2 REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening Unforgotten, is a contemporary thriller, has a modern, urban setting and features a number of social types, including a middle-aged mother who has lost her beloved daughter, a pre-teen sibling and a young, determined female journalist.

It is important for audiences to recognize ‘types’ in a film, particularly in a film opening, so that the narrative are quickly picked up. In our film the eldest daughter is a typical teenage girl, obsessed with boys, rebel, pretty, blonde and always looking for something fun to do. She is our main stenotype in the film opening but she hasn't got the typical life after a certain event that happens. 

Cara, the eldest daughter can be related to by other teenage girls her own age, some girls may want to be like her as she can be classed as cool and a rebel. The younger daughter, Emily is a sweet and shy girl who girls like her with the same personality can connect to, girls who are also lonely or looks up to someone would relate a lot to Emily.

Lastly mothers are often stereotyped as over-protective, affectionate and risk-averse. For example, in the television series In Plain Sight, about people who are taken into the Witness Protection programme, there are often distraught mothers who are left behind, unable to make contact with their children. Our mother figure is represented as a worried and over protected mother who wants to keep her children safe but also has secrets from her youngest which could change everything. 

RESEARCH

I have created a Pinterest board where I have collected images and representations of the social groups and stereotypes in my film opening.
Open my Pinterest here: PINTEREST LINK

 In addition, we went to great lengths to develop our characters through a series of interviews in which we ‘hot seated’ our characters by devising interview questions, scripting responses and, finally, recorded the results. We drew on the advice of Pen Densham, author of Riding The Alligator  and Oscar nominated film maker.