Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Firstly, our media product represents men as being powerful and authoritive in our opening sequence. This is because of the Mise en scene used throughout our extract. An example of this would be the costume of the characters and only men are seen throughout this opening sequence.  This creates the clear representations of men that they are powerful because they are mainly wearing costumes that are long coats and caps, making their appearance quite mysterious and discreet. Also, the other protagonist is wearing a suit, which suggests that they are professional and important. This creates a strong image of men in this opening sequence that they look scary to normal people and they look dominant and intimidating to the audience. The man in the suit is also looking important because he is the protagonist of our product. Existing examples of thriller media products usually have a male protagonist, creating a similar representation of males in thriller films as our product. This means that the representations that our media product conveys of men is stereotypical in the media. 

Our media product also represents criminals as being both professional and rough. This juxtaposition is clearly shown through the cross cutting between the criminal protagonist in the office and the drug dealers in the central park woods. They are both protagonists but they are portrayed in two completely different ways. The professional criminal is shown in this way to create questions from the audience which is a common convention of the thriller genre. This makes him look like an anti hero which is seen throughout many existing examples of thriller films. However, the drug dealer in the central park woods is seen as rough and intimidating. This is usually seen in existing thriller examples because drug dealers are often seen in the media as bad and unlawful people as well as a burden to society. This is a stereotype in the media because thriller films that include drug deals often portray the drug dealer as criminalistic which is linked with criminals.

The narrative of our opening sequence is quite stereotypical of the triller genre and existing examples in this genre due to there being a climax and a cliffhanger. This is an opening sequence which dives right into the action, which leaves the audience with many questions as to what is going on. There are existing examples such as Limitless (2011) which do the same opening sequence, without properly introducing any of the characters or locations. This therefore leaves the audience with questions making them want to continue to watch the film to find out more. This narrative creates the representations of men that they are mysterious. This is done purposely because we want the audience to ask questions about the opening sequence so that they carry on watching. This is a common convention of the thriller genre and so it makes a stereotypical representation of men.