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

Laurie Young – Antagonist and intended Victim Laurie Young: Laurie is a young female who in our OTS is the protagonist and an intended victim. She is 22, and grew up in Brighton where she still remains. She spends some of her time in Brighton University, not living there, training to be a Nurse. Laurie is middle classed, and also from a middle class family background. Typical or Atypical? Laurie is typical of the genre in terms of being “ordinary” in comparison to her ex boyfriend, who is also typical (read the next slide for further information). In late teens, early twenties, you would typically find that most people would attend university finding their career path. Laurie has her mind set on what she wants, which is made recognisable throughout the duration of our sequence. Her being the victim is very typical of Thriller’s because they are seen as weak, vulnerable and naïve, despite her strength in moving on in her broken relationship with Sam. Representation and Mise-en-scene As we took inspiration to the opening title sequence of Se7en, for the reason that their actions were more important than the character itself, the spectators could only make judgement by their clothing and behaviour. The actions in Se7en were very powerful, which is what we took on board for Laurie’s character, however, the difference was that you do see some parts of the character, only that the character’s identity is revealed in the ending of the sequence. Laurie has two different types of clothing in the OTS, one outfit being demin jeans, white top and a baby pink coat – the baby pink coat being most important. Second being, a red dress and a tartan shored – the red dress which is most important and suggests the foreshadowing events to come. The pink coat in particular of the stalking scenes is reflecting to the spectators one, her innocence and soft personality, in comparison to Sam’s hooded outfit. The red dress we chose Laurie should wear suggested the danger that she is in around Sam (e.g. the necklace scene) and also suggests threats to come. Red stereotypically suggests danger, which was why we chose to use this colour with Sam, and the pink to show her innocence of not recognising her potential danger. The pink suggests Laurie as a helpless female, despite her unstoppable strength with Sam. Laurie’s figure expressions throughout the film remain “normal”. Laurie doesn’t have anything different about her, she doesn’t stand out in society, and because of not being “popular”, this could suggest a potential problem when it comes to Sam’s danger. The only action that is hugely important of Laurie’s is when her face is slightly revealed and she is laughing. This is how we want the audience to remember her, as this part in particular really suggests her fun, bubbly personality that Sam really wants back. Other films similar that have a character similar to Laurie’s During the research task in preparation for making our own OTS, we studied many films, but the one Thriller that really stands out to me amongst the other films characters was “Brick”. When you first see the victim, you are shown parts of her body that may suggest her personality and age to the spectators. This is similar to Laurie’s character, however much the camera angles feel uncomfortable to view, it is intended for the purpose of suggesting personality through performance and mise-en-scene, rather than just paying attention to the face of the character. Who would wear these shoes? What class? The skirt? Cheap, blue bracelet – class? Personality? Age? Questions asked from an audience’s perceptive?

Sam Addison – Protagonist and Threat Sam Addison: Sam is a 21 year old Male originally from London, but lives in Brighton and our protagonist in Follower. He is from a working class background and still remains working class. He has no intention of finding a career, so for arguments sake, it is debatable that is could be could a “househusband”. It is unusual that Laurie found love with someone who is completely opposite to herself, people may question. Typical or Atypical? Sam is typical of the Thriller genre. He is conventional because of his ordinary, “British Hoodie” persona. He doesn’t stand out in society because he seems to fit into the category of being in a gang, which there are many of those types of people around today in modern day British society. However, Sam doesn’t belong to a “gang”, he just looks as though he does to other people. He creates thrill and suspense, and his daring and eerie character makes the audience feel uncomfortable about what he may be capable of, which is exactly what Thriller films create. Some aspects about him however could be seen as horror-like, for example, his two-sided personality, which makes him the dangerous person that he is – you see these in horrors, in mental hospital etc. however, Sam is actually out in society with no help. Representation and Mise-en-scene Like said above, he looks as though he belongs to a group, such as the British Hoodies. Sam is an aggressive character, with an outrageously dangerous, threatening personality, that society is unaware of. Sam wears a hooded coat, and dark jeans in our OTS, and even again, in the “happy” flashback, a black plain tee. We intentionally wanted Sam to wear a hoodie as it was a way of hiding his identity, and forming a view of him questionably being apart of a gang that has influenced his taking of drugs, which makes the audience want to stay on because they want to find out what has made him result in getting to where he is. Like said on Laurie’s character page, his costume is in massive contrast to hers, showing his dark, daring, threatening personality, in comparison to her, soft, innocent persona. Sam’s body language is hugely important. The way he walks is as though he is trying to hide himself, which reflects his secretive personality. He also presents himself in the last scene when the spectators finally see his face, and he looks delirious and overly just blank. He closes his eyes which suggests to the audience his real personality that he wants everything to end. The only props that Sam uses, a.k.a, the computer and the phone is suggesting the modern narrative of how people stalk through social networks and modern day technology, Sam’s character reinforces this factor. The prop with most meaning is the necklace. We see in the sequence that Sam imagines that Laurie is still with him, and tries to give the necklace to her to represent their love for one another. Laurie disappears, and we used the special effect to reinforce Sam’s obsession, of still having the necklace that she refused to accept. Inside this necklace was an angel, which suggests death, and also guidance, therefore is questioned to the audience what may happen to Sam or Laurie. Other films similar that have a character similar to Sam’s “Collateral” Vincent is what I feel is similar to Sam’s character. Despite Vincent’s danger, he doesn’t stand out in his society, as he looks like a business man. This is similar to Sam, like said, he wears a hoodie, and looks as though he belongs to a gang, which people feel is “normal” for today’s society. Se7en also is similar to Sam’s character as his actions are more important than what he looks like.