Evaluation Question Two : How Does Your Media Represent a Particular Social Group?

My film consists of two main characters (Jack and Sam Taylor), it follows the debate of whether nature (the genetic make-up) determines adulthood characteristics or whether its the nurture of the upbringing that affects the path chosen to be followed. Within my opening, I show the characters at their present status, one who has become a chief inspector and one who has broken the law. By choosing to present the males for my main characters I have played on the typical convention of gender roles that is demonstrated within films. Firstly males are more commonly used to play the role of criminal over females because they hold the masculine trait of being more violent and whilst as women take on a more vulnerable trait. A male is more common to take the senior role of a chief inspector within films because they are stereotypically seen to hold the traits of being more dominant, work orientated and powerful, whilst as females are said to be more obedient, family orientated and fragile therefore are more likely to give into there emotions than a male character. Evidence of these gender roles being demonstrated in horror 'Se7en' where a male is used to play the serial killer and also two males are used to play the detectives. I also conducted research into whether I should make the two characters male or female, I asked 20 participants and 17 replied that it would look more natural to see a male in that role within a film than a female. Therefore I feel my film firstly represents the convention of gender within films but also in society and the traits that the
genders are branded to demonstrate.

Representation of masculinity with 'Se7en'

Representation of masculinity within my film

My film is also oriented around a lower middle class family, therefore they would be classified under lower 'ABC1s' on the social scale. I tried to demonstrate this social class, through firstly the location I used, I used a lower middle class family home. I also tried to perceive the status through the use of props by using a pre-iced birthday cake and family photographs that demonstrate the children taking part in different events I wanted to show that the family had some disposable money, and that the children did not come from a background where they missed out on "treats". On the surface I therefore wanted to perceive a "perfect" upbringing, one that would maybe be the stereotypical background of someone who would go on to gain a successful position as chief inspector at a relatively young age. However my film also perceives that on the surface it may seem a "perfect" childhood but when focusing cracks begin to show, therefore demonstrating that not everyone from the same social class experiences the same childhood.

The 'home video' scene of the birthday cake

The hand held shot of the family photographs

Overall however my aim was not focus on a certain social group, if I was focusing on social groups I could of done a film which may focused on two contrasting social classes such as higher and lower, or construct an opening that looks into the social groups that teenagers can be stereotyped into such as chavs, emos, geeks ect. However for my film I wanted to concentrate on psychology and the nature-nurture debate, whilst playing and attracting to my audience I added in the element of a crime, drama.