Evaluation Question 2.(How does your media product represent particular social groups?)

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups I will be talking about will be females and young people. 

There is only one character in our opening sequence who is a young female. 

We first see a close up of her waking up, spaced out and dazed. She begins to rub her eyes, we see that her nails are freshly pained Red, which could indicate love hate or passion. Despite the fact that she has just been beaten up and looks like she has been dragged through fields, we can still see that her hair has been perfectly curled.  This also tells us she likes to look nice and presentable and takes pride in her image, just like most girls do. This therefore adheres the stereotype That girls care about how they look and take pride in themselves, this is also massively reflected by the costume as she is wearing a white wedding dress. However, the lighting inside the coffin is very dark and this therefore subverts the stereotype of young people as they are seen as to be the future, bright and full of energy, where as inside the coffin, it seems very dull and dark. 

Next we see that she is wearing a wedding dress, whether she was dressed in it before, or someone has dressed her in it, we don’t know. The White signifies innocence and purity, but as we can see, her dress is covered in dirt and she has a cut/bruise on her face. This could indicate the fact that she had been fighting, standing up for herself or defending herself, which subverts the stereo type of females being weak and timid. 


This also subverts the stereotype of the younger generation, as they are not usually the ones who are getting married, this therefore creates a lot of questions to the audience. 

We see a close up angle of her looking around the coffin. This allows us to see her facial expressions and shows us she is confused. This is stereotypical as girls are normally portrayed to be dumb and confused most of the time. 

At the start of the sequence, it is so silent there isn’t any ambient sound, which reinforces the fact that she is alone in a coffin, this sets the tone and helps build tension. The noises we do hear in the coffin, is her banging around, trying to get out, because there is no other sounds, this sounds louder and more effective and gives the effect she is really trying to get out as she is stuck. The sounds begin to build and we t hear her voice, which is a Diegetic sound. She says ' HELLO?' 'IS ANYONE THERE?' and ' CAN YOU HELP ME PLEASE?' the word please indicates that she is polite and has manners. This subverts the stereotype of the younger generation as they are seen as rude and helpless. The sound continues to build and we hear her banging and screaming, this is the climax as the audience are really beginning to panic as they are watching her in pain and feel helpless. This also contrasts with her heavy breathing at the end, showing us she has gave in, which subverts the stereotype of women, highlighting the fact that they are weak. 

We also used editing within our opening sequence to help represent the character. The pace of the first few shots in the sequence are quite slow and long to show that she is confused and thinking, she also has know idea what is going on yet but this therefore allows the audience time to try and figure out what is going on. The more she begins to realize what is going on, the more the pace then picks up. She begins to panic as she has realized if she wants out, she is the only one who can get her out, she is on her own, this reflects her mental state. This adheres to the stereotypes of females as it is saying they cannot survive on their own. The pace then slows down again towards the end to show that she is showing logic and tells us she knows she has to be calm in order to get out the coffin, which is subverting the stereotype of a female. As I mentioned before women are seen to have no logic and be dumb. 

I think the representation of our character changes towards the end of the opening sequence. This is because we see she starts banging on the coffin to ask for help so she can get out. The stereotype has therefore been subverted as she is standing up for herself and being strong, which is usually the opposite to how girls are presented. A lot more energy is also introduced by this point, which is stereotypical and expected of a younger person.

 At the very end, we see a Birds Eye View shot looking down into the coffin, which makes the audience feel like they are looking down on her, making her once again look weak and small. Which adheres to the original stereotype.

   Therefore, the stereotypes constantly change throughout our opening sequence, showing that not everyone is the same.