2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We designed our film opening specifically to portray as little about character development as we could without making the film uninteresting. Harry Preen (left above) could be compared to the protagonist of the Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne. This is because at the very beginning of the film the audience is unable to make the assumption of whether or not he is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ creating mystery and an unrevealed storyline. We chose a male for this role because stereotypically they are likely to be classed as an agent or felon and thus the audience would expect them to deal with any attack efficiently and easily. We dressed Harry in a dark leather jacket, shirt and trousers along with a gun to reinforce this assumption and also suit his role as a typical spy or even assassin. The gun also accentuates the fact that he is likely to deal with a confrontation in a comfortable manner.

In terms of camera angles we opted to use high-angle shots to portray his character as vulnerable contradictory to his clothing, hence adding mystery. Furthermore close-ups of his face show that his eyes are tired showing he might be under stress and not have slept as a consequence.

We wanted Helen Wilcock, the killer, to have little or no identity whatsoever so it would make the viewer want to watch more of the film to find out. To do this Helen wore leather gloves which not only helped cover her feminine hands but made the murder more violent as it was easier to suffocate the victim and muffle his screams for help. She also wore black boots as shown in the picture above; this helps to portray Helen as a tough character but still does not reveal her gender.


 

Filming this character proved a difficult task because we wanted her identity to remain unknown. However, we used numerous close-ups on Helen’s gloved hands, feet and the murder weapon to surmount this problem. Contradictory to the first statement we chose to include a small hint towards the end of the scene. When Harry has been murdered and the continuous shot of the rope begins we start by showing a close-up shot a lipstick print on his neck. This would suggest to the audience that the killer is a woman and that is her killing signature, but we do not know this for certain. As a group we decided to add this feature because the vast majority of killers in films are male and so this would be a twist on a common conspiracy thriller. There are obviously exceptions mainly of the Film Noir sub-genre where an attractive woman will use this to her advantage and cause harm to the man who becomes involved with her. The character Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity showcases the idea of femme fatale very well by manipulating her husband’s insurance negotiator to help her murder her husband.