2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Social groups are a range of people who share similar social relations.
Most thrillers are targeted at young male audiences; especially subgenres such as crime or action. Students (university) are normally the targeted age as they are more likely to enjoy the excitement and rush caused by a thriller.
My preliminary task represents the men and women aged 30-45 in a traditional and unconventional manner.
For my preliminary task, I decided to use the character archetype of an independent and authoritative woman. Examples of this presentation include the films ‘the Devil wears Prada’ or 101 Dalmatians.
I found that women in powerful positions were normally presented as unfeeling, unlovable and completely worked-focused. To challenge this stereotype I decided to present the female detective in my preliminary as a calm yet influential character.
The status of the character was shown through the camera angles as I used low angle shots to intensify the character’s authority, which is advocated by the intensity of the light, to highlight her significance.
Inspired by the theme of interrogation, my film was inspired by media products which narratives are based on law and crime. Seeking inspiration for my characters I viewed a series of television programmes and films to create my character archetypes. Challenging the thriller convention of weak females, I decided to present the female character as self-reliant and confident.
The genre of my preliminary is a crime thriller, and so I researched characters such as Harry, from the legal comedy drama ‘Harry’s law’ to inspire my film. As the main character of the programme ‘Harry’ is a lawyer who has a great impact on numerous characters in the show.
The character is commanding and has a dry sense of humour, but she is genial and not presented in a threatening or fragile manner. This presentation inspired the portrayal of the detective in my preliminary, who I wanted to present as a respectable and likeable person.
‘KING’ is a television programme and is a police drama. The main character is Jessica King, the head of the major crimes task department. The appearance of the detective in my preliminary was based on this character. I found from my research that blonde women were quite common and so I decided to present the social group of women with an influential status through their physical appearance.
I casted a brunette as the detective and the costume was a dark grey blazer and a matching skirt to show that she is a serious character.
Macarthy Productions