience will not see this, they will only see the fact he is torturing and killing an (The sequence is 'in your face' and affects the audience emotionally as they have to endure the victims suffereing). The audience will immediately hate the killer - this perhaps proves how misunderstood people can become isolated and will often always remain misunderstood upon first impressions and misinterpreted actions.

To summarize, the characters in our film have different roles to represent different social groups. They both represent young adults in Britain, particularly males, with their normal appearances and accents. Our victim represents many alpha-males in the country (not in a negative way put in a way that he is protective of himself) and our killer represents the misunderstood people who have always wanted some sort of power. He can also represent people with mental illness, some who are driven to insanity and commit horrible crimes. Furthermore, our killer masks his emotions by acting like a hotel host - so any hotel or shop workers are represented by him here (many of them put on a smile when they are working because it is their job, but they cannot always be happy). Lastly, the sequence also represents particular themes of revenge, violence, life and death that help make up the day to day stories of our social lives - they are just simply amplified to extremity in the situation our opening sequence portrays.