Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2:

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

 

During the pre-production stage of creating our horror film opening sequence, my group and I discussed who would be appropriate to play the characters in our film. Firstly, we thought about who might play the antagonist in our film opening. We wanted to decide this first, as the killer was the key character in our film opening, and if the opening sequence were to continue into a full length film, the killer would be the focus of the film. After some discussion, we chose Kayleigh to be the antagonist, as she enjoys acting and owned appropriate clothing to play the role of the killer. Her hair is quite dark, so this added to the connotation of danger that her appearance showed. Originally, we were going to ask a boy to play this role, as in horror films this role is usually played by a male character, however, we decided to cast a girl in order to challenge this. 

 

 

 

 

 

In the film 'Orphan' (2009), the antagonist is a young girl named Esther. She appears to be sweet and innocent, often wearing bows in her hair, as a typical little girl would. However, her dark clothes suggest that there is an element of darkness about her. At a glance, the character of Esther does not appear to be remotely threatening or dangerous- this is what we wanted to achieve by dressing our antagonist in normal, everyday clothing. In the majority of horror films, men are presented as the more dominant characters, which is a concept we wanted to challenge within our film opening. In 'Orphan', Esther is the antagonist- she a powerful character whom the other characters fear. Orphan is one of the few horror films that challenge the idea that men are more dominant, and we wanted our film to also challenge this idea. Our media product represents women as a strong and powerful social group, and this is shown by our casting of a female antagonist.

 

 

Next, my group and I chose who should play the victim in our film opening. After doing some research on victims in horror films, we learned that the victim is usually a young girl who looks stereotypically feminine and vulnerable. We decided that Ellie would be the best choice to play this role as she looks quite feminine and petite, and owned clothing that was appropriate for the role. Her hair is also quite light, which could connote light and good as opposed to darkness and evil.

 

 

 

In the film 'Black Swan' (2010), the protagonist is a young woman named Nina. She looks feminine and innocent, so we decided to take inspiration from her character for our victim. We followed the conventions of a horror film by casting a girl to play the victim in our film opening, as in the majority of horror films, the victims are young girls. While casting a girl to play the antagonist in our film opening presented women as powerful, casting a girl to play the victim presented women as weak and vulnerable. We have presented contrasting and varied views of women in our film opening.

 

 

 

 

To conclude, I think that we presented women in an interesting way within our film opening. Whilst we challenged typical aspects of a horror film by casting a woman as the antagonist of our film, we also complied with these aspects by casting a woman as the victim in our film opening. We have managed to represent both the dominant and vulnerable sides of women within our film opening, and I think that this is what makes it unique.