Sunday, 13 January 2013

Media Studies Evaluation Q2


Media Studies Evaluation Question 2       

Question: How does your media project represent particular social groups?

All of the characters that are shown in the film opening all fall into specific characteristic groups and social classes; Their ages are young (18-30 years (the only exception in this case being Dawson who is 36)) Their social class can be deduced to be around the B-C classes (considering the fact that none of the jobs of the victims are actually mentioned, it is easy to guess that their social class is around B-C considering the clothes that they're wearing would suggest for them to be around that area (smart casual)). The sexuality of each character isn't directly shown or said in the film opening but it was aimed for them to all be heterosexual considering the fact that this was the most common and most accepted sexuality during that 1930-40's time period.

Reviewing our film opening, it's noticeable that some of our characters can be labelled as stereotypical, for instance, the  females in the film opening are shown to be quite close to the stereotypical woman during the set time period, for example, they could have been seen as weak considering there was no actual indication that they weren't but the fact that there are 2 female victims and only one male victim. Although, when we see Samantha's body, Dawson mentions that she was a fighter and had guts, that there was signs of her struggling during  her murder, which goes against all of the stereotypes mentioned for 1930's females which could have lead on to thinking that the 2 female victims compared to the one male victim could show that the females were just more of an easy target because they were weaker, therefore easier to kill.

Ethnicity is also another category that is hinted towards throughout the film opening and can be thought of as quite stereotypical, considering that all of the characters shown are white British, and given the costumes and occupations, it's also another hint towards the characters all being around middle class which could lead to thoughts such as all white people are of a middle to higher class lifestyle (which is what seemed to be the tale as of the time period) and that because no other ethnical races are shown, shows that white people are the more dominant race over others.

The location of the opening is also likely to have an effect on some of the stereotypes during the opening, for example; the entire film opening takes place in a city, a large one, which would mean that the crime rate would be considerably higher than if it was in a small town or village which leads to the fact that the murders taken place in the film opening wouldn't actually be that uncommon among the city, and considering that it's a large city, it could suggest that it would have parts of it which were more rough than others which could explain when Dawson mentioned that Samantha was a fighter who tried to defend herself before her murder. Dawson, being the main character in himself, tells us about his social class as we can tell by the way he dresses, walks and his general attitude which would pin him as being yet again, more middle class yet comparing to his occupation and his style of talking, this could lead us to believe that his class is slightly lower than thought.

Music also plays a part in showing a difference in some of the characters, for example; Comparing Samantha's death with the other two victims there are a few differences:
- Samantha's murder took place at night whereas the other's were during the day
- The two victims had the same soundtrack playing in the background whereas Samantha's was different
- Samantha was the only one that Dawson said she had fought for her life

The fact that Samantha has these elements that are different from the other victims tells the audience that she is different from the other two victims and holds some plot to the story.

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