By Luke Sams

QUESTION 2) HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENTS PARTICULAR

SOCIAL GROUPS?

GENDER In my opening there is both a male and a female character as well as an effectively genderless

person that I have portrayed in different ways.

Male – One of the first characters that is shown is the male protagonist who gets the most screen time through the whole thing.

His costume being full camouflage portrays him as a kind of ‘military/action man figure’ stereotype making him seem superior and dangerous, and like the usual for this type of character I have placed him within an unfamiliar setting where everything appears hostile which also follows the ‘action man’ stereotype.

The fact that when he is first seen he is unconscious and being dragged by someone else, shows that he does have a weakness which challenges the ‘action man’ stereotype.

From his actions the audience can infer that he has had a dark past as he is familiar with weapons and does not have a problem with killing.

GENDER

Genderless – The second character within the first scene is essentially genderless, they are presented in full camouflage similar to the main protagonist, but appears to be against him.

The camouflage that the character is wearing is fairly baggy and obscures their frame making it hard to distinguish a gender through body shape, they are also wearing a gas mask which prevents acquiring a gender through facial features.

Despite the above stereotypically it could be inferred by the audience that they are male due to the fact that they have the body strength to drag an unconscious person without struggling, and females are stereotypically seen as being weak although this is not always the case.

GENDER Female – The final character seen within my opening is female she is shown in her normal

everyday clothing which would imply that she has been ripped from a fairly normal life.

She is portrayed as a stereotypical female being weak and feeble easily overpowered by the male protagonist without putting up much of a fight or visible struggling that much. On top of this most of her actions appear to be uncertain like she isn’t sure about what she is doing.

Although overall she is shown as conforming to the stereotype the fact that she has a gun, knows how to use and has the guts to face up to another person especially one who looks fairly dangerous implies that to a certain extent she can look after herself.

ETHNICITY Both of the identifiable characters within my film opening are of a White British ethnic

origin although I think that if I had/did create and develop more of this film I would include a range of different ethnic backgrounds but would probably retain a White British majority.

I didn’t really put much thought into their ethnicity while I was planning or producing my opening it was more of a case of these are the people I have available to me so I’m going to use them, although I realise that I have still represented the White British ethnicity in the opening.

I have unwittingly represented my own ethnicity that of White British in a fairly negative but also kind of accurate way, I have shown both of these character to be quite confrontational and aggressive while at the same time being fairly care free and cautious almost to the point of paranoia.