Blurb

Hello, this blog covers all the research and planning into our slasher film opening, Camp Ivy. Co-produced with Kate and Millie, and influenced from films such as Friday the 13th and set in a rural location inspired by Eden Lake.

Thursday 2 May 2013

Evaluation Q2 - Representations

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


The seven key areas of representation are:

  1. Social Class and Status
  2. Age
  3. Gender
  4. Ethnicity
  5. Physical Dis/Ability
  6. Sexuality
  7. Region Identity

AGE:
In our media production age is not a varied representation. Everyone in our media production is a teenager, including the killer. This follows the convention from slasher films that the authority figures (the scream queen's father not answering his phone) are useless and that is left to the teenagers to defeat the killer. The clothes that the teenagers are wearing anchor their age. By having the characters this age, they are very relate-able to the target audience. The final girl comes across innocent and sensible for her age, anchoring her role as a leader and eventually the one that will defeat the killer as stereotypical of the final girl. The jock character comes across as quite immature in his attempt to come across 'cool'. These qualities along with this lazy and rude attitude fits the jock stereotype well.

GENDER:
In our production gender comes across strongly using binary opposites. An example of these binary opposites is the scream queen and the killer. The scream queen fits the stereotype of her role with her long blonde hair and revealing clothing. She also fits the female stereotype by showing emotion and panic. She also portrays weakness by being the victim in the opening sequence. In contrast, the killer shows no emotion, and this is clear even though his face isn't shown to create narrative enigma. The killer also portrays strength with is a masculine attribute, this is shown by him succeeding to kill the scream queen. There are binary opposites with the scream queen and the final girl. In comparison to the scream queen, the final girl takes the leader role, portrays strength and masculine qualities. This follows Carole Clover's theory of the final girl and feminism in slasher films. These clear qualities may also provide intertextuality with the audience if they are clearly recognisable with the archetype examples from previous slasher examples.

SEXUALITY:
In our production, all the characters are heterosexual. By doing this we are reinforcing what the audience consider to be a normative representation. In our opening this is only shown through the coupling of the scream queen and the jock, anchored by them walking together and the background on the scream queen's phone.

PHYSICAL ABILITY/DISABILITY:
In our production all of our characters in our opening are physically able. Again by doing this we are reinforcing the normative representation. If we had used disabled characters the situation may have been slightly less realistic and difficult to accurately and believably portray.

REGIONAL IDENTITY:
In our production all the characters have a mild Yorkshire accent and use typical 'teenage' slang, but little regional terms, to try and make the film appealing and understandable to a larger audience. The opening of our production is also set in a very rural area. This helps to anchor the region it is set and helps the audience to relate to the characters if they are from a similar area.

SOCIAL CLASS AND STATUS:
All of the characters in the opening come across as an equal class. They all speak similar and their clothes don't look different enough to class them different socially or give them more of a status. All the characters are portrayed as average working/middle class people. There is nothing that could define them as anything more or less than this. This class will be then same as the majority of our target audience, so again creating more reasons for them to easily relate to the characters and put themselves in the same situation.



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