Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The antagonist is shown to be a white collar worker and therefore he represents social group C1. He meets the stereotypical white collar worker as he is wearing a shirt, trousers and tie. He is also driving a relatively luxurious BMW 3 series, meeting the stereotypical image of a middle class white collar worker. The ethnic group of the antagonist is also important. The antagonist is Asian and this is visible due to his brown coloured skin. Due to current media propaganda, bearded Asians have been stereo typically associated with terrorists. This means that as the antagonist is Asian, the character meets stereotypes associated with this ethnic group. The social status of the antagonist appeals to the audience as they can relate to his position in terms of stress or feeling.

The jogger is not explicitly portrayed to be part of a specific social group, but the fact that he is jogging subtly implies that he is likely to be of social group C1 or above. This is because early morning joggers are usually from a low middle class status or above. This character meets stereotypes as he is dressed in what people stereo typically associate with joggers. This appeals to the audience as they would be able to emphasise with the character more, as they know what it feels like to be jogging on an early morning.

The victim represents no particular group as he is a young child and is likely to come under social group E. However, the purpose of the character is not to represent persons of a similar position, but to target parents or guardians of young children. As many children walk to and from school alone, the parents and guardians that the character targets will range across all social groups. The character does meet the stereotype of schoolchildren as the victim is wearing black trousers, a rucksack and a tie is visible beneath the jumper. As a result the character appeals to the audience as they can emphasise with him as the audience are likely to have children of their own and can relate to how they feel when their children are in danger or are injured.

I will compare the antagonist from my movie to antagonists seen in Psycho (top left), The Shining (bottom left) and from American Psycho (middle left). I have chosen these antagonists as they play a similar role to my character as they also have mental issues and are killing vulnerable people, such as women in Psycho, American Psycho and children as well in The Shining. 

When comparing the characters in terms of costume, they all look similar. The antagonists from American Psycho and The Shining are wearing jackets and ties, while the antagonist from Psycho is wearing a Jacket and unbuttoned shirt. My antagonist has a shirt and tie, which is very similar costume to the other three. The only difference is their location. In The Shining, the above image is during an interview, while the image from American Psycho is during a meeting of form. As a result, these two characters will be more professionally dressed. The antagonist from Psycho is more relaxed as he is a motel manager and is having an informal conversation. My antagonist has finished work and would have therefore removed his jacket. Apart, from these small differences, which have been incurred due to different locations in the film, the costume of my antagonist are very similar to costumes of antagonists from similar films.

In terms of role, my antagonist has mental issues resulting in him murdering innocent people. Norman Bates, from Psycho also suffers from mental issues resulting in him having a split personality and killing people. In The Shining, the antagonist slowly becomes more mental resulting in him trying to murder his wife and son. The antagonist in American Psycho also has psychological problems as he takes out his grievances by murdering and hurting other people. All four of these antagonists are therefore related by their mental illness and how that results in their subsequent murders.

For the victim, I will compare him to Johnny Depp in Nightmare on Elm Street and the son from The Shining. The reason for this is that they are all victims or targets of psychopathic killers. With The Shining and Nightmare on Elm Street, the victims are young children, although one is considerably older than the other, and relate well to the victim in my film, who has an age between the two. While their costumes differ due to the other characters being in their own clothes rather than school clothes, their roles are relatively similar, but my victims role is shorter. All of the victims are trying to escape the clutches of a psychopathic killer, but only one of the above survive. Their is also growing sympathy for the son in The Shining, which is similar to the growing sympathy for my victim. this sympathy is due to how the characters are shown to be vulnerable and helpless, which is mainly due to their age. While Johnny Depp is shown to be so vulnerable, the idea of not being able to sleep increases the sympathy and results in all characters having similar roles in their respective films.