Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation means how a particular social group has been portrayed. Examples of some social groups are: age, ethnicity, gender, class etc.  These representations are often stereotypical views, based on the actions of the minority. For example, the youth of today are stereotyped for being very violent, lazy and destructive because of the London Riots and knife crime increase.

In our Thriller, I believe we have both challenged and played into stereotypes.

STEREOTYPE: MEN CAN’T COOK/ WOMEN BELONG IN THE KITCHEN

We have challenged this stereotype by having our male protagonist cooking a romantic meal for his partner, as it contrasts the norm. Usually women are expected to be the ones cooking, which come from old-fashioned views. Through the Mise En Scene, we show that he has put a lot of effort into this meal by scattering flower petals and lighting candles.

STEREOTYPE: WOMEN ARE WEAK & ARE ALWAYS THE VICTIM.

 Typically in Hollywood films, it is noticeable that women are the victims. We have played into this stereotype by having our female protagonist poisoned by the male. Since we wanted to the gender roles balanced at the beginning of the Thriller, we did not use high and low camera angles. However, towards the middle of the opening, we used a slight high angle on the female protagonist (shown here) to pre-empt the events that are to come.

Here is an animation I made discussing Representation in my Thriller further.


Media Film
by: NatalieYasmin