Evaluation Task 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the following essay I will be discussing the four technical areas within our thriller, and how it represented age, gender, and class.

Mise-En-Sene is used a great deal within our thriller to convey certain connotations. The corset used connotes that the girl is not normal, and makes it seem as if something is off. The point at which the corset is red is roughly halfway though the sequence and shows the girl having a corset put on. A corset is a piece of clothing which requires someone to assist with putting it on, this makes the audience aware that there is someone else present in the room, and that the girl is not alone. The fact that the girl is not alone adheres to the connotation that young women are not able to do tasks for themselves, this makes the girl seem defenceless and weak. 

The record player used in the extract represents the girl as being old fashioned, this gives the girl a sinister, and evil representation, this representation subverts from the stereotype that girls are sweet, and harmless. The part in the extract where  this is shown is in several shots were the 4 shots are used; the high ankle wide shot, the extreme closeup high angle shot, the low wide shot, and the low extreme closeup. A record player is seen as old fashioned, and if a girl was seen to be using one then it would both make a audience feel uneasy because it is seen as being something that a older generation would use, this would also create a sense of someone else of being in the room because it would not be normal for her to be using it.

The girls soft skin makes the audience relate, and sets them up to feel sympathy later on, the soft skin adheres to the stereotype of girls having perfectly soft skin. The closeups of the girls soft skin can be seen throughout the sequence. The use of the soft skin makes the audience relate because when they would see a girl with soft skin they see that she looks young, and humans are instinctively paternal to these features, meaning that a audience would want to help this girl.

Mud on the girls face fingers and feet make the audience question, and wonder why the girl is muddy yet not doing anything about it, this subverts from the stereotype that is that girls always wear lots of makeup, and are blemish free. You can see the girls mud on her face throughout the sequence. The mud would make a audience feel curious, and would break the stereotype of girls constantly cleaning, and checking there visual appearance.

The girls hair is long this adheres to the stereotype that girls have long hair. The use of the long hair will make a audience feel sympathy, this is because commonly girls with long hair are seen as perfect, but venerable, and the fact that she is showing little movement makes the audience feel anxious.

The dirty gloves used by the male character adheres to the stereotype that men use dirty tools, but always have the right utility for the job in hand. The gloves can be seen at the last 10 seconds at the extract. The use of the gloves makes the male character appear strongly male, and makes the audience aware that he may be a outdoor working man, and has recently got his hands muddy, and would connote that the mud on his gloves is connected to the mud on the girls face giving a representation that the man has sinister intentions, or has done something sinister.

The use of the old clock within the establishing shots makes the audience feel as if the scenario is old and that the people are of are upperclass. The clock adheres to the stereotype of being upper classed, because there is the presence of a expensive and luxury item.

The girl is shown to be venerable and the audience feel sympathy for the girl, this is done from the camera angles. Throughout the entire sequence you can see the girl is only shown with a high angle, or a straight forward shot, this is done to portray the girl as a weak and vulnerable, this adheres to the stereotype that is given to girls of being fragile and vulnerable. A high camera angle makes a person appear to be weaker, this is because of the perspective of the facial features.

The male character is portrayed as being strong, dangerous, and domineering, this adheres to the stereotype that men are dominant. The man is only shown once in person, it is at the end of the sequence, this is a low angle shot, it is framed so that the character seems bold and powerful, this connotes that he has done bad and is the antagonist.

The use of extreme closeups of the girl gets you close to her and makes the audience feel that they have a connection with her, and feel sympathy. The extreme closeups makes the audience feel a immense connection, because it is forced upon the audience with nothing else to look at apart from the aspects of her face. The connection with the audience makes the audience aware of her ‘beat up’ look, and the look adheres to the stereotype of women getting abused.

The whole sequence utilises short shot durations this makes the audience aware of the youth of the characters, it then slows down to make the audience aware of the fact that the girls life is coming to a end. The fast pace adheres to the stereotype of the youth leading a fast paced life, whilst the slow down in shot duration adheres to the stereotype of death, and life slowing down.

The mans evil intensions are shown clearly in the short sequence of the man putting on the gloves. The short snappy, and distressed clips give connotation that adhere to the stereotype of a antagonist, because of the short snappy sequences that resemble a quick jabbing motion.

In our media product we used colour correction on certain parts, for example we made the nail polish appear a lot more vibrant and saturated, this brought out the colours and made it have connotations that adhere to a young female stereotype.

The titles used in the sequence helps to represent a a old fashioned feel to the video which helps to represent the male character which is being represented as older. The titles use a old fashioned serif font, this has connotations of a old age and helps to convey that the girl is not alone, it also creates a juxtaposition with the youth of the girl, this effectively creates tension, that helps to convey the difference in age between the girl, and man.

In the media product we did not have any camera movements of the female, this subverts the stereotype of young women, they are seen as active and moving, this usually means that film makers will try and utilise camera moment to show the young female character as active, but we subverted from this stereotype so that we could show the girl as inactive and weak, hinting towards her being dead.

We utilised a droning sound, and added it to the non diegetic soundtrack, this subverts from the stereotype of little girl bing joyful. The subversion aids to show a juxtaposition between the stressful soundtrack that adds tension to aid with subverting the representation of youth. This is done so that the audience can tell from the juxtaposition that not everything is right.

The non diegetic soundtrack that is used within the sequence connotes that not everything is right, and it also subverts from the stereotype of being young, and listening to pop music, the soundtrack is instead old fashioned and slow paced.

The diegetic soundtrack makes the audience aware that the girl is not ok, and that something is off. The audio is exaggerated on sounds such as teeth brushing, and the combing of the hair effectively creates connotations that subvert from the stereotype of girls makeup being all gloss and glamor. The diegetic soundtrack instead makes the audience feel uneasy and confused building them up to realise that the girl is not alive.