Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product is very versatile when it comes to representing social groups.

We have ethnic diversity in our two main actors as one is mixed-race and the other is Caucasian (which the audience sees in the first minute). This lends appeal to a wider audience without offending anyone by stereotyping their race as murderers. By using a British brunette, rather than a blonde American girl in the beginning, we have avoided using too many stereotypes.

We have represented males as the villains, because it is more believable that men would prey on teenage girls, than women preying on teenage boys. Teenage girls are more vulnerable emotionally than 20 year old girls, and more likely to surf the internet and be suicidal than 10 year old girls.

The men are in a stereotypical underground den which we created by designing a mise-en-scene that people would recognise. We used my cellar for this, and made it dark (by covering the windows when we were filming during the day) but used spotlights to enhance the atmosphere. We showed the paint peeling on the wall to suggest the men are not well-kept or hygienic, and a prominent whiskey glass and bottle to create an identity for the men, so that the audience can start to make assumptions about what they are like and what they will do. The “bad” is represented by this dark den of creepy men with their briefcase full of torturous tools, and they are wearing black/dark colours. This is a big contrast to the “good”, represented by the girl. We designed her mise-en-scene to look typically teenage and girly, and my bedroom fitted this description perfectly, with its raspberry-coloured wall and pink cushions. This, coupled with our actor being a pretty teenage girl and wearing pink, made for good opposites and interesting visual contrast.

The Antagonists are of different ages too; the younger one, 23, charms the girls, whereas the older one, 53, does the dirty work with the weapons. He is dressed in a black leather coat, black hat and black gloves, and the other man is wearing a big black overcoat with a khaki t-shirt and jeans underneath (showing his youth).